Constructions of Femininity in 18th-Century Fiction

Dozent/in:

Susan Brähler

Angaben:

Seminar/Proseminar/Übung, 2 SWS, ECTS: 6, Studium Generale, Gender und Diversität, Erweiterungsbereich

Termine:

Do, 14:00 - 16:00, 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:

1.1 Seminar
BA Anglistik/Amerikanistik: Aufbaumodul Literaturwissenschaft / freie Erweiterung: Seminar 6 ECTS
BA Berufliche Bildung: Basis/Aufbaumodul Literaturwissenschaft: Seminar 6 ECTS
LA GS/HS/MS/RS: Basis/Aufbaumodul Literaturwissenschaft (b): Seminar 6 ECTS
LA GY: Aufbaumodul Literaturwissenschaft: Seminar 6 ECTS
M.Sc. WiPäd: Aufbaumodul Fachwissenschaft: Seminar 6 ECTS

1.2 Übung:
all modules including an obligatory/optional reading tutorial (Übung) for literature in
LA GS/HS/MS/RS/GY
BA Anglistik/Amerikanistik
MA English and American Studies
MSc WiPäd
Erweiterungsbereich English and American Studies
Open for Consolidation Module Literature (Übung)
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:

The eighteenth century saw the rise of gender as a political category. “[C]learly defined gender roles were” thought to be “central to the stability of English society, and by extension, to England’s status as a world power” (Barker/Chalus 1). Men and women were conceived as ‘naturally’ different, with women being in need of close supervision. Gender roles were becoming increasingly more rigid and contrasting over the course of the century, which is reflected by an abundance of prescriptive texts elaborating on ideal male and female behaviour in a polite society. The Spectator deemed ‘the fair sex’ essential in upholding the moral order and stressed that it was vital to instruct women in “all the becoming Duties of Virginity, Marriage, and Widowhood” (March 1711). Next to periodicals like The Spectator, The Tatler, The Female Spectator and The Female Tatler, conduct books, salon discussions and the newly emergent genre of the novel were major vehicles in either fostering 18th-century ideals of a ‘decorative femininity’ or pushing the boundaries of what it meant to be an ideal woman at the time.

This class will offer a survey of literary representations of women in texts written during the Long 18th-Century, spanning from Aphra Behn to Jane Austen, the first self-proclaimed ‘novelist’. We will not only be interested in texts written by female authors but also in constructions of femininity in the fictional texts and conduct books written by their male contemporaries. Students will be introduced to the impact of Enlightenment thought on gender roles as well as the cult of sensibility’s supposed threat to male authority. Our text selection will comprise a variety of genres: Gothic fiction, amatory novels, sentimental novels, the novel of manners, conduct books, feminist tracts, poetry, diaries and travel accounts. We will be interested in how female protagonists conform with, push the boundaries of or satirically and more or less radically transgress established gender codes. Topics will range from female sexuality and marriage, women and property to women and class and politics.

Empfohlene Literatur:

All primary texts will be made available on the VC. Students will be asked to read excerpts from the texts listed below in preparation for each session.

Conduct books (t. b. a.)
Travel accounts (t. b. a.)
Aphra Behn, Love-Letters between a Nobleman and his Sister (1684-87).
Phoebe Crackenthorpe, ed., The Female Tatler (1709-10; selection of articles).
Eliza Haywood, Love in Excess (1719), Anti-Pamela (1741); The Female Spectator (1744-46; selection of articles);
Daniel Defoe, Moll Flanders (1722).
Samuel Richardson, Pamela (1740); Clarissa (1748).
Henry Fielding, Shamela (1741).
Charlotte Lennox, The Female Quixote (1752).
Horace Walpole, The Castle of Otranto (1764).
Fanny Burney, Evelina (1778).
Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792).
Ann Radcliffe, The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794).
Poems by Charlotte Smith (t. b. a.).
Dorothy Wordsworth, Grasmere Journal (written 1800-03; publ. 1897 posthum.).
Maria Edgeworth, Belinda (1801).
Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility (1811), Northanger Abbey (1817).

