Hauptseminar The Power of the Word Religion and Literature in the Anglophone World

In this seminar we will read and analyse a selection of novels dealing with the crucial, as well as contested issue of religion and identity across the Anglophone world. At the beginning of the semester students will be provided with an introduction to historical examples and critical texts. We will then discuss Scottish writer Muriel Spark’s The Mandelbaum Gate (1965), novel about religious conversion (and confusion) during a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Jeanette Winterson’s Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit (1985) is a coming-of-age (and a coming out) novel set in the context of Christian fundamentalism while Hanif Kureishi’s The Black Album (1996) is a critical reflection on the so-called ‘Rushdie Affair’ and the emergence of Muslim fundamentalism in Britain. Finally, Life of Pi (2001) the award-winning novel by Canadian writer Yann Martel, which was turned into an equally award-winning movie by Ang Lee (2012), provides us with a postmodernist vision about the negotiation of faith and literature in a postcolonial, globalised world. Texts: • Muriel Spark, The Mandelbaum Gate • Jeannette Winterson, Oranges are not the only Fruit • Hanif Kureishi, The Black Album • Yann Martel; The Life of Pi A reader containing further material will be made available at the beginning of the semester. Anglistik Universität Duisburg-Essen WiSe 2015/16 Professorin Plummer Patricia