Reading Theory

Dozent/in:

Christoph Houswitschka

Angaben:

Hauptseminar, 2 SWS, ECTS: 8, Studium Generale, Zentrum für Interreligiöse Studien

Termine:

Do, 16:00 - 18:00, Raum n.V.
All participants registered via FlexNow will be added to the VC course (see link "online") before the course begins. The link to Microsoft Teams will be published on the VC. If you join the course after the first session, please contact the lecturer.

Voraussetzungen / Organisatorisches:

1. Module Allocation:
BA Anglistik/Amerikanistik:
Vertiefungsmodul Literaturwissenschaft / Kulturwissenschaft: Seminar (8 ECTS)

BA Anglistik/Amerikanistik (bis einschließl. Studienbeginn zum WS 2008/09):
freie Erweiterung: Seminar 6 ECTS

LA GY:
Vertiefungsmodul Literaturwissenschaft / Kulturwissenschaft: Seminar (8 ECTS)

MA English and American Studies:
Master Module English and American Literature / Culture: Seminar (8 ECTS)
Profile Module English and American Literature I-VI / Culture I-VI: Seminar (8, 6, 5 or 4 ECTS)
Consolidation Module English and American Literature I-IV / Culture I-IV: Seminar (8, 6, 5 or 4 ECTS)

Erweiterungsbereich English and American Studies:
Master Module or Profile Module I or III English and American Literature / Culture: Seminar (8 ECTS)

Erasmus and other visiting students:
Seminar (6 or 8 ECTS)

MA Religion Verstehen
Schlüsseltexte in einer wissenschaftlichen Fremdsprache MA RelLit 3a: Seminar (5 ECTS)

NOT open for Ergänzungsmodul

2. (De)Registration:
in FlexNow! (except for guest auditors): 07.09.2020, 10:00 - 15.11.2020, 23:59
guest auditors: please contact lecturer

Inhalt:

This course is meant to enhance advanced students’ knowledge of theoretical perspectives and their awareness of the ways in which literary and cultural theories are discussed and applied in today’s scholarly discourse.

We will begin the term with an overview of major 20th century theoretical approaches (e.g. New Criticism, (Post)Structuralism, Marxism, critical theory, Gender Studies, Postcolonialism, Foucault, Deconstruction etc.). Subsequently, we will discuss more recent developments in some of these well-established fields, looking at the ways in which they are relevant for researchers today. Later, we will turn to some of the latest developments in literary and cultural criticism, from Ecocriticism and Posthumanism via Disability Studies to new aspects in the study of Migration (laissez-faire, multiculturalism, integration), Mobility Studies, Cosmopolitanism and global citizenship, cognitive science.

Short student presentations (10-15 minutes) are followed by discussions of significant texts. For the success of this class it is paramount that all of the assigned texts be read and prepared carefully.

Empfohlene Literatur:

Barry, Peter. Beginning Theory. An Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory (2002)
Bertens, Hans. Literary Theory. The Basics (2014)
Eagleton, Terry. Literary Theory. An Introduction (2008)
Rice, Philip and Patricia Waugh. Modern Literary Theory. A Reader. 4th ed. (2001)

The Bronte Sisters

Dozent/in:

Christoph Houswitschka

Angaben:

Hauptseminar, 2 SWS, ECTS: 8, Gender und Diversität, Zentrum für Interreligiöse Studien, Erweiterungsbereich

Termine:

Mi, 18:00 - 20:00, Raum n.V.
All participants registered via FlexNow will be added to the VC course (see link "online") before the course begins. The link to Microsoft Teams will be published on the VC. If you join the course after the first session, please contact the lecturer.

