Información del curso

This course introduces the concept of taboo, as well as the themes and topics considered taboo in different eras, and links it to specific literary genres, historical and cultural contexts and the effects and functions of transgression and/of taboo in literary texts.

The seminar aims at facilitating an understanding of the concept of taboo (which is more than simply a forbidden topic or action) and of the forms and styles authors used to transgress boundary lines of social norms in veiled or open attempts to break taboos. Students will further learn how taboos were marked out and how boundary lines were increasingly transgressed in the productive time of the British Fin-de-Siècle and Modernism. In this regard, this course explores the socio-cultural and literary effects and functions of transgressions in British literature. It will introduce students to the idea that taboo and transgression are part of literary history: taboos do not only surface in thematic concerns (such as sexuality, death, the materiality of the body, religion, conceptions of childhood and motherhood, mental health etc.) but also belong to a range of genres and modes of writing, not only being part of literature but also engendering transition and innovation. Taboos and transgression are regarded as aspects which facilitate an understanding of the development and production of literature. This seminar will hence not only focus on topics but also on the aesthetics of taboo-breaking literature in terms of form and style.

This course focuses on British literature from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth century, and thus on texts which reflect and were written in periods of change and transition. These decades were characterized by a tension between continuing taboos and movements towards greater freedom (e.g. sexual freedom) and social progress. The course hence explores how and to what extent transition is linked to transgression and it aims at analysing transgression in well-known, often canonical texts with a view to their respective socio-cultural contexts. Hence, it employs a literary studies approach with partially includes cultural studies concepts. The fact that the authors of many of the literary texts which engaged in the breaking of taboos (e.g. Oscar Wilde and Radclyffe Hall) suffered from (the threat of) censorship and had to face trials also needs to be taken into account. Apparently, the transgressiveness of such texts did not hinder them from becoming important and even formative elements of literary history. Linked to this observation, this seminar explores what genres and modes of writing were used to deal with taboos in a ‘safe’ manner to circumvent censorship (e.g. fantastic literature, satire, comedy).