Summer term 2015
Below you will find all classes taught by staff members associated with the English, Postcolonial and Media Studies in summer term 2015.
Prof. Dr. Mark U Stein
Dr. Silke Stroh
AOR Dr. habil. Markus Schmitz
Caroline Kögler
Jeyapriya Foster
Felipe Espinoza Garrido
Ismahan Wayah
Prof. Dr. Alfred Sproede
Prof. Dr. Mark U Stein
Literatures of the African and South Asian Diasporas
096249 | Lecture | Tue 10-12 | room: Audi Max | 2 SWS
What authors such as Salman Rushdie, Jhumpa Lahiri, Derek Walcott, Dionne Brand, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, Abdulrazak Gurnah, and Teju Cole share, is that their literary works are produced in diaspora. They are not located in India or Africa, but ... elsewhere. They have put some distance between their 'cultural origins' and their chosen location.
Diaspora literatures reflect and promote connections between cultural origins and present locations; they mediate between different social and cultural groups; between distinct historical moments; between departure and arrival. They draw on collective memory, they add to it, and in the process revise, rewrite, and transmit memory from one generation to the next, and from one location to another.
This lecture course, then, explores a range of diaspora literatures at several locations, including the UK, the Caribbean, and the US.
[alle Studiengänge, BA/MA/MAed]
GK Introduction to Literary and Cultural Studies II: Group VIII
096090 | Seminar | Wedn 14-16 | room: ES 131 | 2 SWS
Introduction to Literary and Cultural Studies is a two-semester course concluding with a written exam at the end of the summer term.
Part I of the course took place in the winter semester and covered both literary and non-literary cultural representations.
In the summer semester, part two of the course focuses on literature. It provides an overview of literary genres and discusses methods and tools for textual analysis and interpretation. Reading American, British, and postcolonial texts, students are introduced to the practice of literary and cultural studies. Building on the knowledge acquired in the winter term, they learn how to combine specific critical and theoretical perspectives with detailed exploration of three set texts.
William Shakespeare. Hamlet. c. 1599. Ed. Ann Thompson and Neil Taylor. London: Arden, 2006. Print.
Walt Whitman. Leaves of Grass. 1855. In: Whitman. Leaves of Grass and Other Writings. Ed. Michael Moon. New York: W.W. Norton 2002. Print.
Arundhati Roy. The God of Small Things. 1997. New York: Harper Perennial, 1998. Print.
Students need to purchase a copy of each of these and must have read all three texts by the beginning of the summer semester.
Participants need to have attended Introduction to Literary and Cultural Studies I.
Afropolitanism: black diasporic writing today
096932 | Hauptseminar | Thu 10-12 | room: ES 130 | 2 SWS
Taiye Selasi's recent term 'afropolitanism' seeks to capture a particular 'subset' of diasporic cultural production, the young, sassy, urban cultural producer who is equally at home in Lagos and London, in Nairobi and New York City. The seminar’s focus is twofold; on one hand, we will explore, discuss, and evaluate the debate around ‘afropolitanism’; on the other hand, we read and discuss four black diasporic novels in the context of afropolitan cultural production.
[polyvalent alle Master; NTS: Nationalism, Transnationalism, Transc. & Minorities and Migration; BAP: Systematic Perspectives]
Betreungsseminar
097628 | Thu 12.30-14 | room: ES 2 | 2 SWS
Diese Veranstaltung ist auf die Bedürfnisse von Studierenden zugeschnitten, die sich bei mir zum Examen anmelden möchten oder angemeldet haben, oder die bei mir eine Modulabschlussprüfung absolvieren. Die Veranstaltung befasst sich - in getrennten Sitzungen - mit allen Prüfungstypen; es geht es um Modulabschlussprüfungen (mündlich, schriftlich), Klausuren, mündliche Abschlussprüfungen (Staatsexamen/Magister), sowie um die Planung und Begleitung von schriftlichen Hausarbeiten bzw. B.A.- und M.A.-Arbeiten. Spezifische Probleme und Strategien der Prüfungsvorbereitung werden besprochen; Prüfungssimulationen können durchgeführt werden.
TeilnehmerInnen besuchen ausgewählte, für sie relevante, Sitzungen. Für Studierende, deren BA-, MA-, MAed-Arbeit durch mich betreut werden, findet 14-tägig ein Examenskolloquium (Do., 12.30-14h) statt. Hier werden Projekte vorgestellt und diskutiert. Details können dem Syllabus entnommen werden (s. Aushang).
Eine persönliche Anmeldung ist nicht erforderlich, sie erfolgt in der ersten Sitzung, aber die elektronische Anmeldung in HISLSF ist erforderlich, wenn ihr Studiengang ein Betreuungsseminar erfordert.
