PS Working Class Heroes and Heroines in British Drama, Poetry and Prose, 1750-2000
The target of this seminar is to discover and to analyse relevant aspects of proletarian narratives to be observed in several periods of English literary history. In this context, the term proletarian refers to the social background of the authors and/or their narrative perspectives. Partly in excerpts, we will be looking at Romantic poems written by William Falconer (“The Shipwreck” (1762)) as well as John Clare (“Hay Making” (1812-1831) and “I am” (1848)). Furthermore, we will be dealing with Elizabeth Gaskell’s Victorian novel Mary Barton (1848) and with Thomas Hardy’s naturalistic work Tess of the d’Urbervilles (1892). Literary movements such as kitchen sink drama/social realism will also be considered (Arnold Wesker’s Roots (1958)). Finally, Irvine Welsh’s postmodernist Trainspotting (1993) will be decoded from the point of view of Mikhail Bakhtin’s concept heteroglossia. In our class discussions, we will be contextualising historical developments such as the Industrial Revolution, Malthusian population theories, Chartism, the Angry Young Men, and the implications of two world wars. Please read at least the novels by Hardy and Welsh as well as Wesker’s play before the seminar starts.
The target of this seminar is to discover and to analyse relevant aspects of proletarian narratives to be observed in several periods of English literary history. In this context, the term proletarian refers to the social background of the authors and/or their narrative perspectives. Partly in excerpts, we will be looking at Romantic poems written by William Falconer (“The Shipwreck” (1762)) as well as John Clare (“Hay Making” (1812-1831) and “I am” (1848)). Furthermore, we will be dealing with Elizabeth Gaskell’s Victorian novel Mary Barton (1848) and with Thomas Hardy’s naturalistic work Tess of the d’Urbervilles (1892). Literary movements such as kitchen sink drama/social realism will also be considered (Arnold Wesker’s Roots (1958)). Finally, Irvine Welsh’s postmodernist Trainspotting (1993) will be decoded from the point of view of Mikhail Bakhtin’s concept heteroglossia. In our class discussions, we will be contextualising historical developments such as the Industrial Revolution, Malthusian population theories, Chartism, the Angry Young Men, and the implications of two world wars. Please read at least the novels by Hardy and Welsh as well as Wesker’s play before the seminar starts.
- Moderator/in: Mario Ebest
- Moderator/in: Carmen Zink