Experiencing, Processing and Remembering the Great War in British Literature

Dozent/in:

Kerstin-Anja Münderlein

Angaben:

Seminar/Proseminar, 2 SWS, ECTS: 6, Studium Generale

Termine:

Di, 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: Aufbaumodul Literaturwissenschaft / freie Erweiterung: Seminar 6 ECTS
Ergänzungsmodul Literaturwissenschaft: Seminar max. 6 ECTS
BA Berufliche Bildung: Basis/Aufbaumodul Literaturwissenschaft: Seminar 6 ECTS
LA GS/HS/MS/RS: Basis/Aufbaumodul Literaturwissenschaft (b): Seminar 6 ECTS
LA GY: Aufbaumodul Literaturwissenschaft: Seminar 6 ECTS
M.Sc. WiPäd: Aufbaumodul Fachwissenschaft: Seminar 6 ECTS

NOT open for Consolidation Module Literature
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:

More than a century after its end, the Great War still shapes the European understanding of (total) war – possibly even more so than the Second World War. Now that the centennial of the armistice has passed, it is time to look back not only at the war itself, specifically at how the war is remembered today and has been remembered ever since it ended in 1918. How does current remembrance of the war compare with contemporary depictions of it? How has the memory of the war developed and how has the cultural memory changed over the last century?
In this course, we are going to analyse how the war was experienced, processed, remembered and narrated during three stages; the war itself (1914-18); roughly the decade after the war (1920s); and roughly one century after the war (2010s). To do so, this course looks at the literature of these three stages and assesses the different ways the Great War has been framed in cultural memory for the last century, comparing the differences and similarities in the depiction of the war and its participants (both combatants and non-combatants). For every period, we will use poetry, one play and one narrative text as well as non-fiction texts, the majority of which will be made available by the lecturer.

Empfohlene Literatur:

Obligatory reading:
The following books will be read during the course:
West, Rebecca. The Return of the Soldier. 1918.
Price, Evadne (“Helen Zenna Smith”). Not So Quiet: Stepdaughters of War. 1930.
Boyne, John. The Absolutist. 2011.

The plays we read will be announced in the first session of class

A poetry reader and non-fiction material will be made available on the VC

Introduction to Realism

Dozent/in:

Igor Almeida Ferreira Baldoino

Angaben:

Seminar/Proseminar/Übung, 2 SWS, ECTS: 6, Studium Generale

Termine:

Mi, 10:15 - 11:45, 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:

1.1 Seminar
BA Anglistik/Amerikanistik: Aufbaumodul Literaturwissenschaft / Ergänzungsmodul Literaturwissenschaft /freie Erweiterung: Seminar 6 ECTS
BA Berufliche Bildung: Basis/Aufbaumodul Literaturwissenschaft: Seminar 6 ECTS
LA GS/HS/MS/RS: Basis/Aufbaumodul Literaturwissenschaft (b): Seminar 6 ECTS
LA GY: Aufbaumodul Literaturwissenschaft: Seminar 6 ECTS
M.Sc. WiPäd: Aufbaumodul Fachwissenschaft: Seminar 6 ECTS

1.2 Übung:
all modules including an obligatory/optional reading tutorial (Übung) for literature in
LA GS/HS/MS/RS/GY
BA Anglistik/Amerikanistik
MA English and American Studies
MSc WiPäd
Erweiterungsbereich English and American Studies

open for Consolidation Module Literature (Übung)
open for Ergänzungsmodule Literaturwissenschaft

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:

What is “reality”? And should we still refer to it in singular form? Literary critics and scholars alike warn us that Realism is a notoriously treacherous concept, complex to be defined in a precise and unambiguous way, specially when isolated. This course will thus provide an overview of literary Realism in English Literature, but rather than define the movement we shall contextualise it. That is to say, we shall study Realism in relation to its social and historical context, as well as analyse it taking into account the dialogue it establishes with other movements of the time, for instance Romanticism and later Naturalism and Modernism. We shall have a panoramic view into the “origins” and development of Realism, from both an artistic and literary point of view as well as a philosophical one. Focus will be given to texts of the mid- and late-nineteenth century, namely novels by George Eliot, Charles Dickens and a few other authors.