Voraussetzungen / Organisatorisches:

1. Module Allocation:
BA Anglistik/Amerikanistik:
Vertiefungsmodul Literaturwissenschaft: Seminar (8 ECTS)

BA Anglistik/Amerikanistik (bis einschließl. Studienbeginn zum WS 2008/09):
freie Erweiterung: Seminar 6 ECTS

LA GY:
Vertiefungsmodul Literaturwissenschaft: Seminar (8 ECTS)

MA English and American Studies:
Master Module English and American Literature: Seminar (8 ECTS)
Profile Module English and American Literature I-VI: Seminar (8, 6, 5 or 4 ECTS)
Consolidation Module English and American Literature I-IV: Seminar (8, 6, 5 or 4 ECTS)

Erweiterungsbereich English and American Studies:
Master Module or Profile Module I or III English and American Literature: Seminar (8 ECTS)

Erasmus and other visiting students:
Seminar (6 or 8 ECTS)

open for Consolidation Module Literature (semimar)
NOT open for Ergänzungsmodul Literature

2. (De)Registration:
in FlexNow! (except for guest auditors): 07.09.2020, 10:00 - 15.11.2020, 23:59 guest auditors: please contact lecturer

Inhalt:

“I declare he is that strange acquisition my late neighbour made, in his journey to Liverpool—a little Lascar, or an American or Spanish castaway.” ‘“A wicked boy, at all events,” remarked the old lady, “and quite unfit for a decent house! Did you notice his language, Linton? I’m shocked that my children should have heard it.”
The novels of Charlotte (1816–1855), Emily (1818–1848), and Anne Brontë (1820–1849), introduce us to those who have not been born with a silver spoon in their mouth. Far away from London, in the village of Haworth in the West Riding of Yorkshire, we find the Brontë Parsonage. In this modest house the three sisters and their uninspired brother Branwell started writing novels. Male pen names, Currer Bell for Charlotte Brontë, Ellis Bell for Emily, and Acton for Anne helped to carefully reach out for the reading public. Success was instant and rumours about their true identity spread fast.
On the one hand, all three Brontës are quite different in their approaches in developing characters, plots and settings. On the other hand, they have much in common and share characteristics that originate in their belonging to Yorkshire and the Midlands. In class we will read some of their major novels, but also their poetry and novels that were written in their narrative tradition.
Novels we will discuss are Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre (1847), Villette (1853), Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights (1847), and Anne Brontë’s The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848).
Possible topics are love and marriage, the Yorkshire moors, the Gothic tradition (ghosts, vampirism and necrophilia) and Romanticist traditions, colonialism and racism (mad woman in the attic), the governess and other female roles, genre traditions (John Bunyan), city vs country, gender and class, alcohol and domestic violence, Heathcliff as a Byronic hero, prequels, sequels and film adaptations of the Brontës’ novels.

Empfohlene Literatur:

Brontë, Charlotte. Jane Eyre (1847)
Brontë, Charlotte. Villette (1853)
Brontë, Emily. Wuthering Heights (1847)
Brontë, Anne. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848)

America, the 19th Century and the Short Form

Dozent/in:

Eva-Sabine Zehelein

Angaben:

Hauptseminar, 2 SWS, ECTS: 8, Kultur und Bildung

Termine:

Di, 12:00 - 14:00, Online-Meeting

Voraussetzungen / Organisatorisches:

Given the challenges still posed by COVID-19, this course will be an online course.
Registered participants will be signed up by the instructor for a moodle course (Virtual Campus) and a virtual classroom on MS Teams.

1. Module Allocation:

• BA Anglistik/Amerikanistik: Vertiefungsmodul Literaturwissenschaft: Seminar (8 ECTS)
• BA Anglistik/Amerikanistik (bis einschließl. Studienbeginn zum WS 2008/09): freie Erweiterung: Seminar 6 ECTS
• LA GY: Vertiefungsmodul Literaturwissenschaft: Seminar (8 ECTS)
• MA English and American Studies: Master Module English and American Literature: Seminar (8 ECTS), Profile Module English and American Literature I-VI: Seminar (8, 6, 5 or 4 ECTS) , Consolidation Module English and American Literature I-IV: Seminar (8, 6, 5 or 4 ECTS)
• Erweiterungsbereich English and American Studies: Master Module or Profile Module I or III English and American Literature: Seminar (8 ECTS)
• Erasmus and other visiting students: Seminar (6 or 8 ECTS)

--> Open for Consolidation Module Literature!

