Novel Reflections: Self-Referential Poetics in/of Contemporary Fiction

This seminar is intended as an experiment: it assumes that (modern) literary texts always develop their own aesthetic programme – i.e. their poetics – self-reflexively and self-referentially. A work of literature, in other words, always signals how it constitutes meaning and how it wants to be read. In this seminar, we will put this hypothesis to the test by analyzing and discussing four contemporary novels from a broad range of genres. What kinds of narrative are even conceivable in the 21^st century? What are the limits of fiction? What can be represented literarily and what are the respective modes of representation? Seeking to answer these and similar questions, the seminar ultimately aims to achieve three goals: it shall introduce students to the heterogeneous field of the contemporary novel and its issues; it shall deepen their close-reading skills; last but not least, it shall introduce students to the analysis of narrative.