Empfohlene Literatur:

Dickens, Charles. Bleak House.
Eliot, George. Middlemarch.
More material WILL be added in class

“Where modesty’s ill manners”: English Restoration Comedy

Dozent/in:

Touhid Chowdhury

Angaben:

Seminar/Proseminar, 2 SWS, ECTS: 6, Studium Generale

Termine:

Di, 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:

Module Allocation:
1.1 Seminar
BA Anglistik/Amerikanistik: Aufbaumodul Literaturwissenschaft / freie Erweiterung: Seminar 6 ECTS
Ergänzungsmodul Literaturwissenschaft: Seminar max. 6 ECTS
BA Berufliche Bildung: Basis/Aufbaumodul Literaturwissenschaft: Seminar 6 ECTS
LA GS/HS/MS/RS: Basis/Aufbaumodul Literaturwissenschaft (b): Seminar 6 ECTS
LA GY: Aufbaumodul Literaturwissenschaft: Seminar 6 ECTS
M.Sc. WiPäd: Aufbaumodul Fachwissenschaft: Seminar 6 ECTS

NOT open for Consolidation Module
Open for Ergänzungsmodul Literature

(De)Registration in FlexNow: 07.09.2020, 10:00 - 15.11.2020, 23:59

Inhalt:

English Restoration Comedy, also known as ‘comedy of manners’, covers a historical period between 1660 and 1710. Restoration period followed an era of puritanical role in England that banned any types of public performances at the theatre. The playhouses and theatres were re-opened by Charles II, the newly restored King of England. This new freedom and re-opening of theatres after a ban of 18 years during the Puritan role gave birth to a ‘rakish’ style of theatre that was witty, satirical, bawdy, clever, uproarious and socially diverse. While many critics considered the plays from this period as highly immoral, artificial or just plain old-fashioned, the social satire they offer makes for fascinating analysis.

In this course, we are going to analyze and interpret plays from both historical and social context of Restoration period. In-class discussion will take a critical look at typical motifs and concepts in Restoration Comedy, as well as on the courtly politics, class relations and the divisions between London and country life of the late 17th century England. To do so, students must read the plays listed below by the beginning of the semester.

Empfohlene Literatur:

The following plays must have been read by the beginning of the semester

William Wycherley. The Country Wife (1675).
George Etherege. Man of Mode (1676).
Aphra Behn. The Rover (1677).
John Vanbrugh. The Provoked Wife (1697).
William Congreve. The Way of the World (1700).
George Farquhar. The Beaux Stratagem (1707).

American Journeys: Narratives of Travel and Displacement in American Literature and Culture

Dozent/in:

Lorena Bickert

Angaben:

Proseminar, 2 SWS, ECTS: 6, Kultur und Bildung

Termine:

Einzeltermin am 13.11.2020, Einzeltermin am 27.11.2020, Einzeltermin am 11.12.2020, Einzeltermin am 8.1.2021, Einzeltermin am 22.1.2021, Einzeltermin am 5.2.2021, 16:00 - 20:00, Online-Meeting
Einzeltermin am 19.2.2021, 16:00 - 20:00, Raum n.V.

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: Aufbaumodul Literaturwissenschaft / Aufbaumodul Kulturwissenschaft / freie Erweiterung: Seminar 6 ECTS
• BA Berufliche Bildung: Aufbaumodul Literaturwissenschaft / Aufbaumodul Kulturwissenschaft: Seminar 6 ECTS
• LA GS/HS/MS/RS/GY: Aufbaumodul Literaturwissenschaft (b) / Aufbaumodul Kulturwissenschaft: Seminar 6 ECTS
• MSc WiPäd: Aufbaumodul Fachwissenschaft (Literatur- oder Kulturwissenschaft): Seminar 6 ECTS

--> NOT open for Ergänzungsmodul Literature or Culture!

