10334 The Fictional World: Mimesis or Artifice 1

Credits: 6 advanced credits in Comparative Literature

Prerequisites: 36 credits, including two of the following: Selected Hebrew Short Stories: Early Twentieth Century, Hero and Anti-Hero in the Modern Novel, Amos Oz and A. B. Yehoshua: Early Writings, Basic Conventions of the 19th Century Novel, Fiction and Reality: Genres in the Israeli Short Story, Israeli Fiction in the Eighties. Students must also fulfill all English requirements and take bibliographic instruction in the Library.

Author: Hanna Herzig

The course focuses on the duality of the fictional world in the literary work: this world is an artistic object, structured according to artistic principles, but it also draws its patterns from reality. Two works, Austen’s Emma and Fielding’s The History of Tom Jones serve to exemplify this duality. Selected chapters from Aristotle’s Poetics and two articles by the Russian formalist, Viktor Shklovski, present the theoretical aspects of this duality.

By reading articles that deal with literary theory, the course enables students to experience the theoretical aspect of literature, as well as to engage in abstract thinking.

Topics: Foundations of the theory; Different positions regarding the status of the fictional world in the literary text – Emma and Tom Jones; Aristotle’s approach to literature as opposed to Victor Shklovski’s approach; Applying literary theory to literary genres studied in previous courses.


1Students may write a seminar paper in this course, although it is not required.