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| Semester | fall semester 2013 |
| Course frequency | Irregular |
| Lecturers | Regula Hohl Trillini (r.hohl@unibas.ch, Assessor) |
| Content | Shortly after the publication of Henry Fielding's "Tom Jones" in 1745, two earthquakes hit London. Some people saw them as divine punishment for this "motley history of bastardism, fornication, and adultery" although Fielding himself claimed to promote moral education and a responsible representation of "Human Nature" in his lively young hero and his adversaries. Tom's adventures still make for an enjoyable read but what has kept the novel in print for two and a half centuries is probably the narrator figure. The "Author" opens the novel as a modest innkeeper who offers a menu to browsing readers - so that they can leave in time if they don't like what's on offer! He calls his fiction a "kingdom" where he can do as he pleases, without reference to those "little reptiles" the critics; he inserts an absurdly poetical chapter to show "what we can do in the Sublime" and worries about getting his readers down from a steep hill. In a period when prose fiction struggled to establish itself as a morally and artistically acceptable literary genre, such games undermine the very narratorial and ethical authority which they claim to represent. The tensions between "postmodern" instability, engaging characters and a clockwork-perfect comic plot are still intriguing. |
| Learning objectives | Students will become familiar with Fielding's novel, with the literary and historical context of the mid-eighteenth-century "rise of the novel" and with the concepts and vocabulary of selected critical approaches. |
| Bibliography | Henry Fielding: "Tom Jones: The Authoritative Text, Contemporary Reactions, Criticism". Norton & Company. (ordered at "Labyrinth" bookshop). Critical texts will be made available on the course server (ISIS). |
| Comments | ● Participants must have read the complete novel by the beginning of the semester! (An etext of "Tom Jones" is on the course server so that you can start reading NOW even if you should have to wait for your hardcopy.) ● Prof. Habermann's survey lecture "The Long Eighteenth Century" (20918-01) provides an ideal complement to this course. |
| Weblink | ISIS |
| Admission requirements | Old BA curriculum (2005): This course may only be taken after successful completion of the first-year module "Learning about Literature". New BA curriculum (2013): It is strongly recommended that this course is taken only after the successful completion of the "Introduction I + II: Literary Studies" proseminars. |
| Course application | This course is now full. The following proseminar still accept participants: 35012, 35013, 35014, 35017. |
| Language of instruction | English |
| Use of digital media | Online, mandatory |
| Interval | Weekday | Time | Room |
|---|
No dates available. Please contact the lecturer.
| Modules |
Modul Introduction to Anglophone Literary and Cultural Studies (Bachelor's degree subject: English) Modul Refining Skills in Literature and Culture (Bachelor's degree subject: English (Start of studies before 01.08.2013)) |
| Assessment format | continuous assessment |
| Assessment details | ● regular attendance and active participation incl. a short group presentation ● further assignments / assessments t.b.a. |
| Assessment registration/deregistration | Reg.: course registration; dereg.: not required |
| Repeat examination | no repeat examination |
| Scale | Pass / Fail |
| Repeated registration | as often as necessary |
| Responsible faculty | Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, studadmin-philhist@unibas.ch |
| Offered by | Fachbereich Englische Sprach- und Literaturwissenschaft |