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 lecturer via e-mail.

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

Inhalt:

"Afoot and light-hearted I take to the open road, / Healthy, free, the world before me, / The long brown path before me leading wherever I choose." (from Walt Whitman, "Song of the Open Road")

"Some will survive. We are the land. […] Our journey – the one ahead – the one after this walking – will begin again from nothing. This is how we go. Always back to nothing." (from Diane Glancy, Pushing the Bear: A Novel of the Trail of Tears, p. 127)

The quotes above are a testimony to the diverse and complex journeys undertaken across American history. In this seminar, we will go on a literary and cultural journey that will take us from early American travel writing to the exploration of new “frontiers” in contemporary American science fiction. Our journey begins with the first accounts of the so-called New World. It encompasses African American voices in slave narratives of the nineteenth century, extends across the American West, and exposes the apocalyptic reality of Native American displacement in the name of American expansionism. We will move from Oklahoma to California during the American Dust Bowl of the 1930s, and, finally, we will travel to Mars, exploring the “final frontier” of the American empire, while also challenging this notion of American exceptionalism from Indigenous perspectives.

The texts discussed in this seminar illustrate the multifaceted experiences of travel in the American context from multiple perspectives. Apart from our three key novels – John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath (1939), Kim Stanley Robinson’s Red Mars (1993), and Diane Glancy’s Pushing the Bear: A Novel of the Trail of Tears (1996) – our readings include excerpts from various narratives, but also poetry and film. Thus, the journey of this seminar transcends not only geographical boundaries, but also moves across genres and beyond the written word. We will examine how American journeys are expressed in different literary traditions and genres like travel writing, slave narratives, Native American oral traditions, science fiction, or Indigenous futurisms. Together, we will analyze how those works are informed by questions of gender, race, identity, or mobility.

Empfohlene Literatur:

Please purchase the following works before classes start in November: (to be read by January)

• Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath. Penguin, 2014 [1939].
• Robinson, Kim Stanley. Red Mars. Del Rey, 2017 [1993].
• Glancy, Diane. Pushing the Bear: A Novel of the Trail of Tears. Mariner, 1998 [1996].

All other primary and secondary texts will be provided on the Virtual Campus.

In the Spotlight: A Survey of US-American Literary History (e-learning course)

Dozent/in:

Nicole K. Konopka

Angaben:

Proseminar, ECTS: 6, Dies ist ein reines Online-Seminar. Anmeldung erfolgt über die VHB!

Termine:

Der Kurs findet ausschließlich virtuell statt. Er steht über die virtuelle Hochschule Bayern Studierenden aller bayerischen Universitäten bzw. Hochschulen zur Verfügung.

Voraussetzungen / Organisatorisches:

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

• BA Anglistik/Amerikanistik: Aufbaumodul Literaturwissenschaft: Seminar 6 ECTS; Zugangsvoraussetzung: Basismodul Literaturwissenschaft
• Lehramt Englisch: Aufbaumodul Literaturwissenschaft: Seminar 6 ECTS; Zugangsvoraussetzung: Basismodul Literaturwissenschaft

2. Voraussetzungen für Punktevergabe / Prerequisites for obtaining credit points:

• active participation (individual tasks and group work)
• term paper in English (following the Style Sheet)

3. An- und Abmeldung / Enrollment:

• via Virtuelle Hochschule Bayern!
• An-/Abmeldung zur Lehrveranstaltung: 1. Oktober - 1. November 2020 (via vhb website!)
• An-/Abmeldung zur Prüfung: 1. Februar - 1. März 2021 (via email to the instructor)

Die Lehrveranstaltung ist als Online-Kurs konzipiert. Sie steht über die virtuelle Hochschule Bayern [ https://www.vhb.org/startseite ] Studierenden aller bayerischen Universitäten bzw. Hochschulen zur Verfügung.

