HS Anti-Colonial Literature and Thought [AE_HSACOL]

Dozent/in:

Peter Maurits

Angaben:

Hauptseminar, 2 SWS

Termine:

Do, 16:15 - 17:45, C 301

Voraussetzungen / Organisatorisches:

Zugehörigkeit zu den Modulen:

• BA English and American Studies (neu): Hauptmodul A. (Zulassungsvoraussetzung: Zwischenmodul II)

• Lehramt Englisch an Gymnasien (neu): Hauptmodul L-GYM Literature (Zulassungsvoraussetzung: Zwischenmodul Literature)

• MA North American Studies: Culture and Literature (5) Aufbaumodul Literary Studies (8) Vertiefungsmodul Literary Studies

• MA The Americas/Las Américas: Modul 4

• MA Literaturstudien – interdisziplinär: Modul 4

Inhalt:

According to the anti-colonial revolutionary Amílcar Cabral, Joseph Goebbels pulled out his gun every time someone mentioned the term “culture”. For Cabral, this is evidence of the importance of culture for both the domination of peoples and for overthrowing that domination. Expectedly, he reserved a prominent role for culture in the anti-colonial war that he fought. Cabral was no exception, and in fact, most anti-colonial liberation movements included the production of anti-colonial culture—fictional as well as non-fictional.
In this course, we examine and juxtapose several anti-colonial works from different geographical locations. We investigate what problems the texts pose, what solutions they appear to offer, what techniques are used, and what fallacies they may contain. We scrutinize the ways in which these aspects differ from one place of production to another, and how fictional and non-fictional anti-colonial works relate. Departing from texts written during colonization, we proceed to works published after ‘decolonization’—a term we will interrogate. Our inquiry stops before the institutionalization of so-called ‘postcolonial theory’ at the end of the 1980s.

Empfohlene Literatur:

Please Purchase: Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. Penguin 2006 [1958]. Sembène, Ousmane. God’s Bits of Wood. Heinemann 1995 [1960].

HS Canadian Studies: Key concepts and Debates [AE_HSCAST]

Dozent/in:

Stefanie Schäfer

Angaben:

Hauptseminar, 2 SWS

Termine:

Di, 16:00 - 18:00, A 401

Voraussetzungen / Organisatorisches:

Zugehörigkeit zu den Modulen:

• BA English and American Studies (neu): Hauptmodul A. (Zulassungsvoraussetzung: Zwischenmodul II)

• Lehramt Englisch an Gymnasien (neu): Hauptmodul L-GYM Literature (Zulassungsvoraussetzung: Zwischenmodul Literature)

• MA North American Studies: Culture and Literature (4) Aufbaumodul Cultural Studies (7) Vertiefungsmodul Cultural Studies

• MA North American Studies: Culture and Literature (5) Aufbaumodul Literary Studies (8) Vertiefungsmodul Literary Studies

• MA The Americas/Las Américas: Modul 4

• MA Literaturstudien – interdisziplinär: Modul 4

Inhalt:

“Canadians are nice and polite. It’s not just a stereotype.”-- Justin Trudeau

Justin Trudeau’s embrace of stereotypes posits Canadians as the better North Americans in a move that is typically Canadian—distinguishing Canada from all things south of the 49th parallel. This seminar examines key topics in Canadian Studies, ranging from debates over “Canadianness” to the relation of Canadian Studies to (North) American Studies. We will discuss cultural specifics ranging from indigenous knowledges and epistemologies, multiculturalism, regionalisms and Prairie Writing, Black and Asian Canadian Studies, up to the most recent phenomenon of Canadian Exceptionalism—focussing on questions such as: is Canada a postcolonial nation? What are Canadian national myths? What view of Canadianness do Canadian studies project?
Our reading list includes, among others, short fiction by Margaret Atwood and Aritha van Herk, essays from literary historian Northrop Frye’s The Bush Garden, the Western comedy Gunless (2010), the graphic biography Louis Riel by Chester Brown and Thomas King’s short story “Borders”.

The seminar is accompanied by an Independent Study Group (ISG) for BA students who will be required to compile and present a book review.

Empfohlene Literatur:

Readings: A reader will be provided by the beginning of term. Please buy Canadians and Americans. Myths and Literary Traditions by Katherine L. Morrison and Louis Riel . A Comic Strip Biography by Chester Brown.

