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Discussion on the literary absurd as a principal mode of writing (Schreibweise) in different eras and genres

The seminar deals with the following topics: tradition and terminology of the absurd in literature (early forms, delimitation of literary absurd against nonsense, black humor a.s.o.), problems of genre (‘anti-drama’, ‘mini-drama’, ‘shortest story’; relation to satire, parody, the grotesque, children’s literature), characteristic features of the works (pun, undermining of fiction, banality, cruelty), and – of course – the relation to the contemporary philosophic discourse (f.i. Camus). Works of the following authors will/can be taken into account: Lear, Carroll, Morgenstern, Charms, Vvedenskij, O’Brien, Ionesco, Beckett, Grass, Mrożek.

Discussion, lecture, oral presentations, group work

regular and active participation, oral presentation, paper (25-30 pages).

Martin Esslin: Das Theater des Absurden. Von Beckett bis Pinter, Reinbek b. Hamburg 1991 u.ö.

Neil Cornwell: The absurd in literature, Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press 2006.