Courses - Winter Term 2014

Prof. Dr. Cecile Sandten

Content/Purpose:
This lecture course provides an overview of literary history in Great Britain. It covers
literary movements such as Romanticism, Victorianism, Edwardianism, Modernism,
Postmodernism, and Postcolonialism. The lecture course will focus on selected texts
that represent each historical period and the literary movement associated with it. In
addition, the course will introduce students to the governing principles of English
literature that shaped its literary heritage and history.
Objectives:
Prior to introducing the key figures of the literary movements, each period will be
situated in its historical and cultural contexts. As such, the lectures will move beyond
mere factual introductions in order to both contextualise and characterise the socio-
political predicaments of the respective literary figures and genres.
Prerequisites:
None
Requirements for credits/Type of module exam:
Apart from active participation, regular attendance is strongly recommended. For the
successful completion of this course there will be a 90-minute written exam at the
end of the semester: PL Modul 2.3 and PVL Modul 2.4.
Required Textbook:
Poplawski, Paul (ed.) (2007): English Literature in Contexts. Cambridge: Cambridge
UP.
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.
Please attend the first meeting of the lecture course.

Content:
This seminar considers a range of narratives produced during Britain's 'imperial
century'. In foregrounding some of the major preoccupations of the nineteenth
century, such as the anti-slavery campaign, the "Indian Mutiny," and the 'Scramble
for Africa', students will learn to apply the tools of "colonial/postcolonial discourse
analysis". This mode of inquiry considers the impact of imperialism – as historical
reality, scientific argument and critical lens – on the literary and cultural imagination.
Focusing on canonical texts from the early twentieth century, the seminar offers a
primarily, but not exclusively, colonisers'-eye-view of European expansion. In
addition, emphasis will fall on differences of genre, national background, and
colonised region; on shifts over the course of the two decades (1902 – 1922); and on
the intertwining of imperial and anti-imperial tendencies in the same text.
Objectives:
How, for instance, did the writers of the early twentieth century respond to and
participate in the scientific, ethical, political and ideological debates that defined the
imperial age? How do the myths, aspirations and controversies of the British Empire
resonate in works set e.g. in colonial India (such as Rudyard Kipling's Kim or E.M.
Forster's A Passage to India), or in the 'mythical' African backdrop of a writer such as
Joseph Conrad? To what extent did the business of Empire itself give rise to new
kinds of thematic concerns and narrative forms? We'll also watch a classic film that
links nineteenth-century British and twentieth-century American imperial experience:
Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now.
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).
Required textbooks:
Joseph Conrad. Heart of Darkness (1902)
Rudyard Kipling. Kim (1901)
Edward Morgan Forster. Passage to India (1922)
Supplementary Reading
Boehmer, Elleke. Colonial & Postcolonial Literature: Migrant Metaphors. London,
New York: Oxford UP, 1995
Chrisman, Laura and Patrick Williams (eds.) Colonial Discourse and Postcolonial
Theory: A Reader. New York, London: Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1994
Said, Edward. Culture and Imperialism. London: Vintage, 1993
A reader with seminal material will be provided at the beginning of the semester.
Registration:
There will be a list at the door of the office (Rh 39, Zi.214). Please register there.

Content:
From modernist examinations of the metropolis to the postmodernist devotion to the
sociocultural construction of urban spaces, cultural and literary theories and practices
of the last century have been committed to investigating "the urban condition". The
metropolitan imaginary has especially flourished in the genre of poetry, verse being
perhaps a more conducive to the fast-paced changes and permutations of city-life
and the metropolitan's palimpsestic spaces.
Objectives:
In this seminar, students will learn to investigate the 'imaginative geography' of cities
as depicted in various poetries from around the globe. We will pay attention to the
representation of place, space and cityscapes in poems on/from London, Mumbai,
Vancouver, Hong Kong, Singapore and Johannesburg. Our critical readings of the
poems will be informed by comparative modes from the disciplines of sociology and
urban theory, the visual arts, music, film and gender studies, and we will pay special
attention to issues of intertextuality and interculturality.
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). You will be encouraged to also
explore your own creative writing skills as part of the class assessments.
Required textbooks:
A reader with seminal material will be provided at the beginning of the semester.
Registration:
There will be a list at the door of the office (Rh 39, Zi.214). Please register there.

