123230 AR Literature Course (interactive) (2011W)

Contents: The course is intended for (advanced) students of English/Lehramt (UFE). It will introduce a selection of contemporary short stories from several areas of the English-Speaking world (works by British, American, Irish and Anglo-Indian authors) which are claimed to be suitable for teaching in the advanced ESL classroom (reference frame will be the current curriculum at Austrian AHS). The texts proposed include contemporary short fiction by both distinguished writers like Salman Rushdie, T. C. Boyle, Eilis Ni Dhuibhne and Helen Simpson and a few examples from popular fiction ("chick-lit"). Each of these texts will be examined in view of its heuristic, and particularly didactic potential and pedagogic value. The didactic premise that is to be questioned critically, is if, or to what extent, the teaching of contemporary fiction may (apart from advancing foreign language proficiency) help pupils to develop interpretative skills, to advance cross-cultural understanding, enlarge their ability for critical, moral and aesthetic judgement, advance their critical awareness of the condition of contemporary society and to deal with questions relating to fundamental issues of human existence.