Reading Lists

Leseliste BA English Studies - Druckversion

Leseliste Nelk Allgemein – Druckversion

Die folgenden Leselisten wurden auf ausdrücklichen Wunsch zahlreicher Studierender erstellt. Sie dienen zur ersten Orientierung für Studierende des Schwerpunkts NELK und stellen keinen verbindlichen Kanon dar. Die hier aufgeführten Werke werden empfohlen, um erste Einblicke in die jeweiligen NELK-Teilbereiche zu gewinnen, und sind nicht regelmäßig Bestandteil des Lehrangebots der Abteilung NELK. Die Lehrveranstaltungen im Schwerpunkt NELK beziehen sich auf eine breite Auswahl literarischer Texte, literatur- und kulturwissenschaftlicher Sekundärliteratur sowie geschichts- und gesellschaftswissenschaftlicher Grundlagentexte. Studierenden wird im Hinblick auf Prüfungen deshalb ausdrücklich empfohlen, ihrer Prüfungsvorbereitung Literatur aus dem Kontext verschiedener Lehrveranstaltungen zugrunde zu legen, und sich keinesfalls auf die in den NELK-Leselisten genannten Texte zu beschränken. Prüfungen im Schwerpunkt NELK können auch ganz ohne Bezug auf die in den Leselisten genannten Werke abgelegt werden.

Zur einfacheren Orientierung wurden für 11 Bereiche Listen mit jeweils 10 Titeln zusammengestellt. Die Regionalbezeichnungen („India“, „Caribbean“ oder „West Africa“) stellen keine abschließende nationalliterarische „Verortung“ der dort genannten Werke dar und schließen jeweils den Bereich der transkulturellen und Diaspora-Literatur mit ein. Die ersten drei fett markierten Titel auf jeder Liste gehören zu den „Klassikern“ der Neuen Englischsprachigen Literaturen bzw. eignen sich besonders gut für den „Einstieg“ in den jeweiligen Bereich.

 

New Literatures /Postcolonial Studies: Literary and Cultural Theory

• Ulf Hannerz, Transnational Connections: Culture, People, Places (1996)
• John McLeod, Beginning Postcolonialism (2000)
• Salman Rushdie, Imaginary Homelands: Essays and Criticism 1981-1991 (1991)
• Chinua Achebe, Morning Yet on Creation Day: Essays (1975)
• Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths and Helen Tiffin, The Empire Writes Back: Theory and Practice in Post-Colonial Literatures (1989)
• Homi Bhabha, The Location of Culture (1994)
• Elleke Boehmer, Colonial and Postcolonial Literature: Migrant Metaphors (2005)
• James Clifford, The Predicament of Culture: Twentieth-Century Ethnography, Literature, and Art (1988)
• Graham Huggan, The Postcolonial Exotic: Marketing the Margins (2001)
• Edward Said, Culture and Imperialism (1993)

 

West Africa

• Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart (Roman, 1958)
• Buchi Emecheta, The Joys of Motherhood (Roman, 1979)
• Wole Soyinka, The Interpreters (Roman, 1965)
• Chris Abani, Graceland (Roman, 2004)
• Chinua Achebe, A Man of the People (Roman, 1966)
• Ayi Kwei Armah, the Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born (Roman, 1968)
• Wole Soyinka, A Dance of the Forests (Play, 1963)
• Ama Ata Aidoo, Changes: A Love Story (Roman, 1991)
• Christopher Okigbo, Labyrinths with Paths of Thunder (Gedichte, 1971)
• Ben Okri, The Famished Road (Roman, 1991)

 

East Africa

• Nuruddin Farah, Sardines (Roman, 1981)
• Ngugi wa Thiong’o (James Ngugi), A Grain of Wheat (Roman, 1967)
• Okot p’Bitek, Song of Lawino and Song of Ocol (Gedichte, 1966/1970)
• Nuruddin Farah, Maps (Roman, 1986)
• Marjorie Oludhe Macgoye, The Present Moment (Roman, 1987)
• Meja Mwangi, Going Down River Road (Roman)
• Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Petals of Blood (Roman, 1977)
• Grace Ogot, The Other Woman (Kurzgeschichten, 1976)
• Taban lo Liyong, The Uniformed Man (Kurzgeschichten, 1971)
• M.G. Vassanji, The Gunny Sack (Roman, 1989)

