Universität Wien

123045 PS Proseminar Literature / Literary Studies (2016W)

'A sylvan fringe of darkness': Forests in the Western Literary Imagination

5.00 ECTS (2.00 SWS), SPL 12 - Anglistik
Prüfungsimmanente Lehrveranstaltung
Moodle

An/Abmeldung

Hinweis: Ihr Anmeldezeitpunkt innerhalb der Frist hat keine Auswirkungen auf die Platzvergabe (kein "first come, first served").

Details

max. 25 Teilnehmer*innen
Sprache: Englisch

Lehrende

Termine (iCal) - nächster Termin ist mit N markiert

  • Mittwoch 05.10. 16:00 - 18:00 Raum 2 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-09
  • Mittwoch 12.10. 16:00 - 18:00 Raum 2 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-09
  • Mittwoch 19.10. 16:00 - 18:00 Raum 2 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-09
  • Mittwoch 09.11. 16:00 - 18:00 Raum 2 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-09
  • Mittwoch 16.11. 16:00 - 18:00 Raum 2 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-09
  • Mittwoch 23.11. 16:00 - 18:00 Raum 2 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-09
  • Mittwoch 30.11. 16:00 - 18:00 Raum 2 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-09
  • Mittwoch 07.12. 16:00 - 18:00 Raum 2 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-09
  • Mittwoch 14.12. 16:00 - 18:00 Raum 2 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-09
  • Mittwoch 11.01. 16:00 - 18:00 Raum 2 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-09
  • Mittwoch 18.01. 16:00 - 18:00 Raum 2 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-09
  • Mittwoch 25.01. 16:00 - 18:00 Raum 2 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-09

Information

Ziele, Inhalte und Methode der Lehrveranstaltung

In this course we will explore the role forests have played in the Western literary imagination. Robert Pogue Harrison writes that Western civilization “literally cleared its space in the midst of forests”; he explains how our states, our cities, our institutions – legal, religious, cultural – have tended to establish and define themselves in opposition to the forests.
In our literary and cultural productions, forests have enabled writers to explore deep philosophical questions related to our existence: how we might feel at home or estranged in the world, terrorised or enchanted, integrated or excluded; but they have also enabled writers to explore edges and thresholds of different orders – the relationship between the civic and the lawless, the religious and the profane, logos and Being, survival and transcendence; for centuries we have projected onto this “sylvan fringe of darkness” (Harrison) various affective and psychic scenarios – both anxious and dark, nostalgic and dreamy, wild and fearful as well as fabulous and eerie.
Throughout this course, then, we will analyse how the forest is mediated across different literary genres; we will explore their symbolic and metaphorical potential but also their ec(h)o-power to ask us what it might mean to dwell on/through this earth.

Art der Leistungskontrolle und erlaubte Hilfsmittel

Students will become familiar with basic skills required to analyse and interpret different literary genres (poems, short stories, novels and plays). They will also learn how to write academic papers.

Mindestanforderungen und Beurteilungsmaßstab

Interactive, small-group and classroom discussions, reading assignments, and close-reading of texts.

Prüfungsstoff

Participants are expected to read all set texts plus the additional secondary/theoretical material provided on the moodle platform; they are also expected to engage in autonomous research, to offer a critical and reflective analysis of texts and concepts.

Literatur

Poems: Rudyard Kipling's “The Way through the Woods”
William Wordsworth's “Tintern Abbey”

Copies of the following books will be available at the bookshop Facultas am Campus:

William Shakespeare's "Macbeth";
Samuel Beckett's "Molloy";
Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter;

Zuordnung im Vorlesungsverzeichnis

Studium: UF 344, BA 612; BEd 046
Code/Modul: UF 3.3.3-304, BA10.1; BEd 08a.1, BEd 08b.2
Lehrinhalt: 12-3041

Letzte Änderung: Mo 27.07.2026 11:00