LFU:online

Participants will become familiar with the main concepts and the language of literary theory and learn to use these freely in their analysis. The course will show that you cannot use every theory for every text but that some theories can be used to interpret not only texts but also real-life events and circumstances. By reading and talking about shorter texts, participants will learn to deal with textual analysis in an informed way.

This course will present and explain some of the most important literary theories (such as Russian Formalism, Marxism, Bachtin School, Semiotics, gender theories, Deconstruction, Gender, Postcolonial studies) and give participants the opportunity to apply these to suitable examples, considering each theory's applicability and effectiveness. Additionally, participants will be introduced to further concepts and approaches that have been significant to the academic discourse in literary studies, such as theories of space, memory studies; these will be briefly presented, contextualised and applied to individual literary cases.

Short presentations by me, joint text analysis, presentation of participants' work, practical exercises

Regular and active attendance, short presentation, written coursework, written exam

Becker, Sabina, Hummel, Christine, Sander, Gabriele: Grundkurs Literaturwissenschaft. Stuttgart 2006; Eagleton, Terry: Literary theory: an introduction. Minneapolis 1989; Lodge, David: Modern criticism and theory: a reader. New York 1988; Nünning, Vera und Ansgar (Hg.): Methoden der literatur- und kulturwissenschaftlichen Textanalyse. Ansätze, Grundlagen, Modellanalysen. Stuttgart 2010; Schmid, Ulrich (Hg.): Literaturtheorien des 20. Jahrhunderts. Stuttgart 2010; Schmid, Wolf: Elemente der Narratologie. Berlin 2008; Vogt, Jochen: Aspekte erzählender Prosa. Eine Einführung in Erzähltechnik und Romantheorie. Paderborn 2008.