The Roots of English

Dozent/in:

Gabriele Knappe

Termine:

Di, 14:15 - 15:45, U5/02.22

Inhalt:

Description:
Why is English like that? Why is knight spelled with a kn and a gh? Why does English have so many synonyms, like start, begin, commence or clever, intelligent, astute and bright? How come that we hardly have any, in fact only eight, inflectional endings in English today? And how are German and English related, as they obviously are --- just compare, for instance, goose and Gans, house and Haus, knight and Knecht, light and Licht?
This lecture addresses all these questions, and more. Students will be given an overview of the development of the English language from its earliest attestations in the late 7th century (Old English) until today in the context of the textual transmission and sociohistorical changes. Selected passages from different periods will be introduced. Special areas of interest are the development of the vocabulary, sounds and spelling, morphology and syntax.
This lecture is particularly designed for students of BA "Anglistik/Amerikanistik", Aufbaumodul (2 ECTS). Students from other BA programmes can earn 2 or 4 ECTS points for their Studium Generale (pass/fail), and visiting students can earn 2 or 4 ungraded (pass/fail ) or graded ECTS points. Everybody else who is interested is of course welcome, too, and may attend the lecture as a guest without ECTS points.
Note that students of Lehramt Gymnasium and of B.A. Medieval Studies in their Basismodul must attend the Uebung "Englische Sprachgeschichte", not this lecture.

Empfohlene Literatur:

Suggestions for background reading:

• Norbert Schmitt and Richard Marsden. 2006. Why Is English like That? Historical Answers to Hard ELT Questions. Michigan: The University of Michigan Press.
• Albert C. Baugh & Thomas Cable. 2013. A History of the English Language. Sixth ed. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

HS: Sprachliche Diversität und ihre Unterdrückung: Regionalsprachen als Sand im Getriebe der Globalisierung (HS Regionalsprachen) [HS Regionalsprachen]

Dozent/in:

Hans-Ingo Radatz

Termine:

Mi, 16:00 - 18:00, U5/02.22

Inhalt:

In Deutschland spricht man Deutsch, in Spanien Spanisch und in Russland Russisch!? Diese scheinbaren Selbstverständlichkeiten gelten für all die Millionen von Menschen in Europa nicht, die als Muttersprache eine (oft viel ältere) regionale Sprache und nicht die Staatssprache sprechen und daher zuweilen wie Fremde im eigenen Land behandelt werden.
Die sprachliche und kulturelle Homogenität der meisten europäischen Länder ist entweder eine in historischen Dimensionen sehr junge Erscheinung, oft aber auch eine optische Täuschung, die sich bei näherem Hinschauen schnell auflöst: In den meisten Ländern Europas gibt es einheimische Sprachminderheiten, deren mehr oder weniger gelungene Assimilation einen bedeutenden Aspekt der kollektiven Erfahrung und Identität dieser Länder ausmacht. Als Ausländer nähert man sich der Kultur eines fremden Landes zumeist automatisch aus der Perspektive der Hauptstadt; die Gegenperspektive aus der Peripherie gewährt daher oft ganz neue Einblicke - selbst in Länder, die man schon leidlich gut zu kennen glaubte.
Sprachliche Diversität ist zugleich ein Problem und ein Wert an sich. Es handelt sich bei diesem Themenkomplex nicht nur um ein sprachwissenschaftliches Phänomen. Sprachen sind Elemente individueller Identität, konstituieren aber auch Gruppen. Wir wollen auf Grundlage von Michael Billigs Konzept des banal nationalism den Nationalismus der Peripherie dialektisch dem unsichtbaren "banalen" Nationalismus des Zentrums gegenüberstellen und so auch kulturwissenschaftliche Aspekte thematisieren.
In diesem Seminar behandeln wir einerseits allgemeine Themen wie Sprach(en)politik, soziolinguistische Aspekte der Minderheitensituation, sprachlich konstituierte Identität, andererseits sollen aber auch möglichst viele exemplarische Fälle vorgestellt werden, wobei nicht nur die politische Situation, sondern durchaus auch die Sprachen selbst im Zentrum unseres Interesses stehen werden.
Mögliche Fallstudien wären: kaukasische Sprachen, Bretonisch, Okzitanisch, Galicisch, Katalanisch, Baskisch, Walisisch, Irisch, Gälisch, Bündnerromanisch, Dolomitenladinisch, Friaulisch, Friesisch, Sorbisch, Ruthenisch, etc.
Das Seminar ist geeignet für allgemeine Sprachwissenschaftler, Romanisten, Anglisten und Slawisten. Erwartet wird eine angemessene Beherrschung der jeweiligen Staatssprache, nicht aber natürlich die der Minderheitensprache!

