Courses
Courses - Winter Term 2006/2007
Dr. Anna-Christina Giovanopoulos
Course Description
This lecture course (the second in a two-part sequence) aims at providing a rough (and necessarily sketchy) overview over the key texts and periods of English literature from the Romantic era to the global diversification of contemporary English literatures. Our starting point will be the merits, pitfalls and governing principles of writing literary histories. We will then focus on Romantic, Victorian, Edwardian, Modernist, Postmodernist and Postcolonial Literatures. For a first orientation in the field, please consult the standard literary histories (Seeber, Englische Literaturgeschichte; Sampson, Cambridge Guide to English Literature; Bloomsbury Guide to English Literature; Peck/Coyle, A Brief History of English Literature; Sanders, The Short Oxford History of English Literature) as well as standard anthologies such as The Norton Anthology of English Literature (7th ed., vol. 2) or Die englische Literatur in Text und Darstellung (Reclam). A detailed course schedule will be available at the beginning of term. No registration is required for this course. Participation in part I of this course is NOT a prerequisite for enrolment.
Dr. Anna-Christina Giovanopoulos
| Hauptseminar |
Modernism |
Tue. 9.15-10.45 |
(09/10; 2/N106) |
Course Description
Even though there is agreement that the period of modernism reached its zenith in the Anglo-American world between 1910 and 1925, modernism remains notoriously elusive to define. In this course, we will concentrate on literary modernisms, but we will also consider other art forms, such as painting and music. We will begin by exploring short stories by Katherine Mansfield, the oeuvre of Virginia Woolf and selections from James Joyce. Thus, the aims of this course are twofold, namely a) to introduce you in class to key texts of modernist writing and b) to encourage you to explore further 'texts' on your own and to present your insights in class, thereby gaining an overview over a crucial period in literary history and over a variety of genres such as novels, short fiction, poetry, and films.
By way of introduction, you may read (samples from) M. Bradbury and J. McFarlane, Modernism: A Guide to European Literature, 1890-1930 (Penguin), H.U. Seeber, Englische Literaturgeschichte (Metzler), or M. Levenson, The Cambridge Companion to English Literature (Cambridge Univ. Press).
Many of the texts are available as e-texts, and a reading list will be provided at the beginning of the semester.
Dr. Anna-Christina Giovanopoulos
Course Description
What happens when man, or woman, incidentally, creates man? What is the future of human beings? What are the effects of scientific advances on our destiny? These are just some of the questions asked by the classical and contemporary literary texts and films that we will analyse in class. By considering novels from the nineteenth to the twenty-first centuries and by assessing some film adaptations, this class will gain an insight not only into different periods of literary history but also into the various scientific discourses with which the novels and films engage.
Please buy the following texts, available at Universitas Buchhandlung. Mary Shelley, Frankenstein (Penguin Popular Classics); H.G. Wells, The Time Machine (Reclam); Aldous Huxley, Brave New World (Reclam); Kazuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go (Faber & Faber).
Dr. Anna-Christina Giovanopoulos
Course Description
The Examenskolloquium is open to students preparing for their final and for their intermediate exams. It is intended to give you the opportunity to present your research projects and to raise specific questions and/or difficulties at an early stage. Further, you are encouraged to engage in critical debates over approaches and topics with your peers. We will also revise general and specific topics required for your intermediate and final exams, discuss your reading lists, and take both oral and written mock exams.
Mark Schreiber, M.A.
Course Description
This lecture course will provide an overview of the methods, theories and areas of enquiry in the study of literature as part of the larger discourse of media and cultural studies. The course tries to lay the necessary foundations for a scholarly approach to literature and texts in general. That is, the study of literature will be situated in a wider context, i.e. the network of literary communication. This entails:
- a discussion of literary genres and their specifics (fiction, poetry, drama, nonfiction)
- an introduction to the basic tools for the study of literature (bibliography, stylistics, rhetorical figures, imagery, metrics, poetics)
- a survey of important critical approaches and methods
The lectures will be accompanied by a weekly tutorial (details will be announced at the beginning of the course).
