Barry Lyndon: 19th-Century Perspectives on Colonial Ireland
William Makepeace Thackeray's historical novel The Luck of Barry Lyndon,
which appeared in serialized form in Fraser’s Magazine from January to
December 1844, is a compelling narrative. It invites us to experience
the impact of the Seven Years‘ War on European culture in general and on
individual lives affected by it in particular. The picaresque hero
Redmond Barry, who has to leave Ireland, joins the British Army, is then
impressed into the Prussian Army, acts as a spy in continental Europe,
cheats at cards at European spas, makes a fortune through marriage, wins
a seat in Parliament, raises a platoon to fight in the American War of
Independence, ends up in prison and finally dies in poverty. Thackeray’s
text explores the events of the eighteenth century with a sense of
bewilderment and irony but the narrative also raises fundamental ethical
and social issues.
In
this BA seminar we will analyse the textual strategies employed by
Thackeray to raise empathy for the picaresque hero while also keeping a
level of ironic distance. Methodology for the analysis of the historical
novel, in particular with respect to narratology and genre theory, will
be discussed in depth. When signing up for this course you must be
prepared to read the novel carefully, re-reading sections for our weekly
conversations, and you must also be prepared to re-visit theoretical
approaches and methodological tools discussed in the Introductory
Course.
Please
purchase a hard copy (no digital texts, no e-books) of the following
edition (only this edition will do!) before the beginning of term.
William Makepeace Thackeray. Barry Lyndon. [Oxford World's Classics]. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009. ISBN: 9780199537464 [cost: appr. 14 Euros]
- Dozent/in: Felix Sprang