Courses

Courses - Summer Term 2010

Prof. Dr. Cecile Sandten

Content:
In this seminar we will explore the importance of the metropolis as a political and cultural centre and as a social microcosm reflecting the state of its transcultural society due to its colonial past and its postcolonial effects. We will investigate the political, social, cultural and architectural history of a diverse range of metropolises (e.g. New Delhi, Calcutta, Cairo), especially through both, the study of the so-called "graphic novel" as well as through visual representations (paintings, photographs, films, literary and academic texts/presentations).

Objectives:
In an interdisciplinary mode as well as through theories engaged with intertextuality which will be provided by theoretical texts from English Literatures as well as neighbouring disciplines such as gender studies, arts, music, film and sociology, or urban studies, we will get an in-depth knowledge of the complex issue of postcolonialism and the metropolis. A film programme as well as excursions will be on the agenda in order to supply students with additional information and interesting aspects for further study.

Requirements for credit:
Active participation in every session of the class. A presentation or partner/group presentation as well as a final paper (10-15 pages) are required for the module exam.

Required reading:
Banerjee, Sarnath (2005): Corridor: A Graphic Novel. Penguin Global
Banerjee, Sarnath (2007): The Barn Owl's Wondrous Capers. Penguin Global
Wilson, Willow G./M. K. Perker (2007): Cairo: A Graphic Novel. DC Comics: New York

Further recommended reading:
A reader with seminal material on postcolonialism and the metropolis will be provided at the beginning of the semester.

Prof. Dr. Cecile Sandten

Content:
Utopia, "nowhere land" or "no place", coined by Thomas More, passed into general usage. The subject is nearly always the search for the best possible form of government in a kind of "Commonwealth". The classic text, More's Utopia (1516), which is a speculative political essay, attempts to alter society greatly, to create fresh institutions and relationships, and introduce entirely different habits. In most of the subsequent texts present-day social, political and technological tendencies are projected most frequently in an extreme form.

Objectives:
In this seminar students will focus on utopian as well as dystopian fiction by examining More's Utopia and discussing it in relation to other texts such as Herland (1915) by the American writer Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Herland is a utopian novel that might offer an answer to the question of how it is possible to change the habits and create the people by whom and for whom institutions had been formed, as Gilman is engaged in dealing with marginalised people – women. H.G. Well's 'science fiction' tale The Island of Dr Moreau (1896) is an evolutionary fantasy about a shipwrecked naturalist who becomes involved in an experiment to 'humanize' animals by surgery. In Golding's novel, Lord of the Flies (1954), boys attempt to set up a democratically run society. As they fail the savagery which in Golding's work underlies man's true nature takes over. Whereas in the movie The Matrix (1999) a future is described in which reality becomes a simulated reality created by machines in order to pacify and subdue the human population, while their bodies' heat and electrical activity are used as an energy source.
What all these texts, in spite of their different geographical and historical groundings, have in common is the fact that they represent people who are marked by certain inconveniences and by their experience of isolation. Therefore, we will discuss the question what kind of view they have on their own society and on that of 'the other' due to cross-cultural encounters. We will also focus on theoretical issues as well as on the question of how practices of domination and subordination or ideas of Empire and a male European dominant behaviour are encoded in these texts.

Requirements for credits/Type of Module Exam:
Active participation in every session of the class. The format of this seminar will consist of oral reports and discussions. A presentation or partner/group presentation as well as a final paper (10-15 pages) are required for the module exam.

Registration:
There will be a list at the door of my office (Rh 39, Zi. 214). Please register there.
Requirements for credit:
Regular attendance and contributions, term paper and presentation or group presentation.

Required reading:
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins (1979 [1915]): Herland. [With an Introduction by Ann J. Lane].
London: The Women's Press.
Golding, William (1954): Lord of the Flies. New York: Penguin.
More, Thomas (2001 [1516]): Utopia. [A New Translation with an Introduction by Clarence H. Miller, vii-xxiii]. New Haven, London: Yale University Press.
Wells, H.G. (2003 [1896]): The Island of Dr Moreau. In: Wilt, Judith (ed.) (2003): Making
Humans: Complete Texts with Introduction, Historical Contexts, Critical Essays. Boston, New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, pp. 170-268.

Films:
Lord of the Flies (1990) (dir.) Harry Hook.
The Matrix (1999) (dir.) Andy and Larry Wachowski.

Prof. Dr. Cecile Sandten, Birte Heidemann, M.A.