• Zum Online-Kurs auf dem Virtuellen Campus im Wintersemester 2020/21: https://vc.uni-bamberg.de/course/view.php?id=26475 (will open on October 26, 2020)
• Zur Kursdemo auf dem Virtuellen Campus: https://vc.uni-bamberg.de/course/view.php?id=27003

Inhalt:

This seminar is an internet-based survey course that offers students in the “Aufbaumodul Literaturwissenschaft” an overview of the main developments in US-American literary history. The class will help students to understand the links between literary periods, their central ideas, and important stylistic features. The course provides participants with detailed information about the complexities that underlie and connect each literary work and period. The course’s other main goal is to familiarize students with key texts and key discourses of US-American literature, such as race, class, and gender. The texts were chosen because they either represent crucial aspects of their respective literary periods, or because they address topics and concepts that were controversial at this particular point in history.

Despite being an E-Learning course, this is a discussion-based class, so active participation is crucial. Participants are required to contribute to class discussions by posting at least two quality responses per forum. Your learning process will be enabled through your active involvement in the different assignments, which are designed to allow you as much creative freedom as possible while assisting you in your reading and understanding of the poems, short stories, novels, and plays.

Empfohlene Literatur:

Most readings will be made available via the Learning Management System (VC/Moodle).
Two texts, however, need to be acquired by each participant individually:

• Kate Chopin, The Awakening (1899)
• Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five, or The Children’s Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death (1969)

PS Working-Class Literature and Culture in Britain, 1930-1960

Dozent/in:

Mario Ebest

Angaben:

Proseminar, 2 SWS, benoteter Schein, ECTS: 6

Termine:

Einzeltermin am 22.1.2021, Einzeltermin am 29.1.2021, Einzeltermin am 5.2.2021, Einzeltermin am 12.2.2021, 10:00 - 17:30, Raum n.V.
Die Veranstaltung findet als Blockseminar statt.

Voraussetzungen / Organisatorisches:

Modulzuordnung und Zugangsvoraussetzung / Part of modules resp. courses of study:
BA Anglistik/Amerikanistik:
Aufbaumodul Literaturwissenschaft: Seminar 6 ECTS;
Aufbaumodul Britische und Amerikanische Kultur: Seminar Britische Kultur 6 ECTS;
Ergänzungsmodul (ab WS 2014/15; je nach Belegung des Faches 6, 4 oder 3 ECTS)

BA Berufliche Bildung:
Aufbaumodul Literaturwissenschaft/Aufbaumodul Kulturwissenschaft: Seminar 6 ECTS

LA GS/MS/RS/BS:
Aufbaumodul Englische und Amerikanische Literaturwissenschaft: Seminar 6 ECTS

LA GY:
Aufbaumodul Englische und Amerikanische Literaturwissenschaft: Seminar 6 ECTS
Aufbaumodul Landeskunde/Kulturwissenschaft: Seminar 5 ECTS

Erasmus and other visiting students:
Seminar (6 ECTS)

Voraussetzungen für Punktevergabe / Prerequisites for obtaining credit points:
active participation
presentation (30 minutes)
term paper in English, 3.000-4.000 words

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) 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 first half of the 20th century was marked by major upheavals in Britain, such as, for example, the General Strike, the Great Depression, Labour’s rise to power as opposed to the decline of the Liberal Party, two world wars, and the loss of the Empire.

In this seminar, we will be looking into the field of power relationships during this critical period – firstly, from a rather theoretical (Foucauldian) angle and, secondly, from the point of view of literary works. We will especially analyse the portrayal of organised labour/trade unionism in Lewis Grassic Gibbon’s novel Sunset Song (1932), Gwyn Jones’s novel Times Like These (1936), Idris Davies’s long poem “The Angry Summer” (1943), and Arnold Wesker’s play Roots (1958).

If you want to take part in this class, please read Sunset Song and Roots beforehand.