Hauptseminar Space in of Literature

This seminar deals neither with science fiction nor outer space. Instead we will focus on place and space as omnipresent in everyday life and language. Space is one of the principal and basic categories not only of our experience of reality, but also of possible literary worlds. Literature, therefore, invites a closer look at its spatial dimensions.Physical and metaphorical spaces in literature constitute meaning and contribute to processes of character formation, plot development and atmosphere building. Thus, we will explore spatial representations in literature as well as the space occupied by a literary text. On the basis of theoretical texts from various disciplines (e.g. Michel Foucault, Michail Bakhtin, Gaston Bachelard, Maurice Blanchot, Jakob von Uexküll) we will examine forms and functions of space in different genres of literature.Texts for discussion will include short stories (e.g. Edgar Allan Poe, William Faulkner, Chuck Palahniuk), poetry (e.g. Emily Dickinson), excerpts from novels (e.g. House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski), and film (Panic Room). The aim of this seminar is to introduce participants to concepts of space, investigate their specific significance in literary expression and apply some of the theoretical models to selected texts. Please purchase your own copy of Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk (ISBN-10: 0099458373). A reader containing all other course texts will be available at the copy shop located at Reckhammerweg 4 after the first class meeting. Anglistik Universität Duisburg-Essen SoSe 2013 alle Lehrämter, alle Lehrämter M.A. Roth Corinna M.A