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 and topics 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 TUC).
Prerequisites: Participants must have completed a Magister, Master or Doctoral
thesis graded at least 2,0.
Registration:
with Prof. Dr. Cecile Sandten

Eike Kronshage

Content/Objectives:
This lecture course will introduce the fundamentals of literary analysis (terms,
concepts and methods). We will be looking at a variety of texts from different literary
genres (i.e. poetry, drama and narrative fiction) and periods (from the 16th to 21st
century). 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 learn how to use essential library and reference tools for serious
and effective literary research.
The lecture is 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 is expected. 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. (Reihe: Uni-Wissen Anglistik / Amerikanistik). Please obtain the
latest edition of that book (2014). 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 215). Please register there.

N.N.

Content:
The tutorial will provide a forum to discuss the reading materials required for the lecture course.
Objectives:
Students will have to read a number of assigned texts. A reader will be available.
Prerequisites:
The students must be able to read and intelligently discuss the assigned texts.
Type of module exam:
There will be no exam in the tutorials.

Annika Bauer

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 in
India (e.g. Mumbai, Delhi), especially through the study of literary texts. In an
interdisciplinary mode that will be provided by theoretical texts from neighbouring
disciplines such as gender studies, sociology, or town planning arts, students will get
an in-depth knowledge of the complex issue of South Asian metropolises. A film
programme will be on the agenda in order to supply students with additional
information and interesting aspects for further study.
Objectives:
In an interdisciplinary and comparative mode, by looking at neighbouring disciplines
such as sociology, arts, music, film or gender studies, students will get an in-depth
knowledge of some of the main issues of postcolonialism (diaspora, migration,
dislocation, hybridity) and become familiar with aspects related to earlier (e.g.
flaneur) and contemporary concepts describing metropolises (e.g. spatial-semantic
layering).
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).
Required textbooks:
Chaudhuri, Amit (2002): A New World. London: Vintage.
Singh, Khushwant. (1990): Delhi: A Novel. New Dehli: Penguin.
Tyrewala, Atlaf (2006): No God in Sight. San Francisco: MacAdam/Cage.
In addition, a reader will be provided at the beginning of the semester.
Registration:
There will be a list at the door of office Rh 39, room 213. Please register there.

Mandy Beck

Content:
This seminar explores the idea of "sexual fluidity" as a narrative flexibility of women's
sexual and romantic attractions. It will use literary theory and its understanding of
narrative desire to interrogate our obsession with sexual meaning. Drawing on
notions from queer theory and gender theory via the analysis of selected literary
texts, the course will also address key terms and concepts such as "sexual
orientation" and "sexual identity". Thus, it views the depicted bonds between women
as occupying a literary continuum that ranges from purely emotional relationships to
sexual liaisons.
Objectives:
Students are provided with essential fictional and non-fictional texts that question
prevailing assumptions about sexual orientation and sexual predispositions. By
looking at texts by Katherine Mansfield, Elizabeth Bowen, Virginia Woolf, Sylvia
Townsend Warner, Maureen Duffy and others, students will engage with women
writers of and beyond the canon.
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).
Set texts:
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 213. Please register there.

Tobias Schlosser

Content:
Diaspora has been studied from many diverse points of departure. The concept of
diaspora offers a key to the study not only of race, but also of other epistemological
or historical categories of analysis such as nationality, class, ethnicity as well as
gender. The idea of the course is to challenge the notion of the subject and the
stability of identity, to expose racial notions of national identity, to examine the ways
in which diasporas threaten or reinforce existing social and cultural hierarchies and to
appreciate the extent to which they shape culture and self-identity as well as social
and political action.
Objectives:
The primary objective of the course is to develop critical thinking towards current
phenomena of diaspora, to challenge the concept of border, especially as that relates
to issues of national, racial and ethnic identity. Students will be called to review and
critically reflect upon different theories and historical events through the study of
contemporary literary texts and films from New Zealand.
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 complete in-class
assessments (PVL) and hand in a term paper (PL).
Set Texts:
Duff, Alan (1995): Once Were Warriors. London: Vintage.
Frame, Janet (1987): An Angel at my Table. London: Paladin.
Ihimaera, Witi (2003): The Whale Rider. Auckland: Reed.
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, Zi.214). Please register there.