Anglophone Verse Novels across the Globe - Einzelansicht

The modern international literary system is clearly marked, and to some extent impoversihed, by the unquestioned hegemony of the prose novel, which not only overshadows all other textual forms in the (world-)literary market but also consistently enjoys pride of place in literary criticism with its long tradition of foregrounding the novel at the expense of alternative modes and forms. As a result the space of world literature appears as a generic monoculture. Yet regardless of the critical overemphasis on the novel, a multitude of alternate forms proliferate, engendering an unacknowledged yet vital biodiversity. One of these alternate forms is the verse novel that has gained increasing popularity over the past two or three decades. As a ‘literary misfit’ it deviates from and to some extent unsettles the novel-centrist norm but it all the same has to operate within the literary field as it is: novel-centered. Verse novels therefore are not anti-novels but novels with a difference -- and that difference makes all the difference.

In our seminar we will read and discuss three of the most influential examples – Derek Walcott’s Omeros (1990), Bernardine Evaristo’s The Emperor’s Babe (2001), and Anne Carson’s Autobiography of Red (1998). In concert, these texts will not only take us across a wide range of settings from the postcolonial Caribbean (Walcott) via the Roman colony of Britannia (Evaristo) to Canada and the High Andes (Carson), but also give us a taste of the amazing formal diversity and volatility of the contemporary verse novel.

Moreover, students will in small groups prepare a poster presentation on one additional verse novel that they may choose freely or from a list of suggested texts. The last two meetings of the semester will be reserved for poster presentations.   

Please buy and read:

Derek Walcott, Omeros. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1990.

Bernardine Evaristo, The Emperor's Babe. London: Penguin, 2001.

Anne Carson: Autobiography of Red. New York: Vintage, 1998.

Additonal material will be made avaiable on Moodle.

3 CPs ungraded: regular attendance and poster presentation (with a short written feedback summary)