Courses Summer 2020

Lecture: American Horizons – North American History in a Global Context I: From Colonial Times to the Civil War

Monday, 3 – 5 pm, HS 10
PD Dr. Olaf Stieglitz

The lectures will explore how the unfolding of American history shaped American society and thus the country’s political culture, institutions, and outcomes. Topics to be covered include transatlantic influences on the emergence of an American republic, the formation of republican institutions, the role of religion in shaping American politics and society, the evolution of an American capitalism, tensions between regional and national institutions and cultures, expansion and empire, and war. Next to political history, the class also underscores the importance of social and cultural history and emphasizes the plurality of North America’s population. Moreover, the course integrates global, transatlantic, and international developments to better understand the nature of the American experience and its impact on international affairs.

For students of the BA in American Studies, the course ends with an in-class final exam.

Analytical Seminar

either a) Tuesday, 9 – 11 am, NSG 412
Heather Pruessing

or b) Tuesday, 11 am -1 pm, NSG 412
Heather Pruessing

or c) Tuesday, 1 – 3 pm, NSG 412
Heather Pruessing

Through exposure to a diverse range of primary documents and interpretive essays, the Analytical Seminar seeks to guide students’ in expanding and contextualizing the information covered in the module’s lecture component. Furthermore, the course seeks to develop students’ analytical skills in writing, debate, and presentation.

Tutorial (Übung)

either a) Wednesday, 9 – 11 am, GWZ 2.516
Heather Pruessing

or b) Wednesday, 11 am – 1 pm, GWZ 2.516
Heather Pruessing

or c) Wednesday, 1 – 3 pm, GWZ 2.516
Heather Pruessing

Within the context of American Society, History, and Politics, students in the Praxis Seminar (Tutorial/Übung) will work to improve their writing and argumentation skills in academic English. The goal of this course is to solidify students’ understanding of the lecture and analytical seminar content, while simultaneously improving critical and analytical skills through discussion and written assignments.

1003-1 Vorlesung: Introduction to Synchronic Linguistics

Tuesday, 1 – 3 pm, HS 3
Peter Uhrig (Institut für Anglistik)

Exam: written examination (90 min) covering the lecture and the seminar

The lecture aims at familiarizing students of English with the essentials of (English) linguistics. We will set out to define the field, the study of language, and will work our way through a programme clarifying central terms and issues of the major branches of linguistics. These comprise phonetics/phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics, as well as sociolinguistics and psycholinguistics, sitting at the interface of language to other phenomena. Time permitting, we will also have a look at the historical development of linguistics.

The lecture assumes a thorough knowledge of English, but does not presuppose any previous study of grammar or other aspects of linguistics.

1003-2 Seminar Systemlinguistik: Introduction to Synchronic Linguistics

Von den folgenden Seminarangeboten (a-b) ist ein Kurs zu belegen.

either                       a) Monday, 9 -11 am, NSG 111
Antje Quick (Institut für Anglistik)

or

b) Wednesday, 11 am – 1 pm, NSG 301
Antje Quick (Institut für Anglistik)

Reading list: Students are asked to purchase the reader at “universitätsdruckzentrum” (merkurdruck, Ritterstr. 10) with syllabus, course material and tasks.

Exam: cf. lecture “Introduction to Synchronic Linguistics”

Together with the lecture, this seminar introduces into the scientific branch of linguistics. Whereas in the lecture you familiarize yourself with basic concepts, the seminar focuses on indepth discussion, exercises and task solving. We will start our linguistic journey with phonetics & phonology, and after that move into other traditional areas of linguistics such as morphology, syntax, and semantics. Needless to add, the textbook describes English as used in the USA.

1003-3 Übung Sprachpraxis für Amerikanisten: Written Academic Discourse

Von den folgenden Übungsangeboten (a-c) ist ein Kurs zu belegen.

either                           a) Thursday, 9 -11 am, NSG 225
Bradley Schmidt (Institut für Anglistik)

or           

b) Thursday, 11 am – 1 pm, NSG 225
Bradley Schmidt (Institut für Anglistik)

or           

c) Thursday, 1 – 3 pm, NSG 315
n.n. (Institut für Anglistik)

Exam: written examination (90 min)

Reading list: Williams, Joseph M. Style: The Basics of Clarity and Grace. Ed. Joseph Bizup. 5th ed. London: Pearson, 2014. Print. [ISBN-13: 978-0-321-95330-8 / ISBN-10: 0-321953304]

Please have your copy with you in our first class.

The goal of this practical language exercise is the class essay in academic English. Students will practise their analytic and interpretative text production skills in keeping with both the formal genre conventions and current research on academic writing at tertiary levels. Our exercises are geared to helping students mitigate those weaknesses detrimental to structural clarity and target those strengths conducive to enriching the formal elements in their written academic discourse. Our exercises will focus on improving i) the mechanics of academic writing, ii) approaches to text production, iii) patterns of coherence and cohesion, and iv) systematic revision techniques.

