| Kommentar |
An essential part of eighteenth-century English literature, sentimental fiction played a major role in exploring human interaction within quickly changing societal settings. In the context of the so-called Scottish Enlightenment, the related concepts of sympathy and sensibility were even made the subject of moral philosophical discussions regarding projects of civil improvement. The notion that reading a sentimental novel would help the reader become a better person through the exercise of sympathy with suffering characters, is certainly unfamiliar to twenty-first century readers and one that is, considering the social challenges made visible by the pandemic, worth looking into. The course will explore four key texts that record through their publication history the rise and fall of the sentimental genre. Starting with Samuel Richardson’s pioneering Pamela (1740) and continuing with Oliver Goldsmith’s The Vicar of Wakefield (1762), we will then turn to Laurence Sterne’s A Sentimental Journey (1768) and Henry Mackenzie’s The Man of Feeling (1771) for what eventually became the decline of sentimental writing in the latter part of the century.
This course functions in tandem with the module 4 series lecture “Survey of English Literatures”. The Modulabschlussprüfung (MAP) is comprised of short-answer questions from the lecture and an essay task dealing with the seminar topics. |
| Literatur |
Richardson, S. Pamela (1740)
Goldsmith, O. The Vicar of Wakefield (1762)
Sterne, L. A Sentimental Journey (1768)
Mackenzie, H. The Man of Feeling (1771) |
