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| Semester | spring semester 2017 |
| Course frequency | Irregular |
| Lecturers | Regula Hohl Trillini (r.hohl@unibas.ch, Assessor) |
| Content | The three novels that we will discuss in this course were all bestsellers in their time but they are also ground-breakingly innovative and their originality has stood the test of time. In these iconic classics, Samuel Richardson, Henry Fielding and Lawrence Sterne developed significant aspects of the English novel in very personal ways. They have typically eighteenth-century concerns in common which will make this period come alive for us: a moral and psychological interest in the human individual, a keen eye for human weakness and duplicity and a determination to instruct readers by entertaining them. These qualities ensure a reading experience which is consistently enjoyable even though it is slow by twenty-first-century standards. Formally, the storytelling in these three novels points very far ahead. Fielding's imposing "Author", who steers us through a complex, perfectly controlled plot, is not always as reliable as he likes to think himself. Richardson's almost absurdly breathless letter-writers prefigure the psychological subtlety of the stream-of-consciousness technique, and Lawrence Sterne's self-referential audacity and formal experiments have their closest counterparts in mid-twentieth-century postmodernism. Fascinating in themselves, these books also set important precedents for the fiction that was to come. |
| Learning objectives | You read three novels ("Tom Jones", "Pamela" and "Tristram Shandy"), situate them and their authors in the literary and historical contexts of the mid-eighteenth century and explore recent critical perspectives. |
| Bibliography | Samuel Richardson. "Pamela" (1740) Penguin Classics (or other edition) Henry Fielding. "Tom Jones" (1749) Norton Critical Edition Lawrence Sterne. "Tristram Shandy" (1759-1767) Norton Critical Edition All three titles are ordered at Labyrinth bookshop. We will discuss the novels in chronological order, beginning with "Pamela", which you must have read for the first meeting. You may want to start early on "Tom Jones", which is very smart and amusing but also very long! |
| Weblink | ADAM |
| Admission requirements | This seminar is for BA students on the advanced level: for BA05 students those who have completed their proseminar paper in Literary & Cultural Studies; for BA13 students those who have completed ALL three introductory modules (including the proseminar papers). |
| Course application | The course is now full; registrations are no longer accepted. |
| 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 Advanced Anglophone Literary and Cultural Studies (Bachelor's degree subject: English) Modul Extending the View (Literary and Cultural Studies) (Bachelor's degree subject: English (Start of studies before 01.08.2013)) Modul Focusing on the Discipline (Literary and Cultural Studies) (Bachelor's degree subject: English (Start of studies before 01.08.2013)) |
| Assessment format | continuous assessment |
| Assessment details | regular attendance, doing the required reading, active participation, giving a presentation |
| 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 |