Summer term 2017

Below you will find all classes taught by staff members associated with the English, Postcolonial and Media Studies during summer term 2017.

Prof. Dr. Mark U Stein
AOR Dr. habil. Markus Schmitz
Felipe Espinoza Garrido
Deborah Nyangulu
Julian Wacker

Prof. Dr. Mark U Stein

Lecture: "From Equiano to Evaristo: Black and Asian British textuality from the eighteenth century until today"
0986860 | Tue 10-12 | AudiMax | 2 SWS

„Man Moses, you are still living in the Dark Ages! You don’t even know that we have created a Black Literature, that it have writers who write some powerful books what making the whole world realize our existence and our struggle.”

(Sam Selvon, Moses Ascending, 1975: 43)

For well over two centuries now, black and Asian authors have written and published in the British Isles – effectively changing the face of English literature beyond recognition. The lecture course surveys this extensive and varied body of black and Asian British writing, introducing students to texts such as Olaudah Equiano’s Interesting Narrative (1789), Mary Prince’s History (1831), Mary Seacole’s Wonderful Adventures (1857), Cornelia Sorabji’s India Calling (1934), Samuel Selvon’s The Lonely Londoners (1956), Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses (1988), Zadie Smith’s White Teeth (2000), and Bernardine Evaristo’s Mr Loverman (2013). These texts not only forge links across time and space, drawing upon and creating connections between Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, and the UK. Increasingly, the sense of a literary tradition and a cultural history emerges, with texts referring back to earlier writing; such dialogues will be observed in terms of form, thematics, and language. This lecture explores the cultural locations of these texts; it invites reflection on critical terminology such as ”black British” and ”British Asian”, situating cultural production in British, postcolonial, diasporic, transnational, and translocal contexts. For some sessions, reading samples or audio-visual material to be discussed in the lecture will be made available via learnweb.

Olaudah Equiano’s Interesting Narrative (1789)

Mary Prince’s History (1831)

Mary Seacole’ Wonderful Adventures (1857)

Cornelia Sorabji’s India Calling (1934)

Samuel Selvon’s The Lonely Londoners (1956)

Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses (1988)

Zadie Smith’s White Teeth (2000)

Bernardine Evaristo’s Mr Loverman (2013)

Click here for an interview with Evaristo on diversity and literature in the UK.: https://youtu.be/vJXDcKNVBDI

Bernardine Evaristo: Reading from Mr Loverman & interview (#BritLitBerlin)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vMJqMUTDlM

'Black and British: A Forgotten History' -- clips from David Olusoga's BBC TV programme

BLACK BRITAIN ON FILM (a collection of clips and films at the bfi)
http://player.bfi.org.uk/collections/black-britain-on-film/

Master-level seminar: "queer/in black Britain"
098764 | Thu 10.00-12.00 c.t. | ES 131| 2 SWS

Creative and polemical texts have the power to make visible, to challenge, to resist, to rewrite, and to overcome dominant versions of sexuality, race, and textuality. Britain’s Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender and Queer poets, dramatists, novelists, and filmmakers of African, Asian, and Caribbean descent frequently challenge and critically revise heteronormativity and hegemonic whiteness. Their representations can generate visibility and voice, carve out and reclaim cultural space, and construct agency. They question how we think about identity, sexuality, gender, the body; how these categories interrelate; which rights they secure their bearers. This class engages with intersections of race, sexuality, identification, and textuality. We will explore a range of work by black and Asian British LGBTQ writers, considering connections between creativity and existence, sexuality and community, the oral and the scribal, focusing on the performativity of languages, genres and identifications. Apart from the novels by Jackie Kay and Bernardine Evaristo (below), we will also read work by Barbara Burford, Suniti Namjoshi, Valerie Mason-John, and Ayub Khan-Din, films by Isaac Julien and H. Kureishi/St. Frears, theoretical texts by Kobena Mercer and Sara Ahmed, and criticism by Kei Miller, Kanika Batra, and others.

