AJ25012 The Time of Stories: Storytelling and Narratives in a Comparative View

Faculty of Arts
Autumn 2008
Extent and Intensity
0/2/0. 2 credit(s) (plus 3 credits for an exam). Recommended Type of Completion: zk (examination). Other types of completion: z (credit).
Teacher(s)
Mgr. Klára Kolinská, M.A., Ph.D. (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
Jeffrey Alan Vanderziel, B.A.
Department of English and American Studies – Faculty of Arts
Contact Person: Tomáš Hanzálek
Timetable
Tue 18:20–19:55 G31
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is only offered to the students of the study fields the course is directly associated with.

The capacity limit for the course is 20 student(s).
Current registration and enrolment status: enrolled: 0/20, only registered: 0/20
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
there are 12 fields of study the course is directly associated with, display
Course objectives
The course is intended to introduce students to the notion of storytelling as an important aesthetic mode in both traditional and modern literary discourse. It discusses storytelling from both theoretical and practical perspectives, while maintaining the comparative approach, documenting and (dis)proving the theoretical standpoints with the use of specific literary texts from literatures ideally extending the boundaries of the English speaking world.
Syllabus
  • Seminars schedule: Week 1: Introduction to the course themes and objectives, discussion on the key terms Week 2: Establishing the narrative traditions: Homer: The Odyssey, canto 19 (bartleby) The Bible: Genesis, the offering of Isaac (bartleby) [Erich Auerbach: Mimesis: “Odysseus’ Scar”] Week 3: The oral as real: Aesop‘s fables (2 according to your own choice, bartleby) Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm: “Rapunzel“ (bartleby) I.B. Singer: Naftali the Storyteller (handout) [Walter J. Ong: Orality and Literacy] Week 4: From storytelling to storywriting: Anton Chekhov: “A Lady‘s Story“ “The Teacher of Literature“ (bibliomania) Guy de Maupassant: “Family Life“ “The Necklace“ (bibliomania) [Walter Benjamin: “The Storyteller“] Week 5: The story extended: Miguel de Cervantes: Don Quijote, the author‘s preface to the reader, Part 1. (bartleby) – compared to a novel of your choice [Mikhail Bakhtin: “Discourse in the Novel“] Week 6: Stories told in English: Somerset Maugham: “Louise” (bibliomania) Joel Chandler Harris: “Brer Rabbit and the Tar Baby” (bibliomania) and one comparable to those, according to your choice [Warren S. Walker: “From Raconteur to Writer: Oral Roots and Printed Leaves of Short Fiction”] Week 7: A story performed: Tirso de Molina: The Trickster of Sevilla and a Stone Guest (handout) [Aristotle: from Poetics] Week 8: Stories of women: Kate Chopin: “A Shameful Affair“ (bibliomania) Katherine Mansfield: “The Garden Party“ (bibliomania) [Hélène Cixous: “The Laugh of the Medusa“] Week 9: Stories of the other: Bessie Head: “Looking for a Rain God“ (handout) Chinua Achebe: “Uncle Ben‘s Choice“ (handout) [Laura Bohannan: “Shakespeare in the Bush“] Week 10: Stories of detection: Edgar Allan Poe: “The Purloined Letter“ (bartleby) Gilbert Keith Chesterton: The Innocence of Father Brown (handout) [Tzvetan Todorov: “Typologie detektivního románu“] Week 11: Stories and myths: “The One With the Hunting Dogs“ (handout) [Robert Bringhurst: “Oral Tradition and the Individual Talent“] Week 12: The magic and the real: Mario Vargas Llosa : The Storyteller (handout) [Jorge Louis Borges: “The Telling of the Tale“] Week 13: “After the Storyteller…“
Literature
  • Erich Auerbach: Mimesis
  • Aristotle: Poetics
  • Walter J. Ong: Orality and Literacy
  • Walter Benjamin: Illuminations
  • Mikhail Bakhtin: The Dialogic Imagination
  • Tzvetan Todorov: Conquest of America: The Question of the Other
  • Jorge Louis Borges: Labyrinths
Assessment methods
seminar discussions active class participation: 20% essay on a chosen topic related to the course readings: 40% storytelling project(s): 10% in-class presentation of a chosen topic: 30%
Language of instruction
English
Further Comments
The course is taught annually.
The course is also listed under the following terms Autumn 2003, Autumn 2004, Autumn 2005, Autumn 2006, Autumn 2007.
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