Word order typology

Dozent/in:

Geoffrey Haig

Termine:

Do, 8:15 - 9:45, U2/02.04
Do, 8:00 - 10:00, SP17/02.19

Inhalt:

Word order - the linear ordering of constituents in the clause - has been a fruitful area of cross-linguistic research for more than 50 years and remains the most widely-researched topic in contemporary language typology. This course introduces students to the context and rationale behind language typology itself, and the main developments in word order typology, starting with traditional grammar-based typology as pioneered by Joseph Greenberg in the 1960 s. From there we cover a number of related issues, closing with more recent corpus-based approaches (e.g. Levshina 2020). Word order typology is also intimately connected to the development of syntactic theory, and the concept of universal , which will also figure prominently in the course. The course is divided into the following six thematic blocks: (1) Foundations of language typology; (2) Greenberg ian word order typology (WOT); (3) Explanations in WOT; (4) Areal effects in WOT; (5) Diachronic WOT; (6) Corpus-based approaches to WOT. Students will work on a mix of conceptual and empirical readings and data, and are expected to give an oral presentation on topic of their choice (see below for options), and to complete a term paper of approx. 14 pages.
Pre-condition: Good background in syntactic analysis (at least equivalent to admission to MA programme)

Empfohlene Literatur:

Comrie, Bernard. 1989. Language universals and linguistic typology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press Song, Jae Jung. 2001. Linguistic typology. Morphology and syntax. London: Longman Song, Jae Jung. 2012. Word order. Cambridge: CUP Hawkins, John. 2007. Efficiency and complexity in grammars. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Levshina, N., Namboodiripad, S., Allassonnière-Tang, M., Kramer, M. A., Talamo, L., Verkerk, A., Stoynova, N. (preprint, 2021). Why we need a gradient approach to word order. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/yg9bf, accessed 31.08.2021

Introduction to English Linguistics

Dozent/in:

Manfred Krug

Termine:

Di, 12:15 - 14:00, MG1/00.04
Solange es die Bedingungen zulassen, werden die Sitzungen in Präsenz stattfinden!

Inhalt:

This course is designed to introduce beginning students to the central terms and topics in current (English) linguistics. While the focus will be on present-day English, many modern irregularities (such as the differences between spelling and pronunciation or irregular verbs) can be explained in historical terms. We will therefore occasionally digress into the history of the English language in order to better understand the present. Topics to be dealt with include phonetics, phonology, morphology, semantics, syntax and sociolinguistics. One class will also be devoted to the major contrasts between English and German. In order to equip students with the basic analytical skills that are essential for future linguists and teachers alike, part of the course especially the accompanying tutorials and workshops will be practical in nature. We will therefore analyse authentic modern English texts from a linguistic point of view.

Shakespeare Reading Group

Dozent/in:

Kerstin-Anja Münderlein

Termine:

Do, 18:00 - 20:00, Raum n.V.

Inhalt:

William Shakespeare's works are well known, or should be well known, to all students of English literature. However, when reading Shakespeare some people struggle to fully appreciate his language or his brilliantly designed characters.
This course aims at all of those students who would like to enjoy Shakespeare's works together with other students. Thus, we will not only read two pieces by Shakespeare per semester, we will also provide a platform for discussion or even stage a few scenes to further our understanding of what is going on (corona providing). If you want to join us, you need not have any previous knowledge, only bring a copy of the play and sign up via e-mail to the lecturer to get access to Teams.
For more information on the Shakespeare Reading Group, please also see here: https://www.uni-bamberg.de/englit/extracurriculare-aktivitaeten/shakespeare-reading-group/

Empfohlene Literatur:

William Shakespeare. Julius Caesar.
William Shakespeare. Henry VI, part I.

