239538 The Edwardians- Electrifying Times (S) (WiSe 2011/2012)

The Edwardian era covers only a short time span, from about 1901-1910. Somewhat wedged in between two great and influential periods, the long Victorian Age and Modernism, the brief Edwardian age often seems to be squeezed out of sight. Yet it was the age of electricity, of the first automobiles and of early film. It was the ‘golden age’ of pleasure before the catastrophe of the First World War. They were times of progress, reform movements and women’s suffrage while at the same time the old rules of conduct, a rigid class system, and tight corsets for women continued to be enforced. There was ‘highbrow’ literature for the educated and ‘lowbrow’ fiction and popular entertainment for the masses. In this course works by Joseph Conrad, E.M. Forster, H.G. Wells and others will be discussed along with comic opera, vaudeville and sports.

Teilnahmevoraussetzungen, notwendige Vorkenntnisse

Students should have finished BM3 before joining this course.

Literaturangaben

Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows (Wordsworth Classics) €4,80 - to be purchased
The other texts (stories by Wells, Conrad, Nesbit, Doyle, Forster, and Wodehouse) will be available via electronic Semesterapparat at the beginning of the course.