Chemnitz University of Technology

Anglistische Literaturwissenschaft/

English Literature(s)

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English Literature(s)     SS 04     Crime and the City

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Crime and the City: Daniel Defoe, Moll Flanders

Course Description

London � England�s great metropolis, centre of government, and standard of taste and refinement, was not only a city of commercial wealth and aristocratic glitter; it also exhibited various manifestations of misery, poverty, and crime. Daniel Defoe had, in fact, himself experienced the shame attending an insolvent debtor � and hence tried to communicate the city�s darker side to the world. Moll Flanders shows the descent of a woman from prize beauty to prostitute to thief, narrated by herself as one of society�s victims. In this course, we shall, on the basis of an explorative foray into the late seventeenth-century London underworld, discuss Defoe�s novel and his attempt to represent the London life of the not-so-fortunate � from a woman�s point of view.

Required reading:

  • Daniel Defoe (1989). The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders, ed. David Blewett. Harmondsworth: Penguin (or latest edition).
  • Students are expected to have read the book before the start of the summer semester.

Prerequisites:

  • Earning a course credit in this Proseminar presupposes that students have already taken the lecture course "Introduction to the Study of Literature" and that they attend the seminar on a regular basis. Apart from writing a term paper of between 10 and 12 pages, students will be asked to give a short presentation on a specified topic.

Registration:

  • To register, students are to send an e-mail to Dr. Baltes by 15 March, stating their name, semester standing and subjects. Participation is limited to 25 students.

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Last Update: January 2006