Lecture: US-American Popular Culture: History, Media, Methods

Tuesday, 9 – 11 am, HS 15
Prof. Katja Kanzler

This lecture will provide an introduction to US-American popular culture and popular culture studies. It will cover three main areas: First, it will discuss what popular culture actually is – how it has been conceptualized, also in relation to other fields of cultural and literary expression, and what kinds of questions American Studies scholarship has raised about it. Two, the lecture will survey significant milestones in the historical development of US popular culture, from 19th-century minstrel shows to 21st-century (post-)television. Third, it will take a closer look at some of the media that function as carriers of popular culture, how their medial particularities have been conceptualized and what specific methods of analysis they require.

Seminar: Understanding Digital Cultures

Monday, 11 am – 1 pm, GWZ 2.516
Dr. Stefan Schubert
Moodle Course

Contemporary (US) culture has become increasingly digital, from shopping or banking online to consuming entertainment media via streaming services or communicating with friends (or strangers) through social media. In this seminar, we want to use the prominence of the digital in everyday life as a starting point to carefully investigate not one monolithic understanding of (a) digital culture but the multiplicity and ambiguity of digital cultures. If culture itself is already an elusive term, how can we conceive of digital cultures either as subcultures or as part of a larger (national) culture? How do questions of identity, information, technology, knowledge, participation, privacy, or democracy complicate our understanding of digitality? How can we analyze specific digital artifacts and the cultural work that they do?

Throughout the seminar, we will discuss and theorize ways to approach these topics analytically from the perspectives of literary and cultural studies. Topics we will cover may include ‘new media’ like video games and phenomena such as ‘post-film’ or ‘post-TV’; utopian/dystopian writing speculating about the digital future; how issues of privacy, surveillance, and data are inextricably linked; the role that ‘race,’ gender, and bodies play in digital culture in particular; media literacy, ‘politics,’ and ‘fake news’; and theoretical questions surrounding networks, algorithms, and identity or philosophical strands like posthumanism.

Seminar: A Star Is Born: Examining Celebrity Culture in the United States

Tuesday, 11 am – 1 pm, NSG 410
Annika Schadewaldt

In this class, we will explore the phenomenon of celebrity and celebrity culture as it is produced, circulated, and consumed. While we will also look at the history of celebrity in the United States, we will mainly focus on the meanings of celebrity and the negotiations of social values and behavioral norms it allows. That is, we will discuss the ways in which celebrity is culturally constructed and discussed; how it shapes our understanding of concepts such as identity, work, and authenticity; and how it intersects with categories such as gender, class, and race. For this, we will both critically engage with different attempts to theorize celebrity and specific case studies in fictional and nonfictional texts from a variety of media. Some of the questions we will discuss are: What makes a celebrity? Why are celebrities significant? What are the social functions of gossip and scandal? And should we use our time for something more important instead?

The two seminars of this module include a presentation conference at the end of the semester, in which students will present their final projects to the class. The two-day conference will be held on July 16 and July 17. Participation is mandatory. Students are expected to block these days in their calendars. The final decision on the exact date and time of the conference will be made in coordination with the students at the beginning of the semester.

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.

Seminar: Political, Social and Cultural Histories of the Vietnam War

Monday, 5 – 7 pm, NSG 104
PD Dr. Olaf Stieglitz

The Vietnam War took place on several fronts, not just in the rice fields and jungles of Southeast Asia. The war was fought in American universities, on American city streets, in antiwar marches, and Civil Rights demonstrations. This class examines all these different theatres of war and attempts to understand how a small conflict that started in a small Southeast Asian country that most Americans couldn’t find on a map turned into a global war that ultimately transformed American society, politics, and culture. How did the Vietnam War come to loom so large in the American consciousness? How did Americans interpret U.S. involvement in Southeast Asia and how did those interpretations shape the Antiwar Movement, the Civil Rights Movement, and the Conservative Movement? How was Vietnam portrayed in popular culture and how did those portrayals shape American diplomacy and politics throughout the latter twentieth century? How is the Vietnam War still relevant of America’s collective memory? These are the central questions this course asks.

In class, we discuss scholarly texts next to a variety of primary sources (texts, images, films). Students are asked to participate in one group moderation (Studienleistung); deadline for a term paper as a module exam is September 30, 2020.

Seminar: Competition, Cooperation, and Coercion — Contending Perspectives on Global Political and Economic Relations and the Role of U.S. Foreign Policy

Thursday, 3 -5 pm, GWZ 2.516
Tobias Schlobach

This seminar will explore the structure and dynamics of global political and economic relations as well as the role of the United States as a key actor in them. We will also identify and evaluate differing—and often contending—perspectives on these by applying conceptual and analytical frameworks from the fields of Global Political Economy, International Relations, as well as Security and Cultural Studies. We will examine individual cases and broader developments in global political and economic relations and United States foreign policy, thereby mapping general dynamics and specific interdependencies between the two and providing an overview of the key discourses, trends and shifts in the country’s interaction with global politics and the global economy. Over the course of the semester, this seminar will build and sharpen students’ vocabulary and skills for understanding and analyzing current issues and challenges in both United States foreign policy and global political and economic relations.

