Winter term 2008/2009
Below you will find all classes taught by the Chair's staff in winter term 2008/2009.
Please note that this is only an overview. For a full description including requirements for admission, etc., please follow the link.
Prof. Dr. Mark Stein
Dr. Marga Munkelt
Dr. des. Silke Stroh
Jessica Voges, M.A.
Jointly taught lecture courses
Prof. Dr. Mark Stein
Black British Literature: From Equiano to Evaristo
No.: 094481 Vorlesung 2 SWS Wedn. 16:00 - 18:00 room: AudiMax
Postcolonial Britain: An Inquiry
No.: 094989 Hauptseminar (LK1) 4-stündig Blockseminar (24.10.-05.12.) room: H19
This seminar examines British literature written since the Second World War. During this period, the British Empire crumbled and, from the late 1970s onwards, the academic field of Postcolonial Studies arose across a range of locations. We will focus on the literary production as well as those theoretical debates and historical events that may enable us to conceive of a "Postcolonial Britain". Concentrating on this period allows us to investigate in how far postcolonial paradigms can be used not only for reading the texts by former colonial subjects and their descendants but also for "condition of England"-novels as well as texts focussing on other nations within the UK, on refugees, and on migrancy.
Enrolment is only possible during the obligatory first meeting on 4 July 2008; sign up for this meeting by leaving your details with Frau Wessendorf (room 104). See notice board for details.
Student presentations are assigned during an obligatory first seminar session (4 July 2008, see notice board for details); this will enable students to work towards their oral project and their mid-term paper (Hausarbeit) over the long summer break.
Prerequisites for accreditation (HS Schein) include: Knowledge of all set texts by 13.10.08; participation in a study group; oral presentation incl. written report; session chair or respondent; and, if applicable, a mid-term paper (6.000 words, MLA-style) due on 19.12.08.
Shakespeare's and Other Tempests
No.: 095139 Hauptseminar (LK2) 2SWS Thurs. 10:00-12:00 room: H29
Shakespeare's Tempest boasts an impressive afterlife, having travelled to New Zealand, Australia, India, Africa, Europe, North America, the Caribbean, and Latin America - as a range of plays, novels, poems, essays, and films indicate. This seminar focuses first on Shakespeare's play itself in order to then read a selection of the available adaptations, rewritings, and revisionary after-thoughts.
Enrolment is only possible during the obligatory first meeting on 4 July 2008; sign up for this meeting by leaving your details with Frau Wessendorf (room 104). See notice board for details.
Student presentations are assigned during an obligatory first seminar session (4 July, 2008, see notice board for details); this will enable students to work towards their oral project and their mid-term paper (Hausarbeit) over the long summer break.
Prerequisites for accreditation (HS Schein) include: Knowledge of all set texts by 13.10.08; participation in a study group; oral presentation incl. written report; session chair or respondent; if applicable, a mid-term paper (6.000 words, MLA-style) due on 19.12.08.
Betreuungseminar Literatur- und Kulturwissenschaft (für Examenskandidaten)
No.: 095158 Seminar 2SWS Frid. 14:00 - 16:00 room: H19
This seminar is aimed at students in the last phase of their studies. If you are about to or in the process of writing your final exam thesis or are preparing your oral/written exams, this is a forum for clarifying issues that arise. We will discuss work in progress, technical aspects of research and thesis-writing and the ins and outs of oral and written exams.
Students writing their MA-, BA-, or Staatsexamens-theses under my supervision and those who are examined by me are expected to participate in this seminar.
Anmeldung: per email an SekStein_AT_wwu.de unter Angabe von Namen, Matrikel-Nr., Fachsemester und Studiengang.
Postcolonial, Transnational, and Transcultural Studies
No.: 095333 Seminar 14-tägig Thurs. 16:00 - 18:00 room: 032
The colloquium provides the space for discussing recent as well as by now classic texts from postcolonial, transnational and transcultural studies.
14-täglich
Anmeldung: per email an SekStein_AT_wwu.de unter Angabe von Namen, Matrikel-Nr., Fachsemester und Studiengang.
Dr. Marga Munkelt
Literatur- und Kulturwissenschaftlicher Grundkurs I
No.: 094257 Seminar Tues. 16:00 - 18:00 room: Audi Max
The introduction to literary and cultural studies is one basic part of the Grundlagenmodul “Foundations for the Study of English Language, Literature and Culture” and will extend over two semesters (Grundkurs 1 and Grundkurs 2). The module will be concluded with a written exam (Modulabschlussklausur) after the second semester (SS 2009) in which the material taught in the introductions to linguistics and the history of the English language will likewise be examined.
Grundkurs 1 intends to teach students how to look at, deal with, and talk about literature professionally. This goal involves that students recognise interconnections between literature and culture, learn about classifications of texts, and become familiar with the scholarly terminology appropriate for this discipline. Thus, in addition to presenting basic possibilities of defining literature, culture, text, and medium, the course will focus on the constitutent and characteristic elements of literary genres and their forms of reception, the history and canonisation of literature as well as the reliability and authenticity of printed texts. The theoretical introductions to these aspects will be supported and illustrated by examples from a variety of primary works (lyric and epic poems, narrative texts, and plays).
In order to stimulate and assist students’ independent concern with literary and cultural studies, the course will acquaint the participants with relevant research tools (printed as well as electronic versions).
