European Literature

AY2014/2015 Semester 1

This course explores two important traditions of European literature through a selection of works that span the continent from north (Norway) to south (Italy) and east (Russia) to west (Germany, France and Portugal). All texts of course will be read in English translation.The first tradition we shall look at is the Fantastic, which might be described as continental Europe?s counterpart to Gothic literature. The German Romantic Fantastic is illustrated by two of E. T. A. Hoffmann?s bizarre and disturbing `modern fairy tales?, and the Russian genius for this genre, by Bulgakov?s equally zany masterpiece in which the Devil arrives in Stalinist Moscow accompanied, amongst others, by a very mischievous cat ...Our second topic is the lucidity with which early Modernist continental European writers explore the translation of vivid personal experience into literature. A selection of Baudelaire?s poems illustrates the origins of European Modernism. Hamsun?s short but powerful Hunger illustrates the birth of the modern novel. And we shall conclude with a selection of short texts by Fernando Pessoa, one of the most extraordinary, but also one of most accessible poets of the twentieth century.