AM Kirchhofer, (SoSe2018)


S Fictional Genres in the 18th Century (SoSe2018)

This course allows students to explore emerging fictional genres in the (shorter) narrative fiction of the ‘long 18th century’. While a comprehensive overview of 18th century fictional genres would be beyond the scope of the seminar, students will encounter outstanding and influential examples of certain emerging sub-genres in English fiction of the later 18th century. Specifically, we will deal with Gothic fiction, and sentimental fiction, using the examples of Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto (1764) and Laurence Sterne’s A Sentimental Journey (1768) respectively. In order to add historical depth to our corpus, we will analyse a specimen of earlier, ‘heroic’ fictional narrative, Aphra Behn’s Oroonoko (1688).
A background survey of the development of fiction in the eighteenth century will be presented in the early phase of the course. Student presentations will generally bear on all three novels, so students need to obtain and read the three short novels in the following editions:
Aphra Behn, Oroonoko, The Rover and Other Works, ed. Janet Todd, London: Penguin Classics, 2003.
Horace Walpole, The Castle of Otranto, ed. Nick Groom, Oxford: Oxford World’s Classics, 2014.
Laurence Sterne, A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy, ed. Paul Goring, London: Penguin Classics, 2005.
All three editions are affordable, and are easily available through the university bookshop (as well as other outlets).
Secondary sources will be made available to students in a Handapparat in the university library.