232048 Life Through a Lens – American Epic Novels (S) (SoSe 2011)

Grand narratives of an epic character have been part of the literary tradition in the Americas for centuries. Focusing on life seen through a particular culturally-coded lens they portray the big issues of humankind: love, death, war, identity, nation, country, family. However eternal these issues may be, their representation in epic novels differs according to time, context and author. As such, epic novels offer a cornucopia of insights into value systems, fashions, frames of mind and historical events of the space of time and social group their authors have sought to tell about and are thus interesting with regard to historical, cultural, social and literary aspects of the Americas.
In this seminar we will investigate three very diverse epic novels from both North and South America. After an introductory phase to approach the genre, students will split up into groups and will each work on a project on one of the novels. The results will be presented in portfolio format.
Intensive reading and individual contributions to the project are obligatory.

Requirements for participation, required level

no particular requirements; general knowledge of American history and literary terms helpful

!willingness to read a lot of text mandatory!

Bibliography

Margaret Mitchell: Gone with the Wind
Gabriel García Márquez: Love in the Time of Cholera
Sandra Cisneros: Caramelo