Current Courses
Courses - Winter Term 2018/19
Prof. Dr. Cecile Sandten
Content:
Britain possesses a rich literary heritage. This lecture course will provide insights into the richness, diversity, and continuity of that tradition. The lecture will cover the canon 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. Excursions to a selection of museums will provide additional information on particular topics that the lecture course addresses.
Prerequisites:
None.
Requirements for credits/Type of Module Exam:
As part of the credit points, regular attendance and active in-class participation are required. In addition, students are expected to read the assigned texts for the lecture course. For the successful completion of this course students have to write two essays during the course of the semester. BA_3 students must have successfully completed the lecture course of Module 2.3 English Literatures and Cultures I, History of Literatures in English: From Romanticism to the Present.
Registration:
There will be a list at the door of my office (Rh 39, room 214). Please register there.
Set Texts/Required Reading:
William Shakespeare: A Midsummer Night's Dream (1605). Preferably Arden Edition
William Shakespeare: The Tempest (1611). Preferably Arden Edition
Aphra Behn: Oroonoko, or the Royal Slave (1688)
Daniel Defoe: Robinson Crusoe (1719)
Recommended Reading:
Poplawski, Paul (ed.) (2007): English Literature in Contexts. Cambridge: Cambridge UP.
In addition, a reader with seminal material will be provided at the beginning of the semester.
Content:
Over the decades before, during and after Independence, Indian English literature has seen many important literary figures that have prominently contributed to the growth of writing in English. In this seminar, students will read and critically assess a selection of writers from India, ranging from Mulk Raj Anand to Aravind Adiga, and focus on genres such as short story, novel, and life writing, in order to explore social issues pertinent to the contemporary Indian society, in particular, its caste or class problems.
Objectives:
As the writers under discussion try to represent a ‘realist’ picture of India in their texts related to society’s social problems, students will engage in the questions of class, caste and race with regard to social, political, and cultural aspects which are depicted as intricately intertwined with the mindsets of individual characters portrayed in the texts under discussion. Apart from reading about aspects related to Indian history, mythology, or caste, students will also be introduced to a number of theoretical approaches from Postcolonial Studies, e.g. the concept of the “subaltern” (Spivak), “hybridity” (Bhabha), “Orientalism” (Said), and India-related theoretical aspects, in order to analyse the texts through a critical lens. An Indian film night as well as an excursion to the Grassi Museum in Leipzig will round off the seminar.
Set Texts/Required Reading:
Anand, Mulk Raj (1935). Untouchable. Penguin Classics: London, New Delhi.
Adiga, Aravind (2008). The White Tiger. A Novel. Free Press: New York.
Swarup, Vikas (2005): Q & A. London: Black Swan. (The film Slumdog Millionaire is based on this novel)
Valmiki, Omprakash ([1997] 2007): Joothan. A Dalit’s Life (transl. from the Hindi by Arun Prabha Mukherjee, 2003). Samya: Kolkata.
A selection of short stories which will be provided.
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 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, New York, or Johannesburg. Our critical readings of the poems will be informed by comparative modes from the disciplines of sociology, urban theory, postcolonial studies, 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:
Regular attendance as well as reading and preparing the set texts for discussions is required and part of the Credit Points allocation. The format of this seminar will consist of oral presentations and discussions. Each student will present an oral report (approx. 20 minutes), chair a session or prepare questions for a discussion (PVL: MA_1, MA_3) and write a substantial seminar paper (15-18 pages; MA_1, PL) or take an oral exam (15 minutes; MA_3, PL). Students will be encouraged to also explore their own creative writing skills as part of the class assessments.
Set Texts/Required reading:
Barth, Adolf ([1988] 2005): London Poems. Reclam: Stuttgart.
Schunk, Ferdinand ([1991] 2006): New York Poems. Reclam: Stuttgart.
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 Examenskolloquium/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 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 (abstract, outline, or single chapters). 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.
233 oder 022
Meetings will be arranged in due course.
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.
Dr. Eike Kronshage
Content:
Shakespeare’s four Roman Plays cover a variety of tragic genres: Titus Andronicus is a so-called revenge tragedy, which tells the story of an initial injustice and its disproportionate consequences of murder and corruption; Julius Caesar contains a dual plot that compares the private and the public (after)life of one of Rome’s best-known politicians; historically speaking, Antony and Cleopatra directly continues the events of Julius Caesar – it tells of the diverse belligerent parties which try to fill the power vacuum that arose after Caesar’s death, among them an uncommonly strong female character, the Egyptian queen Cleopatra; finally, Coriolanus portrays the political and economic conflict between the different parties within the Roman Empire, the nobility on the hand, and the plebeians on the other. We will be reading the four mentioned plays, discussing, among other things, their genre, their historical sources, their representation of society and politics, and the early modern context in which they were written.
Objectives:
In this seminar, students will get acquainted with four canonical plays by William Shakespeare. We will address issues such as Shakespeare’s “strategic opacity” (Greenblatt), his depiction of gender roles, the function of economy in both the marketplace (the Forum Romanum), and the household (the oikos), ideas of class struggle, and dramatic genres. The seminar will also serve as an introduction to Shakespeare, his time, and the study of dramatic texts and performances.
Prerequisites:
Students must have successfully completed the lecture course "Introduction to the Study of Literatures in English" (does not apply to visiting students, e.g. ERASMUS).
Requirements for credit:
Active participation in every session of the class is expected! An oral presentation and a short written assignment during the semester will count as PVL, a substantial seminar paper (12-15 pages) as PL.
Set Texts/Required Reading:
Arden Shakespeare Third Edition only!
I repeat: Do only obtain the Arden Third editions of the plays.
Use the ISBN number to make sure it is the correct edition.