Prerequisites for Participation
As this lecture will be conducted in English, students should have a sufficient knowledge of the language. Furthermore, students should show an interest in gaining knowledge about the methods and theories of the study of literature, culture and the media.
Requirements for Credits
As partial requirement for the successful completion of Module 2.3. (Anglistische Literatur- und Kulturwissenschaft I), students will sit a 90-minute written exam at the end of the course.
Type of Modul-Exam: n.a.
Required Reading
Klarer, Mario (2004). An Introduction to Literary Studies. London: Routledge.
Mark Schreiber, M.A.
Course Description
This course will provide an introduction to and a survey of authors and texts from the UK, the United States, and Ireland which have contributed greatly to the field of gay and lesbian literature during the last century.
We will start our survey by looking at one of the most (in)famous cases of an author’s public downfall due to his own sexual preference, the Irish writer Oscar Wilde in the late 19th century. From there we will go on to explore a number of British, Irish, and American texts in more detail.
The seminar has several aims: first, to introduce students to a range of key texts which have sought to represent the experiences of gay men and/or lesbians; second, to encourage examination of how the diversity of these representations relates to their historical and cultural context; third, to evaluate the relationship between fictional writing and the emergence of the terms “gay” and “lesbian” as social categories or “identities”.
Prerequisites
In order to participate, students of Anglistik/Amerikanistik need to have completed the lecture course “Introduction to the Study of Literature” successfully. Please present the Schein in the first session of the course. Students should read The Well of Loneliness during the semester break and familiarise themselves with the other texts in the order that they will be discussed (see below).
Requirements
regular and active participation, oral presentation, term paper (10-15 pp., in English, deadline 1 April 2008)
Primary Reading
Hall, Radclyffe (1928). The Well of Loneliness.
Baldwin, James (1956). Giovanni’s Room.
Isherwood, Christopher (1961). A Single Man.
Winterson, Jeanette (1985). Oranges are not the Only Fruit.
Toibin, Colm (2001). The Blackwater Lightship.
Donoghue, Emma (2001). Stir-Fry.
Suggested Secondary Reading
A bibliography with relevant secondary texts will be made available in the first session of the course.
N.B.
The number of participants in this seminar is limited to 25 (+5 BEuSt). Students are able to obtain a Schein in this course both for Anglistische Literaturwissenschaft as well as for Amerikanistik.
Dr. Hans-Joachmin Hermes
Course Description
In this Proseminar we will study Shakespeare’s famous tragedy Hamlet Prince of Denmark, which was first performed in the limits of 1599 to 1601. Subjects of interest will be plot overview, analysis of major characters, themes, motifs, and imagery. Among the themes and motifs will be those of revenge, friendship, intrigue and jealousy. Special attention will be paid to Shakespeare’s language. Metaphors in Hamlet often refer to the natural sciences, many images are related to sickness, and “in their totality they contribute considerably to the tone of the play.” (Wolfgang Clemen, The Development of Shakespeare’s Imagery, 1951, p. 118). The play is a true specimen of late Elizabethan drama. A forthcoming Chemnitz production will premiér in the Figurentheater early in 2008. The students will get a chance to see the performance and talk to the performing cast. Among other topics special term-papers on the Chemnitz production are invited.
Required Reading
Text of Hamlet in any scholarly English edition. Recommended: Shakespeare, William: Hamlet, English edition. Penguin Popular Classics, Repr. 2001. 190 p., ISBN 978-0-14-062058-0, 3.20 EUR.
Supplier: Universitas.
Prerequisites
Einführungskurs “Introduction to the Study of Literature”.
Requirement for credits
Regular attendance, 1 oral presentation, term paper (deadline: 1 April 2008; size: 10-15 pp.; language: English; format according to style sheet: Stylesheet.pdf).
