Literaturgeschichte (Literary History)

In this seminar, we will trace the trajectory of U.S. American realism as a mode of literature and, to a lesser degree, of visual art. In roughly chronological fashion we will follow realism from its inception as a counterdiscourse via its hegemonic period to its eventual sidelining – and beyond. While we will focus on the late 19th and early 20th centuries, our scope is not strictly limited to a period of (literary) history, but extends to the broader strategies of realist art and the ways realism was framed theoretically by writers and critics.

How can the study of culture, and specifically of literature, help us understand and react to ecological crisis? How is the discourse around the extraction and consumption of resources shaped by the representation of energy in narrative texts, and vice versa? These are just some of the questions that Environmental and Energy Humanities pose, and that we will seek to follow in this seminar. Focusing primarily on fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and natural gas, we will interrogate how North American fiction stages representations of energy, environment(s), and their interrelationship. Readings to be announced.

“Postmodernism” is an ambiguous term for literary and artistic practices in the second half of the twentieth century, signifying both a break from and relatedness to the preceding era of modernism. As a movement, postmodernism spans disciplines — literature, art, film, and architecture — offering a complex interplay of critique and innovation. In American contexts, it emerges through elements such as intertextuality, self-reflexivity, and fragmentation, or parody, often thematizing both historical and political issues. This course introduces students to the multifaceted world of American postmodernism through a selection of key texts and media, exploring how creators across disciplines respond to and redefine literary and artistic conventions. Course materials to be studied may range from works by Kurt Vonnegut Jr., Don DeLillo, Salman Rushdie, bell hooks, or Andy Warhol.