HS Puritanism in the US: Literature and Culture [AE_HSPURI]

Dozent/in:

Stefanie Schäfer

Angaben:

Hauptseminar, 2 SWS

Termine:

Mi, 12:15 - 13:45, C 301

Voraussetzungen / Organisatorisches:

Zugehörigkeit zu den Modulen:

• BA English and American Studies (neu): Hauptmodul A. (Zulassungsvoraussetzung: Zwischenmodul II)

• Lehramt Englisch an Gymnasien (neu): Hauptmodul L-GYM Literature (Zulassungsvoraussetzung: Zwischenmodul Literature)

• MA North American Studies: Culture and Literature (4) Aufbaumodul Cultural Studies (7) Vertiefungsmodul Cultural Studies

• MA North American Studies: Culture and Literature (5) Aufbaumodul Literary Studies (8) Vertiefungsmodul Literary Studies

• MA The Americas/Las Américas: Modul 4

• MA Literaturstudien – interdisziplinär: Modul 4

For BA students, the class offers an independent study group which will focus on the reproductions of Puritanism in visual culture.

Inhalt:

“A diffuse […] sense of missions permeates our lives, private and public, in the United States”. Thus wrote Leo Marx in the New York Times about Sacvan Bercovitch’s The Puritan Origins of the American Self when it first came out in 1976, the bicentennial year of the founding of the US. Throughout US history, the essence of American character, its “mission” is routinely ascribed to Puritanism, with its dual heritage of dissent and struggle for reform and political activism. Puritanism becomes the magic formula for Americanness, New England, in a hyperbolic move, serves as the cradle of the nation. This seminar revisits original Puritan texts, critically examines their burgeoning into a national myth in historiography and literary criticism, and traces the representation of Puritanism in two canonized literary texts, Hawthorne’s The Scarlett Letter (1850) and Miller’s The Crucible (1853). We will discuss the latter through recourse to film versions and historical contexts.

Empfohlene Literatur:

The reading list includes primary texts by the Puritans and their followers (Mather, Bradford, Bushnell) as well as an overview on New England scholarship from Perry Miller to Sacvan Bercovitch and George McKenna. Select readings will be provided at the beginning of term. Please purchase Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlett Letter (Norton Critical Edition) and Arthur Miller, The Crucible (Penguin Modern Classics Edition).

Masterseminar North American Cultural Studies [AE_MANACU]

Dozent/in:

Klaus Lösch

Angaben:

Masterseminar, 2 SWS, Master

Termine:

Mo, 14:15 - 15:45, C 301

Voraussetzungen / Organisatorisches:

This course is eligible as follows / Das Masterseminar North American Cultural Studies gehört in folgenden Studiengängen jeweils zu folgenden Modulen:

• MA North American Studies: Grundlagenmodul Cultural Studies (MM1)

• BA English and American Studies: Hauptmodul B Culture (Zulassungsvoraussetzung: Abschluss der Zwischenmodule)
  

Inhalt:

This course is a companion course to the Vorlesung North American Cultural Studies. We will read and discuss key texts of the discipline in order to deepen and enhance an understanding of those developments presented in the lecture (Vorlesung).

Empfohlene Literatur:

The course material will be available on StudOn.

Masterseminar North American Literary Studies [AE_MANALI]

Dozent/in:

Harald Zapf

Angaben:

Masterseminar, 2 SWS

Termine:

Mo, 10:15 - 11:45, C 603

Voraussetzungen / Organisatorisches:

Der Kurs North American Literary Studies gehört in folgenden Studiengängen jeweils zu folgenden Modulen:

• MA North American Studies: Grundlagenmodul Literary Studies (MM2)

• BA English and American Studies: Hauptmodul B Literature (Zulassungsvoraussetzung: Zwischenmodul II Literature)

• Lehramt Englisch an Gymnasien: Optionsmodul L-GYM Literature (Zulassungsvoraussetzung: Zwischenmodul L-GYM Literature)

Inhalt:

This course focuses on major texts of North American poetics, literary criticism, and literary theory from the 19th century to the present. It also deepens the students' understanding of the subject dealt with in the lecture on North American Literary Studies.

Empfohlene Literatur:

The course material will be available on StudOn.