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare

Dozent/in:

Beatrix Hesse

Termine:

Di, 16:00 - 18:00, Raum n.V.

Inhalt:

tba

Empfohlene Literatur:

tba

American Dystopia: From Classical to Feminist and Young Adult Dystopian Literature

Dozent/in:

Yildiz Asar

Termine:

Di, 14:00 - 16:00, Raum n.V.
Einzeltermin am 22.11.2021, 19:00 - 21:00, Raum n.V.

Inhalt:

Dystopian accounts of non-existent places worse than the ones we live in are more popular today than ever before. But why? According to Tom Moylan in Scraps of the Untainted Sky, dystopian narrative is largely the product of the terrors of the twentieth century. A hundred years of exploitation, repression, state violence, war, genocide, disease, famine, ecocide provided more than enough fertile ground for this fictive underside of the utopian imagination (xi). In this course, we will inspect the dystopian turn in contemporary American literature. We will examine dystopia s form, central themes and subject-matters and its relation to the prevailing and shifting cultural discourses. Indeed, with the terrifying worlds that it portrays, dystopia can voice our worst contemporary fears and anxieties, cast a critical eye on the pressing global issues, warn and frighten, and also fill us with hope for a change, or perhaps a better future.

Starting from the post-WW2 era, we will first examine the rise of the Classical Dystopia (which British titles like Orwell s 1984 and Huxley s Brave New World came to embody) through Ray Bradbury s Fahrenheit 451 (1953), followed by the Feminist Critical Dystopia, focusing on Margaret Atwood s The Handmaid s Tale (1985) and Octavia Butler s Parable of the Sower (1993), and end with today s popular Young Adult Dystopia, with Suzanne Collins The Hunger Games (2008) as a key example.

In our readings, we will particularly pay attention to how gender, race, age, class and environmental issues are depicted in these texts. By the end of the semester, we will hopefully have a good grasp of the reasons behind dystopia s ever-increasing appeal for older and younger audiences and its relevance for our contemporary times.

Empfohlene Literatur:

Primary Readings:

• Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451
• Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid s Tale
• Octavia Butler, Parable of the Sower
• Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games (Only the first novel, but I would highly recommend the entire trilogy if you have the time!)

Throughout this course, we will also briefly refer to several other titles and critical texts which are to be announced.

American Literature of the 19th Century

Dozent/in:

Eva-Sabine Zehelein

Termine:

Di, 10:00 - 12:00, Raum n.V.
Class starts in the second week of term!

Inhalt:

This is a survey lecture aiming to introduce or help review major American developments, socio-cultural themes and literary genres, as well as a diverse choir of American literary voices of the "long 19th century."

Selected literary texts (to be found on VC) will be discussed together – seminar-like! – in class.

Empfohlene Literatur:

All readings will be provided via the VC.

From Know-It-All to Clearly Clueless: Exploring the Narrator in US-American and Canadian Fiction

Dozent/in:

Nicole K. Konopka

Termine:

Di, 12:00 - 14:00, U2/01.33
Class starts in the second week of term!

Inhalt:

No one likes a know-it-all – except perhaps when reading a story. Narrators often seem to know everything and share it with their eager audience – or do they? In this class will study models that describe the various options of how to tell a story, in order to understand how meaning is created and communicated.

We will discuss key texts on narrative typologies by Roland Barthes, Franz Karl Stanzel, Gérard Genetté, Mieke Bal, and Monika Fludernik, to understand the underlying models and principles those scholars observed and developed. We will also explore how narrative communication actually works in a wide variety of literary examples, most of which will be selected from the reading list of the American Studies department (https://www.uni-bamberg.de/amerikanistik/studium/leseliste/) and with reference to the "Staatsexamen" in Literary Studies.

The goal of this class is to develop a firm understanding of various models of narrative communication, while gaining a comprehensive insight into the development of North American literature and its socio-political and historical context.