 

Southern Africa

• J.M. Coetzee, Disgrace (Roman, 1999)
• Tsitsi Dangarembga, Nervous Conditions (Roman, 1988)
• Nadine Gordimer, My Son’s Story (Roman, 1990)
• Athol Fugard, The Island (Play, 1973)
• Nadine Gordimer, A World of Strangers (Roman, 1958)
• Alex la Guma, A Walk in the Night (Kurzgeschichten, 1962)
• Bessie Head, A Question of Power (Roman, 1973)
• Dambudzo Marechera, The House of Hunger (Kurzgeschichten, 1978)
• Yvonne Vera, The Stone Virgins (Roman, 2002)
• Zoë Wicomb, David’s Story (Roman, 2000)

 

Caribbean

• Wilson Harris, Palace of the Peacock (Roman, 1960)
• V.S. Naipaul, A House for Mr. Biswas (Roman, 1961)
• Derek Walcott, Omeros (Gedicht, 1990)
• Edward Kamau Brathwaite, The Arrivants: A New World Trilogy (Gedichte, 1973)
• Michelle Cliff, No Telephone to Heaven (Roman, 1987)
• Jamaica Kincaid, A Small Place (Essay, 1988)
• George Lamming, In the Castle of My Skin (Roman, 1953)
• Earl Lovelace, The Dragon Can’t Dance (Roman, 1979)
• Jean Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea (Roman, 1966)
• Olive Senior, Summer Lightning and Other Stories (Kurzgeschichten, 1986)

 

India

• Raja Rao, Kanthapura (Roman, 1938)
• Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things (Roman, 1997)
• Salman Rushdie, Midnight’s Children (Roman, 1981)
• Mulk Raj Anand, Untouchable (Roman, 1935)
• Anita Desai, Fire on the Mountain (Roman, 1977)
• Shashi Deshpande, The Binding Vine (Roman, 1992)
• Amitav Ghosh, The Circle of Reason (Roman, 1986)
• R.K. Narayan, The Guide (Roman, 1958)
• Salman Rushdie, The Moor’s Last Sigh (Roman, 1995)
• Shashi Tharoor, The Great Indian Roman (Roman, 1989)

 

Pakistan/Sri Lanka/Singapore

• Romesh Gunesekera, Reef (Roman, 1994)
• Catherine Lim, Little Ironies: Stories of Singapore (Kurzgeschichten, 1978)
• Bapsi Sidhwa, Ice-Candy-Man (Roman, 1988)
• Yasmine Gooneratne, The Pleasures of Conquest (Roman, 1995)
• Zulfikar Gohse, Veronica and the Gongora Passion (Kurzgeschichten, 1998)
• Catherine Lim, The Bondmaid (Roman, 1995)
• Carl Muller, The Jam Fruit Tree (Roman, 1993)
• Michael Ondaatje, Anil’s Ghost (Roman, 2000)
• Chelva Selvadurai, Funny Boy: A Roman in Six Stories (Roman, 1994)
• Sara Suleri, Meatless Days (Roman, 1989)

 

Canada

• Margaret Atwood, Surfacing (Roman, 1972)
• Margaret Laurence, The Diviners (Roman, 1974)
• Tom King, Green Grass, Running Water (Roman, 1993)
• Ramabai Espinet, The Swinging Bridge (Roman, 2003)
• Timothy Findley, The Wars (Roman, 1977)
• Tomson Highway, The Rez Sisters (Play, 1988)
• Robert Kroetsch, Gone Indian (Roman, 1973)
• Hugh McLellan, Two Solitudes (Roman, 1945)
• Drew Hayden Taylor, AlterNatives (Play, 2000)
• M.G. Vassanji, No New Land (Roman, 1991)