PTTS Colloquium
097560 | Oberseminar | Wedn 18 s.t. - 19.30 | fortnightly
This is a research colloquium on Postcolonial, Transnational, and Transcultural Studies (PTTS) mainly for PhD-students and postdocs. Each semester we discuss a range of topical essays as well as work in progress of participants. If you are interested in the colloquium, get in touch via email.
Dr. Silke Stroh
NTS Reading Class: "Fiction of Migrations"
097431 | Lektüreseminar | time: Tue 14-16 and Fr 12-14 | room: AE 11 (Tue) and ES 333 (Fr)| 2 SWS
This course will explore how experiences of migration & diasporicity are negotiated in works of fiction. We will focus on three novels that deal with different historical and regional frameworks: The Book of Secrets (1987) by New Zealand writer Fiona Kidman fictionalizes the real-life historical experience of a group of 19th-century British colonial settlers in Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Lara, a verse novel by Black British writer Bernardine Evaristo, tells the story of a family spanning Europe, West Africa and the Americas, the protagonist being the child of a white Englishwoman and a Nigerian immigrant who married in the 1950s. The Swinging Bridge by Indo-Caribbean-Canadian writer Ramabai Espinet likewise spans generations and continents, this time from 19th-century Indian indentured labourers migrating to Trinidad, to the lives of their descendants in Canada. In addition to close analyses of these novels, we will also relate our interpretations to relevant theoretical debates in migration and diaspora studies.
Kidman, Fiona. The Book of Secrets (1st publ. 1987). Various reprinted editions exist; no specific edition prescribed, as long as you use and English-language one, not a translation. Bernardine Evaristo, Lara. 1st version: Tunbridge Wells: Angela Royal, 1997; 2nd (expanded) version: Tarset: Bloodaxe, 2009. Please ensure you have a copy of the 2nd, not the 1st version, as the two are quite different. Ramabai Espinet, The Swinging Bridge. Harmondsworth et al.: Penguin 2003. / New York: HarperCollins 2003. Either edition ok. Unfortunately, all three novels are currently out of print (on paper at least), but you have various options for getting a copy:
a) Get them as e-books (e.g. in Amazon Kindle format). b) Buy an antiquarian copy. c) Departmental Library / BSCW. Additional, shorter texts (theory, criticism) will be made available in the course of term.
Blockveranstaltung (April/Mai): Di 14-16, Fr 12-14
AOR Dr. habil. Markus Schmitz
Postcolonialism and Contrapuntality
096913 | MA Seminar | Thu 16-18 | 0381 / ES 130 | 2 SWS
This course starts from the premise that colonial and postcolonial narratives are linked through both the Eurocentric neglect of non-European experiences and non-European critical re-visions of that very neglect. Setting particular emphasis on the relevance of the historical dialectics between culture and imperialism on the one hand and hegemonic Western discourses and subaltern counter-discourses on the other it aims at guiding students through the complex debates revolving around postcolonial criticism as a strategy of critical re-reading the overlapping histories of imperialism and resistance to imperialism.
Providing key concepts and critical tools such as contrapuntal reading, dialogic imagination, discourse/counter-discourse, archive/counter-archive, worldliness, voyage in, writing back, or polyphony for our understanding of canonical and non-canonical narratives it shows strategies in literary and cultural studies to include what was forcibly excluded and to interpretively link the colonial past and our postcolonial present.
Ranging from selected contrapuntal readings of literary texts such as Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe (1719) and Derek Walcott’s Pantomime (1978) or Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness (1899/1902) and Tayeb Salih’s Season of Migration to the North (1966/69) to adaptations of the contrapuntal approach within other scholarly fields like international relations, critical terrorism studies or relational geography this class illustrates the immense spectrum of contrapuntal critique in contemporary academic postcolonialism.
Students are expected to give an oral presentation in class and contribute regularly to discussions in class and/or (depending on the program that they are in) to hand in a term-paper (5.500 words, MLA style).
Introductory reading: Edward W. Said. Culture and Imperialism (1993) [There will be a reading test during the first session]
First class meeting: 16.04.2015
Postgraduate Class (MA NTS & BAPS )
097465 | Kolloquium | Research module II | Wedn 16-18 | Aegidiistraße 5 - AE11 | 2 SWS
This postgraduate class is designed to assist 4th-semester M.A. students of National & Transnational Studies program and the British, American and Postcolonial Studies program with regard to their individual MA thesis projects. It provides feedback and advice, both thematic and organizational. Focusing on the participants’ questions, problems, and needs it provides a collaborative forum for the critical reflection of research questions and hypotheses, theoretical and methodological conceptions as well as first results.
