COMMUNITY AND ISOLATION

This brief initial talk will introduce you to the lecture series and some ideas behind the theme and the format. It also offers a brief glimpse into some of the texts which will very likely recur throughout the semester. This is the only episode not recorded as an interview.

Being snowed in is a recurring theme in US-American literature, and while it causes physical isolation, it can also create a sense of community. PD Dr. Margit Peterfy elaborates on John Greenleaf Whittier's long poem Snow-Bound: A Winter Idyll, and we discuss a few counterexamples to this romantic take on weather-induced isolation.

Can a sense of community and belonging emerge from isolating yourself in nature? What forms of community can exist between humans and trees – and among trees? We discuss these and other questions in the context of Richard Powers' novel The Overstory, which explores the impact nature has on humanity (and vice versa), the relationships of people to trees and to each other, environmental activism, and ultimately the very different time scales on which human lifespans and those of trees unfold.

How have people narrated pandemics in other time periods, and how is that in itself a social act? We turn to the eighteenth century as Tim Sommer explains the historical contexts in and about which pandemic narratives have been written in the past. The core example in this episode is Daniel Defoe's Journal of the Plague Year (1722), though we also briefly touch upon Charles Brockden Brown's Arthur Mervyn (1799).

There is an intimate albeit problematic link between American democracy with its ideals of equality and individualism on the one hand and the recurrence of solitary protagonists in American literature on the other. That at any rate is a hypothesis first suggested by Alexis de Tocqueville in his classic De la démocratie en Amérique (1835/40). Writing in the 1830s, the decade that accelerated the leveling as well as the aggressive features of American society and politics under the auspices of Jacksonianism (named after President Andrew Jackson), Tocqueville analyzed the dynamics of self-assertion (individualism) and self-isolation inherent in democratic (as opposed to aristocratic) societies. With uncannily prophetic insight, he predicted that the central theme of the literature to emerge in the U.S. would be the solitary self, in contrast to the focus on social relationships prevalent in European literature. We will discuss the implications of Tocqueville's hypothesis, offer a survey of major examples from nineteenth-century fiction and nonfiction prose, with particular emphasis on Henry David Thoreau, to conclude with a brief look at later developments all the way down to Donald Trump.

The eighteenth century saw an outbreak of yellow fever in the young American Republic. Through a close look at Charles Brockden Brown's 1799 novel Arthur Mervyn, we examine the historical context of this epidemic and discuss communities and solidarity which emerge in a time of crisis on the one hand, and the break-up of communities (familial and governmental), marginalisation, and individual (voluntary) isolation on the other. The Early American Republic was still in the process of establishing itself, which allowed intellectuals and writers -- political and literary -- to explore matters such as the potential of organising communities with or without a government and hierarchies, which we also touch upon in this episode.

An individual's self-realisation can often be at odds with society's norms and expectations, growing up as well as later in life. The protagonist of Charlotte Brontë's 1847 novel Jane Eyre is known for her emphatic refusal to submit to social norms, particularly to a patriarchal rule. Dr. Corinna Assmann approaches Jane's anger as a response to oppression and the isolating but also transformative consequences this can have, and we discuss the tension between the desire for independence and the longing for community, as well as the potential of female communities especially in a time when the options for expression and self-realisation were limited for women.

In sagas and similar tales, monsters are often fought by solitary heroes who are set apart from their communities by their strength, their deeds, and their general otherness. This isolation can take different forms though, some more positive than others. Martina Marzullo gives an introduction to Grettir's Saga and Beowulf and the very different fates of the respective heroes, and we discuss the harshness of nature, the importance of communities, and the verdict of outlawry and exile in the context of these sagas and Anglo-Saxon poetry.

Feeling lonely and misunderstood are emotions which are not exclusive to adolescence, but which can and do permeate society in a much broader way. Dr Heiko Jakubzik explores the social criticism which is expressed in J.D. Salinger's 1951 novel The Catcher in the Rye through alienating effects between individual and community exacerbated by consumer culture. We discuss Holden Caulfield's loneliness and his inability to connect with the people around him, the community between narrator and reader, what it might mean to be 'phony', and in how far it is possible to have an authentic self and still be part of society.

Is stability always a good thing? Who benefits from a community without intersubjective connection? We take a closer look at Aldous Huxley's 1932 novel Brave New World and, particularly through its historical context, examine some of the novel's many ambiguities. By exploring the dehumanising ideas behind and effects of efficiency, productivity, and consumerism, we discuss the implications of a society which nominally foregrounds community and yet advocates inward-directed, solitary, solipsistic activities and attitudes while ensuring that no subjective consciousness can develop.

The abandoned castle on top of a hill; a stranger stepping out of the mist; a solitary figure wandering vast landscapes: the Gothic is almost unthinkable without the motif of isolation. Dr Christian Schneider gives an introduction to the Gothic in general -- from its historic roots to contemporary variations -- and we discuss physical isolation, the ambiguities of connection and community in the Gothic, and transgressing the established rules of society, using examples ranging from Matthew Lewis' The Monk to Stephen King's Shining and the Alien franchise.

Throughout its decades-long run in various incarnations, characters who are torn between different aspects of themselves have always been a concern of the television series Star Trek. Carolyn Burlingame-Goff uses Spock, one of the central characters of the original series, as an example and gives an overview over different forms of hybridity, historical precursors to the problems these characters face, and how individual characters in Star Trek adapt to or struggle with their multi-faceted identities and the alienation that often comes with their hybrid self.