 

Australia

• Peter Carey, Illywhacker (Roman, 1985)
• David Malouf, Dream Stuff (Kurzgeschichten, 2000)
• Sally Morgan, My Place (Autobiography, 1987)
• Henry Lawson, The Bush Undertaker and Other Stories (Kurzgeschichten, 1970)
• Brian Castro, Birds of Passage (Roman, 1983)
• Jack Davis, No Sugar (Play, 1986)
• Kate Grenville, The Idea of Perfection (Roman, 1999)
• Thomas Keneally, The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith (Roman, 1972)
• Mudrooroo, Wild Cat Falling (Roman, 1965)
• Patrick White, Voss (Roman, 1957)

 

New Zealand and Pacific Region

• Janet Frame, An Angel at My Table (Autobiography, 1984)
• Witi Ihimaera, The Uncle’s Story (Roman, 2000)
• Katherine Mansfield, The Garden Party, and Other Stories (Kurzgeschichten, 1922)
• Alan Curnow, Selected Poems 1940-1989 (Gedichte, 1990)
• Alan Duff, Once Were Warriors (Roman, 1991)
• Maurice Gee, Plumb (Roman, 1978)
• Keri Hulme, The Bone People (Roman, 1983)
• Frank Sargeson, The Stories of Frank Sargeson (Kurzgeschichten, 1973)
• Robert Sullivan, Star Waka (Gedichte, 1999)
• Albert Wendt, Leaves of the Banyan Tree (Roman, 1979)

 

Black and Asian British Literature

• Hanif Kureishi, The Buddha of Suburbia (Roman, 1990)
• Sam Selvon, The Lonely Londoners (Roman, 1956)
• Zadie Smith, White Teeth (Roman, 2000)
• Olaudah Equiano, The Interesting Narrative of the Life O. Equiano, or G. Vassa, the African, Written by Himself (Autobiography, 1789)
• Abdulrazak Gurnah, Paradise (Roman, 1994)
• Jackie Kay, Trumpet (Roman, 1998)
• Grace Nichols, The Fat Black Woman’s Poems (Gedichte, 1984)
• Caryl Phillips, Crossing the River (Roman, 1993)
• Salman Rushdie, The Satanic Verses (Roman, 1988)
• Meera Syal, Life Isn’t All Ha-Ha-Hee-Hee (Roman, 1999)

Readinglist BA English Studies

The following reading lists have been set up owing to sustained student demand. They have been designed to help students orientate themselves in the field of New Anglophone Literatures and Cultures (Neue Englischsprachige Literaturen und Kulturen – NELK) and do not constitute a mandatory canon. The selected texts are recommended in order to gain first insights into the different NELK areas and are not regularly taught in the NELK Department. Courses, seminars and lectures in the NELK Department draw upon a broad selection of primary literary texts, secondary texts from literary and cultural studies as well as historical and sociological background texts. With regard to exams, students are strongly advised to base their preparatory work for their exams on literature drawn from the context of various courses they attended, and not to restrict themselves to the texts listed in the NELK reading lists. It is possible to take your exam in NELK without any reference whatsoever to the texts listed in the reading lists.

To facilitate orientation 11 lists with 10 titles each have been put together for various areas of study. Regional designations such as “India”, “the Caribbean” or “West Africa” do not constitute a conclusive “location” of the listed titles in terms of national or regional literature and include transcultural and disaporic literature. The first three titles on each list in bold print are “classics” of the New Literatures in English or are particularly well suited for a first encounter with the respective area.

