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| Semester | fall semester 2013 |
| Course frequency | Once only |
| Lecturers | Franziska Gygax (franziska.gygax@unibas.ch, Assessor) |
| Content | Letter writing has always played a crucial role in literary practices and in the age of e-mail it has even gained more prominence although the new medium has transformed the social transactions between writer and reader. Whether we read an e-mail letter or a letter in a novel the letter exchange is always embedded in specific cultural and social conditions, and often complex notions of interactions and transactions between writer and addressee(s) are at work. In this course we will deal with a selection of twentieth-century American novels that incorporate letters in various ways or can be read as letters. In addition we will discuss the theoretical conditions of epistolary practices (e.g. absence/presence) and explore the meanings of the textual possibilities of letters. Apart from the (epistolary) novels we will also read letters by prominent American authors like Emily Dickinson and Ralph Waldo Emerson. |
| Learning objectives | Students will be introduced to the traditions of epistolarity, to contemporary debates of the genre, and to representative texts. This seminar is also meant to address more complex issues of students' own research, above all in the context of their seminar papers. (MA seminar papers can only be written in connection with such a research seminar.) |
| Bibliography | Vladimir Nabokov, "Lolita" (Penguin); Alice Walker, "The Color Purple" (Harcourt Brace); Ana Castillo, "The Mixquiahuala Letters" (Anchor); Jonathan Safran Foer, "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close" (Penguin). Additional texts will be available on ISIS. |
| Weblink | ISIS |
| Admission requirements | Open to MA students only. |
| Course application | Please register by e-mail to franziska.gygax@unibas.ch. |
| Language of instruction | English |
| Use of digital media | Online, mandatory |
| Interval | Weekday | Time | Room |
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No dates available. Please contact the lecturer.
| Modules |
Modul Anglophone Literary and Cultural Studies (Master's degree subject: English) Modul English & American Literature (Master's degree subject: English (Start of studies before 01.08.2013)) Modul Literatur- und kulturwissenschaftliche Forschung (Master's degree program: Literary Studies) Modul Literaturgeschichte (Master's degree program: Literary Studies) Modul Research in Anglophone Literary and Cultural Studies (Master's degree subject: English) |
| Assessment format | continuous assessment |
| Assessment details | Regular attendance, active participation, 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 | Fachbereich Englische Sprach- und Literaturwissenschaft |