Courses - Summer Term 2013

Prof. Dr. Cecile Sandten

Content:
This seminar presents canonical as well new (i.e. postcolonial) English young adult fiction, ranging from Rudyard Kipling's Kim, Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan, Enid Blyton's Famous Five, Salman Rushdie's Haroun and the Sea of Stories, to J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter (The Philosopher's Stone). It provides participants with practical strategies for analysing these texts focusing on issues such as narrative techniques, the child hero, his/her quests and adventures, gender roles, as well as colonial/postcolonial conceptions.
Objectives:
Students will gain an insight into the various historical and contemporary representations of child heroes and young adults on their quests to adulthood and recognition in novels and film adaptations. In addition, literary theories such as reception theory, postcolonial theory, or narratology will be fruitfully applied.
Requirements for credits:
The format of this seminar consists of a close reading of primary, theoretical as well as secondary texts, discussions and oral presentations. Each student will present an oral report (approx. 15 minutes), chair a session or prepare questions for a discussion (PVL). The module 5.2 will be completed with an oral exam of 30 minutes (one topic taken from the research colloquium and one from this seminar).
Set Texts/Required Reading:
Will be announced in due course.
Registration:
There will be a list on the door of my office (Rh 39, room 214). Please register there.

Content:
This seminar is designed to introduce students to 'cityscape' literature in general, but Vancouver writings in particular. The course will explore the growing importance of city cultures, metropolitan life styles, and their traces in literary and filmic representation. Vancouver, which is often touted as the new 'New York' of the world, consists of a melting pot of multicultural fabric. This seminar will take students on a literary walk of Vancouver through ethno-scapes, urban imaginaries, including its 'overworlds' and 'underworlds'. In the process, the course will open up to an architectural imagery of Vancouver through written as well as visual materials (paintings, photographs, public sculptures, films, literary and academic texts).
Objectives:
Students will gain an interdisciplinary insight into the representations of Vancouver through poetry, short stories, films, and a novel. This interdisciplinary approach includes gender studies, arts, music, film and sociology, and postcolonialism (diaspora, migration, dislocation, hybridity). In addition, students will become familiar with flanêur-like images of the metropolitan inhabitants, and other pertinent concepts of cultural studies.
Prerequisites:
Students must have completed the seminar pertaining to the MA-Modul 4, "Cultural Encounters".
Requirements for credits:
The format of this seminar will consist of oral presentations and discussions. Each student will five an oral presentation (approx. 25 minutes), and chair a session or prepare questions for discussion (PVL). For the PL students will be engaged in a practical cultural-oriented activity (e.g. supporting and participating in the GNEL conference on "Re-Inventing the Postcolonial (in the) Metropolis" at TUC, 9-11 May 2013, presenting film reviews as part of the additional film programme which will be offered, and organize and do an academic poster presentation at the end of the semester).
Set Texts/Required Reading:
A reader on postcolonialism and the Canadian city will be provided at the beginning of the semester. Apart from the texts in the reader, students are requested to read the following short story collection and novel:
Nancy Lee: Dead Girls
Timothy Taylor: Stanley Park
Registration:
There will be a list on the door of my office (Rh 39, room 214). Please register there.

Content:
The research colloquium is open to students who are preparing for their final oral and written exams. It is intended to give students a platform to present their research projects and to raise questions and/or difficulties they may be facing at an early stage. Further, students are encouraged to engage in critical discussions, and gain feedback from their peers concerning their research projects. We will also discuss a wide range of general topics and individual topics required for final exams.
Requirements for credits:
The format of this seminar consists of a close reading of texts, discussions and thesis presentations. Each student will present an oral report on their research topic (approx. 15 minutes), chair a session or prepare questions for a discussion (PVL). The module 5.2 will be completed with an oral exam of 30 minutes (one topic taken from the research colloquium and one from the seminar 5.2 "English Literatures and Cultures").
Set Texts/Required Reading:
A reader with seminal material will be provided at the beginning of the semester.
Registration:
There will be a list on the door of my office (Rh 39, room 214). Please register there.

Content:
This course aims to provide support for post-graduate students who are developing their dissertation ideas and first draft outlines. The focus of this seminar will be on research in English Literature (including close readings of secondary theoretical texts and primary texts, but also the students' own written work). Post-graduate candidates who engage in interdisciplinary approaches beyond English Literature are most welcome to participate to enhance the group's interdisciplinary awareness.
Objectives:
This seminar will also offer special supervision through individual counseling. Moreover, the seminar will support doctoral and post-doctoral candidates on a professional level, especially with regard to topics such as scholarly writing for publication, pedagogic issues of teaching at university level, as well as information on how to apply for positions in the job market. In addition, support to present their work at (international) conferences will be given, as well as information on careers and funding support for scholarship applications and opportunities for gaining key supplementary qualifications (in cooperation with the Forschungsakademie Weimar).
Prerequisites:
Participants must have completed a Magister, Master or Doctoral thesis graded at least 2,0.
Requirements for credits:
In order to participate, doctoral and post-doctoral candidates are requested to hand in a title, an outline and/or a chapter from their research one week prior to the first meeting.
Set Texts/Required:
Reading: Close readings of secondary theoretical texts and primary texts, but also the students' own written work provided in due course. Registration: with Prof. Dr. Cecile Sandten

