Ambiguity has long been identified as one of the major characteristics of literary works of art. Yet often the term is used in a vague or underspecified (if not ambiguous) way. Can ambiguity in and of literary texts be dealt with in a systematic way? And what does it in fact mean if we describe a text as being ‘ambiguous’?
This class will focus on ambiguity in literary works on different levels of analysis: from lexical to syntactical ambiguity, from ambiguity of character to ambiguity of narrator or narration, and ambiguity on/between various communication levels. We will address the phenomenon in a literary historical perspective and include examples from all genres.
Please buy and read in advance:
Charlotte Brontë, Villette (Oxford World Classics). ISBN 978-0199536658
William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, ed. by David Daniell (The Arden Shakespeare). ISBN 978-1903436219
Poems and further reading will be provided.
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