Courses - Winter Term 2013

Prof. Dr. Cecile Sandten

Content/Purpose:
Britain possesses a rich literary heritage. This lecture course (the first of a two-part series; first part for BA_1, second part for BA_3) will provide insights into the richness, diversity, and continuity of that tradition. The lecture will cover the history of English literature from the Renaissance to the Romantic period. The various schools and the historical periods that represent English literature include: Renaissance and Reformation Literature 1510-1620; Revolution and Restoration Literature 1620-1690; Eighteenth-Century Literature 1690-1780; and the Literature of the Romantic Period 1780-1830. Shakespeare, a towering figure of the English literary pantheon, will take the centre-stage. In addition, the writings of other major literary figures such as Donne, Milton, Behn, Defoe, Blake or Wordsworth will remain central to the lecture course.
Objectives:
Students will learn the biographical details, and the socio-cultural contexts in which the literatures were produced. In addition, students will be able to articulate the genealogical roots of literature and literary figures between various historical periods, and their succession and continuity to present times.
Prerequisites:
None
Requirements for credits/Type of module exam:
Regular attendance and active in-class participation will be expected. Students are expected to read the assigned texts for the lecture course. For the successful completion of this course there will be a 90-minute written exam at the end of the semester. BA_3 students must have successfully completed the lecture course of Modul 2.3 English Literatures and Cultures I, History of Literatures in English.
Required Textbook:
William Shakespeare: The History of King Lear (1605-1606)
William Shakespeare: The Tempest (1611)
Aphra Behn: Oroonoko, or the Royal Slave (1688)
Daniel Defoe: Robinson Crusoe (1719)
In addition, a reader with seminal material will be provided at the beginning of the semester.
Registration:
There will be a list at the door of my office (Rh 39, room 214). Please register there.

Content/Objectives:
Conducting literary studies at the university level, this lecture course will provide an accessible introduction to the fundamentals of literary analyses, such as terms, concepts and methods. A number of texts of different genres (i.e. poetry, drama and narrative fiction including examples from the so called New English Literatures), covering a period from the 17th to 21st century, have been selected. Discussions in class and short assignments will emphasize close reading skills and the development of effective strategies for critical and analytical thinking. Moreover, this lecture will be paying attention to working and research techniques. To that end, you will all be exposed to the essential library and reference tools for serious literary research. You will also learn how to access and evaluate electronic resources.
The lecture will be accompanied by a weekly tutorial (details will be announced at the beginning of the course).
Requirements for credits/Type of module exam:
Apart from regular attendance, active participation will be expected: as this lecture class also is a community, you are all asked to support that community also as part of your credit points. For the successful completion of the course there will be a 90-minute written exam at the end of the semester.
Required textbooks:
Ansgar and Vera Nünning, Introduction to the Study of English and American Literature. Klett. (neueste Auflage) (Reihe: Uni-Wissen Anglistik / Amerikanistik).
In addition, a reader will be provided at the beginning of the semester.
Registration:
There will be a list at the door of my office (Rh 39, room 214). Please register there.

Content:
"To be, or not to be: that is the question". Another question might be whether Hamlet is a self-righteous brooding type, a depressive melancholic, a mummy's boy or a rebel and social revolutionary. Or is he, according to Laurence Olivier, even the "first real pacifist"? During the course of the seminar, students will not only read and discuss Hamlet but will also be introduced to the highly complex relationship between a literary text and its film versions. Therefore, we will watch and analyse Laurence Olivier's 1947s Hamlet-adaptation, Franco Zeffirelli's (1991) stripped-down, two-hour version of Shakespeare's play which stars Mel Gibson as a rather robust version of the ambivalent Danish prince, and Michael Almereyda's 1999 adaptation which is set in New York in the year 2000.
Objectives:
Besides analysing the play and a selection of its different cinematic adaptations, students will also engage with theoretical issues pertaining to the field of adaptation theories and theories of media change. They will evaluate the representation of Hamlet in the Internet and work with audio versions of the play. Thus, they will be encouraged to explore the aesthetic literary, artistic, musical, cultural, and historical milieus of Hamlet in order to share their ideas with the other students in the class through active participation.
Prerequisites:
Masters students need to have successfully completed their BA in English.
Requirements for credit:
Apart from active participation, regular attendance is strongly recommended. For the successful completion of the course students are required to give an oral presentation (PVL) and hand in a term paper (PL).
Required reading:
Shakespeare, William (1983 [1601]): Hamlet. Harold Jenkins (ed.) Walton-on-Thames, Surrey: Arden.
Suggested secondary reading:
A bibliography with relevant secondary texts will be made available in the first session of the course. Besides, a seminar reader will be provided at the beginning of the semester. A visit to a theatre performance will be on the agenda.