2. FlexNow-Registration: (all except guest auditors)

• Course (de)registration: September 7 – November 7, 2020
• ECTS (de)registration: January 1 – February 1, 2021

Guest auditors: please contact nicole.konopka(at)uni-bamberg.de.

Information on how to solve problems with your registration: https://www.uni-bamberg.de/anglistik/studium/informationen-zu-flexnow/

Inhalt:

This course looks at the oscillating genre of the short story, the historical development of the form, and its American socio-cultural context, with a specific focus on the 19th century. We will perform close readings of canonical works by (in)famous authors such as Irving, Poe, Hawthorne, Melville, Twain, Wharton, Chopin and Gilman.

Empfohlene Literatur:

• W. Irving, "Rip Van Winkle" (1819); "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" (1820)
• N. Hawthorne, "Young Goodman Brown" (1835); "Wakefield" (1835)
• E. A. Poe, "The Purloined Letter" (1844); "The Fall of the House of Usher" (1839)
• H. Melville, "Bartleby, The Scrivener" (1853)
• L.M. Alcott, "A Modern Cinderella: Or, the Little Old Shoe" (1860)
• M. Twain, "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" (1865)
• A. Bierce, "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" (1890)
• C. Perkins Gilman, "The Yellow Wallpaper" (1892)
• K. Chopin, "The Storm" (1898)
• C.W. Chesnutt, "The Wife of His Youth" (1899)
• E. Wharton, "The Other Two" (1904)
• S.S. Far, "Mrs Spring Fragrance" (1912)

All texts – primary as well as secondary – will be provided via the VC (Virtual Campus).

Native American Voices: Stories of Survival and Resistance

Dozent/in:

Johanna Feier

Angaben:

Hauptseminar, 2 SWS, ECTS: 8, Kultur und Bildung

Termine:

Mo, 18:00 - 20:00, Online-Meeting

Voraussetzungen / Organisatorisches:

Given the challenges still posed by COVID-19, this course will be an online course. Registered participants will be signed up by the instructor for a moodle course (Virtual Campus) and a virtual classroom on MS Teams.

1. Module Allocation:

• BA Anglistik/Amerikanistik: Vertiefungsmodul Literaturwissenschaft: Seminar (8 ECTS) / Vertiefungsmodul Kulturwissenschaft: Seminar (8 ECTS)
• BA Anglistik/Amerikanistik (bis einschließl. Studienbeginn zum WS 2008/09): freie Erweiterung: Seminar 6 ECTS
• LA GY: Vertiefungsmodul Literaturwissenschaft: Seminar (8 ECTS) / Vertiefungsmodul Kulturwissenschaft: Seminar (8 ECTS)
• MA English and American Studies: Master Module English and American Literature: Seminar (8 ECTS), Profile Module English and American Literature I-VI: Seminar (8, 6, 5 or 4 ECTS) / Master Module English and American Culture: Seminar (8 ECTS), Profile Module English and American Culture I-VI: Seminar (8, 6, 5 or 4 ECTS)
• Erweiterungsbereich English and American Studies: Master Module or Profile Module I or III English and American Literature: Seminar (8 ECTS) / Master Module or Profile Module I or III English and American Culture: Seminar (8 ECTS)
• Erasmus and other visiting students: Seminar (6 or 8 ECTS)

Attention: The course is NOT open for the Consolidation module!

2. FlexNow-Registration: (all except guest auditors)

• Course (de)registration: September 7 – November 7, 2020
• ECTS (de)registration: January 1 – February 1, 2021

Guest auditors: please contact nicole.konopka(at)uni-bamberg.de via e-mail.

Information on how to solve problems with your registration: https://www.uni-bamberg.de/anglistik/studium/informationen-zu-flexnow/

Inhalt:

In 2019, Joy Harjo became the first indigenous American writer to be named the United States Poet Laureate. Harjo, who is a member of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, currently serves as the official poet of the U.S., which marks a crucial step in formally recognizing the literary and cultural contributions of Native Americans. For over four hundred years, the fraught history of political, socio-economic, and cultural oppression has predominantly led to reductionist appropriations of indigenous stories by non-Natives in mainstream American culture. Since the so-called Native American Renaissance in the late 1960s, though, indigenous voices have become ever more prominent in America’s literary canon, to which Harjo’s Poet Laureate status is a testament.

