120065 PS Literature: Proseminar = Introductory Seminar (2010S)

Special attention will be put on the meaning of the texts in their historical, cultural and social contexts, embedded in discussion of literary terms such as metafiction, intertextuality, rewriting, deconstruction, discourse-theories, contrasted to the meaning of realism. Literature will be read in context of responding to changing historical, social and cultural conditions wherein literary devices become tools for critical comment and reflection. The central question shall be why certain core-texts of the 18th and 19th century/Victorian culture (here also: recent theories on Victorian Postmodernism) are revised, rewritten, and deconstructed in postmodernist texts; how this is done; and what is the outcome and meaning (focus on postcolonial and gender aspects).