Universität Wien

123045 PS Proseminar Literature / Literary Studies (2016W)

'A sylvan fringe of darkness': Forests in the Western Literary Imagination

5.00 ECTS (2.00 SWS), SPL 12 - Anglistik
Continuous assessment of course work
Moodle

Registration/Deregistration

Note: The time of your registration within the registration period has no effect on the allocation of places (no first come, first served).

Details

max. 25 participants
Language: English

Lecturers

Classes (iCal) - next class is marked with N

  • Wednesday 05.10. 16:00 - 18:00 Raum 2 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-09
  • Wednesday 12.10. 16:00 - 18:00 Raum 2 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-09
  • Wednesday 19.10. 16:00 - 18:00 Raum 2 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-09
  • Wednesday 09.11. 16:00 - 18:00 Raum 2 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-09
  • Wednesday 16.11. 16:00 - 18:00 Raum 2 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-09
  • Wednesday 23.11. 16:00 - 18:00 Raum 2 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-09
  • Wednesday 30.11. 16:00 - 18:00 Raum 2 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-09
  • Wednesday 07.12. 16:00 - 18:00 Raum 2 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-09
  • Wednesday 14.12. 16:00 - 18:00 Raum 2 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-09
  • Wednesday 11.01. 16:00 - 18:00 Raum 2 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-09
  • Wednesday 18.01. 16:00 - 18:00 Raum 2 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-09
  • Wednesday 25.01. 16:00 - 18:00 Raum 2 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-09

Information

Aims, contents and method of the course

In this course we will explore the role forests have played in the Western literary imagination. Robert Pogue Harrison writes that Western civilization “literally cleared its space in the midst of forests”; he explains how our states, our cities, our institutions – legal, religious, cultural – have tended to establish and define themselves in opposition to the forests.
In our literary and cultural productions, forests have enabled writers to explore deep philosophical questions related to our existence: how we might feel at home or estranged in the world, terrorised or enchanted, integrated or excluded; but they have also enabled writers to explore edges and thresholds of different orders – the relationship between the civic and the lawless, the religious and the profane, logos and Being, survival and transcendence; for centuries we have projected onto this “sylvan fringe of darkness” (Harrison) various affective and psychic scenarios – both anxious and dark, nostalgic and dreamy, wild and fearful as well as fabulous and eerie.
Throughout this course, then, we will analyse how the forest is mediated across different literary genres; we will explore their symbolic and metaphorical potential but also their ec(h)o-power to ask us what it might mean to dwell on/through this earth.

Assessment and permitted materials

Students will become familiar with basic skills required to analyse and interpret different literary genres (poems, short stories, novels and plays). They will also learn how to write academic papers.

Minimum requirements and assessment criteria

Interactive, small-group and classroom discussions, reading assignments, and close-reading of texts.

Examination topics

Participants are expected to read all set texts plus the additional secondary/theoretical material provided on the moodle platform; they are also expected to engage in autonomous research, to offer a critical and reflective analysis of texts and concepts.

Reading list

Poems: Rudyard Kipling's 'The Way through the Woods'
William Wordsworth's 'Tintern Abbey'

Copies of the following books will be available at the bookshop Facultas am Campus:
William Shakespeare's 'Macbeth';
Samuel Beckett's 'Molloy';
Nathaniel Hawthorne's 'The Scarlet Letter';

Association in the course directory

Studium: UF 344, BA 612; BEd 046
Code/Modul: UF 3.3.3-304, BA10.1; BEd 08a.1, BEd 08b.2
Lehrinhalt: 12-3041

Last modified: Mo 07.09.2020 15:33