LFU:online

After completing this class, you will be able to provide an overview of selected texts of American literature that use time and temporality as strong narrative tools and understand why and to what effect the authors have chosen to do so. You can analyze selected short stories, poems, or plays by connecting them to key concepts in literary theory and philosophy, explain their significance to your fellow students in a presentation, and lead a discussion on the topic. Lastly, you will demonstrate your awareness by discussing a text of your choice in depth, applying appropriate theories, and asking your own critical questions.

“Time flies over us, but leaves its shadow behind,” wrote the great American writer Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1860. Indeed, time leaves its mark especially in literature, where authors have forever employed it as a powerful narrative tool to help tell a story, create an extra layer of meaning, or challenge their readers. This course looks at some of the strongest examples of time and temporality in U.S. literature, from the very first American short story, Washington Irving’s “Rip van Winkle” (1819), to poetry by Walt Whitman, Ezra Pound or T.S. Eliot, time-travel narratives, or postmodern experiments (many of which are also part of the American Literature Reading List). Linking the primary texts to literary theory, we will learn to distinguish between story time and discourse time, analyze the key functions of time indicators in literature, and discuss philosophical concepts and interpretations.

Lecture inputs, weekly viewings/readings, student presentations, group discussions.

Active class participation, student presentations, writing assignments and/or term paper.

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

Prerequisite for the Bachelor Program (612): positive completion of compulsory module 10,  for the Teacher Training Program (Lehramtsstudium: 344): VO2: Introduction to American Literary Studies, for BA Lehramt (457): positive completion of compulsory module 13

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

Due to substantial differences in the allocation of ECTS-Credits in various curricula (teacher training program - BA/MA English and American Studies), the requirements for this course vary. Information will be provided by the instructor at the beginning of the course.