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This course aims to elucidate the ways in which the Victorian novel is reimagined in postmodern fiction of the twentieth century. While writers of the Modernist movement sought to reject the form and style of the Victorian novel, from the mid-twentieth century onwards various postmodern authors chose to revisit many of its conventions, frequently subverting them to ironic effect. Throughout the course we will be exploring how conceptions of narrative which dominated the literary output of the nineteenth century - including the Bildungsroman, the epistolary novel, and literary realism among others - are refigured, and indeed satirised, within a specifically postmodern context. Through our reading and discussion of twentieth century texts alongside their nineteenth century "ancestors", we will seek to gain an understanding of postmodern authors' continuing preoccupation with the Victorian novel. We will do this by analysing a variety of literary sources, including novels by John Fowles and Julian Barnes, as well as Posy Simmonds' graphic novel 'Gemma Bovery'.
Students are kindly requested to obtain the following texts, copies of which can be found at the Heinrich Heine Buchhandlung, Viehofer Platz 8, 45127 Essen:
- Julian Barnes, 'Flaubert's Parrot' (Vintage Edition, 2009)
- John Fowles, 'The French Lieutenant's Woman' ( Vintage Classics Edition, 2004)
**Please bring your copy of 'The French Lieutenant's Woman' with you to the first session.**
Students are requested to use the Semesterapparat which can be found under the course title at semapp.uni-due.de.
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