Titus Andronicus. Revised Edition. Ed. Jonathan Bate. (978-1350030916)
Julius Caesar. Ed. David Daniell. (978-1903436219)
Antony and Cleopatra. John Wilders. (978-1904271017)
Coriolanus. Ed. Peter Holland. (978-1904271284)
A reader with seminal material will be provided at the beginning of the semester.
And just so you don’t forget: Arden Third edition only!
Registration:
By e-mail: eike.kronshage@phil.tu-chemnitz.de.
Required information: Name, semester, and status (e.g. ERASMUS).
Content:
The novels of South African Nobel Prize-winning author J.M. Coetzee tell stories of immense and inhumane violence, of murder, of rape, of forced displacement, and of public torture. We will investigate how the depiction of violence relates to the post-colonial setting of these novels, to their literary modes of realism and allegory, and how it connects to discourses of intersectional discrimination (of race, class, gender). The three novels we will be reading are: Waiting for the Barbarians (1980), Life & Times of Michael K. (Booker Prize winner of 1983), and Disgrace (Booker Prize winner of 1999). In addition, we will be discussing some of his shorter fiction (“He and His Man” and “The Lives of Animals” [both 1999]) as well as some of his essays (from Doubling the Point [1992], Giving Offense [1996], and Stranger Shores and Inner Workings [1986-2005]). We will also discuss director Steve Jacobs’s 2008 film version of Coetzee’s Disgrace, starring John Malkovich. A critical apparatus of canonical postcolonial theory (Spivak, Bhabha, Said) will help us to gain a deeper understanding of the society represented in the texts, as well as of the modes of representation.
Objectives:
In this seminar, students will get acquainted with the literary and essayistic work of J.M. Coetzee. We will address issues such as postcolonial violence, the literary representation of violence, and intersectional discrimination.
Prerequisite:
A completed BA in English.
Requirements for credit:
Active participation in every session of the class is expected! A presentation or group presentation of 20 minutes (PVL) as well as a final term paper (15-18 pages) are required for the module exam.
Set Texts/Required Reading:
Please obtain the three novels by J.M. Coetzee: Waiting for the Barbarians, Life & Times of Michael K., and Disgrace.
A reader with additional material will be provided at the beginning of the semester.
Registration:
By e-mail: eike.kronshage@phil.tu-chemnitz.de. Required information: Name, semester, student ID, and status (e.g. ERASMUS).
Mandy Beck
Content/Objectives:
Conducting literary studies at 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.
The lecture will be accompanied by a weekly tutorial (details will be announced at the beginning of the course).
Prerequisites:
none
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. Please note: Instead of the written exam, LAGS students are required to attend at least 10 sessions and write a portfolio in order to complete the course.
Required textbooks:
Ansgar und Vera Nünning (latest edition): Introduction to the Study of English and American Literature. Klett Verlag.
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 213). Please register there.
Content:
This course offers a survey of major writers and key issues in New Zealand literature. It will explore how versions of the past have been remembered and deal with the significance of those pasts for New Zealanders today. It will also raise questions about identity and belonging, originality and autonomy as well as plurality and variation in a post-colonial context in order to discuss the formation of a national literature as a reaction to and against well-established, canonized English literature of Great Britain.
The consideration of a mixture of theoretical/critical material (from post-colonial theory, ecocriticism, reader-response theory, etc.) alongside novels, poems and short stories published in the twentieth century (Katherine Mansfield, Janet Frame, Witi Ihimaera, Alan Duff, and others) will illuminate the scope of themes, styles and voices of New Zealand literature. Other aspects will address the influence of Maori culture and oral tradition as well as the relationship between human beings and nature on different forms of writing.
Objectives:
This course encourages students to develop a critical understanding of the recent history of the development of national literature in New Zealand through the analysis of different literary and theoretical texts. In addition, students are made aware of issues represented in post-colonial literature such as how the writer’s background and the historical, geographical, socio-cultural conditions of his/her country of origin shape his/her literary self-conception.
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 (does not apply to visiting students).
Requirements for credits:
Close readings of primary, theoretical as well as secondary texts, discussions and oral presentations. Each student will do an oral presentation (approx. 15 minutes), write a response paper or prepare questions for discussion (PVL) and write a substantial seminar paper (12-15 pages) (PL).
Set Texts/Required Reading:
Please obtain the following books and use the ISBN number to make sure it is the correct edition. You can buy the books at the university book shop UNIVERSITAS.
Ihimaera, Witi. The Whale Rider. ISBN: 9780435135089
Duff, Alan. Once Were Warriors. ISBN: 9780099578413
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 213). Please register there.
Prof. Mala Pandurang
Thu., 1 November, 14-17h
Content
This course will offer a close reading of select short stories by Indian women writers. We will analyze seven short stories by well-known authors through a feminist lens in order to understand a wide range of social-cultural issues from the Indian context. Our focus will be a wide range of thematic preoccupations related to issues of gender and identity, such as female sexuality; conflicts of caste, religion and class; cross cultural experiences; and everyday living in contemporary India. In particular, we will engage with strategies of subversion.
Objectives
- To familiarize students with the background to Indian women’s writing in English
- To introduce students to some of the central thematic preoccupations of Indian women writers
- To train students on how to read the stories under study through a feminist lens
Prerequisites
none
Requirements for credits/Type of module exam
Students will have to submit a short essay of 1000 words as an assignment.
Set Texts/Required Reading:
Lihaaf by Ismat Chughtai
The First Party by Attia Hosain
The Squirrel by C.S Lakshmi
The Breast-feeder by Mahesweta Devi
Mrs Sen’s by Jhumpa Lahiri
The Feast by Githa Hariharan
Incident at Abu Ghraib by Kalpana Swaminathan
Registration:
There will a list at the door of room RH 233, 214.