06: Images of Europe

The seminar is intended to make participants aware of the complex processes of stereotyping national charac-ters in literary texts and of the significant role of litera-ture in the genesis and dissemination of images and self-images of nations, national cultures, and continents – Europe in particular. That topic will be illustrated and examined through the analysis of (excerpts from) books of travel and fiction in which such images are promi-nently used, and various film versions of “international novels” in which encounters between representatives of Europe and other cultures figure prominently.
A reading list and a list of films as well as a reader con-taining significant excerpts will be provided. Participants are encouraged to prepare themselves by advance read-ing for the seminar, which will offer both a historical survey of the development and historical variability of collective images, as well as an analysis of twentieth-century examples.

READING LIST:

Henry James, “Daisy Miller”, Penguin Classics Edition

Thomas Mann, “Tonio Kröger”, can to be find in Vintage Classics Paperback “Death in Venice and other Stories”

Graham Greene, “The Third Man”, Vintage Classics Paperback Edition