Divine love, courtly love, erotic love, romantic love, self-love, filial love—love is a broad subject with seemingly innumerable facets. In its various forms, it is a key theme that has inspired writers throughout literary history. We shall trace some of these forms in a number of literary works from the late sixteenth century to the present: William Shakespeare’s comedy Much Ado About Nothing (1598/99), Eliza Haywood’s novella Fantomina, or Love in a Maze (1725), Thomas Hardy’s novel Far From the Madding Crowd (1874), and the current Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy’s collection of poems Rapture (2005). Studying these texts shall allow us to examine the ways the writers engaged with the theme of love and how they used different literary genres to shape their concepts and ideas. It enables us furthermore to review methods crucial for any analysis of poetic, dramatic and prose texts. Context sessions preceding the discussion of each text shall provide us with the opportunity to consider questions of genre as well as the relevant socio-cultural background.
You need to be familiar with Shakespeare’s comedy at the beginning of the course; there will be a reading test in the third week. Primary text knowledge will be tested as we go along. Please acquire a copy of the editions of Shakespeare’s and Hardy’s texts listed below. Haywood’s and Duffy’s texts will be made available.
Editions:
Duffy, Carol Ann. Rapture. London: Picador, 2006.
Hardy, Thomas. Far From the Madding Crowd. Ed. Suzanne B. Falck-Yi. Introd. Linda M. Shires. Oxford World’s Classics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.
Haywood, Eliza. Fantomina and Other Works. Ed. Alexander Pettit, Margaret Case Croskery, and Anna C. Patchias. Broadview Literary Texts. Peterborough: Broadview Press, 2004.
Shakespeare, William. Much Ado About Nothing. Ed. Claire McEachern. The Arden Shakespeare. London: Bloomsbury, 2016.
Recommeded Reading:
Fludernik, Monika. Erzähltheorie: Eine Einführung. 4th Ed. Darmstadt: WBG, 2013.
Jahn, Manfred. “A Guide to the Theory of Poetry.” Poems, Plays, and Prose: A Guide to the Theory of Literary Genres. English Department, Univ. of Cologne, 2002. Web.
Ludwig, Hans-Werner. Arbeitsbuch Lyrikanalyse. 5th Ed. Tübingen: Francke, 2005.
Nowak, Helge. Literature in Britain and Ireland: A History. Tübingen: Francke, 2010.
Pfister, Manfred. Das Drama. 11th Ed. München: Fink, 2001.
Rimmon-Kenan, Shlomith. Narrative Fiction: Contemporary Poetics. 2nd Ed. London: Routledge, 2002.
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