Courses

Since the late 18^th century, prose, as opposed to verse forms, has steadily garnered increasingly greater influence in the world of ‘belles-lettres.’ With the aid of theoretical texts and poetological debates from antiquity to the present, the seminar will pursue questions associated with this change in the field of literature: What is the function of prose? How does it generate its form? How does it connect itself to external reality? Can literature still be considered an ‘art’ in the wake of this prosaic turn? And if so, then to what extent? Moreover, we will reflect on the development of a uniquely modern prosaic practice, which will be tested against certain exemplary texts. But the singularity of this prosaic practice cannot be adequately captured by either narratological or style-historical means. Therefore, the fundamental question of the seminar will be: How can prose, as a fundamental category of literariness, be defined and analyzed?  Note:  Readings and discussions in German.