1107-1 Seminar: Literatur oder Kulturstudien Großbritanniens:
Von den folgenden Seminarangeboten (1107-1a-c) ist ein Kurs zu belegen.
1107-1a Seminar: Into the Wilderness: Canadian Literature and Culture
Monday, 9 – 11 am, NSG 124
Stefan Welz (Institut für Anglistik)
Reading list: Margaret Atwood’s Cat’s Eye (1988), Rudy Wiebe’s A Discovery of Strangers (1994), Michael Ondaatje’s Warlight (2018), selected short stories by Alice Munro
Further reading: Hammill, Faye (2007): Canadian Literature, Edinburgh Critical Studies, Edinburgh: Edinburgh UP., The Cambridge Companion to Canadian Literature. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004.
I recommend the purchase of the three novels (Atwood, Wiebe, Ondaatje); other reading matter will be available on MOODLE.
Exam: research project in this class or in 1107-2
Canadian Literature is still a comparatively young cultural phenomenon. Only a few decades ago in her critical study Survival: A Thematic Guide to Canadian Literature (1972) Canadian writer Margaret Atwood fused the conception of Canadian literature with notions of national identity. Today, the question of identity still seems to be on the agenda while we are witnessing an ever growing, stylistically diverse, and thematically rich literary output from this vast country. The course provides a first approach to Canadian literature in English via a selection of prose texts in focusing on the thematic aspect of ‘Wilderness’. Textual analyses of this central conception will emphasize conflicts such as man vs. nature, the urban vs. the rural, mass society vs. individual isolation.
1107-1b Seminar: The Anglo-American Pacific
Wednesday, 9 -11 am, NSG 301
Stefan Lampadius (Institut für Anglistik)
Reading list: A reader with selected texts by writers such as J. Cook, M. Twain, R.L. Stevenson, J. London, W.S. Maugham, A. Wendt, J. D. Holt, E. Hau’ofa , H.-K. Trask and S. Figiel will be available at the copyshop Campus Copy (Universitätsstr.18). The reader also includes secondary literature on theoretical approaches and historical aspects that enable a better understanding of the primary texts. Herman Melville’s Typee (1846) should be obtained by students.
Exam: research project in this class or in 1107-2
This course provides an introduction to the Pacific as a cultural space that has been shaped by imagination, colonisation and representation through a discussion of influential Anglo- American and indigenous writings. Beginning with early reports of the Pacific (e.g. by James Cook), we will discuss texts by British and American authors of the 19th century (e.g. Herman Melville, Mark Twain, R.L. Stevenson), who represented the Pacific as a fascinating new world in the process of ‘Westernisation’ by traders, missionaries and politicians. Our main focus is on 20th-century Anglophone literature from Polynesian islands, such as Samoa and Hawaii, which have been dominated by British and American cultures and have increasingly fought the marginalisation of traditional, indigenous cultures by ‘writing back’. The discussion of fiction and non-fiction by Pacific authors such as Albert Wendt, John Dominis Holt, Epeli Hau’ofa, Haunani-Kay Trask, and Sia Figiel will be supported by introductions to theoretical approaches and historical aspects. Along with the long-lasting effects of Anglo-American imperialism, we will also explore the ambivalent relationship of Britain and the United States in the Pacific, oscillating between cooperation and competition. We will pay particular attention to the discursive potential of literature for understanding national, multiethnic and pan-Pacific identities that consider the vast ocean a connection rather than a boundary. Overall, we will explore key issues and motifs in writings about and from the Pacific, from the pervasive images of the island paradise, the ‘noble savage’ and the mythical trickster Maui, to modern orality, hybridity and diaspora.
1107-2 Seminar: Literatur oder Kulturgeschichte der USA:
Von den folgenden Seminarangeboten (1107-2a-b) ist ein Kurs zu belegen.
1107-2a Seminar: Fictions of Transhumanism: Science as Politics and Policy
Thursday, 11 am – 1 pm, GWZ 2.516
Dr. Katja Schmieder
Exam: research project in this class or in 1107-1
Transhumanism – a decidedly Anglo-American school of thought and philosophical movement – imagines the future of humankind in such promising terms as “super-wellbeing” and “longevity.” Also, transhumanist ideas and preconceptions employ the narratives of “science,” which associates them with notions of credibility, authority, and objectivity on the one hand, and which dismisses the fact that transhumanism originated from eugenicist beliefs about the improvement of the human genes on the other. Accordingly, contemporary politics and (popular) culture addresses these dynamics in contradicting ways.
In this seminar, we want to examine the relationship between (popular) fictions, science, and state politics in order to arrive at an understanding for the narratives that elevated eugenics and transhumanism to their respective levels of international acceptance: We will therefore analyze rhetorical and other strategies used in different “texts” - movies, novels, legal tracts, short stories, scientific writings, TV shows, speeches, advertisements, etc. Questions we thus try to answer include the following: Why are transhumanist ideas almost exclusively fictionalized as suspense and dystopia, while often envisioned as utterly bright and positive in political and scientific texts? By which narrative means does transhumanism relativize its eugenicist roots? What role does religion, feminism, ethnicity, and class play in transhumanist theory and practice?
In our readings, we will focus on the aspect that lies at the core of each discussion on and in eugenics and transhumanism: the control over human reproduction. The texts we are discussing might thus include such classics as Frankenstein, Herland, and Brave New World as well as popular novels like State of Fear and Inferno. We will also take a closer look at the movies Soylent Green and Elysium as well as the TV shows Star Trek or H+. Additionally, essays by Gustave Le Bon, Margaret Sanger, W.E.B. DuBois, Julian Huxley, and other influential figures will further help us historicize recent concepts and debates.
1107-2b Seminar: The Anglo-American World of Today’s Global Political Economy
Friday, 11 am – 1 pm, GWZ 2.516
Friedrich Opitz
Exam: research project in this class or in 1107-1
The economic background of much of today’s surge in transatlantic populism is a hotbed for debate. Populism can be seen as a chiffre for the strains of undergoing structural changes in Western societies since the neoliberal turn of the 1980s. Albeit gradually rising aggregate levels of material wealth, some groups and regions seem to benefit more than others. Inequality is rising with regard to rural-urban divides, highly educated vs lesser skilled, or older industrial areas vs agile financial market places and tech monopolies. How did the contemporary socio-economic make-ups of transatlantic societies emerge? The intersections of intellectual and socio-economic history will establish the fora for this course’ retracing of influential thinkers, ideas and events shaping the unravelling of Anglo-American capitalism.
This module is meant to provide students with the opportunity to engage in-depth selected societal, historical, and political themes that have shaped and shape the United States. Issues will be explored in terms of basic questions relating to American identity, the nature of power in American society, the negotiation of forms of consensus, and how American dynamics influence the country’s exercise of power and transcultural undertakings in the international arena.