In addition there will be the chance to discuss students’ career plans for the time after their M.A. graduation. Advice will be given on both academic and non-academic options. Those planning academic careers will also have the opportunity to discuss provisional ideas for their planned PhD projects and fellowship applications, and receive advice on other aspects of academic career-building.
Students are expected to give an oral presentation on their individual project and contribute regularly to discussions in class.
The postgraduate class is organized as a combination of in-class discussions and individual supervision outside the classroom. Details will be discussed during the first class meeting.
First class meeting: 15.04.2015
Caroline Kögler
Begleitseminar zur Vorlesung "Literatures of the South Asian Diaspora"
Imagining Commonality and Difference in Diaspora: Literatures and Theories
097412 | Seminar | Wed 8-10 | room: ES 3 | 2 SWS
This seminar accompanies Prof. Mark Stein's weekly lecture "Literatures of
the South Asian Diaspora." It is designed to explore particular aspects
discussed in the lecture in more detail, and also expand the lecture with
regard to particular themes such as gender and sexuality. This means that
we will engage with additional theoretical and fictional texts on a week by
week basis. Students are also encouraged to contribute their choice of
texts if they wish.
Jeyapriya Foster
Performative Body Spaces - Corporeal Topographies (Level 1)
096378 | Seminar | Wedn 16-18 | room: ES 2 | 2 SWS
This class foregrounds the spatiality and performativity of postcolonial (non-)human bodies as social spaces, discussing the construction, intersection & transgression of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality & age. Engaging with theories of postcolonialism, performativity, spatiality & gender studies, this seminar aims to discuss cultural productions ranging from literary texts to popular culture.
Introductory reading: Hallensleben, Markus (ed.). Performative Body Spaces: Corporeal Topographies in Literature, Theatre, Dance, and the Visual Arts. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2010. Print.
Students are expected to give an oral presentation and contribute regularly to class discussions. For accreditation, a term paper (MLA-style) is required.
- Communicating Texts and Theories: Group I
096416 | Übung | Wedn 14-16 | room: tba | 2 SWS
In dieser Übung werden die im Grundlagenmodul erworbenen Grundkenntnisse und Fähigkeiten in Spezialisierungsgebieten differenziert und gefestigt. Die detaillierten methodischen Kenntnisse werden zur Anwendung gebracht, indem sie auf historisch oder systematisch definierte Themen aus den Bereichen British, American und/oder Postcolonial Studies bezogen werden. Somit sollen die Studierenden lernen, eigene Forschungsfragen über britische, amerikanische und postkoloniale Literatur- und Kulturphänomene zu formulieren.
Diese Übung hat den Schwerpunkt Postcolonial Studies.
Rushdie, Salman. Midnight’s Children. London: Vintage 2008.
Studienleistung: regelmäßige Anwesenheit, individuelle Kurspräsentation und Lektüre.
Felipe Espinoza Garrido
GK Introduction to Literary and Cultural Studies II: Group V
096052 | Seminar| Mon 16-18 | room: ES 130 | 2 SWS
Introduction to Literary and Cultural Studies is a two-semester course concluding with a written exam at the end of the summer term.
Part I of the course took place in the winter semester and covered both literary and non-literary cultural representations.
In the summer semester, part two of the course focuses on literature. It provides an overview of literary genres and discusses methods and tools for textual analysis and interpretation. Reading American, British, and postcolonial texts, students are introduced to the practice of literary and cultural studies. Building on the knowledge acquired in the winter term, they learn how to combine specific critical and theoretical perspectives with detailed exploration of three set texts.
William Shakespeare. Hamlet. c. 1599. Ed. Ann Thompson and Neil Taylor. London: Arden, 2006. Print.
Walt Whitman. Leaves of Grass. 1855. In: Whitman. Leaves of Grass and Other Writings. Ed. Michael Moon. New York: W.W. Norton 2002. Print.
Arundhati Roy. The God of Small Things. 1997. New York: Harper Perennial, 1998. Print.
Students need to purchase a copy of each of these and must have read all three texts by the beginning of the summer semester.
Participants need to have attended Introduction to Literary and Cultural Studies I.
Ismahan Wayah
GK Introduction to Literary and Cultural Studies II
Seminar| Fri 10-12 | room: ES 131 | 2 SWS
GK Introduction to Literary and Cultural Studies II
Seminar| Fri 12-14 | room: ES 131 | 2 SWS
Orientalism Revisited: Muslim and Arab Representations in Literature and Film (Level 2)
096712 | Seminar| Tue 16-18 | room: ES 2 | 2 SWS
Prof. Alfred Sproede
Transnational Studies: "Ukraine and Russia: Literature, Empire, and Competitive Nation Building"
911788 | Seminar| Wedn 16-18 | room: BA 022 (Bispinghof 3) | 2 SWS
[Module: National, Transnational and Transcultural Studies/ Minorities and Migration]