LFU:online

To become familiar with important literary periods and genres in American literature, to develop and deepen analytical and interpretative skills

This course sets out to explore literature’s obsession with the very act of reading. We will discuss reading as an act of communication, an inquiry into art, a way of decoding the world, and an intermedial activity applied to the visual arts, photography, and film. These and other manifestations of readings will be examined by looking at four contemporary novels: Edgar Allan Poe's Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym (1838), Vladimir Nabokov’s Pale Fire (1962), Thomas Pynchon’s The Crying of Lot 49 (1966), (extracts from) Mark Z. Danielewski’s House of Leaves (2000), and Mat Johnson’s Pym (2011).

Presentations, discussions, reading and writing assignments

Active participation, presentation, research paper

As far as possible, course materials and selected primary and secondary sources will be posted on OLAT.

Prerequisite for the Master's Programme (812): positive completion of compulsory module 4,
for the Diploma Programme (Diplomstudium: 343) and the Teacher Training Programme (Lehramtsstudium: 344): completed first part of studies

For the Teacher Training Programme (Lehramtsstudium: 344): PS2: American Literature