New Literatures /Postcolonial Studies: Literary and Cultural Theory

• Ulf Hannerz, Transnational Connections: Culture, People, Places (1996)
• John McLeod, Beginning Postcolonialism (2000)
• Salman Rushdie, Imaginary Homelands: Essays and Criticism 1981-1991 (1991)
• Chinua Achebe, Morning Yet on Creation Day: Essays (1975)
• Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths and Helen Tiffin, The Empire Writes Back: Theory and Practice in Post-Colonial Literatures (1989)
• Homi Bhabha, The Location of Culture (1994)
• Elleke Boehmer, Colonial and Postcolonial Literature: Migrant Metaphors (2005)
• James Clifford, The Predicament of Culture: Twentieth-Century Ethnography, Literature, and Art (1988)
• Graham Huggan, The Postcolonial Exotic: Marketing the Margins (2001)
• Edward Said, Culture and Imperialism (1993)

 

West Africa

• Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart (Novel, 1958)
• Buchi Emecheta, The Joys of Motherhood (Novel, 1979)
• Wole Soyinka, The Interpreters (Novel, 1965)
• Chris Abani, Graceland (Novel, 2004)
• Chinua Achebe, A Man of the People (Novel, 1966)
• Ayi Kwei Armah, the Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born (Novel, 1968)
• Wole Soyinka, A Dance of the Forests (Play, 1963)
• Ama Ata Aidoo, Changes: A Love Story (Novel, 1991)
• Christopher Okigbo, Labyrinths with Paths of Thunder (Poems, 1971)
• Ben Okri, The Famished Road (Novel, 1991)

East Africa

• Nuruddin Farah, Sardines (Novel, 1981)
• Ngugi wa Thiong’o (James Ngugi), A Grain of Wheat (Novel, 1967)
• Okot p’Bitek, Song of Lawino and Song of Ocol (Poems, 1966/1970)
• Nuruddin Farah, Maps (Novel, 1986)
• Marjorie Oludhe Macgoye, The Present Moment (Novel, 1987)
• Meja Mwangi, Going Down River Road (Novel)
• Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Petals of Blood (Novel, 1977)
• Grace Ogot, The Other Woman (Short Stories, 1976)
• Taban lo Liyong, The Uniformed Man (Short Stories, 1971)
• M.G. Vassanji, The Gunny Sack (Novel, 1989)

Southern Africa

• J.M. Coetzee, Disgrace (Novel, 1999)
• Tsitsi Dangarembga, Nervous Conditions (Novel, 1988)
• Nadine Gordimer, My Son’s Story (Novel, 1990)
• Athol Fugard, The Island (Play, 1973)
• Nadine Gordimer, A World of Strangers (Novel, 1958)
• Alex la Guma, A Walk in the Night (Short Stories, 1962)
• Bessie Head, A Question of Power (Novel, 1973)
• Dambudzo Marechera, The House of Hunger (Short Stories, 1978)
• Yvonne Vera, The Stone Virgins (Novel, 2002)
• Zoë Wicomb, David’s Story (Novel, 2000)

Caribbean

• Wilson Harris, Palace of the Peacock (Novel, 1960)
• V.S. Naipaul, A House for Mr. Biswas (Novel, 1961)
• Derek Walcott, Omeros (Poem, 1990)
• Edward Kamau Brathwaite, The Arrivants: A New World Trilogy (Poems, 1973)
• Michelle Cliff, No Telephone to Heaven (Novel, 1987)
• Jamaica Kincaid, A Small Place (Essay, 1988)
• George Lamming, In the Castle of My Skin (Novel, 1953)
• Earl Lovelace, The Dragon Can’t Dance (Novel, 1979)
• Jean Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea (Novel, 1966)
• Olive Senior, Summer Lightning and Other Stories (Short Stories, 1986)

India

• Raja Rao, Kanthapura (Novel, 1938)
• Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things (Novel, 1997)
• Salman Rushdie, Midnight’s Children (Novel, 1981)
• Mulk Raj Anand, Untouchable (Novel, 1935)
• Anita Desai, Fire on the Mountain (Novel, 1977)
• Shashi Deshpande, The Binding Vine (Novel, 1992)
• Amitav Ghosh, The Circle of Reason (Novel, 1986)
• R.K. Narayan, The Guide (Novel, 1958)
• Salman Rushdie, The Moor’s Last Sigh (Novel, 1995)
• Shashi Tharoor, The Great Indian Novel (Novel, 1989)

