Vorlesung in der Kategorie Offizielle Lehrveranstaltungen
Erster Termin
Montag, 04.04.2016 18:15 - 19:45, Ort: (Seminarraum 3 AKS 35)
Art/Form
Seminar
Voraussetzungen
Students who have successfully passed their “Introduction to Literary Studies” (Basismodul Einführung in die englische und amerikanische Literaturwissenschaft) are welcome to this course on Nathaniel Hawthorne's novels.
Leistungsnachweis
Requirements
Students will need to pass three quizzes if they want credit for this class. Quizzes are tests checking on whether students have read the primary works. In addition, students will have to attend the course regularly not missing more than two sessions. All students are also expected to participate actively in class and do a short presentation on a topic to be arranged with the lecturer. It must be accompanied by a handout (Thesenpapier) that students need to send the lecturer a week before the presentation in class. A copy of this handout must be presented to all students on the day of the presentation. Reading assignments (secondary literature) will be given on a weekly basis. Studying in groups is encouraged.
Studiengänge (für)
ANG.03202.02 - Amerikanische Literatur - LA Gym, LA Sek
ANG.05280.02 - Aufbaumodul: Amerikanische Literatur LA Gym, LA Sek ab WS 2012/13
ANG.04628.03 - Aufbaumodul Amerikanistik: Literatur I BA Anglistik und Amerikanistik 60/90 LP
ANG.06158.01 - Aufbaumodul: Amerikanistik Literatur I BA Anglistik und Amerikanistik 60/90 LP (ab WS 2015/16)
Course description
Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-64) was born into a distinguished New England family with deep roots in Puritanism and ancestors who were involved in the witchcraft trials of Salem, MA late in the 17th century. His prose – short fiction and novels – often deals with moral issues. Hawthorne's protagonists are facing questions of sin and guilt they are trying to balance against their own expectations and those of their Puritan contemporaries.
In this seminar we are focusing on Hawthorne's novels (or rather "romances") written at mid-century: The Scarlet Letter (1850), The House of the Seven Gables (1851) and The Blithedale Romance (1852) using Norton Critical Editions providing us with plenty of background reading. The Scarlet Letter is probably Hawthorne's best known novel today. Rev. Dimmesdale has an affair with pretty Hester Prynne who refuses to name him as the father of their child Pearl. In their mid-17th century Puritan community Hester is charged with wearing the letter A for "adultress" on her dress while Dimmesdale fails to present himself as the father of the child. Hawthorne's exploration of guilt and pride presents an unexpected ending. The House of the Seven Gables once again deals with Hawthorne's and New England's Puritan past. The House of the Seven Gables is burdened with an old curse stemming from the days of the Salem witchcraft trials and is now inhabited by less privileged family members. In the end there is a marriage based on love – and material assets rediscovered thus providing for poetic justice. The Blithedale Romance takes the Brook Farm cooperative community (Boston, 1841-1847) as a point of departure. Hawthorne himself took part in this experiment of communal living, and in this "romance" we are confronted with his skepticism with regard to loving the greater good better than human beings next door. A useful survey on American historical romances can be found in Budick.
In order for students to pick up some skills necessary in academia, we will spend some time on how to do presentations, how to do research, and how to write papers. The university library (OPAC, MLA-IB and other databases) will be a topic as will be the Internet as a research tool (JStor, Google Scholar etc.). In addition, there will be an introduction to CITAVI and how to use that bibliographical tool. Our model for all written work will be the MLA and its style sheet in its latest edition. (The new 8th edition will appear in April 2016, but we will still be using the 7th ed. this summer.)
LITERATURE (Please, check "Dateien" on StudIP NOW)
PRIMARY (PLEASE PURCHASE)
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The House of the Seven Gables: Authoritative Text, Contexts, Criticism. Ed. Robert S. Levine. New York: W.W. Norton, 2006. Print. A Norton critical edition. [ISBN 978-0-393-92476-3]
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Blithedale Romance: An Authoritative Text, Contexts, Criticism. Ed. Richard H. Millington. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2011. Print. A Norton critical edition. [978-0-393-92861-7]
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter and Other Writings: Authoritative Texts,Ccontexts, Criticism. Ed. Leland S. Person. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2005. Print. A Norton critical edition. [978-0-393-97953-4]
SECONDARY SOURCES (AT MLU UB HALLE-WITTENBERG)
There is a wealth of information and interpretation in the Norton Critical Editions we are using. The MLA-IB lists more than 500 references for The Scarlet Letter alone. If you are interested in special aspects, please use the MLA-IB for your focus of research.
Barlowe, Jamie. The Scarlet Mob of Scribblers: Rereading Hester Prynne. Carbondale, Ill.: Southern Illinois UP, 2000. Print.
Budick, Emily Miller. "The American Historical Romance: From James Fenimore Cooper and Nathaniel Hawthorne to Toni Morrision, Louise Erdrich, and E. L. Doctorow." A Companion to the American Novel. Ed. Alfred Bendixen. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, 2012; pb. 2015. 147-169. Print. Blackwell Companions to Literature and Culture 80.
Buitenhuis, Peter. The House of the Seven Gables: Severing Family and Colonial Ties. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1991. Print. Twayne's masterwork studies 66.
Elliott, Emory, gen. ed. Columbia Literary History of the United States. New York: Columbia UP, 1988. Print.
Engler, Bernd, and Kurt Müller. Metzler Lexikon amerikanischer Autoren. Stuttgart: Metzler, 2000. Print.
Gerber, John G., ed. Twentieth Century Interpretations of 'The scarlet letter': A Collection of Critical Essays. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1968. Print. Twentieth century interpretations S-820.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Centenary Edition of the Works of Nathaniel Hawthorne. Ed. William Charvat. Columbus, OH: Ohio State UP, 1964. Print. A publication of the Ohio State University Center for Textual Studies.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter: An Authoritative Text, Essays in Criticism and Scholarship. Ed. Seymour Gross. New York: Norton, 1988. Print. A Norton critical edition.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter: Complete, Authoritative Text with Biographical Background and Critical History plus Essays from five Contemporary Critical Perspectives with Introductions and Bibliographies. Ed. Ross C. Murfin. Boston: Bedford Books of St. Martin's Press, 1991. Print. Case studies in contemporary criticism.
Kennedy-Andrews, Elmer, ed. Nathaniel Hawthorne: The Scarlet Letter. New York, NY: Columbia UP, 2000. Print. Columbia critical guides.
Kesterson, David B., ed. Critical Essays on Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter. Boston, MA: G.K. Hall, 1988. Print. Critical essays on American literature.
Marcus, Greil, and Werner Sollors. A New Literary History of America. Cambridge, MA: Belknap, 2009. Print. Harvard UP Reference Library.
Scharnhorst, Gary, ed. The Critical Response to Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter. New York, NY: Greenwood Press, 1992. Print. Critical responses in arts and letters 2.
Zapf, Hubert, and Helmbrecht Breinig, eds. Amerikanische Literaturgeschichte. 3rd ed. Stuttgart: Metzler, 2010. Print.
