Englisches Seminar - Ruhr-Universität Bochum

Ben Okri. The Famished Road. London: Vintage, 1991.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Purple Hibiscus. New York, Anchor, 2004.
Participants are encouraged to give presentations on selected topics.
Credits are obtained by writing either the test or a term paper.
The course will be held in English
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Reading Poetry, 3 CP
2 st. mo 10-12 GABF 04/614 Süd
(vgl. Vorl.-Nr. 050 686)
This course is intended to offer intensive practice in text analysis, above all in the
organization and production of essays based on the interpretations. The poems
selected for discussion are representative of major periods and genres (sonnet, ode,
elegy etc.) in British and American poetry. Participants will be given numerous
opportunities to submit essays for correction.
050 689 Wynands
Samuel Beckett, 3 CP
2 st. mo 16-18 GB 6/137 Nord
This course gives students the opportunity to study in depth one of the most exciting
and challenging artists of the 20th century: Samuel Beckett, who is widely held to be
an excessively bleak writer indulging in stark images of human misery. If this is what
you think, think again: Beckett’s texts also contain some of the funniest writing in the
history of literature. His friends remember him as an exceptionally warm and
generous person. Indeed, for better or worse, the word “saint” has been mentioned in
close connection with Beckett’s name.
We will read some of his major works of prose, drama and criticism and some of
his major critics: Hugh Kenner, Martin Esslin and even Theodor Adorno have all
written about Beckett. These are substantial thinkers in their own right. Beckett thinks
about fundamental questions and attracts critics who share his concerns. Therefore
we will sometimes engage with philosophical texts, mostly from the
phenomenological tradition, which will help us put Beckett’s work into perspective.