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Popular Classics: 'Obsessing' with Bridget Jones et al. Choose linkLinks Course Description   "HEALTH WARNING: Adopting Bridget's lifestyle could seriously damage your health!!!" Popular fiction has traditionally  been seen by conservative critics as offering addictive forms of "compensation" and "distraction"  (F.R. Leavis writing in the 1930s). Theorists of contemporary popular culture would contend that popular fiction is  a valid field for cultural analysis and that readers of popular fiction are far from being "unenlightened junkies" (D. Longhurst, 1989). Nevertheless, the overwhelming success of books like High Fidelity(1995) by Nick Hornby,Bridget Jones's Diary (1996) by Helen Fielding, and the Harry Potterbooks by J.K. Rowling beg a number of questions: what is the  appeal of such popular classics? why would we want to  read about young women and young men 'obsessing' about  questions of self-fashioning, diet, and relationships?  why are we fascinated by their difficulties in relating to what the Zeitgeist demands? what are the literary terms and genres in which these contemporary quests  are couched? hat are the motives and mechanisms behind  the transfer of such popular classics into other genres/other media (audio-books, films, merchandising)? Required Reading: Texts are available in inexpensive  paperback editions: Nick Hornby, High Fidelity (London: Penguin, 2000) Helen Fielding, Bridget  Jones's Diary (London: Picador, 1996) J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets: Adult Edition (London: Bloomsbury, 1999). Prerequisites: "Zwischenprüfung" Requirements for Credit: regular attendance, oral presentation, and term paper Registration: To register, please send an e-mail  to werner.huber@phil.tu-chemnitz.de before 15 September, stating your name, semester standing, and subjects. Links:   Link   Description   Rating   Posted by               General Links                       PopMatters     Collection of the latest events in pop culture: books,  music, films...   Content: 4 Layout: 3 Speed: 4   P               Nick Hornby, High Fidelity                       Nick Hornby     Official Penguin Books offering a profile of Hornby, an interview, and reviews.   Content: 4 Layout: 4 Speed: 4   P               Guardian Unlimited Books     The  Guardian's collection of articles on Hornby.   Content: 4 Layout: 3 Speed: 4   P               High Fidelity     The  BFI's review of the film.   Content: 4 Layout: 3 Speed: 4   P               High Fidelity (2000)     Review of the film.   Content: 3 Layout: 3 Speed: 4   P               Salon: Litchat with Nick Hornby     Interview.   Content: 3 Layout: 2 Speed: 4   P               Helen Fielding, Bridget Jones’s Diary                                     Bridget Jones's Diary     Penguin's  page including some study guidelines.   Content: 4 Layout: 3 Speed: 4   P               Bridget Jones's Diary     The  BFI's review of the film.   Content: 4 Layout: 3 Speed: 4   P               CNN.com     Lengthy  interview with Fielding.   Content: 4 Layout: 3 Speed: 4   P               Why I love Bridget Jones.     Two-page article on the novel.   Content: 3 Layout: 3 Speed: 4   P               J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets: Adult Edition                   Harry Potter     Nice site offering introductions to the books  as well as a glossary and a pronunciation  guide.   Content: 4 Layout: 4 Speed: 4   P               Harry Potter - Fakten und Rekorde     Aiming at almost encyclopaedic completeness.   Content: 4 Layout: 4 Speed: 4   P               Harry Potter Teaching Resources     Harry Potter as a school subject.   Content: 4 Layout: 3 Speed: 4   P               Guardian Unlimited Film     The  Guardian's directory of news and information  on Harry Potter.   Content: 4 Layout: 3 Speed: 4   P               The unofficial Harry Potter Fan Club     Containing information on the books (up to the forthcoming number 7), the film, an encyclopaedia, and  miscellaneous.   Content: 3 Layout: 3 Speed: 4   P               MuggleNet     Another  source for the latest news etc.   Content: 3 Layout: 3 Speed: 4   P               Harry Potter & the Bible     Quasi-scholarly  book on the fashionable theme of occultism in the Potter books.   Content: 3 Layout: 3 Speed: 4   P               Harry Potter Website     Links  to all the different world-wide publishers of Harry Potter.   Content: 3 Layout: 2 Speed: 4   P

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