Queries? Mail hermes@phil.tu-chemnitz.de
Sina Nitzsche, M.A.
Course Description
In this seminar we will examine British fiction by reading three to four recent and commercially quite successful books by a group of young British authors. Each of them displays different struggles Britain faces after the loss of the Empire, the rise of global terrorism, and the changing living conditions of post-industrial Britain. Ian McEwan’s Saturday (2005) investigates the consequences for Britain in a changed world order after 9/11, On Beauty (2005) by Zadie Smith explores adolescence, identity and aesthetics in a multicultural society. A Long Way Down (written by Nick Hornby, 2005) examines alienation, crisis, and survival in the urban condition whereas Irvine Welsh focuses in his novel Porno (2003) on the margins of British mainstream society, notably Scottish working-class culture.
The seminar seeks to analyze how Britain and Britishness is represented in recent fiction. Issues of class, sexual orientation, gender, ethnicity, and age will be examined through the lens of recent stylistic innovations in writing like unusual narrative perspectives, generic cross-overs, or curious intertextual references. Moreover, students will be encouraged to interpret fiction in wider literary, cultural and societal contexts and to consider significant historical factors contributing to discourses about concepts such as "culture" and "nation" at the brink of the 21st century. Additionally, students will integrate the relevance of international ideological, cultural and political movements in their readings.
Primary Literature
Hornby, Nick. A Long Way Down. London: Penguin, 2006. (272 pgs.)
McEwan, Ian. Saturday. London: Vintage, 2006. (288 pgs.)
Smith, Zadie. On Beauty. London: Penguin, 2006. (444 pgs.)
Welsh, Irvine. Porno. Import: 2003. (496 pgs.)
These texts will be available for purchase at the university bookshop Universitas.
Credit Requirements
Oral participation, moderation of an expert session, one academic review about each book (1-2 pages), and one research paper (10-12 pages). In order to participate, students must read On Beauty and Porno by the end of the semester break.
Prerequisites
The number of participants in this course is limited to 30. In order to participate, students of Anglistik/Amerikanistik need to have completed the lecture course “Introduction to the Study of Literature” successfully. Please present the Schein in the first session of the course.
André Nimtz , M.A.
Course Description
Well, cinema music is the cinema.
That’s part of making the picture,
not something that’s put in later.
(Bernard Herrmann)
Since Richard Wagner’s proposal of the Gesamtkunstwerk music and the visual/performative arts (theatre, opera, cinema) have become some sort of the new sister arts. In the course of the 20th century it became apparent that it is especially music and film which are inseparable and that the failure of the first might lead to a failure of the second. Music carries meaning and, even more importantly, it carries emotion. Try to imagine Casablanca (1942) without “As Time Goes By” or Romeo + Juliet (1996) without the soaring “Balcony Scene” music. Apart from the emotional aspects a soundtrack adds to the film, it, furthermore, allows for generic interpretations and provides the films with aspects of “local” and “temporal colour” thus adding sonic authenticity to the pictures.
In this Proseminar we will have a closer look at a whole range of films from various genres in order to gain deeper insights into how the soundtrack and the pictures interact. Furthermore, we will search for aspects of authenticity in the soundtrack which will help us to classify the appropriateness of the soundtrack with regard to the world depicted. The Proseminar aims at giving the broadest impression possible of how film music works. Thus, the canon of films might include such diverse British and American productions as The Merchant of Venice (2004), Titus (2000), Michael Collins (1996), Waking Ned (1998), Collateral (2004), Gangs of New York (2002) and Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005) among others.
Prerequisite
Successful completion of the lecture “Introduction to the Study of Literature”. Magister students please present the Schein in the first session of the course.
Credit Requirements
Regular attendance and active participation in the discussion, oral presentation, term paper (10-15 pp.).
Required Reading
A reader with relevant material will be made available in the first session.
N.B.
This seminar is open for both students of English Literature and of American
Studies!
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