LFU:online

Students will be made familiar with some main periods, themes, genres and works from Anglophone from the early modern age until today. They will be encouraged to reflect on the relations between literary developments and socio-political contexts, especially on the conceptualization of gender and gendered hierarchies. They will enhance their ability to analyze, contextualize and discuss literary works of different genres.

The biblical story of Adam and Eve and Eve’s role as ‘temptress’ has special significance in the history of gender relations in Western culture: time and again, it was used to explain and justify the subservient role long accorded to women. At the same time, the story has been immensely useful to female authors who have offered revised versions in order to talk back to a male-dominated literary establishment. 

This lecture will trace the intriguing literary history of female authorship and the ‘discovery’ of female voice in and against the canon of Anglophone literature. Students will encounter well-known authors such as Jane Austen, Charlotte Brontë, Virginia Woolf and Margaret Atwood, as well as others who may be less well known, but have also written intriguing works, such as Amelia Lanyer, Mary Leapor, Naomi Alderman and Patience Agbabi. Together, we will dive into the different ways in which these and other authors have placed female voices and figures centre stage and and asserted themselves as literary authors. We trace some of the ways in which female authors have been marginalized (and re-established) in literary history and seek to gain some critical insights into canon-building as a gate-keeping exercise.

Presentation, group work, discussion

Each slot will feature a lecture of ca. 70 minutes and a partner work/discussion period where we apply the contents of the lecture to a concrete example. Please be prepared to do some reading at home (excerpts from primary literature).

Written exam (on the contents of the lecture) and oral exam (on the core reading list)

Exzerpte aus der Primärliteratur werden auf OLAT bereitgestellt.

MA: keine

Lehramtsstudium 2001: abgeschlossener 1. Studienabschnitt

Aufgrund der substanziell unterschiedlichen Zuteilung von ECTS-AP in den verschiedenen Curricula des MA Anglistik und Amerikanistik und des Lehramtsstudiums Englisch ergeben sich für diese Lehrveranstaltung unterschiedliche Anforderungen.

"VO English Literature and Culture (mit Leseliste)" kann mit einer erweiterten Lektüreliste auch als "VO English Literature and Culture II" besucht werden. Werden beide Vorlesungen im Laufe des Studiums absolviert, müssen sie sich inhaltlich voneinander unterscheiden.“Informationen hierzu erhalten Sie bei Beginn der Lehrveranstaltung durch die Lehrveranstaltungsleiterin/den Lehrveranstaltungsleiter.