Content:
In this seminar students will – on a theoretical, literary and practical level – confront questions about indigeneity, national and ethnic marginalisation, minority question, and/or regional expressions from an intercultural and postcolonial perspective. National, cultural and political parallels can be drawn from across a wide spectrum of contexts. However, given India's status as the 'heartland' of (post)colonialism, the seminar will direct the students to draw upon the rich corpus of theoretical, conceptual and cultural experiences of India in order to articulate the pertinent issues in a German context. Some examples of this cross-cultural reading include the notions and practises of the "other", "indigeneity", the "subaltern" (Gayatri Spivak), or other marginalised groups and literatures (such as Dalits).

Objectives:
Thus, the purpose of this seminar is to explore how "close" to or "far" from a so-called "home" people are and to expose often overwhelming feelings about the 'foreign' or the 'other', to create a climate of working, learning and living in which a socially reflective (self) awareness, one that is characterised by tolerance, can develop. It is in this regard that supposedly marginalised people, living in a Germany that has been reunited for 20 years will be presented in a documentary which will be produced by students of this seminar as part of their requirements for credits/module exam.

Requirements for credits/Type of Module Exam:
Active participation in every session of the class. The format of this seminar will consist of oral reports and discussions. Each student will participate in producing a 20-minute documentary on the seminar topic.

Registration:
There will be a list at the door of my office (Rh 39, Zi. 214). Please register there.

Requirements for credit:
Regular attendance and contributions, production of a documentary.

Required reading:
A reader with helpful material will be provided at the beginning of the semester.

Prof. Dr. Cecile Sandten

Content:
The Forschungskolloquium/Examenskolloquium is open to students preparing for their final and for their intermediate oral and written exams. It is intended to give students the opportunity to present their research projects and to raise specific questions and/or difficulties at an early stage. Further, students are encouraged to engage in critical debates over approaches and topics with their peers. We will also revise general and specific topics required for intermediate and final exams and discuss required reading lists.

Registration:
There will be a list at the door of my office (Rh 39, Zi. 214). Please register there.

Dr. Ines Detmers

Content:
The topic of 'writing the city' – be it London, Manchester, New York, Montreal, Berlin, Mumbai or Delhi – currently garners much interest. Scholars of Cultural and Literary Studies, for example, seek to create a richly textured, spatially informed sense of national, racial, and most importantly for this seminar, sexual and/or gendered identities with respect to both the mythic as well as the material history of key 'global cities'. Drawing on these topics, however, course work will be concentrating on cityscapes as multiple, 'imagined' constructs serving different functions connected with heterogeneous, if not contradictory or contested representations of gender and sexuality.

Objectives:
The main focus will lie on both the understanding of the city as a socio-cultural concept as well as an engendered narrative paradigm. Therefore, the course will introduce basic terms and different methods from Gender Studies and Urban Studies. In order to make the different approaches comprehensible, instead of reading complete novels, for exemplary theoretical readings a number of longer excerpts from primary texts have been selected and compiled in a 'Reader'. These include, for instance, Elizabeth Gaskell's Mary Barton (1848), Arthur Conan Doyle's A Study in Scarlet (1887), Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway (1925), Sam Selvon's Lonely Londoners (1956), Michael Ondaatje's In the Skin of a Lion (1987), Khushwant Singh's Delhi: A Novel (1990), Jeffrey Eugenides Middlesex (2002) and last but nor least Suketu Mehta's Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found (2004). The 'Reader' and a detailed course schedule will be available at the beginning of the semester.

Requirements for credit:
Active participation in every session of the class. For the successful completion of the course you are required to give an oral presentation and hand in a substantial term paper. Please note: Students, who participate in this seminar and fulfill all the requirements, may either receive credits for English Literatures (Modul 2.4) or for American Studies (Modul 2.6).

Reading List:
Ingo Berensmeyer, Literary Theory: An Introduction to Approaches, Methods and Terms (2009). Klett (12,95 €).
Please note: Sufficient copies will be available at the campus bookshop Buchhandlung Universitas at the beginning of the term.

Registration:
There will be a list at the door of my office (Rh 39, Zi. 215). Please register there.

Dr. Ines Detmers

Content:
This course attempts to introduce modern literary theory to students of English Literature in order to make it intelligible and attractive alike. It will be shown that none of the different approaches, ranging from New Criticism, Formalism, Structuralism, Semiotics, Post-Structuralism, Psychoanalysis, Gender Studies, Intertextuality, Post-Colonialism, or New Historicism, is simply concerned with literary studies in a narrow sense. On the contrary, the above mentioned theories emerged from other areas of the humanities, and have implications well beyond literature itself. However, in this seminar we will explore the different theories and theoretical approaches by looking at their origins, premises and implications and by extracting their underlying messages.

