Unreliable Narration (050715-SS 2024)

M.A./M.Ed. Seminar: Unreliable Narration, B. Niederhoff (Summer Semester 2024)

E-mail: burkhard.niederhoff@rub.de; office hours: Tue 4-5:30 pm (make appointment with H. Sicking); secretary: H. Sicking: hildegard.sicking@rub.de, 0234 32-28051; office hours: Tue & Thu 8 am-1 pm

Required texts: Kazuo Ishiguro. The Remains of the Day. Faber & Faber, 1999, ISBN: 9780571200733; Henry James. The Turn of the Screw and Other Stories. Edited by T. J. Lustig, Oxford UP, 2008, ISBN: 9780199536177. Other texts will be provided in Moodle.

Goals:  by the end of the course, students should

- have improved their skills in analysing fiction

- have improved their skills in detecting and analysing unreliable narrators

- be familiar with the theoretical problems in analysing unreliable narration

- have improved their skills in academic writing

Preliminary Schedule

Rules and Requirements

In order to pass the course, you have to

- read the assigned texts and prepare for class, based on the focus for the session (see above);

- contribute to class discussion (after group or partner work, everyone should be prepared to present the results);

- attend class (if you miss more than two classes without a valid reason, you will not be able to obtain credit; valid reasons should be communicated by e-mail as soon as possible);

- complete the writing requirements (see below).

Your final grade will be based primarily on your written work. If your participation in class is significantly better than your written work, I will take it into consideration and raise your grade. However, if your written work does not amount to a pass, your participation in class will not help you.

General Points about All Written Work

Support: Have a look at my website under “Student Papers” (common mistakes, grading criteria, marking key, building blocks: introductions …). If you experience difficulties when writing papers, you should talk to me and / or seek assistance at the writing centre.

Academic style: Refer to the “Academic Style Sheet” on the departmental website.

Plagiarism: If you steal somebody else’s words or ideas, you will not pass the course. Do not forget to attach the “Declaration of Authenticity”.

Penalty for late work: A third of a grade for each weekday that it is late (a 3 that is one day late will become a 3,3). If you hand in your assignment or paper after the deadline, make sure that one of the departmental secretaries writes the date on it.

AI: If you use AI, you have to document it, following the faculty guidelines on AI (provided in Moodle). I strongly advise against using AI to generate content (and will explain why in person).

Writing Assignments (Requirement for Übung, 3 CP)

To obtain 3 CP, you have to complete the assignments by the deadline as indicated in the schedule given above. In the assignments, no title page or contents pages is required. Put your name, the course title and the name of the teacher at the top of the first page. However, you need to include a declaration of authenticity and a bibliography (as a rule, this will have only one item in it, the text you are writing about).

Research Paper (Additional Requirement for Seminar, 5 CP)

For seminar credit (5 CP), you will have to complete the writing assignments required for the Übung and write an additional research paper.

Content and purpose: In the paper, you will do independent research and analysis, taking into consideration articles and books on your topic. Thus you will practise the skills required in the M.A. / M.Ed. thesis.

Length: approximately 3000 words. Add a word count at the end. This includes everything except for the declaration of authenticity.

Deadline: Tue, 1 Oct, 12 noon. Hand in a printout at my office, Frau Sicking’s office or the departmental office (exceptions can be negotiated).

Rewriting option: If you hand in or send in the paper by Tue, 6 Aug, 12 noon, you will have a chance to revise it. If you revise, hand in the first version along with the new one. The final deadline for all papers, including revised versions, is Tue, 1 Oct, 12 noon. Apart from the option of rewriting the entire paper, there is also the possibility of sending me the introduction after 6 Aug to obtain feedback. 

Criticism and theory: You should take into consideration at least three publications that are relevant to your topic. However, do not follow other critics’ arguments slavishly. I would like to see your own thoughts.

Topic: You should write about unreliable narration in a text that we have not discussed in class. Here are some suggestions: Jonathan Swift, Gulliver’s Travels (1726); Tobias Smollett, Humphry Clinker (1771); Maria Edgeworth, “Castle Rackrent” (1800); James Hogg, The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner (1824); Edgar Allan Poe, “The Fall of the House of Usher” (1839); Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884); Robert Louis Stevenson, The Master of Ballantrae (1889); Robert Louis Stevenson, “The Beach of Falesá” (1892); Ford Madox Ford, The Good Soldier (1915); Kazuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go (2005). If you write about unreliability in one of these texts, you can go ahead without consulting me. If you want to pick a different text, please clear this with me.