English Literature and Music - Detailseite

Master Seminar English Literatures / European Literatures "English Literature and Music"

This course is designed to work in tandem with this term’s lecture series (Ringvorlesung) entitled “Literatur und Musik” offered at our faculty, most of which we will be attending together as our Lektürekurs. (The Lektürekurs applies to Master of English Literature students only.)

While the lecture series covers music in German and Anglophone literary works, including Shakespeare and music and Jazz in the American novel, this seminar addresses music in English literature specifically. A historical perspective will be included – we shall look at extracts from eighteenth century novels on visiting the opera and at select Romantic poetry – but the main focus lies on the 20^th and 21^st centuries, including modernist fiction (James Joyce: “The Dead”; Virginia Woolf: “The String Quartet”), Beckett’s late play Ghost Trio, Pop Music and the novel (Nick Hornby: High Fidelity), and recent biofiction and life writing (Julian Barnes: The Noise of Time; Tracy Thorn: Another Planet: A Teenager in Suburbia; possibly: Paul Griffiths: Mr. Beethoven).

The ability to read music is no course requirement! All welcome. Bring your own suggestions, too. We will decide on the final syllabus at the beginning of term.

Introductory Reading:

• O’Callaghan, Catherine, ed. Essays on Music and Language in Modernist Literature: Musical Modernism. London: Francis & Taylor, 2018.
• Scher, Steven P. Essays on Literature and Music. Amsterdam: Rudopi, 2004.

Lektürekurs “English Literature and Music” (Tuesdays 16-18h)

As a Lektürekurs (with credit points awarded), we shall attend together most of the lectures of the Ringvorlesung “Literatur und Musik”. This will allow us to broaden our perspective on literature and music both in comparative and historical terms.