Pavan Malreddy

Content:
This course provides an accessible introduction to the theories and methods in literary studies. Some of the major theoretical movements covered by the course include, but are not restricted to: new criticism, structuralism, Marxism, psychoanalysis, modernism, postcolonialism, feminism, and postmodernism. Through a selection of short stories, parables, and novel excerpts, the course provides a literary platform to explore the diverse socio-political contexts of the theories and methods involved.
Objectives:
Students will be able to identify the major theoretical movements of twentieth century literature, including the empirical contexts that underpin them. Furthermore, students will be able to apply respective theories and methods to literary texts.
Prerequisites:
Successful completion of "Introduction to the Study of Literatures in English".
Requirements for Credit:
Active participation and regular attendance is expected; a 20-minute oral presentation (PVL) and a term paper (PL).
Tutorial:
The course may be accompanied by a weekly tutorial. Attendance will be optional but highly recommended. Information will be announced in due course.
Set Texts:
A Reader will be provided.
Registration:
There will be a list on the door of my office (Rh 39, room 215). Please register there.

Content:
As a literary genre, Avant-Garde challenges the dominant cultural norms without a decisive political program of its own. Minor literature, on the contrary, is a predominantly political project which is gaining momentum in the non-Western world. If the Avant-Garde movement influenced Marxism, existentialism, and postmodernism, minor literature resists any paradigmatic affiliation by virtue of its rhetorical ploy and politics. Nevertheless, given the re-emergence of the (neo)Avant-Garde novel in the past two decades, this course attempts to uncover its influence on minor literature and indigenous theory.
Objectives:
Students will learn the cultural origins of Avant-Garde, including modernity, the Enlightenment ethos and the pathos of scientific reason. Students will become familiar with an array of definitions and conceptions on minor literature/theory. Although both Avant-Garde and minor literature originated in Europe, students will be introduced to the diverse geo-political contexts of their implications and literary significance.
Prerequisites:
Intermediate Exam; BA English
Requirements for credits:
Active participation and regular attendance is expected; a 20-minute oral presentation (PVL) and a term paper (PL).
Set Texts
To be announced
Registration:
There will be a list on the door of my office (Rh 39, room 215). Please register there.

Birte Heidemann, M.A.

Content:
Set against the social and political norms of the Age of Enlightenment, the artistic, literary and intellectual movement of Romanticism originated in mid/late 18th century Europe. By emphasizing emotion over reason and the pastoral over the urban, the Romantic Movement advocated nature and imagination as the locus of aesthetic experience. In that sense, Romanticism defied the norms of reason, order and rationalism by centre-staging art, imagery, subjectivity, spontaneity and the transcendental.
Objectives:
This seminar exposes students to historically informed literary, cultural and sociopolitical aspects of Romantic poetry. With a strong focus on the formal-aesthetic tropes of Romantic poetry, students will be introduced to the poets' literary responses to the socio-cultural transformation(s) of the Romantic period.
Prerequisites:
In order to participate, students of Anglistik/Amerikanistik need to have completed the lecture course "Introduction to the Study of Literatures in English" successfully.
Requirements for Credit:
Apart from active participation, regular attendance is strongly recommended. For the successful completion of the course, you are required to give an oral presentation (PVL) and hand in a substantial term paper (PL).
Set Texts:
A reader with selected poems and theoretical texts will be provided at the beginning of the semester.
Registration:
There will be a list at the door of my office (Rh 39, room 213). Please register there.

Content:
Rooted in the avant-garde movement of the 1920s and 1930s, the term 'Theatre of the Absurd' (Martin Esslin) refers to the work of select European playwrights from the late 1940s to 1960s. In particular, the plays of Samuel Beckett and Harold Pinter were recognized for their existentialist quest that reflected the conditions of post-war Europe. This course encourages students to articulate the subversive qualities of the 'Theatre of the Absurd' that present a radical break to conventional forms of drama.
Objectives:
In contextualising the genre within the socio-political context of the post-war period, students will become familiar with the hidden dimensions of the seemingly 'absurd' plots, 'plotless' stories and unconventional characters.
Prerequisites:
In order to participate, students of Anglistik/Amerikanistik need to have completed the lecture course "Introduction to the Study of Literatures in English" successfully.
Requirements for Credit:
Apart from active participation, regular attendance is strongly recommended. For the successful completion of the course you are required to give an oral presentation (PVL) and hand in a substantial term paper (PL).
Set Texts:
Beckett, Samuel (1953): Waiting for Godot.
Beckett, Samuel (1957): Endgame.
Pinter, Harold (1965): The Homecoming.
A reader with critical essays will be provided at the beginning of the semester.
Registration:
There will be a list at the door of my office (Rh 39, room 213). Please register there.