Objectives:
As the main focus is placed on both the understanding as well as the application of theoretical premises and paradigms, Ingo Berensmeyer's recently published volume Literary Theory: An Introduction to Approaches, Methods and Terms (2009) will be used as a textbook. Furthermore, we shall concentrate on Joseph Conrad's short novel Heart of Darkness (1902) in order to make the different theoretical approaches comprehensible. A detailed course schedule will be available at the beginning of the semester.

Requirements for credit:
Active participation in every session of the class. For the successful completion of the course you are required to give an oral presentation and hand in a substantial term paper.

Set Texts:
Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness (1902). Penguin Popular Classics (ca. 3 €)
Ingo Berensmeyer, Literary Theory: An Introduction to Approaches, Methods and Terms (2009). Klett (12,95 €).

Please note: Sufficient copies of both titles will be definitely available at the campus bookshop Buchhandlung Universitas at the beginning of the term.

Registration:
There will be a list at the door of my office (Rh 39, Zi. 215). Please register there.

Birte Heidemann, M.A.

Content:
Due to its colonial legacy, today's British society is characterized by complex social, cultural and racial encounters. By introducing students to the works of Black and Asian writers in Britain, this seminar offers historically informed literary and cultural contexts for an understanding of contemporary British multiethnic society. Dealing with literary representations of diasporic identities, students will engage with the questions of belonging, the search for identity, the concept of 'home' and the hybrid notion of living 'in-between' two cultures.

Objectives:
Focusing on Britain's diverse cultural heritage, we will explore a wide spectrum of literary and theoretical texts from a postcolonial perspective, ranging from Alex Wheatle's novel Brixton Rock (1999) to short stories, poems and critical essays by selected authors. In so doing, students will get an in-depth knowledge of the literary, cultural and socio-historical contexts in and against which Black and Asian British literature is written and read. As a guest appearance, the Trinidad-born, London-based dub poet Anthony Joseph is scheduled to participate in an in-class poetry workshop, apart from a public reading from his latest book. This event will give students a unique opportunity to experience the genre of performance poetry.

Requirements for credit:
Active participation in every session of the class. A presentation or partner/group presentation as well as a final paper (10-15 pages) are required for the module exam.

Registration:
There will be a list at the door of my office (Rh 39, Zi. 213). Please register there.

Set text:
Wheatle, Alex (1999): Brixton Rock. London: Black Amber Books.
A reader with selected poems, short stories and theoretical texts will be provided at the beginning of the semester.

Birte Heidemann, M.A.

Content:
Magic Realism is a narrative strategy which is characterised by the inclusion of mythical and fantastical elements reaching beyond the confines of realism. It draws upon the energies of fable, folk tale, and myth while maintaining a strong contemporary social relevance. As it breaks down the distinction between the usually opposing terms of the magical and the realist, magic realism is a mode suited to exploring and transgressing ontological, political, geographical or generic boundaries.

Objectives:
In this seminar, we will discuss three novels which blend both realistic and magical perspectives in their narrative. Salman Rushdie's phantasmagorical children's book Haroun and the Sea of Stories (1990) deals with a professional storyteller who is at a loss of words. The Famished Road (1991) by Nigerian writer Ben Okri follows Azaro, a spirit child, living in an unnamed most likely Nigerian city. In the fantasy adventure novel Life of Pi (2001) by Canadian author Yann Martel, protagonist and narrator Piscine "Pi" Molitor Patel is stuck on a boat in the Pacific Ocean with Richard Parker, a Bengal tiger. Focusing on a range of critical approaches, a selection of theoretical texts will supplement our discussions in order to explore the complexities of one of today's most popular literary genres.

Requirements for credit:
Active participation in every session of the class. A presentation or partner/group presentation as well as a final paper (10-15 pages) are required for the module exam.

Registration:
There will be a list at the door of my office (Rh 39, Zi. 213). Please register there.

Set texts:
Okri, Ben (1991): The Famished Road. London: Vintage.
Martel, Yann (2001): Life of Pi. Edinburgh: Canongate.
Rushdie, Salman (1990): Haroun and the Sea of Stories. London: Penguin.
A reader with theoretical texts will be provided at the beginning of the semester.