Empfohlene Literatur:

While all shorter readings (essays, short stories, single chapters) will be provided via the VC (registered participants will be signed up for the VC course by the instructor in the first week of the semester!), the following novels will have to be purchased by each student in advance:

• Toni Morrison, A Mercy (2008)
• James Hannaham, Delicious Foods (2018)

Make sure to read the novels before the first session of this class!

In addition, the following textbook is strongly recommended as companion reading to this class: Monika Fludernik, An Introduction to Narratology (2009).

Introduction to English and American Literary Studies (A)

Dozent/in:

Kerstin-Anja Münderlein

Termine:

Mo, 14:15 - 15:45, Raum n.V.
Students will be added to Teams and the VC manually during the first week of term
ab 25.10.2021

Inhalt:

This course provides a concise introduction to major themes and methods in the study of English and American Literature. We will discuss key features of the main literary genres poetry, prose fiction and drama, explore selected approaches in literary theory and criticism as a basis for analyzing and interpreting literary texts, and survey the main periods and developments of predominantly English literary history.

Please note that all Introductions to English and American Literary Studies prepare students for the analysis and interpretation of both English and American literature. The only difference is that the Introductions taught by members of the English Literature section use literary examples from a primarily British context, and those taught by members of the American Studies section use primarily American examples. Choosing one or the other Introduction does not mean that you specialize in English or American literature, and you don t have to take your later courses in the same area.

The following applies only to students whose Basismodul Literaturwissenschaft contains both the Introduction to Literary Studies and a lecture:
As of now, the final written exam of this Introduction to Literary Studies is also the module exam for the Basismodul Literaturwissenschaft. The exam will contain questions about both the content of the Introduction and the lecture (free choice: English or American Literature lecture). Students, therefore, are advised to take the introductory class either after attending the lecture OR in the same semester.

Empfohlene Literatur:

Meyer, Michael. English and American Literatures. Tübingen: Francke, 2011. (4th edition!)

Introduction to English and American Literary Studies (Course B)

Dozent/in:

Nicole K. Konopka

Termine:

Do, 14:00 - 16:00, Raum n.V.

Inhalt:

This course provides a concise introduction to major themes and methods in the study of English and American literature with a focus on American literature.

We will discuss key features of the main literary genres poetry, prose fiction, and drama, explore selected approaches in literary theory and criticism as a basis for analyzing and interpreting literary texts, and survey the main periods and developments of American literary history. The focus, however, will be on the discussion of textual examples from these various vantage points. The goal of this course is to enable you to articulate up-to-date readings of texts from different genres, in their cultural contexts, informed by key theories and analytical methods.

Please note that all Introductions to English and American Literary Studies prepare students for the analysis and interpretation of both English and American literature. The only difference is that the Introduction taught by members of the English Literature section uses literary examples from a primarily British context, and the one taught by members of the American Studies section uses primarily American examples. Choosing one or the other Introduction does not mean that you "specialize" in English or American literature, and you don't have to take your later courses in the same area.

Empfohlene Literatur:

Required Reading:

Michael Meyer. English and American Literature. 4th ed. UTB Basic. Tübingen: Francke, 2010. (or a newer edition; Ebook welcome!)

All other readings will be provided via the VC!

American Dystopia: From Classical to Feminist and Young Adult Dystopian Literature

Dozent/in:

Yildiz Asar

Termine:

Di, 14:00 - 16:00, Raum n.V.
Einzeltermin am 22.11.2021, 19:00 - 21:00, Raum n.V.

Inhalt:

Dystopian accounts of non-existent places worse than the ones we live in are more popular today than ever before. But why? According to Tom Moylan in Scraps of the Untainted Sky, dystopian narrative is largely the product of the terrors of the twentieth century. A hundred years of exploitation, repression, state violence, war, genocide, disease, famine, ecocide provided more than enough fertile ground for this fictive underside of the utopian imagination (xi). In this course, we will inspect the dystopian turn in contemporary American literature. We will examine dystopia s form, central themes and subject-matters and its relation to the prevailing and shifting cultural discourses. Indeed, with the terrifying worlds that it portrays, dystopia can voice our worst contemporary fears and anxieties, cast a critical eye on the pressing global issues, warn and frighten, and also fill us with hope for a change, or perhaps a better future.

