Gerne wollen wir von der Anglistik aus auf ein Online-Lehrangebot im November hinweisen, das vielleicht Mitglieder der Graduiertenschule als Gasthörer*in interessiert:

Professor Judith A. Thompson
(Dalhousie University, Canada)

„Masterclass: Adopting Revolution“
(19-21 November, 2021)
UnivIS-Eintrag

Interessent*innen mögen sich bitte bei Christoph Houswitschka und der Studierenden Elizaveta Kerimova, die Judith Thompson unterstützt, formlos melden.

Zur Master-Class

This seminar plunges us into revolutionary romantic era through the work of its leading activist, “Citizen John” Thelwall, radical orator and writer, voice of the people, pioneer of free speech and a linchpin figure who unites literature and politics, “the worlds of Wordsworth and Coleridge, and the Spitalfields weavers” (E.P. Thompson).

We will enter this diverse and dynamic era through Thelwall’s 1801 novel The Daughter of Adoption. This witty, multitextured and accessible adventure captures ideas of its own time that remain compelling, even urgent, in ours, including human rights, feminism, capitalist imperialism, abolitionism and the Black Atlantic, education, colonial medicine, and the techniques and traditions of the “romance” novel (bildungsroman, gothic, sentimental, jacobin) that Thelwall adopts and adapts for political purposes. Students will explore these and other themes and contexts through individual presentations, to which the whole class (including the professor) will respond in animated online synchronous discussion.

The final paper growing out of your presentation offers an opportunity to do truly pioneering work in a relatively new and rapidly growing field. You will be expected to read what specific criticism there is on the novel, and Thelwall’s polymathic work, but also to insert Thelwall into the history of romantic studies from which he has been missing until recently, and to bring your own diverse perspectives and experiences to bear on the novel. Although your professor, Judith Thompson, is the world’s leading expert on Thelwall, and one of the editors of The Daughter of Adoption, she is still surprised and delighted by her students’ original insights; just last month, an MA student drew attention to something she had completely missed in multiple readings of the novel, and like Thelwall, she looks forward to hearing everyone’s voice.

Empfohlene Literatur / Obligatory reading:
John Thelwall. The Daughter of Adoption. A Tale of Modern Times. 1801. Edited by Michael Scrivener, Yasmin Solomonescu, Judith Thompson. Broadview Press, 2013.