Universität Wien

123210 VO Literatures in English (2014W)

Race in English Literature

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

Details

Language: English

Examination dates

Lecturers

Classes (iCal) - next class is marked with N

  • Thursday 09.10. 09:45 - 11:15 Hörsaal D Unicampus Hof 10 Hirnforschungzentrum Spitalgasse 4
  • Thursday 16.10. 09:45 - 11:15 Hörsaal D Unicampus Hof 10 Hirnforschungzentrum Spitalgasse 4
  • Thursday 23.10. 09:45 - 11:15 Hörsaal D Unicampus Hof 10 Hirnforschungzentrum Spitalgasse 4
  • Thursday 30.10. 09:45 - 11:15 Hörsaal D Unicampus Hof 10 Hirnforschungzentrum Spitalgasse 4
  • Thursday 06.11. 09:45 - 11:15 Hörsaal D Unicampus Hof 10 Hirnforschungzentrum Spitalgasse 4
  • Thursday 13.11. 09:45 - 11:15 Hörsaal D Unicampus Hof 10 Hirnforschungzentrum Spitalgasse 4
  • Thursday 20.11. 09:45 - 11:15 Hörsaal D Unicampus Hof 10 Hirnforschungzentrum Spitalgasse 4
  • Thursday 27.11. 09:45 - 11:15 Hörsaal D Unicampus Hof 10 Hirnforschungzentrum Spitalgasse 4
  • Thursday 04.12. 09:45 - 11:15 Hörsaal D Unicampus Hof 10 Hirnforschungzentrum Spitalgasse 4
  • Thursday 11.12. 09:45 - 11:15 Hörsaal D Unicampus Hof 10 Hirnforschungzentrum Spitalgasse 4
  • Thursday 18.12. 09:45 - 11:15 Hörsaal D Unicampus Hof 10 Hirnforschungzentrum Spitalgasse 4
  • Thursday 08.01. 09:45 - 11:15 Hörsaal D Unicampus Hof 10 Hirnforschungzentrum Spitalgasse 4
  • Thursday 15.01. 09:45 - 11:15 Hörsaal D Unicampus Hof 10 Hirnforschungzentrum Spitalgasse 4
  • Thursday 22.01. 09:45 - 11:15 Hörsaal D Unicampus Hof 10 Hirnforschungzentrum Spitalgasse 4

Information

Aims, contents and method of the course

Issues of race and racism in canonical texts have long been of particular interest in the scholarly community. It is both problematic and challenging to read Elizabethan, Restoration, 18th century and Victorian texts from a modern postcolonial perspective, because 16th and 17th century concepts of race differed widely from our modern understanding of the issue.
The lecture will survey the development of racist ideas and their possible origin and will look at a variety of literary texts (plays, poems, fiction), from the time of Shakespeare to the end of the 19th century, in which Africans (or "moors") are described. We will investigate stereotypes of representation and the way in which writers both questioned and reinforced such clichés and participated in their culture's discourse about self and the other.

Assessment and permitted materials

Assessment will be on the basis of a written final test. Students are expected to study all the texts on the reading list.

Minimum requirements and assessment criteria

The course will survey changing attitudes to foreign ethnicities in texts from the 17th to the end of the 19th century. We will analyze some of the stereotypes of xenophobic discourse and the stylistic means by which prejudices were mediated by means of action, characters and style, but also how they could be questioned and re-interpreted.

Examination topics

lecture, e-learning platform for information

Reading list

Among the texts discussed will be W. Shakespeare: Othello, A. Behn: Oroonoko, H. Beecher-Stowe: Uncle Tom's Cabin, H. Rider-Haggard: King Solomon's Mines and J. Conrad: Heart of Darkness. These texts have been ordered at Facultas bookstore on campus. In addition, a short reader with brief excerpts from various texts will be compiled.

Association in the course directory

Studium: UF 344, ME 812, MA 844;
Code/Modul: UF 4.2.4-321, ME1, MA1
Lehrinhalt: 12-0404

Last modified: We 09.09.2020 00:22