Blockseminar Post War American Novels on Paper and on Screen

Vladimir Nabokov's -Lolita- (1955), one of the most controversial novels ever written, has much more to offer than the topic of pedophilia: an innovative style, an unreliable narrator, sub-themes ranging from -the double- to -American pop-culture-... We will try to find out how these things are mirrored in Kubrick's 1962 and Lyne's 1997 movies. Kurt Vonnegut's post-modern anti-war science fiction novel -Slaughterhouse-Five- (1969) approaches the topic of World War II by the means of time travel. Though at the box office the 1972 adaptation by Geller and Hill was a flop, Vonnegut and the critics loved it. Michael Cunningham's -The Hours- (1998) received a PEN award and a Pulitzer Prize; its 2002 movie version by Daldry was awarded an Oscar and a Golden Globe. Unusual is the popular success of so challenging a work: three interwoven plot lines (Virginia Woolf, a 1950s housewife, a 1990s lesbian) are used to deal with questions of time and fiction, love and death, madness and sexuality. You must read -Lolita- before the first session! Better do so with a pen(-cil) in your hand, marking whatever catches your attention and making notes of the arising questions. Recommended editions of the three novels: -Lolita- ISBN 0679723161 (7 EUR), -Slaughterhouse-Five- ISBN 3125378400 (9 EUR), -The Hours- ISBN 0312243022 (8.50 EUR). For registration please contact alja.berlina@googlemail.com until March 15, 2009. Anglistik Universität Duisburg-Essen SS 2009 Bachelor, Bachelor Dr. Berlina Alexandra