Proseminar / Hauptseminar der Samuel Fischer-Gastprofessur

Scott Bradfield

Literature and Crap in American Pop Culture -
What We Like To Read and What We're Supposed To

As academics, writers, and just-plain-readers, we develop (often needlessly) complicated relationships to books. We don't always like the books we're supposed to; we often like the books we're not supposed to; and we may even find that the books we teach and extol (in poorly-attended seminars and literary quarterlies) aren't neccessarily the ones that matter to us. Contemporary criticism provides us little help in examining this dillemma.

In order to discuss these very general issues, we will read three sets of books:

• Books we're supposed to like: Gaddis, Pynchon, Morrison, etc.
• Books we're not supposed to like: Himes, Krantz, sci-fi, etc.
• And books that I, for reasons that may be purely idiosyncratic and personal, love: Yates, Moore, Beckett.

We won't come to any final decision about the meaning of books. Instead, we will argue. We will emote. We will, most importantly, READ.

Zeitplan:

1)  Donnerstag, 11. Januar, 10-12	2)  Montag, 15. Januar, 12-14
3)  Donnerstag, 18. Januar, 10-12	4)  Montag, 22. Januar, 12-14
5)  Donnerstag, 25. Januar, 10-12	6)  Montag, 29. Januar, 12-14
7)  Donnerstag,  1. Februar, 10-12	8)  Montag,  5. Februar, 12-14
9)  Donnerstag,  8. Februar, 10-12	10)  Montag, 12. Februar, 12-14
11)  Donnerstag, 15. Februar, 10-12

Programm:

• Gaddis: Jr.
• Thomas Pynchon: Vineland.
• Thomas Pynchon: The crying of lot 49.
• Chester Himes: A rage in Harlem.
• Thomas M. Disch: Camp concentration.
• Judith Krantz: Princess daisy.
• Yates: Revolutionary road.
• Lurie: The last resort.
• Brian Moore: The Statement.
• Beckett: Three novels.
• Lofting: Dr Dolittle's zoo.