First session of this Seminar on Thursday, April 16. Please mind the information regarding access and participation during the current situation you have received on your official university email account. If for some reason, this information did not reach you, please contact the instructor.

Seminar: The American Short Story

Wednesday, 1 – 3 pm, GWZ 3.515
Oksana Marafioti (Picador Guest Professor)

This course explores American literature and culture through what has been called our uniquely national art form, the short story. Writer Ann Patchett likens reading short stories to the experience of a swarm of bees, “blocking out sound and sun and becoming the only thing you can think about.” We’ll be doing a lot of thinking about the short story—as a literary art form, as a social and historical record, and as a reflection of the cultural values that shape our ideas of who we are. From the ghosts and fantasies that haunted the nineteenth-century short story to the casual cruelties and everyday redemptions in twentieth century stories to today’s experimental fictions, the short story represents diverse visions of American identity and experience. We will thus roam widely to construct methods for thinking about and a critical vocabulary for discussing and writing about the short story. Students will examine the genre, learning about its formal structures and strategies, as well as its place among various historical literary movements, including realism, naturalism, modernism, and postmodernism. Special attention will be paid to the material conditions of short story writing and publishing—the 19th century rise of the literary magazine, the Little Magazines and anthology collections of the 20th century, and the possibilities for the short story in today’s digital environment. We will read individual stories from a wide range of American authors as well as a contemporary short story collection.

Update: Unfortunately, the seminar “The American Short Story” cannot be offered as announced. We are sorry for the inconvenience. Instead of this seminar, we will be offering alternatives for students who have registered for the module Literature & Culture III. We will contact you about this once the module registration has concluded.

Seminar: Remembrance, Recovery, Revision: The US-American Neo-Slave Narrative

Thursday, 11 am – 1 pm, GWZ 3.515
Mascha Lange

The year 1619 marks the forceful displacement of the first group of enslaved Africans from their West African homelands to Jamestown, Virginia. What followed were two and a half centuries of forced labor, disenfranchisement, and exploitation of African American people. Four centuries later, slavery, which was nominally abolished with the 13th Amendment in 1865, continuously haunts the United States. This haunting is most piercingly reproduced in the genre of neo-slave narratives – in works such as Toni Morrison’s Beloved (1987) that remember, recover, and revise the history of slavery from a 20th and 21st century perspective. In this class, we will read (and watch) a selection of neo-slave narratives to unpack matters such as cultural memory, trauma, representation, and agency. Other topics will include the revision of history from a black female point of view, questions of authenticity and authorship, and the reconfiguration of generic conventions. At the beginning of the seminar, we will also consider neo-slave narratives’ precursors – slave narratives – to understand the genre’s palimpsestic composition and the cultural work it does.

Readings will include Frederick Douglass’ Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave, Written by Himself (1845, in excerpts), Octavia Butler’s Kindred (1979), Toni Morrison’s Beloved (1987), Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad (2016), as well as a selection of movies and TV series. If you would like to get a head start on the seminar’s reading, beginning with Octavia Butler’s Kindred is recommended.

1012-1 Seminar: Fictions of Race in American Literature and Culture

Wednesday, 9 – 11 am, GWZ 3.515
Prof. Gabriele Pisarz-Ramírez

Exam: term paper covering both seminars

How has ‘race’ become part of identity narratives at various moments in American cultural and literary history? How have narratives of race influenced Americans’ sense of individual and national identity? And how have writers imagined and talked about race through fiction? In this course, we will read texts by American authors of varying racial, ethnic and cultural backgrounds from the 18th to the 21st century, focusing on how “fictions” in the artistic sense -novels, stories, essays, etc.- have both fostered and challenged “fictions” in the ideological sense-that is, the assumptions and myths about race that have pervaded American cultural life from its early beginnings. We will explore how these texts negotiate race, racism and identity in direct or subtle ways and how they address the entanglement of race with other categories of difference such as gender, sexuality, and class.

All texts for the course will be available from Moodle.

1012-2 Seminar: English in New York City

Wednesday, 11 am – 1 pm, NSG 405
Sven Leuckert (Institut für Anglistik)

Exam: term paper covering both seminars

Perhaps one of the most recognisable dialects spoken in the USA, New York City English has been capturing the interest of linguists for decades: Its mixture of conservation and innovation and its diversity across ethnic groups remain fascinating research topics to this day. In the seminar, we will trace the history of English in New York City, place it in American dialectology in a wider context, and discuss its predominant features on the levels of phonology, lexis, and syntax. We will also delve into current issues, such as the shifting attitudes of New Yorkers towards their own variety, as well as stereotypical portrayals of English in New York City.