Erste Sitzung: 23. Oktober 2017
Die Anmeldung findet im Rahmen des allgemeinen Verfahrens der Fachrichtung Anglistik, Amerikanistik und Anglophone Kulturen statt. Bitte beachten Sie die Mitteilungen auf der Website der Fachrichtung und die Aushänge.
Since the beginning of the twenty-first century, British historical fiction has enjoyed an unexpected surge in popularity with both readers and critics. While novels published in the late twentieth century often self-critically revolve around the question whether it is indeed possible to write (about) the past, twenty-first-century fiction seems to have left those doubts behind. The three novels we will read in this seminar closely engage with three epochs which have been firmly inscribed into British cultural memory. Ian McEwan’s Atonement (2001) focuses on the Second World War; Adam Foulds’s The Quickening Maze (2009) revolves around people, historical and imaginary, of the Victorian Age; and Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall (2009) is set in the early modern period, more precisely during the reign of Henry VIII.
We will read and discuss the novels in a reversed chronological order, starting with McEwan’s Atonement, then Foulds’s The Quickening Maze; and ending with Mantel’s Wolf Hall. Please note that Mantel’s novel in particular is a rewarding, but longish read. You will need some time to read this fascinating novel which the Man Booker Prize committee hailed as ”[o]ne of the greatest achievements of modern literature.” You must have finished reading McEwan’s Atonement by the first meeting.
Students MUST use NO OTHER than the following editions:
Foulds, Adam. The Quickening Maze. London: Penguin Books, 2010. ISBN 978-0099532446.
Mantel, Hilary. Wolf Hall. London: Fourth Estate, 2010. ISBN 978-0007351459.
McEwan, Ian. Atonement. London: Vintage, 2016. ISBN 978-0099429791. |
