Proseminar The Good the Bad and the Ugly Brave New World The Circle

Time and taste have always been the benchmark for good literature. If a novel, and a utopian one at that, is still in circulation more than eighty years after original publication its author had the finger on the right spot. This is the case with Brave New World. Aldous Huxley spun a tale so absurd and frightening about a society which willingly trades individuality and freedom for safety, satisfaction, and entertainment that only the course of history could actually prove him right. Asked about the present state of contemporary western world (in 1984) media theorist Neil Postman famously declared Brave New World's doctrines to be closer to our reality than those of Orwell's 1984. A lot of praise for an eighty-year-old book first conceived as a satire.       Nearer to the present and more up to date with the inventions of the past decades Dave Egger's The Circle (2013) reaped a lot of praise and appreciation when it was published. Some critics even went as far as praising the bestseller about a monopolistic Internet company which seeks to penetrate every inch of public and private life as the Brave New World for our time. Since time and taste have not yet decided on the fate of this book we will have to find out ourselves whether it is worthy of the praise.      For a thorough analysis of the novel we will delve into relevant texts from literary theory, media theory, economic theory, and civil rights to fully assess its utopian potential. For a more profound understanding of why both books have been so popular outside their countries of origins we will also look into their German translations and examine how exactly they can alter a book's reception. Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World. Hrsg. D. Hamblock. Stuttgart: Reclam, 1992. Eggers, Dave. The Circle. London: Penguin, 2014.   Please purchase the above editions. It facilitates close reading in a larger group. All books are available at nearby book shops like UNi-Buch. Voraussetzungen A successfully completed OK Introduction to British and American Literatures. Active and regular participation. Good command of English and German. Participants are expected to have read Huxley's Brave New World prior to our first meeting, on which there will be a quiz in the first session. Leistungsnachweis Credit (-Studienleistung-) is given for regular and active participation, including group moderation; full credit (-Prüfungsleistung-) for an additional term paper (according to your MPO). Lerninhalte Utopian literature - media theory - Engl.-Germ. translation studies - socio-economic theories and ideologies FB 02 Institut für Anglistik / Amerikanistik A successfully completed OK Introduction to British and American Literatures. Active and regular participation. Good command of English and German. Participants are expected to have read Huxley's Brave New World prior to our first meeting, on which there will be a quiz in the first session. Credit (-Studienleistung-) is given for regular and active participation, including group moderation; full credit (-Prüfungsleistung-) for an additional term paper (according to your MPO). Uni Kassel WiSe 2015/16 Amerikanistik Weiß Christian