Proseminar Charles Dickens Bleak House

If there is such a thing as the literary canon, then Charles Dickens most certainly occupies one of the most pre-eminent places in it. From the very start of his career he was often dubbed ”the Shakespeare of the novel- and has remained one of the most famous and widely-read authors around the world. In this seminar, we will discuss Bleak House (1852-3), one of his later and ”darker- novels. This narrative is incredibly rich, addressing a multitude of issues: the search for one’s origins and identity, the inefficiency of the contemporary legal system, the appalling sanitary conditions of Victorian London as well as the construction of gender and the separate spheres, to name but a few. In the course of semester we will approach the novel from three different perspectives: historical, theoretical and narratological. We will begin by asking questions such as: What exactly is meant by the term ”Victorian-? In what ways is Bleak House similar to and different from other canonical 19th century novels? We will also look at how the novel was read at the time it was written and compare the Victorian mode of reading to our own experience as modern readers. We will then focus on critical 20th century responses to the text, particularly on Deconstructive, New Historicist and Feminist perspectives. Finally, we will analyse the structure of Bleak House from a narratological point of view by closely looking at different levels and voices of the narration, characterization and focalization in the text. We will use the Oxford World’s Classics paperback edition, which you can purchase either online or at your local bookshop. FB 02 Institut für Anglistik / Amerikanistik You need to have completed the Orientierungskurs -Introduction to British and American Literature”. There will be a lot of reading assignments in this seminar, so it is vital that you have finished at least the first half of the novel (up to the Chapter 32) before the first session. Once the semester starts there will be no possibility of catching up. Therefore, as the text is over 900 pages long, please make sure to buy the book and start reading it early enough. It is mandatory that you attend the first session, no exceptions. If there are more than 25 students, there will be a quiz on the novel. In order to receive credit for this course, you will have to participate regularly and actively. You will be expected to contribute to the class by means of a short oral presentation. Term papers ca. 10-15 pages, depending on your PO. Uni Kassel SoSe 2015 Anglistik/Englisch Anglistik/Englisch Peker Maria