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24060-01 - Proseminar: American Modernism: Hemingway & Faulkner (3 CP)
| Semester | spring semester 2010 |
| Course frequency | Once only |
| Lecturers | Therese Steffen (therese.steffen@unibas.ch, Assessor) |
| Content | Ernest Hemingway, the Midwesterner and cosmopolitan expatriate, the man about war, women, trouts, and bullfights; the lonley hunter and fisherman who helped revolutionizing the American short story. Hemingway, the brillant stylist whose linguistic economy and profundity of unseen details culminates in his dictum: "The dignity of movement of an ice-berg is due to only one-eighth of it being above water." - And William Faulkner who rarely left the Deep South of Jefferson, Mississippi, the capital of his fictitious Yoknapatawpha county. Faulkner who declined President Kennedy's invitation to the White House because as a farmer he had to harvest his crop at this time of year. This course seeks to analyze the modes and contents of modernist fiction beyond the anecdotal and stereotypical stance: the deceptively simple surfaces, ellipses, gaps in Hemingway's texts as well as the dark underside of Southern chivalry in Faulkner's reconstruction of racial segregation, miscegenation, familial dysfunction, or lynching. Hemingway's hero shows grace under pressure, Faulkner's character will endure and prevail. The voracious and careful reader's reward will be a range of extraordinary texts in their modernist context. |
| Bibliography | Ernest Hemingway: "In Our Time", "The Snows of Kilimanjaro", "The Sun Also Rises", "The Old Man and the Sea"; William Faulkner: "As I Lay Dying", "Sanctuary", "The Sound and the Fury" |
| Admission requirements | Successful attendance of the first semester of a second-year proseminar in Literature and Culture Studies. Books must be read by the beginning of the course! |
| Course application | Enrol by email to alex.van-lierde@unibas.ch indicating your 1st and 2nd choice proseminar. The first 18 to enrol are guaranteed a place in the course of their 1st choice; others may be shifted to one of the other three courses (24052, 24059, 20978). |
| Language of instruction | English |
| Use of digital media | No specific media used |
| Interval | Weekday | Time | Room |
|---|
No dates available. Please contact the lecturer.
| Modules |
Modul Refining Skills in Literature and Culture (Bachelor's degree subject: Englisch) Modul Refining Skills in Literature and Culture for SLA teachers (Sek-I-Fach: Englisch) Modul Refining Skills in Literature and Culture for SLA teachers (Ausbildung zur Lehrperson für die Sekundarstufe I) |
| Assessment format | continuous assessment |
| Assessment details | Regular attendance, active participation, chairing a meeting incl. an in-class presentation |
| Assessment registration/deregistration | Reg.: course registration; dereg.: not required |
| Repeat examination | no repeat examination |
| Scale | Pass / Fail |
| Repeated registration | no repetition |
| Responsible faculty | Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, studadmin-philhist@unibas.ch |
| Offered by | Englisches Seminar |