123043 PS Literary Studies / Proseminar Literature (2018W)

With the growing critical acclaim Indigenous and non-Indigenous ethnic minority writers have been receiving for the last two decades, Australian literature now seems to have entered a new phase of its existence. In this Proseminar, we will analyse narrative and dramatic texts by Indigenous (in our case solely Aboriginal), Anglo-Celtic (i.e. white Australians of British or Irish descent, respectively) and non-Indigenous ethnic minority writers (i.e. Australians who are neither of Indigenous nor Anglo-Celtic descent and are sometimes referred to as 'multicultural') alike and examine in how far they engage with issues characteristic of contemporary Australia. In order to do so, we will discuss theoretical concepts such as indigeneity and ethnicity, which we will then use in our literary analyses. Moreover, we will also consider genre-related questions, as our primary material covers a wide range of different genres, including historical and magical realist fiction, a multiperspectival novel and Indigenous drama.

Central questions addressed in this Proseminar will include:
1. What role does Indigenous storytelling play in contemporary Australian literature and how can we as a non-Indigenous readership approach such texts?
2. How does Australian writing from the twenty-first century engage with the country’s past and what are potential problems when dealing with its colonial legacy?
3. How does contemporary Australian literature engage in the process of nation-making and what versions of Australia does it offer? How aware is it of multicultural concerns?
4. How are all of these concerns treated in aesthetic terms, most specifically with regard to genre?

Apart from addressing the primary texts in their form and content, this Proseminar is also designed to introduce you to basic academic skills, including academic writing, thesis formulation and the structuring of a term paper in literary studies.

Please note that this Proseminar will be accompanied by the Schreibassistenz programme offered by the Centre for Teaching and Learning (CTL). In this context, students are required to meet up with a writing assistant twice (approx. 50 minutes per meeting) to discuss and receive feedback on two of their written assignments which they will then, after having sufficient time to rework them, have to submit as part of the Proseminar credit requirements.