Winter term 2015/2016
Below you will find all classes taught by staff members associated with the English, Postcolonial and Media Studies in winter term 2015/2016.
AOR Dr. habil. Markus Schmitz
Dr. Silke Stroh
Caroline Kögler
Felipe Espinoza Garrido
Deborah Nyangulu
AOR Dr. habil. Markus Schmitz
Fictions of Frictions: Narratives of War and Violence
092830 | MA Seminar | Wed 16-18 | room: Aegidiistraße 5 - AE11 | 2 SWS
Modern history has not only been deeply shaped by wars and violence but also by these histories’ symbolic emplotment. Both the material configuration and the mediation of the violence of war have a significant impact on contemporary and future conflicts.
This course explores cultural representations of war from the perspective of our postcolonial present of seemingly endless war. Instead of claiming to be historically comprehensive our readings and discussion will set particular focus on nineteenth-, twentieth- and twenty-first century narratives of colonial and anti-colonial violence. Using examples ranging from literary fiction and film to the multimodal spheres of concept and performance art or computer games we will analyze the representation of warring subjects and the imagined geographies of frictions. The course is designed to grasp the horrors of post/imperial wars by considering both, the deadly histories of war and the violent adjustment of its historical truth as well as our own role as readers and spectators in the mediation of war as spectacle.
Themes and issues to be addressed are the dialectics of colonial and anti-colonial violence, the respective strategies of justification, individual and collective memories, trauma and post-trauma, the rhetorics of interventionism, modes of resistance, competing definitions of freedom, or (the global war on) terror.
Introductory readings (uploaded on Learnweb):
Hannah Arendt. On Violence (1969). Chapter II, pp. 35-56.
Margot Norris. “Writing War in the Twentieth Century” (2000).
Hew Strachan. “The Idea of War” (2009)
Kate McLoughlin. “War and Words” (2009)
Bruce B. Lawrence and Aisha Karim. “Theorizing Violence in the Twenty-first Century” (2007)
First in-class meeting: 28.10.2015
Postgraduate Class (Literary Studies)
092844 | Kolloquium | Research module II | Thu 14-16 | room: Aegidiistraße 5 - AE11 | 2 SWS
This postgraduate class provides a collaborative forum for MA NTS students to present and discuss their individual concepts and research findings related to their MA thesis project. Students are expected to build on knowledge, experience and skills gained in Research Module I to further develop their specialized interests and to pursue independent studies on one or several subjects of their choice which (may) will lead to (and later complement) their Master theses. This class is also a forum in which post-MA career plans and ways of realizing them can be discussed.
First class meeting: 29.10.2015
Dr. Silke Stroh
Master-level seminar "Nation, Nationalism, Transnationalism: Historical and Theoretical Foundations"
092837 | Mon 12-14 (Room: AE 11, Aegidiistr. 5) and Thu 14-16 (Room: ES 333, Johannisstr. 11-20) | 4 SWS
EXCEPTION: IN WEEK 1, THE FIRST SESSION WILL NOT BE ON MONDAY 19 OCT., BUT ON TUESDAY, 20 OCTOBER, 8-10 A.M., ROOM ES 131 (BUILDING: ENGLISH DEPT. HEADQUARTERS, Johannisstr. 11-20)
This course explores a wide variety of texts, issues and concepts which are central to the study of nationhood, nationalism and transnationalism. This is done from an interdisciplinary perspective, focusing especially on the fields of history, the social sciences, as well as literary and cultural theory. Topics include: pre-modern political and cultural (as well as national?) constructs of community; modernity and the nation state; the nation as ‘imagined community’; nation(alism) and colonialism/anti-colonialism/postcolonialism; nation and language; the role of minorities; regionalism; stateless nations; heterogeneity in terms of class and gender; as well as recent transnational developments in the fields of supra-national cooperation (for instance on EU or UN level), economic and cultural globalisation, migration and diasporas. We will explore these general topics by focusing on a number of national/regional case studies from different parts of the world, including the British Isles, America and Africa.
While the focus is on historical, political and theoretical issues, we will also do some case studies of short literary texts and other cultural products (e.g. songs or pictures) in order to see how these wider social phenomena are negotiated in cultural representations.
