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Laurence Sterne's The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, published in several volumes betwenn 1759 and 1767, is widely regarded as one of the most innovative as well as one of the funniest of English novels. While it is often anachronistically read as a "postmodern novel" 200 years before postmodernism, we will discuss the novel in its cultural contexts - not least the philosophy of the European Englightenment - and will see that its "modernity" can be traced to central concerns of the period in a range of fields such as moral philosophy, the philosophy of science and progress, as well as key theological debates.
Students are asked to buy and read the inexpensive Penguin edition of The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, ed. by Melvyn New and Joan New. Please make sure you get exactly this edition! A reader containing secondary material will be available in the copyshop in Reckhammerweg in early March. |
