Universität Wien

120058 AR Literature (Interactive Course) - British/Irish/New English Literatures: Ars Punica (2008W)

Wordplay in English Literature

5.00 ECTS (2.00 SWS), SPL 12 - Anglistik
Continuous assessment of course work

Diese LVA gilt für das Masterstudium Anglophone Literatures and Cultures nach UG2002, das Diplomstudium (UniStG) und das Lehramt UF Englisch (UniStG).

Registration/Deregistration

Note: The time of your registration within the registration period has no effect on the allocation of places (no first come, first served).

Details

max. 30 participants
Language: English

Lecturers

Classes (iCal) - next class is marked with N

  • Friday 10.10. 09:00 - 11:00 Helene-Richter-Saal UniCampus Hof 8 3G-EG-21
  • Friday 17.10. 09:00 - 11:00 Helene-Richter-Saal UniCampus Hof 8 3G-EG-21
  • Friday 24.10. 09:00 - 11:00 Helene-Richter-Saal UniCampus Hof 8 3G-EG-21
  • Friday 31.10. 09:00 - 11:00 Helene-Richter-Saal UniCampus Hof 8 3G-EG-21
  • Friday 07.11. 09:00 - 11:00 Helene-Richter-Saal UniCampus Hof 8 3G-EG-21
  • Friday 14.11. 09:00 - 11:00 Helene-Richter-Saal UniCampus Hof 8 3G-EG-21
  • Friday 21.11. 09:00 - 11:00 Helene-Richter-Saal UniCampus Hof 8 3G-EG-21
  • Friday 28.11. 09:00 - 11:00 Helene-Richter-Saal UniCampus Hof 8 3G-EG-21
  • Friday 05.12. 09:00 - 11:00 Helene-Richter-Saal UniCampus Hof 8 3G-EG-21
  • Friday 12.12. 09:00 - 11:00 Helene-Richter-Saal UniCampus Hof 8 3G-EG-21
  • Friday 19.12. 09:00 - 11:00 Helene-Richter-Saal UniCampus Hof 8 3G-EG-21
  • Friday 09.01. 09:00 - 11:00 Helene-Richter-Saal UniCampus Hof 8 3G-EG-21
  • Friday 16.01. 09:00 - 11:00 Helene-Richter-Saal UniCampus Hof 8 3G-EG-21
  • Friday 23.01. 09:00 - 11:00 Helene-Richter-Saal UniCampus Hof 8 3G-EG-21
  • Friday 30.01. 09:00 - 11:00 Helene-Richter-Saal UniCampus Hof 8 3G-EG-21

Information

Aims, contents and method of the course

In 1719, Thomas Sheridan, a friend of Jonathan Swift's, published Ars punica sive flos linguarum. The art of punning: or the flower of languages, in seventy-nine rules for the farther improvement of conversation, and help of memory, thus establishing wordplay as an important component of the rhetorical 'toolkit'. The pun (or paronomasia--to give it its proper technical designation) is the most obvious type of wordplay (Shakespeare, incidentally, is said to have included some 3000 puns in his oeuvre). Other forms of wordplay include aphorisms, graffiti, limericks, nonsense poetry. Among the more elementary types we have palindromes, tongue-twisters, clerihews, malapropisms, spoonerisms, and (Cockney) rhyming slang.
Apart form the obvious sources of the oral tradition (i.e., the ubiquitous "anon."), examples will be taken from English and Irish Literature; authors featured will include William Shakespeare, Jonathan Swift, Maria Edgeworth, Lewis Carroll, Edward Lear, James Joyce, Flann O'Brien, Dylan Thomas.

Assessment and permitted materials

Requirements for credit: regular attendance, active participation in class, PowerPoint presentation, written final test.

Minimum requirements and assessment criteria

To study wordplay/word games is essentially an exercise in close reading. We will explore basic premises of verbal humour, linguistic mannerisms, and literary styles by scrutinising textual micro-structures and rhetorical strategies in a wide variety of texts from the comic tradition.

Examination topics

inter-active (oral presentations, class-room discussion, short introductory lectures).

Reading list

A customised anthology will be available from 1 September 2008. Additional material will be provided on an e-learning platform. Therefore, students are asked to familiarise themselves in advance with the Blackboard Vista platform; for introduction and self-guided tour, please see
https://www.univie.ac.at/ZID/elearning-infos-studierende/
Recommended reading: David Crystal, Language Play (London: Penguin, 1986).

Association in the course directory

325, 326, 328, 336, 338, 323, 722, 3031, 3032

Last modified: We 09.09.2020 00:22