LITERARY DISSENTERS

Generally, consensus among a large group of people is seen as desirable for society – but what about the few who disagree? This year's lecture series will be all about dissenters: How are those individuals who oppose a majority opinion portrayed in literature? Are they brave heroes or grumbling malcontents – or even dangerous outsiders? How do they fare within the story, and how are they treated and presented by the text? How have content and communication of dissent changed over time (or not)? At what points have authors themselves opposed a dominant ideology, and what were the consequences?

Looking at dissenters in texts from very different geographical, temporal, and political contexts will also give us an opportunity to shed some light on the majority stance presented in those texts, as well as different approaches to society and community, the individual, values, and compromise (or lack thereof).

As always, this will be a joint venture featuring different members of the English Department in individual sessions. This means that you will benefit not only from expertise in different subsections of literary history, but also from different voices and points of view every week.

Half of the sessions will take place in person (Mondays from 6:15-7:45 p.m., lecture hall 14, Neue Uni), the other half will be distributed as podcasts asynchronously online -- please refer to the schedule below for details. If you wish to obtain credit points for this lecture, you will be asked to submit a response paper. Administrative details will be explained in due course.