Vorlesung Introduction to Literary Studies


Vorlesung Introduction to Literary Studies

 

As all other obligatory introductions in the field of Anglophone Studies, the Introduction to Literary Studies is of elementary importance to all new students. It will be your first and crucial step towards becoming an expert reader of literature written in English. The more you know, the more you see; the more you see, the more you can try to understand, which makes the whole process of reading even more exciting and rewarding. This course will therefore help you to see more and to get to grips with all sorts of texts by covering topics such as:

-       What is literature? Why study literature?

-       The major genres of literature (poetry, drama, narrative fiction).

-       Key developments in the history of these genres in English literature and their cultural contexts.

-       Literary theory and critical approaches, i.e. how to do things with texts in more than one way.

-       How to use essential digital resources.

-       How to write a seminar paper.

-       What to do when you get stuck and you absolutely don’t know what to do … and much more besides.

Yes, this is a Pflichtveranstaltung, but it is also very much about enjoying literature.

The Introduction to Literary Studies will be extremely useful for all further courses in literary as well as cultural studies you will take while at university. It will be your first step towards enjoying literature even more than you do already, and also towards writing successful seminar papers, BA and MA theses.

The Introduction to Literary Studies consists of two elements: A lecture course (Vorlesung) and seminar-type courses (Grundkurse). The lecture and the seminar format alternate on a weekly basis throughout the semester: They belong together, it is essential to attend both. The lecture is taught by Prof. Heyl, the Grundkurse by members of the Introduction team.

Both the lecture and the Grundkurse will be conducted online and in real time throughout the semester. This will help to give your week a useful structure in times of Corona. You must sign up for one of the Grundkurse on LSF and join the Moodle course for the lecture (the Moodle course is called Vorlesung Introduction to Literary Studies, password: IntroLiteraryStudiesWS20-21).

You will receive further information via Moodle and e-mail. Please make sure to use and check your official university e-mail addresses at all times. Do not use any other addresses, and do not have e-mails sent to your university address forwarded to other addresses. Our experience in the last semester has shown that that using non-university addresses / forwarding mails will lead to our messages bouncing back in very many cases.

A reader will be made available to you via Moodle. You will need to read and prepare material in the reader for each session.

You will also need to buy:

Michael Meyer, English and American Literatures. 4. Auflage. UTB Basics. ISBN-13: 798-3825-235505.

Christoph Heyl, Kleine Englische Literaturgeschichte. J.B. Metzler. ISBN-13: 978-3476045096.

 

Bemerkung: Die Einführungsveranstaltung in die Literaturwissenschaft besteht aus der Vorlesung “Introduction to Literary Studies” und einem sie ergänzenden Seminar („Grundkurs“), in dem das in der Vorlesung behandelte Fachwissen an exemplarischen Beispielen veranschaulicht und vertieft wird. Vorlesung und Seminar wechseln das gesamte Semester hindurch wochenweise ab (in einer Woche gehen Sie also in die Vorlesung, in der nächsten ins Seminar, in der nächsten wieder in die Vorlesung usw.). Das Seminar ist der ergänzende Pflicht-Grundkurs zur Vorlesung „Introduction to Literary Studies“, Vorlesung und Seminar bilden also eine Einheit. Eine Anmeldung zur Vorlesung per LSF ist nicht nötig, hier reicht die Anmeldung in dem Moodle-Kurs zur Vorlesung. Für die Grundkurse ist eine Anmeldung verpflichtend.