Proseminar Only connect The Condition of England Novel

The term ‘Condition-of-England Novel' originally denoted the industrial novels of the mid-19th century which depicted the growing rift between middle class and working class in the wake of industrialisation (e.g. Ch. Dickens' Hard Times). Later, it was applied to all novels which critically investigated the state of affairs of British society and tried to offer fictional solutions for its social and cultural problems. In this seminar we are going to read three modern and postmodern examples of this genre. Edward Morgan Forster's novel Howards End stages the antagonism between materialism and idealism, between the life of the body and the life of the spirit in the conflicting relationship between two families. The novel's motto ‘Only connect' indicates the pressing need for a reconciliation of their positions. David Lodge's Nice Work – half industrial novel, half campus novel – presents a similar conflict in the comic encounter between the hard-nosed managing director of a British company and a feminist university lecturer, and Zadie Smith's On Beauty, an ironic postcolonial re-writing of Howards End, gives Forster's plot a transatlantic shape by re-modelling it as a clash between an ultra-conservative British and a liberal American family. Participation is subject to attendance in the first session. You will have to pass a quiz on Forster's Howards End. E.M. Forster, Howards End (1910; ISBN 0393970116) David Lodge, Nice Work (1988; ISBN 0140119205) Zadie Smith, On Beauty (2005; ISBN 0141026669) VoraussetzungenSuccessful completion of the OK Literaturwissenschaft. LeistungsnachweisRegular attendance and active particpation. Oral report and research paper (12-15 standard pages). FB 02 Institut für Anglistik / Amerikanistik Uni Kassel SS 2008 Wirtschaftspädagogik English and American Studies Dr. Heiler Lars