123043 PS PS Literary Studies (2023W)

In the second half of the 20th century, literature faces a representational crisis. As Woolf, Joyce and other modernists have already explored all kinds of experimental devices between the two world wars, the potential for artistic innovation seems to be exhausted for authors belonging to the next generation. To overcome this dilemma, they either try to become even more radically experimental or to rewrite traditional devices in a playful way. As postmodern art is critically self-conscious, participants of this introductory seminar are expected to be interested in the fields of literature and literary theory (approaches to representation, intertextuality, metafiction). Texts to be prepared: Beckett, Waiting for Godot, Coover, "The Baby Sitter", Fowles, The French Lieutenant's Woman, Josipovici, "Mobius the Stripper" and Lodge, Small World. A selection of poems, short plays and theoretical texts will be available at the beginning of the semester.