Pakistan/Sri Lanka/Singapore

• Romesh Gunesekera, Reef (Novel, 1994)
• Catherine Lim, Little Ironies: Stories of Singapore (Short Stories, 1978)
• Bapsi Sidhwa, Ice-Candy-Man (Novel, 1988)
• Yasmine Gooneratne, The Pleasures of Conquest (Novel, 1995)
• Zulfikar Gohse, Veronica and the Gongora Passion (Short Stories, 1998)
• Catherine Lim, The Bondmaid (Novel, 1995)
• Carl Muller, The Jam Fruit Tree (Novel, 1993)
• Michael Ondaatje, Anil’s Ghost (Novel, 2000)
• Chelva Selvadurai, Funny Boy: A Novel in Six Stories (Novel, 1994)
• Sara Suleri, Meatless Days (Novel, 1989)

Canada

• Margaret Atwood, Surfacing (Novel, 1972)
• Margaret Laurence, The Diviners (Novel, 1974)
• Tom King, Green Grass, Running Water (Novel, 1993)
• Ramabai Espinet, The Swinging Bridge (Novel, 2003)
• Timothy Findley, The Wars (Novel, 1977)
• Tomson Highway, The Rez Sisters (Play, 1988)
• Robert Kroetsch, Gone Indian (Novel, 1973)
• Hugh McLellan, Two Solitudes (Novel, 1945)
• Drew Hayden Taylor, AlterNatives (Play, 2000)
• M.G. Vassanji, No New Land (Novel, 1991)

Australia

• Peter Carey, Illywhacker (Novel, 1985)
• David Malouf, Dream Stuff (Short Stories, 2000)
• Sally Morgan, My Place (Autobiography, 1987)
• Henry Lawson, The Bush Undertaker and Other Stories (Short Stories, 1970)
• Brian Castro, Birds of Passage (Novel, 1983)
• Jack Davis, No Sugar (Play, 1986)
• Kate Grenville, The Idea of Perfection (Novel, 1999)
• Thomas Keneally, The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith (Novel, 1972)
• Mudrooroo, Wild Cat Falling (Novel, 1965)
• Patrick White, Voss (Novel, 1957)

New Zealand and Pacific Region

• Janet Frame, An Angel at My Table (Autobiography, 1984)
• Witi Ihimaera, The Uncle’s Story (Novel, 2000)
• Katherine Mansfield, The Garden Party, and Other Stories (Short Stories, 1922)
• Alan Curnow, Selected Poems 1940-1989 (Poems, 1990)
• Alan Duff, Once Were Warriors (Novel, 1991)
• Maurice Gee, Plumb (Novel, 1978)
• Keri Hulme, The Bone People (Novel, 1983)
• Frank Sargeson, The Stories of Frank Sargeson (Short Stories, 1973)
• Robert Sullivan, Star Waka (Poems, 1999)
• Albert Wendt, Leaves of the Banyan Tree (Novel, 1979)

Black and Asian British Literature

• Hanif Kureishi, The Buddha of Suburbia (Novel, 1990)
• Sam Selvon, The Lonely Londoners (Novel, 1956)
• Zadie Smith, White Teeth (Novel, 2000)
• Olaudah Equiano, The Interesting Narrative of the Life O. Equiano, or G. Vassa, the African, Written by Himself (Autobiography, 1789)
• Abdulrazak Gurnah, Paradise (Novel, 1994)
• Jackie Kay, Trumpet (Novel, 1998)
• Grace Nichols, The Fat Black Woman’s Poems (Poems, 1984)
• Caryl Phillips, Crossing the River (Novel, 1993)
• Salman Rushdie, The Satanic Verses (Novel, 1988)
• Meera Syal, Life Isn’t All Ha-Ha-Hee-Hee (Novel, 1999)