The Circle of Stories: Literature and Genre

On this course, we will go through a generic arrangement of literature which is comprehensive and therefore represents a complete tour of English literature. We will go through the various phases of the circle of stories, proceeding through gradations involving the subtle differences between romantic comedy and comic romance, tragic romance and romantic tragedy, etc. Focusing on characteristic texts of the different phases, we proceed through the area of romance, moving towards tragic romance, before studying the area of tragic literature itself. From there we proceed towards satire and irony, before, having passed through the phase of comic irony, we emerge in the domain of comedy proper. Such a progression takes us from one of Karen Blixen’s Gothic tales and excerpts from (a modern-English translation of) Beowulf, to Milton’s Adam and Eve before the Fall, from Romeo and Juliet and Milton’s depiction of expulsion from Eden, to Shakespeare’s Hamlet, from Nella Larsen’s Quicksand to Book IV of Gulliver’s Travels, and from The Beggar’s Opera and J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan, to some of Blixen’s other Gothic tales.

Target group

Bachelor/Master- Applicants who have passed a minimum of one year of bachelor-level studies are eligible to apply for admission.

Course aim

Knowledge and understanding of: - an array of English-literature texts (primary texts) - how English literature can be studies through genre and convention - a theoretical account of genre (which is used throughout the course) - how meaning can be discussed in relation to genre - how some theories aim to provide comprehensive accounts of literature, aiming to convey a sense of the meaning of literature as whole Skills and competences in: - poetics - close reading - interpretation - working with primary and secondary material