123044 PS Literary Studies / Proseminar Literature (2020W)

“Juvenilia” is often taken as a synonym for “immaturity” or used as a term to describe “an artistic work produced in author's youth”. In this course, we will explore the far more complex role “juvenilia” plays as a major theme in literary representation. Considering texts from different genres and eras, we will investigate how the representation of juvenilia is defined by narrative perspective, structure (e.g. retrospection and immediacy) and how point of view shapes the approach of the protagonists towards coming-of-age, social (dis-)integration in the adult-world, or idealisations of youth.
Another major focus will be put on on changing socio-historical and ideological concepts of identity from Romanticism to Victorianism to Modernism to Postmodernism and its influence on the representation of juvenilia and quests for identity. In this context we will discuss how these quests are represented and constructed in view of various literary theoretical contexts. We will consider topic by tracing meanings of the "Bildungsroman" (coming-of-age novel), "Bildungsgedicht", "Female Bildungsroman" and transformations and adaptations in various contexts.
Students will be introduced to various genres, literary & cultural analysis and conception of a literary paper.