In order to take this class, please read the following novels during the semester break; in the first seminar session, a quiz on these texts will make sure that all participants have done their reading:

Jackie Kay, Trumpet. Picador 1998. (EUR 10.99)

Bernardine Evaristo, Mr Loverman. Penguin 2013. (EUR 10.99)

Please note that the following books are now available at ROSTA bookshop, Aegidiistr. 12, Münster.

Prospective seminar participants are advised that the decision who receives a place in my seminar “Queer/in Black Britain” is, at least in the first instance, taken by the Study Advisory Office. At a later stage, any available spaces will be allocated by Prof Stein.

*Tom at the Farm * by Michel Marc Bouchard
http://www.theater-muenster.com/produktionen/tom-auf-dem-lande.html

This is the second of a two-semester postgraduate class for students of National & Transnational Studies. Designed to assist students in independent studies that may lead to their final Master theses it is organized as a combination of presentations, in-class discussions and individual supervision outside the classroom. Providing a collaborative forum for the critical reflection of provisional research conceptions and first results it aims at guiding through the often difficult process of finding a topic, conceptualizing its exploration, and composing a first draft of an expose. Participants are expected to present their projects, hypotheses, theoretical references, methods and preliminary results and to perform at least one writing assignment. They will receive feedback and advice, both thematic and organizational. Details will be discussed in the first class meeting.

Betreungsseminar Literatur- und Kulturwissenschaft
098793 | Thu 14.00-15.30 s.t. | Aegidiistr. 5 AE11 | fortnightly, odd weeks

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. Details können dem Syllabus entnommen werden (s. Aushang). (Do, 14-16h, ungerade Wochen).

Für Studierende, deren BA-, MA-, MAed-Arbeit durch mich betreut werden, findet 14-tägig ein Examenskolloquium (Do, 14-16h, gerade Wochen) statt. Hier werden Projekte vorgestellt und diskutiert. Details können dem Syllabus entnommen werden (s. Aushang).

Eine persönliche Anmeldung ist nicht erforderlich. Die elektronische Anmeldung in HISLSF ist nur dann erforderlich, wenn ihr Studiengang ein Betreuungsseminar erfordert.

Examenskolloquium
098798| Thu 14.00-15.30 s.t. | Aegidiistr. 5 AE11 | fortnightly, even weeks

Colloquium "Postcolonial, Transnational and Transcultural Studies"
098788 | Oberseminar | Tue 16-18 | 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.

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AOR Dr. habil. Markus Schmitz

Postcolonialism (students-for-students)
098771 | Seminar | Thu 12-14 | ES 2 | 2 SWS

First in-class meeting: 27.4.2017

This Students-for-Students-class sets focus on postcolonial creative works and postcolonial theory. It starts from the premise that colonial and postcolonial narratives are linked through both the Eurocentric neglect of non-European experiences and ongoing non-Western critical re-visions of that very neglect. In class presentations can revolve around any topic across spatial and temporal locations related to the historical dialectics between culture and imperialism on the one hand and hegemonic Western discourses and subaltern counter-discourses on the other.

The course assist students in guiding their fellow-students through the complex debates concerned with postcolonial literatures and cultures as well as with postcolonial criticism as a strategy of critical (re-)reading the overlapping histories of imperialism and resistance to imperialism as well as criticizing the continuing effects of these histories. Presentations are expected to interpretively illustrate postcolonial key-concepts and critical tools such as contrapuntal reading, dialogic imagination, discourse/counter-discourse, archive/counter-archive, worldliness, voyage in, writing back, or polyphony. Such presentations can either draw on selected readings of literary texts or other cultural representations or on a work of theory to develop in-class strategies of including what was and all too often still is forcibly excluded hence pedagogically/interpretively linking the colonial past and our postcolonial present.

Students are expected to design (with the lecturer’s assistance outside the classroom) and to conduct one (sub-)session and contribute regularly to discussions in class.