Starting from the post-WW2 era, we will first examine the rise of the Classical Dystopia (which British titles like Orwell s 1984 and Huxley s Brave New World came to embody) through Ray Bradbury s Fahrenheit 451 (1953), followed by the Feminist Critical Dystopia, focusing on Margaret Atwood s The Handmaid s Tale (1985) and Octavia Butler s Parable of the Sower (1993), and end with today s popular Young Adult Dystopia, with Suzanne Collins The Hunger Games (2008) as a key example.

In our readings, we will particularly pay attention to how gender, race, age, class and environmental issues are depicted in these texts. By the end of the semester, we will hopefully have a good grasp of the reasons behind dystopia s ever-increasing appeal for older and younger audiences and its relevance for our contemporary times.

Empfohlene Literatur:

Primary Readings:

• Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451
• Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid s Tale
• Octavia Butler, Parable of the Sower
• Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games (Only the first novel, but I would highly recommend the entire trilogy if you have the time!)

Throughout this course, we will also briefly refer to several other titles and critical texts which are to be announced.

Introduction to British and American Cultural Studies (Course 4)

Dozent/in:

Nicole K. Konopka

Termine:

Do, 10:00 - 12:15, Raum n.V.
Einzeltermin am 8.11.2021, 20:00 - 22:00, Raum n.V.

Inhalt:

This course offers an introduction to key themes and methods in American cultural studies as an interdisciplinary field of inquiry. Thematically, we will explore issues such as religion and immigration, the frontier and regionalism, class and economic success, race and ethnicity, gender and sexuality, America as nature s nation; conceptually, the focus will be on equality and difference as utopian ideas that have shaped American culture from colonial times to the present.

The course is designed to provide you with basic skills in American cultural studies, with a strong emphasis on reading and discussing various texts in their cultural contexts. Our primary readings will include short stories, poems, and excerpts from novels as well as historical documents, essays, political speeches, photographs, popular songs, and films, while several theoretical essays will provide us with a language for discussing changing concepts of culture.

Empfohlene Literatur:

All readings will be provided via the VC!

Racism and American Environmentalism

Dozent/in:

Johanna Feier

Termine:

jede 2. Woche Di, 18:00 - 21:00, Raum n.V.

Inhalt:

U.S. environmental thought has long been characterized by a history of discriminatory, exclusionary, and elitist concepts. Its inception was marked by white male ideals about human engagement with nature at the expense of less privileged, marginalized population groups and their experiences with the environment. This tradition of capitalizing on a very particular, non-inclusive perspective led to racist notions being ingrained in the very essence of environmental thinking. In this course, we will address the following questions (among others). How are racism and environmentalism inherently connected? What are the cultural, socio-political roots and ramifications of this interlinkage? How does the legacy of racist environmental practices impact more recent ecological developments, such as the ever-escalating climate crisis? We will examine how African American, Latinx, and indigenous writers/activists from across the country have questioned the conventional, discriminatory maxims of U.S. environmental discourses and redefined American environmentalism as quintessentially intersectional.

Empfohlene Literatur:

A digital reader will be made available at the beginning of the semester.

Racism and American Environmentalism

Dozent/in:

Johanna Feier

Termine:

jede 2. Woche Di, 18:00 - 21:00, Raum n.V.

Inhalt:

U.S. environmental thought has long been characterized by a history of discriminatory, exclusionary, and elitist concepts. Its inception was marked by white male ideals about human engagement with nature at the expense of less privileged, marginalized population groups and their experiences with the environment. This tradition of capitalizing on a very particular, non-inclusive perspective led to racist notions being ingrained in the very essence of environmental thinking. In this course, we will address the following questions (among others). How are racism and environmentalism inherently connected? What are the cultural, socio-political roots and ramifications of this interlinkage? How does the legacy of racist environmental practices impact more recent ecological developments, such as the ever-escalating climate crisis? We will examine how African American, Latinx, and indigenous writers/activists from across the country have questioned the conventional, discriminatory maxims of U.S. environmental discourses and redefined American environmentalism as quintessentially intersectional.

Empfohlene Literatur:

A digital reader will be made available at the beginning of the semester.