32210
Seminar
Shape, Pattern, Style: Formalism and American Literature
James Dorson
Kommentar
Recent literary criticism has seen a return to form. Questions like “What is form?”, “What is formalism?”, and “Is it useful?” have transformed recent debates over the significance of literary form, departing from prevailing views of form and formalism as simply ideological mystification. Taking our cue from this renewed interest in form, this class examines the return to questions of form today through readings of twenty-first-century New Formalism alongside some of the most influential formalist criticism of the past century, including Russian Formalism and the New Criticism. We will ask what is “new” about recent formalist criticism as well as what it means to read for form in literary texts. The aim of the class is both to provide a historical overview of formalist criticism from the early twentieth century until the present and to provide a better understanding of what makes literature a distinct form of discourse. While the class will primarily be centered around discussions of theoretical texts, we will also read poems and stories by American writers who either influenced or were influenced by formalist criticism, including Henry James, T. S. Eliot, Shirley Jackson, and Vladimir Nabokov. Schließen
14 Termine
Regelmäßige Termine der Lehrveranstaltung
Di, 15.04.2025 10:00 - 12:00
Di, 22.04.2025 10:00 - 12:00
Di, 29.04.2025 10:00 - 12:00
Di, 06.05.2025 10:00 - 12:00
Di, 13.05.2025 10:00 - 12:00
Di, 20.05.2025 10:00 - 12:00
Di, 27.05.2025 10:00 - 12:00
Di, 03.06.2025 10:00 - 12:00
Di, 10.06.2025 10:00 - 12:00
Di, 17.06.2025 10:00 - 12:00
Di, 24.06.2025 10:00 - 12:00
Di, 01.07.2025 10:00 - 12:00
Di, 08.07.2025 10:00 - 12:00
Di, 15.07.2025 10:00 - 12:00