Introductory reading: Robert J.C. Young. Postcolonialism. A Very Short Introduction (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003)

Postgraduate Class (Literary Studies)
098781 | Seminar | Wed 16-18 s.t. | ES 3 | 2 SWS

First in-class meeting: 26.4.2017

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.

Introduction to Literary and Cultural Studies II: Group
098660 | Seminar | Tue 16-18 | ES 227 | 2 SWS

First in-class meeting: 25.4.2017

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.

First class meeting: 25.04.2017

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.

Tsitsi Dangarembga, Nervous Conditions. Banbury: Ayebia Clarke Publishing, Ltd., 2004.

Students need to purchase a copy of each of these and must have read all three texts by the beginning of the summer semester.

Felipe Espinoza Garrido

Borders and Crossings in Contemporary Cinema and TV
098690 | Bachelor seminar | Mon 14-16 | ES 131 | 2 SWS

This class will explore a range of questions surrounding filmic representations of national and regional boundaries. How to these portrayals negotiate questions of national and transnational identities and belongings? How can they be read with relation to underlying power structures and current and historical discourses on migration and immigration? How can we understand (and/or dismantle) the construction of borders as historiography? As such questions will be addressed on the basis of the specific cinematic mediation of borders with a focus on cinematic form (Genette's 'discours'), the first part of the class will include an introduction to film studies.

All students must be familiar with the following films/TV series before the first session:
The Bridge, Season 1 (FX, 2013-2014)
Bhaji on the Beach (Gurinder Chadha, 1993)
District 9 (Neill Blomkamp, 2009)

Supplementary Class (Lecture Prof. Stein)
098777 | Master NTS class | Mon 10-12 | ES 202 (SAC) | 2 SWS

This seminar accompanies Prof. Mark Stein's weekly lecture "From Equiano to Evaristo: Black and Asian British textuality from the eighteenth century until today." It is designed to explore particular aspects discussed in the lecture in more detail, and also expand the lecture with regard to particular themes and media, such as Black and Asian British film and TV. 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.

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Deborah Nyangulu

Criticism, Theory and Practice
098721 | Wed 8-10 | ES 130 | 2 SWS

This writing-intensive course brings into practice the art of criticism and applying theory. We will work with a 'keywords model' approach where each student or a group of students will decide on a particular keyword (for eg. feminism, neo-colonialism, post-truth, cosmopolitanism, etc). The student(s) will research what the keyword means and how it is used in different contexts. What kind of debates is the keyword entangled in or what kind of debates does it generate? The student(s) will present his/her findings in class as well as write an article (about 500 - 1000 words) demonstrating how the keyword can be applied, for example, to interpret a work of art, a political speech or a topical issue in the news. We will maintain a webpage where we will publish the articles (students can choose whether to publish anonymously or not). All students will be expected to actively participate in class activities as well as critique the work of their peers. Students wishing to take part in this course must have an interest in writing and a keen interest in current global affairs. A course folder will be made available on Learnweb and it can be unlocked with the key "theory" (without the quotes) after logging in with your university credentials. Recommended readings to prepare you for this course include the Oxford Very Short Introduction Series to Critical Theory/Literary Theory and M.H Abrams A Glossary of Literary Terms. Students will also be expected to hand in an original term-paper at the end of the course.

Academic Skills II: Group VI
098671 | Tue 10-12 | ES 24 | 2 SWS

This course builds up on skills learnt in Academic Skills I. Focus in this course will be on conducting oral presentations and improving critical reading skills. Students will be expected to actively participate in class and give an oral presentation on a topic of their choice.

Introduction to Literary and Cultural Studies II: Group I
098671 | Tue 12-14 | ES 24 | 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.

Tsitsi Dangarembga, Nervous Conditions. Banbury: Ayebia Clarke Publishing, Ltd., 2004.

Students need to purchase a copy of each of these and must have read all three texts by the beginning of the summer semester.

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Julian Wacker

Academic Skills II: Group XI
098676 | Wed 08-10 | ES 227 | 2 SWS