First Meeting: 21 October 2008
Shakespeares two Richards: Richard II and Richard III. Shaping the History Plays
No.: 094974 Hauptseminar Thur. 12:00 - 14:00 room: 101
Shakespeare wrote two sequences of history plays – the Lancastrian Tetralogy (i.e., Richard II, 1 Henry IV, 2 Henry IV, and Henry V) and the Yorkist Tetralogy (i.e., 1 Henry VI, 2 Henry VI, 3 Henry VI, and Richard III) as well as three histories outside these groups (i.e., King John, Edward III, and Henry VIII). Historically, the two tetralogies encompass what has become known as “The War of the Roses”. Thematically, the plays raise questions of kingship, power and morality. Especially the two Richards are used by Shakespeare, in different ways, to illustrate the human lust for power and the teachings of history. His literary transformations of history have, in return, influenced the historical reception of these kings and their governments.
The seminar will focus on Richard the Second, the king whose deposition was ultimately made responsible for the beginning of the civil war, and on Richard the Third, whose death ended it and ennobled Henry VII, the founder of the Tudor dynasty. The course work will emphasise questions of genre (chronicle play–history–tragedy) and the ways in which Shakespeare adjusts characteristics of medieval kings to Renaissance questions of kingship and politics. The presentation of evil and the manipulation of audience responses to it will be examined as well as ways of performing the play—and especially the protagonist—on stage. The personal account of actor Anthony Sher in his The Year of the King (London: Methuen, 1985) will be considered for this purpose.
Both plays, Richard II and Richard III, must be read before the beginning of the semester. A basic knowledge of Edward III, Henry IV and Henry V is desirable. To those students, who would like to enjoy some non-scholarly reading about English medieval history, the following novels are recommended: Josephine Tey, The Daughter of Time (1951), Elizabeth Peters, The Murders of Richard III (1974), Sharon Kay Penman, The Sunne in Splendour (1982), and Elizabeth George, I, Richard (1999).
Course requirements: participation in an independent study group and an individual research paper. Deadline for research papers: 20 December 2008.
There will be a mandatory preliminary meeting (Vorbesprechung) on Monday, 14 July, at 13:00 (s.t.) in room 101. In this Vorbesprechung, the enrolments will take place and the independent study groups will be established.
First class meeting: 16 October 2008
Übung zu "Grundlagen der Literatur- und Kulturwissenschaft" (Wahlveranstaltung)
No.: 094261 Übung 2 SWS Fr 10:00 - 12:00 room: 101
The class is meant to give students the opportunity to intensify, in a smaller group, their knowledge of selected material taught in the Grundlagenmodul “Foundations for the Study of English Language, Literature and Culture.” This course is not mandatory and no credits points are given.
First meeting: 21. October 2008, 10:15
Übung zu "Grundlagen der Literatur- und Kulturwissenschaft"Gruppe III (Wahlveranstaltung)
No.: 095378 Übung 2 SWS Thur 16:00 - 18:00 room:
The class is meant to give students the opportunity to intensify, in a smaller group, their knowledge of selected material taught in the Grundlagenmodul “Foundations for the Study of English Language, Literature and Culture.” This course is not mandatory and no credits points are given.
Dr. des. Silke Stroh
Restoration Drama
No.: 094515 Seminar/Proseminar 2 SWS Wedn. 10:00 - 12:00 room: H20
The Restoration period in 17th-century Britain (starting 1660) was characterised by a range of highly important and interesting social and literary developments. This course will introduce students to the political, social and cultural contexts of the period, before exploring its literary scene, focusing on drama.
We will study four plays in detail. More information on these set texts will be made available as soon as possible.
In addition to the four set plays, we will study a range of shorter texts on the history and culture of the period, on the backgrounds to the set plays, and on the reception of these plays in academia and beyond. These shorter texts will be made available in a class folder in the dept. library during term-time.
Nation, Nationalism, Transnationalism: Historical and Theoretical Foundations
No.: 095440 M.A.-Seminar 2 SWS Tues.10:00 - 12:00 room: 401
This course will explore a wide variety of texts, issues and concepts which are central to the study of nationhood, nationalism and transnationalism. This will be done from an interdisciplinary perspective, focusing especially on the fields of history, the social sciences, as well as literary and cultural theory. Topics will 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.
Jessica Voges, M.A.
Laughter in Black British Literature
No.: 095583 Bachelorseminar 14-tägig Fr. 8:00 - 12:00 room: 401
Urban Identities: Reading Postcolonial London
No.: 095598 Bachelorseminar 14-tägig Thur. 12:00 - 16:00 room: 032
Postcolonial Writing Clinic
No.: 095640 Übung 14-tägig Fr. 12:30 - 16:30 room: 401
Übung zum literaturwissenschaftlichen Grundkurs I
No.: 095564 Übung 14-tägig Thur. 16:00 - 20:00 room: SAC
Jointly taught lecture courses
Hotspots in literary and cultural theory
No.: 095363 Ringvorlesung Wedn. 18:00 - 20:00 room: H19
This lecture is a presentation and discussion forum in which members and guests of the English department present their research work currently in progress, as well as wider developments and debates which presently form significant ‘hotspots’ in the discipline as a whole. It thus provides a showcase for a wide range of current research in English, American, Postcolonial and Book Studies. The lecture is mainly aimed at M.A. and PhD students, but also open to others who are interested.