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Lehrende: Dr. phil. Esther Schomacher
Veranstaltungsart:
Seminar
Orga-Einheit: Communication & Cultural Management
Anzeige im Stundenplan:
Lang & Cult
Semesterwochenstunden:
3
Credits:
6,0
Hinweis: In Ihrer Prüfungsordnung können abweichende Credits festgelegt sein.
Standort:
Campus der Zeppelin Universität
Unterrichtssprache:
Englisch
Min. | Max. Teilnehmerzahl:
10 | 35
Prioritätsschema: Standard-Priorisierung
Inhalte:
Tales for Changing Times. Epic Narrative and Cultural Crises
Throughout European history, the emergence of epic forms of narration seems to have been linked to the experience of cultural crises: Epics like Homer’s Illiad and Odyssey, Virgils Aeneid, Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy, John Milton’s Paradise Lost, Torquato Tassos Jerusalem Delivered, or their modern counterparts – like James Joyce’s Ulysses, Tokien’s Lord of the Rings, J.K. Rowlings Harry Potter and G.R.R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire – appear at times of major cultural shifts and changes. This class will look into the reasons for this intrinsic connection of narration and cultural as well as political change. We will look at how epics allow for the expression of cultural anxiety in a specific way, how these long, often complicated and elaborate texts manage the expectations and uncertainties of their cultural historical period and how they allow their readers (or listeners) to make sense of their own troubled times. Epic narrative will, in this way, be understood as a preeminent textual ‘space’ for the cultural shaping of crises and change.
As epic narratives are, in most cases, very voluminous writings, it will not be possible to read all of them in their entirety. In this class we will look at central sections of the most important European epics and their connection to their immediate historical and cultural environment. This will allow us not only to understand the intimate connection between narrative content and the poetic and narratological aspects of literary representation, but also to develop insight into the question of how various forms of literary language interlace with cultural experience, and how fiction interacts with their audience’s “reality”. This, in turn, will help us to understand the attraction of epic narrative in times of cultural upheaval – such as our own.
The reading material for this class will be uploaded onto the ZU's e-learning platform (https://learning.zu.de); the epic texts will be discussed based on an English edition. However, students are invited to consult versions in the lanague they feel most comfortable in if this enhances their understanding.
Lernziele:
Students will deepen their understanding of the history and changing forms of epic narrative, as well as their knowledge of European cultural history and will gain knowledge with regard to the interrelation of specific literary forms and their wider cultural context. Firstly, students will learn to describe the traces a specific cultural environment has left in literary representations, that is, how cultural environment and experiences „shape“ texts. Secondly, they will learn to discern how texts feed back into their environment and in turn „shape“ cultural experiences.
The class will be taught in English.
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