P. G. Wodehouse, The Code of the Woosters

Literature has to deal with deep psychological analysis or complex worldly issues. Really? Don't many of us feel a bit of nostalgia to escape to a comforting world of humour, without the woes we are confronted with daily? P. G. Wodehouse was one of the most-widely read British humourists of the 20th century. He wrote novels, plays, short stories, full to the brim with hilarious, sometimes preposterous plots. Perhaps his best-loved work is "The Code of the Woosters". Bertie Wooster, a young "idle" gentleman, would once more be lost without Jeeves, his valet, the embodiment of the stiff upper lip. Imagine a country mansion, secret love affairs and complications with antique silverware. "Light Writing" is often, as Wodehouse himself noticed "sneered at by the intelligentsia". Nothing could be more wrong: Wodehouse's prose is original and artfully crafted, his Jeeves stories have a narrative complexity reminding us sometimes of Dickens. Participants are requested to read parts of the text at home as preparation for the discussion in class. At the end of the course we shall watch the tv episode with Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie. Level C1.