Content:
The Forschungskolloquium/Examenskolloquium 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 projects and to raise questions and/or difficulties they may be facing at an early stage of their research. 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 (approx. 15 minutes), chair a session or prepare questions for a discussion (PVL).
Set Texts/Required Reading:
A reader with seminal material will be provided at the beginning of the semester.
Registration:
There will be a list at 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:
Orientalism is a discourse that concerns with the biased representations of the East in Western intellectual history. Although “terrorism” is understood to be a universal phenomenon, there is an implied collusion and complicity between Orientalism and terrorism in contemporary literature as well as popular culture. If Orientalism is said to have justified colonial rule, would it be fair to say that Orientalism has assumed new forms and functions in a post-colonial age? If so, what is the relationship between (post)Orientalism and the post-9/11 discourses on terrorism? Are there new forms of terrorism that go hand in hand with the new incarnations of Orientalism? By proposing a synthesis between the theories of Michel Foucault (“biopolitics”) and Achille Mbembe (“necropolitics”), the course provides a critical platform for students to engage with the discourses of (post)Orientalism and (new) terrorism from a distinctly transcultural, in that sense, postcolonial perspective that challenges the established notions of violence and violation of “universal” norms.
Objectives:
Students will become familiar with an array of concepts in social theory: biopolitics, necropolitics, and other non-normative theories of “terrorism”. Furthermore, students will gain insights into the European conception of the “sublime”, one that is conceived to guard from the violence and terror “inherent” to the non-European Other, one that is also part and parcel of a culture directly responsible for the (legacies of) colonial violence.
Prerequisites:
Masters students need to have successfully completed their BA in English.
Requirements for credits:
Apart from active participation, regular attendance is strongly recommended. For the successful completion of the course students are required to give an oral presentation (PVL) and hand in a term paper (PL).
Set Texts:
Khadra, Yasmina. The Attack. London: Vintage, 2007.
Second Text: TBA

Content:
In social and cultural theory, ‘nation’ and ‘nationalism’ are perhaps the most theorized, debated, and contested ideas. It is often argued that (postcolonial) nationalism is a failed political project because all nations are either imagined or constructed and cannot be expressed in terms of fixed geographical or cultural coordinates. This course draws attention to a latent surge of nationalism in the genres of autobiography, travelogues, and life-writing. Based on a selection of theoretical and literary texts, the course explores the contested narratives of nationhood and belonging that interrupt the “official” narrative of nation and national cultures on account of the states.
Objectives:
Students will gain insights into classical, modernist and postmodernist theories of nationalism. Students will learn the conceptual distinctions between autobiography, travelogues, and life-writing. Various tenets of postcolonial theories will familiarize students to advanced literary theories (major vs. minor literature), and prepare them for future graduate studies.
Prerequisites:
Masters students need to have successfully completed their BA in English.
Requirements for credits:
Apart from active participation, regular attendance is strongly recommended. For the successful completion of the course students are required to give an oral presentation (PVL) and an oral exam (PL).
Set Texts:
Khoo Thwe, Pascal. From the Land of Green Ghosts: A Burmese Odyssey. London: Harper Collins, 2002.
Second Text: TBA

Birte Heidemann, M.A.

Content:
Drawing upon what Paul Gilroy called the ‘Black Atlantic’, this seminar explores the spatio-temporal passages between Europe, America, Africa and the Caribbean as portrayed in a number of contemporary slave narratives. In particular, students will be introduced to texts (fiction, poetry and critical essays) and images (paintings and films) that reflect upon the Atlantic slave trade from various literary and (inter)medial perspectives. Positioned in the intersections of remembering and forgetting, the texts and images under discussion uncover the hidden histories of countless slaves that crossed the Middle Passage.
Objectives:
In crossing both geographical and generic spaces, students will explore various forms of slave narratives in order to gain insights into slave struggles in different cultural and historical contexts. The generic diversity of the slave narrative will familiarise students to the magnitude of the Atlantic slave trade that continues to shape the socio-cultural fabric of the postcolonial world.
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 students are required to give an oral presentation (PVL) and hand in a term paper (PL).
Registration:
There will be a list at the door of my office (Rh 39, room 213). Please register there.
Set texts:
Evaristo, Bernardine (2008): Blonde Roots. London: Penguin.
Phillips, Caryl (1991): Cambridge. London: Bloomsbury.

A reader with selected poems and critical essays will be provided at the beginning of the semester.

Content:
In the late fifteenth century, England saw a series of dynastic wars that historians
have termed the Wars of the Roses after the heraldic symbols of the two rivalling
houses – the Lancasters and the Yorks. This seminar explores the bloody struggle
for power between the two opposing camps as portrayed in one of William
Shakespeare's history plays, Richard III, which chronicles the reign of terror of its
eponymous protagonist.
Objectives:
With a strong focus on the formal-aesthetic aspects of warfare and violence, students
will be introduced to the historico-political context of Shakespeare's play in both text
and film versions. Select secondary texts will further aid the discussion on how the
play's power-hungry protagonist manipulates, murders and wages wars against his
supporters and detractors alike for the crown.
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 students are required to give an oral
presentation (PVL) and hand in a term paper (PL).
Registration:
There will be a list at the door of my office (Rh 39, room 213). Please register there.
Set texts:
Shakespeare, William (2009 [1592]): Richard III. James R. Siemon (ed.) Walton-on-
Thames, Surrey: Arden.
A reader with critical essays will be provided at the beginning of the semester.