Theorie des Erzählens

This course approaches the history of narrative theory from the German perspective: we will read canonical and foundational texts that have shaped the way we read and study narrative - from the usual suspects (Gerard Genette, Yuri Lotman, Tzvetan Todorov, Algirdas Julien Greimas) to the (here) lesser known German theorists of narrative forms and literary theory (Frank K. Stanzel, Käte Hamburger, Monika Fludernik, Siegfried J. Schmidt). Alongside these theoretical approaches, we will read two German novels, which we'll use as experimental playground to better test and understand how and why literary theory can help us construct models of reading, world-making, human experience, and storytelling. Towards the end of the course, we'll switch to the open questions and future of narrative theory: what media of long-form storytelling come after the novel? What do they have in common with, say, the novels of J.W. Goethe, Adalbert Stifter, Lou Andreas-Salomé, or Ingeborg Bachmann? How would we expand narrative theory to include today's most important and engaging sites of storytelling (like video games or serial television)? Taught in German.