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| Semester | fall semester 2017 |
| Course frequency | Once only |
| Lecturers | Ladina Bezzola Lambert (ladina.bezzola@unibas.ch, Assessor) |
| Content | The essay identifies itself in its name: essays assay, they test, search, and ask questions that are true questions, questions to which the answer is neither foreknown, nor projected; is not even the main aim. Essays are about setting out on a journey into the unknown and about representing the process of that journey in the very process of journeying. This makes the essay both a highly personal, dialogic, and a formless form. A form that, while strongly conscious of style and highly aesthetic, radically defies form as it defies closure and dogma. The genre of the essay provides an airy shelter to a wide array of topics covering several centuries: texts range from philosophy, science, religion, women’s rights, literary criticism, satire, and other domains. The aim of this seminar is thus twofold: on an aesthetic level, we will assay the essay as a Protean form reflecting a process of searching, writing, and reading. The second aim is historical in nature: by including texts dating from the late sixteenth through the early twentieth century, the seminar offers insight into radical ideas and thought experiments from particular moments in history, thus allowing students to sketch a cultural and literary history based on the genre of the essay. |
| Bibliography | All primary and secondary texts will be made available on ADAM. For the first meeting, students are expected to read materials in the course folder to week 1. |
| 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 | To register write an email to ladina.bezzola@unibas.ch; number of participants limited to 25. |
| 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 | presentation, active participation |
| 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 |