239814 The Cultures of Production: Industry and Work in British Literature (S) (SoSe 2013)

Work has always played a major role in shaping individual lives and social conditions. It is particularly with the onset of the Industrial Revolution that British culture came to be dominated by notions of productivity and progress. While politicians and representatives of the economy have mostly looked at work and industry, and their effects on people's lives, as a boon, literary authors more often than not have seen the same processes as a bane. In this seminar, we will read a number of texts (poems, novels and theatre plays) which engage with various aspects of work and such aspects of culture as individual or group identity, class, family life, and gender. Since we will also explore the social, economic and idelogical backgrounds of the literary representations of industry and work, it makes sense to register for J. Schwarzkopf's course (239930 Industrialization as a Revolutionary Process), too; parallel registration is not obligatory, however.

Literaturangaben

Some materials (poems and Caryl Churchill's play Serious Money) will be provided in a reader. However, you are required to buy your own copies of the following novels:
Charles Dickens, Hard Times (Penguin Classics edition)
Elizabeth Gaskell, North and South (Penguin Classics edition)
David Lodge, Nice Work (any edition)