23.05.25 – 18.07.2025, Fr 10 – 12 Uhr
Duncan White introduces his account of writers in the Cold War with a remarkable instance of the weaponization of literature: Between February and May 1955 a secret branch of the CIA launched ten-foot balloons carrying George Orwell’s Animal Farm (1945) from West Germany into Poland (White 2019: 1). As unexpected as this use of Orwell’s political fable may seem to twenty-first century readers, fiction in the period after the Second World War was of the utmost political importance. The course will cover some of the main British representatives, their fiction, and the public response to their writing and involvement in this global conflict. We will start with Orwell and work our way through a list featuring Arthur Koestler, Stephen Spender, Doris Lessing, Graham Greene, and John Le Carré, the famous exponent of the spy novel subgenre.
Given the late start of the seminar, participants will be required to read ahead. A list of the texts will be published by the end of February on this page.
This course is part of the summer lecture series “Survey of English Literatures” (BA EN Module 4). The final examination (Modulabschlussprüfung) is comprised of short-answer questions and an essay part with a choice of topics from this seminar. Students therefore need to attend the lecture this semester (or to have attended it in a previous semester) in order to take the MAP this semester.
List of fiction
Arthur Koestler, Darkness at Noon (1940)
George Orwell, Animal Farm (1945)
George Orwell, 1984 (1949)
Stephen Spender, Engaged in Writing (1958)*
Graham Greene, Our Man in Havana (1958)
Doris Lessing, The Golden Notebook (1962)
John Le Carré, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1963)
Muriel Spark, The Driver’s Seat (1970)
*The short story "Engaged in Writing" from this collection will be made accessible via Moodle at the beginning of the course. Please obtain all the other titles.
Please note: The session of 18.07.2025 has been cancelled. Alternative make-up dates will be discussed on the first session.
Die Veranstaltung wurde 1 mal im Vorlesungsverzeichnis SoSe 2025 gefunden:
