123232 AR Literature Course (interactive) (2013W)

The course is intended for advanced students intending to become teachers of English at an Austrian AHS/BHS. It will propose a range of contemporary works of fiction which are to be examined as to their didactic potential in the advanced EFL classroom. The texts discussed will also be considered in view of their suitability for the requirements of the Austrian “Zentralmatura“ and/or for their potential use as teaching materials or topics for a “Vorwissenschaftliche Arbeit“ (pre-academic paper). The list of authors proposed for discussion includes T.C. Boyle, Helen Simpson, Claire Kilroy, Salman Rushdie, Eilis Ni Dhuibhne, Roddy Doyle, William Trevor, Nadine Gordimer, and a few writers of popular fiction ("chick-lit"). Each of the works of fiction will be examined as to its pedagogic value and didactic potential (notably for advancing the pupils' cross-cultural understanding, moral and aesthetic judgement and for deepening their critical awareness of current political, social, religious, economic and environmental issues and the condition of humanity at large).