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Caroline Kögler
What is Identity? — Imagining the nation, culture, gender, race, and class
092730 | BA Seminar | Wed 10-12 | room: ES 130 | 2 SWS
In this seminar, we approach a concept that is formative for a wide variety of social practices, filiations, and affiliations: identity. Identity comes in different facets and flavours – national and cultural; gender and sexual etc. – and it could be said that we need identity in order to make sense of ourselves and the world, including human relationships, both individual and collective. Reflecting on issues such as these, we will ask: What is identity? Who needs identity? Who defines identity? Who is excluded from identity? And what can we do with identity? In order to answer these questions, we will read a range of theory (from postcolonial to queer, from cultural to materialist) and we will engage with two literary texts and two films, namely:
The Reluctant Fundamentalist (film; 2012)
This is England (film; 2006)
Jeanette Winterson's Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? (2012)
Bernardine Evaristo's Blond Roots (2009)
Intersectionalities: between race, gender, and sexuality
092784 | BA Seminar | Wed 10-12 | room: ES 130 | 2 SWS
'Intersectionalities' looks at the relationship -- both in conceptual terms and in practice -- between race, gender, and sexuality. 'Intersection' means that both personal and collective struggles, forms of oppression, and empowerment, never only affect one facet of human identity (such as either race or gender), but that they are multifarious, interconnected and complex, and bound to positionality. In particular the intersection between race and sexuality remains embattled in many contexts, which is mirrored in theory by the existance of different fields, Queer Studies and Postcolonial Studies. This seminar seeks, among other things, to establish connections between these different areas to enrich the ways in which we think not only gender and sexuality, but also how we may think both white and black masculinities and feminities, and the queer transgressions that constantly erode these clearly deliniated categories.
Please read the following novels:
Bernardine Evaristo's Mr. Loverman (2013)
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Americanah (2014)
Ta-Nehisi Coates' Between the World and Me (2015)
Please also watch this film: Pariah (2011)
Communicating Text and Theories: Group III
092744 | Wed 14-16 | room: ES 2 | 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.
Literatur:
J.M. Coetzee's Waiting for the Barbarians
Jeanette Winterson's Stone Gods
Studienleistung: regelmäßige Anwesenheit, individuelle Kurspräsentation und Lektüre.
Communicating Texts and Theories: Group VI
092747 | Thu 14-16 | room: ES 3 | 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.
Literatur:
J.M. Coetzee's Waiting for the Barbarians
Jeanette Winterson's Stone Gods
Studienleistung: regelmäßige Anwesenheit, individuelle Kurspräsentation und Lektüre.
Commuicating Texts and Theories: Group VII
092748 | Thu 16-18 | room: ES 2 | 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.
Literatur:
J.M. Coetzee's Waiting for the Barbarians
Jeanette Winterson's Stone Gods
Studienleistung: regelmäßige Anwesenheit, individuelle Kurspräsentation und Lektüre.
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Felipe Espinoza Garrido
Academic Skills I: Group V
092716 | Mon 14-16 | room: ES 226 | 2 SWS
This course will introduce students to the necessary research and writing
skills required for their academic careers. Students will look at the various
research tools available and where to find material for their academic
assignments and gain experience in employing these effectively. Subsequently,
students will learn how to incorporate this research into their own work by
focusing on how to plan, structure and write academic written assignments.
Students requiring accreditation will be expected to submit a final written
assignment in the form of an introduction to and outline for a seminar paper.
The grade for this final assignment constitutes 20% of the final grade for
this module.
Regular attendance and active participation are expected from all
participants.
Deborah Nyangulu
Academic Skills I: Group VIII
092718 | Fri 10-12 | room: ES 131 | 2 SWS
This course will introduce students to the necessary research and writing
skills required for their academic careers. Students will look at the various
research tools available and where to find material for their academic
assignments and gain experience in employing these effectively. Subsequently,
students will learn how to incorporate this research into their own work by
focusing on how to plan, structure and write academic written assignments.
Students requiring accreditation will be expected to submit a final written
assignment in the form of an introduction to and outline for a seminar paper.
The grade for this final assignment constitutes 20% of the final grade for
this module.
Regular attendance and active participation are expected from all
participants.
Academic Skills I: Group XIII
092723 | Fri 12-14 | room: ES 131 | 2 SWS
This course will introduce students to the necessary research and writing
skills required for their academic careers. Students will look at the various
research tools available and where to find material for their academic
assignments and gain experience in employing these effectively. Subsequently,
students will learn how to incorporate this research into their own work by
focusing on how to plan, structure and write academic written assignments.
Students requiring accreditation will be expected to submit a final written
assignment in the form of an introduction to and outline for a seminar paper.
The grade for this final assignment constitutes 20% of the final grade for
this module.
Regular attendance and active participation are expected from all
participants.
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