In this seminar, we will discuss the longstanding tradition of indigenous storytelling and examine the stories of survival as well as resistance that Native American authors have chosen to tell about themselves and their communities. We will trace the complicated origins of indigenous literature and analyze how it questions, challenges, subverts, or conforms to the literary norms of ethnocentric white America. Through a study of selected works by major Native American writers, we will engage with the complex tapestry that indigenous storytellers have created in the 20th and 21st century. Readings in this course will include Louise Erdrich’s novel Love Medicine, Joy Harjo’s collection Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings: Poems, poetry by Simon Ortiz and Luci Tapahonso, and prose by Leslie Marmon Silko, James Welch, and Linda Hogan.

Students are kindly asked to purchase Erdrich’s novel Love Medicine (the newly revised edition or an earlier edition) and Harjo’s collection Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings: Poems (2017). A digital reader with all other texts (as PDFs) will be made available at the beginning of the course.

HS The Sonnet

Dozent/in:

Pascal Fischer

Angaben:

Hauptseminar, 2 SWS, benoteter Schein, ECTS: 8

Termine:

Di, 12:00 - 14:00, Raum n.V.
Die Veranstaltung findet voraussichtlich online über MS-Teams statt.

Voraussetzungen / Organisatorisches:

Modulzuordnung und Zugangsvoraussetzung / Part of modules resp. courses of study:

BA Anglistik/Amerikanistik:
Vertiefungsmodul Literaturwissenschaft: Seminar (8 ECTS)

LA GY:
Vertiefungsmodul Englische und Amerikanische Literaturwissenschaft (8 ECTS)

MA English and American Studies:
Master Module English and American Literature: Seminar (8 ECTS)
Profile Module English and American Literature I-VI: Seminar (8, 6, 5 or 4 ECTS)
Consolidation Module English and American Literature I-IV: Seminar (8, 6, 5 or 4 ECTS)

Erweiterungsbereich English and American Studies:
Master Module or Profile Module I or III English and American Literature: Seminar (8 ECTS)

Erasmus and other visiting students: Seminar (6 or 8 ECTS)

Voraussetzungen für Punktevergabe / Prerequisites for obtaining credit points:

• active participation
• presentation
• term-paper according to the style-sheet

An- und Abmeldung Lehrveranstaltung / Enrollment:
October 19 until November 6, 2020

via FlexNow "Professur für Anglistische und Amerikanistische Kulturwissenschaft" (Students without access to FlexNow (Erasmus or Joint Degree) please send an email to pascal.fischer(at)uni-bamberg.de or carmen.zink(at)uni-bamberg.de.)

Für Studienortwechsler, Erasmusstudenten sowie Studierende, die den Leistungsnachweis zur baldigen Prüfungsanmeldung benötigen, werden im begrenzten Umfang Plätze freigehalten. Bei Überbuchung des Seminars fällt die Entscheidung über die Teilnahme in Rücksprache mit der Dozentin/dem Dozenten.

Studierende, die an der Lehrveranstaltung als Gäste teilnehmen wollen, melden sich bitte nicht über FlexNow! sondern per Email an und erscheinen zur ersten Sitzung; erst dann kann endgültig geklärt werden, ob Gäste aufgenommen werden können.

Inhalt:

The sonnet is one of the most important poetic form in the English literary tradition. While being extremely versatile, it has also retained some long-lasting characteristics. Originally conceived for the expression of love and desire, the sonnet has expanded its range to include religious devotion, mourning and even political expression. From early on, a central concern of the sonnet has been poetic self-reflection. In all of these fields, poets have been required to condense their ideas in a narrowly defined space.

Starting its overview in early modern period, this seminar traces several strands of development, always with an interest in the interplay of content and form. As the interpretation of poetry requires some cultural and historical background, we will place the sonnets in the contexts of their literary periods. Some theoretical insights into the communicative functions of poetry will support our general understanding of the sonnets and the practice of close reading will improve our analytical skills.