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The purpose of this unique discussion-based course is twofold: One, it provides you with regular practice in the skill of translating cultural texts from German into English, thus activating and improving your command and understanding of the English language and culture; and two, it introduces you to, and enables you to discuss novels by six outstanding, sometimes neglected writers.
Were a mastery of English grammar and lexis the key to understanding, the computer would be king, while the world of English literature, a world of emotions: humour, sadness, passion, striving, seeking and finding, would be reduced to an academic, esoteric luxury.
In the same vein, literary translation, so much more than a mechanical exercise, is, above all, a question of interpretation, appropriate register, correct degree of formality, and perhaps the most difficult thing of all, the appropriate use of English idiom. Were this not so, a dictionary would suffice.
The English translation and literature course gives us the opportunity both to discuss and translate, into English, cultural texts; and read and discuss novels and short stories by 20th and 21st Century writers. Each academic year, the course has a different literary theme.
This year’s course of English literature explores the two decades after the First World War, the 1920s and 1930s, an era characterised by domesticity, where one’s home was one’s castle and one’s own small garden was superior to any foreign field. The five novels, plus a collection of short stories chosen for this course of reading and discussion are published by Persephone Books - unique in that it reprints neglected fiction and non-fiction, mostly be women writers and mostly dating from the mid-twentieth century.
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"The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there." This quote from L.P. Hartley's "The Go-Between" captures the essence of a bygone era, highlighting its uniqueness. It specifically reflects the Edwardian period, the final era in British history named after a monarch. Spanning just over a decade from the early 20th Century, it began after Queen Victoria's reign. This leisurely time featured women with large hats but no voting rights, alongside the sprawling British Empire. Edward VII contrasted sharply with his morally strict mother, Queen Victoria, embracing luxury. The era ended dramatically with the cataclysm of The Great War.
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English literature course 2021/22
During the academic year 2021/2022, the central topic of the course revolved around "English Romantic Fiction of the 20th Century." Within this curriculum, the collection of novels and short stories depicted tales about the human experience and the various genuine reactions that arise from it. These narratives were deep, poignant, open-minded, and often infused with humor. The voices that resonated were emblematic of humanism – individuals who, in the words of E.M. Forster from the Edwardian era, wholeheartedly embraced human principles while maintaining a sense of lightness about themselves.