Welcome, Students.

Prof. Austenfeld's Classes and Other Teaching Material

Spring 2025

Lecture	Lecture: Self-deception and Self-renewal in American Literature The American literary canon is rich in texts of dreams and ambition. Failed dreams and thwarted ambitions often are the outcome, and personal failures call into question the American project at large. But there are also periodic efforts at self-renewal, hope, or wholesale destruction and a fresh start. We will trace the varieties and the persistence of these tropes in their social and political ramifications in the Spring 2025 lecture, as we read texts that are rarely grouped together yet prove enlightening when considered as enduring documents of self-deception and self-renewal. Key texts will be provided on MOODLE, among them -Nathaniel Hawthorne, "Rappaccini's Daughter" -Herman Melville, Benito Cereno -Dorothy Johnson, "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" -Shirley Jackson, "The Lottery" -Toni Morrison, "Recitatif" Please purchase (at Librophoros) a print copy of -Richard Yates, Revolutionary Road Full syllabus available on MOODLE at start of term Tuesdays 10-12h 3115
Proseminar	Proseminar: Louise Erdrich Louise Erdrich (born 1954), the leading Native American novelist of her generation, has created a fictional universe unrivalled in complexity—and in approachability. After a brief introductory look at her poetry—to familiarize ourselves with her themes and style—this proseminar will be devoted to studying three of Erdrich's novels in thematic, cultural, and narrative terms. In class discussion and through student presentations, we will seek to understand Erdrich's perspectives on the complex relationships between Indigenous nations and white settlers, native spirituality and Catholicism, as well as traditional marriages and tribal unions. Erdrich has developed her own characteristic narrative style which gestures towards both traditional and magical realism and occasionally is downright zany. Reading Erdrich is thus both a challenge and an opportunity for aesthetic pleasure. Poems will be provided. Novels (picked from all phases of her long creativity): The Bingo Palace (1994) The Round House (2012) The Mighty Red (2024) Full syllabus available on MOODLE at start of term Mondays 13-15h 2120
MA-Seminar	Seminar: One Novel, One Poem, One Play The title of this class reveals that we will study—or review—the key features of three fundamental literary genres and watch these features at work in three texts of extraordinary quality within their respective genre. For this, my last and final seminar at UNIFR, I have permitted myself to pick texts that are among my personal favorites but that remain, in all likelihood, unknown among the current student generation. To place them into the discourse of genre, we will take an intermittent look at some genre theorists from Heather Dubrow and Northrop Frye to Terry Eagleton. Theory essays will be provided. Texts: Jean Stafford, The Mountain Lion (1947) Margaret Edson, W;t (also titled Wit) (1995) Robert Hayden, "Middle Passage" (1945/1962) Full syllabus available on MOODLE at start of term Tuesdays, 17-19h 3014

Office coordinates

Office: Miséricorde  

Office hours (during semester): Mondays 15-16h

Office Tel.: (+41) 26 300 79 04

Thomas.Austenfeld@unifr.ch

American Literature

team members

Chargée de cours / assistante diplomée	Corin Kraft corin.kraft@unifr.ch
Sous-assistant	Lou Odermatt lou.odermatt@unifr.ch
Guest scholar	Lina Serir

Practical hints

· Protocol for the timely completion of a BA or MA thesis (Version: 2024)

· For updated MLA Stylesheet instructions, please check out the wonderful resources at OWL, the Purdue University Online Writing Lab (and give them credit if you use them!): http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/

· Reading List for "Oral Exam" option in the Capstone Experience Module, B.A. in American Literature (Page under repair: contact Professor A. for details)

· Additional information and submission form for MA thesis from the Dean's office

This page last modified February 3, 2025

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