Mini Lecture Series with Heike Hartung: Concepts of Narrative in Literature: Embodiment, Genre, Space

Concepts of narrative are crucial for the study of literature and culture. In the late twentieth century, the ‘narrative turn’ affected the ways in which critical knowledge was constituted in many disciplines in the humanities. In this sequence of three seminar sessions, we will explore different aspects of narrative and how these relate to the concepts of embodiment, genre and space respectively. After a brief introduction into narrative theory, the first session will focus on how the physical body is represented in autobiography and fiction. The second session will explore the structural analysis of literature with reference to the fantastic genre, focusing on one of Henry James’s late ghost stories. In the concluding third session we will turn to the relationship between narrative and space, also with reference to James’s short story. The required texts will be made available on Moodle.