LFU:online

Institut für Amerikastudien Institut für Amerikastudien

Mag. Mag. Dr. Cornelia Klecker Mag. Mag. Dr. Cornelia Klecker, +43 512 507 4179

610005

American Literature: "Based on a True Story": The Issue of Fact and Fiction in American Literature and Film

PS 2

5

wöch.

semestral

Englisch

The aim of this course is to familiarize students with central movements of American literature while equipping them with methodological tools and an awareness of the complexity of the concepts of 'truth' and 'facts' in fiction.

From Puritan to contemporary times, this course seeks to do much more than simply ‘find out what really happened.’ The importance of truth and facts in the area of fiction has had manifold manifestations - from the notion of fiction as evil during Puritan times, to autobiographical writings as well as criticism, to the strife for greater fidelity to real life in Realism, to news writing that uses literary techniques in New Journalism, to contemporary comedy talk shows that base their material in daily news. These are but a few examples that will be discussed in order to shed light on the complexity of the concepts of truth, facts, and fiction. By reading/watching exemplary primary sources and also relevant theoretical texts, different conceptions and theories about fact and/vs fiction will be worked out. Works discussed include (but are not limited to) Eugene O’Neill’s _Long Day’s Journey into Night_, William Dean Howells’s _The Rise of Silas Lapham_, Tom Wolfe’s _Radical Chic & Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers_, Truman Capote’s _In Cold Blood_, and _The Daily Show with Jon Stewart_.

Lecture inputs, presentations, (group) discussions, home readings and viewings

Active class participation, student presentations, reading and writing assignments, term paper

Course materials and selected primary and secondary sources will be posted on OLAT

Anmeldevoraussetzung/en im BA: positive Beurteilung der Pflichtmodule 3 und 16 Anmeldevoraussetzung im Lehramtsstudium: VO2: Introduction to American Literary Studies Entspricht im Lehramtsstudium (344): PS2: American Literature

07.03.2013