Media Session "So Much More than Red, White, and Blue: Movies with Colors in their Title"

Dozent/in:

Nicole K. Konopka

Termine:

Mi, 20:00 - 22:30, U5/00.24
The FIRST Media Session takes place on Nov. 2, 2022 at 8 p.m. sharp.

Inhalt:

This semester we will focus on movie classics and some lesser known cinematic masterpieces from the U.S. with colors in their title. Against the backdrop of multiple movie genres (e.g. comedy, drama, satire, horror, and animation) we will investigate how those movies utilize or play with the meaning of their eponymous color, often in order to address crucial issues in US-American history and culture.

Feel free to send an Email with recommendations to the instructor before Oct. 10!

Linguistic Medievalism

Dozent/in:

Gabriele Knappe

Termine:

Do, 12:15 - 13:45, U5/02.18

Inhalt:

Where do runes come from and why are they magical objects today? Are the Old English passages in TV series of the past decades well constructed, such as found in dialogues of the Canadian-Irish series “Vikings” (2013-2019) or BBC “Merlin” (2008-2012)? How are Geoffrey Chaucer's Middle English Canterbury Tales rapped on Youtube? What does it mean when what was once known as the “Dark Ages” emerges as colourful and noisy in the media and the medieval reenactment scene, and when not only the costumes but also the languages are manufactured to be as authentic as possible? All these signs of present-day engagement with the Middle Ages belong to “Medievialism”, defined by Richard Utz as “the ongoing and broad cultural phenomenon of reinventing, remembering, recreating, and reenacting the Middle Ages”. Where this medievalism is particularly concerned with language, it is known as linguistic medievalism, and it is studied in a rather recent branch of scholarship.

Before the backdrop of scholarly knowledge of the structure and use of Old English (ca. 700-1100) and Middle English (ca. 1100-1500) on all levels – phonology, morphology, syntax, lexicology, semantics and pragmatics – and also of selected original texts which served as models for modern productions, this lecture discusses a selection of modern performances, scenes and songs in Old and Middle English. Use of language-learning websites, dictionaries and books will be practiced so that by the end of term the students should be enabled to tackle original Old and Middle English texts themselves, and also to evaluate to which degree historical accuracy in modern performances has actually been reached. We will also discuss how important accuracy is in linguistic medievalism.

Knowledge of Old and/or Middle English is no prerequisite for attending this lecture – all students are welcome.

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.

Sociolinguistics

Dozent/in:

Laurentia Schreiber

Termine:

Do, 14:15 - 15:45, SP17/02.19
ab 27.10.2022

Inhalt:

In this course, we are dealing with the basics of how humans use language. This question is located at the intersection of language and society. We will discuss the field of language and power, i.e., the role of language in politics and nation states and the emergence of minority languages as opposed to majority languages. Furthermore, we will discern the differences in speaking a dialect versus the language of a certain social group such as youth language. Dealing with these types of linguistic variation, we will come across certain social variables that shape the way how we speak; among them social variables such as gender, age, socioeconomic class, and profession but also sociolinguistic variables such as language identity and attitudes. In the intersection of who we are and how we want to be seen, we will ultimately investigate on a pragmatic level what we are doing with language when we speak.

The course is built on active participation of the group and will grant a lot of freedom for individual interests and student investigations.

Empfohlene Literatur:

• Meyerhoff, Miriam. 2011. Introducing sociolinguistics. London & New York: Routledge.
• Romaine. 2010. Language in society: An introduction to sociolinguistics. Oxford: OUP.

Introduction to English Linguistics

Dozent/in:

Heinrich Ramisch

Termine:

Di, 12:15 - 14:00, MG1/00.04

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 - 19:30, U9/02.01
Einzeltermin am 12.1.2023, 18:00 - 19:00, U9/01.11
ab 9.1.2023

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. Henry VI, part III.

British Novels of the Long Eighteenth Century

Dozent/in:

Katrin Röder

Termine:

Di, 16:00 - 17:30, U5/01.22

Inhalt:

This lecture offers a survey of the most important developments pertaining to the British novel as a literary genre that evolved in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. It introduces important precursors and influences, the political and social framework of and conditions for the development of the genre as well as narrative modes and subgenres (e. g. realist, sentimental, picaresque, comic, speculative, utopian, early feminist, Jacobin, Anti-Jacobin, Gothic, epistolary, historical novels). In addition, the lecture discusses central subjects and motifs in the novels of the period (e. g. liberty/liberalism, nation state, empire, colonialism, subjectivity, sensibility, happiness) as well as important narrative styles (e. g. satire and parody). It explains the relevance of the representation of literary characters’ and narrators’ class backgrounds, national, ethnic and gender identities and sexual orientations for the formation of the genre. In the course of the lecture, close readings of influential novels from the period will be provided.

Empfohlene Literatur:

tba

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare

Dozent/in:

Beatrix Hesse

Termine:

Di, 16:00 - 18:00, Online-Webinar
Einzeltermin am 7.2.2023, 16:00 - 18:00, U2/01.30

From Moby-Dick to the Green New Deal: A Literary and Cultural History of American Energy

Dozent/in:

Georgiana Banita

Termine:

Di, 18:00 - 20:00, MG1/00.04
Einzeltermin am 8.2.2023, 14:00 - 16:00, U9/01.11

Inhalt:

The shift from coal, oil, and natural gas to solar and wind energy is one of the defining events of our time. But it is not the first energy transition. Replacing the elemental power harnessed through windmills and the biomass energy of wood and whale oil with fossil fuels marked the earliest energetic transformation of society, not least in heavily carbonized America. The lecture charts the history of U.S. literature and culture around energy regimes to uncover connections between resources and cultural forms and to shed light on the evolution of aesthetic genres from the mid-19th century to the present.

We begin with the Romantic Period (Melville, Emerson, Thoreau, Whitman) and the tensions it staged between the celebration of nature and excitement about subsoil resources, growth, and new technology like the railroad and the steam engine. The full scope of the social change engendered by the fossil fuel economy didn t come fully into view until the Age of Realism (William Dean Howells) and Naturalism (Frank Norris, Upton Sinclair, John Dos Passos, John Steinbeck) as the rise of Big Business (and Standard Oil) began to take a toll on the value of the land and the individual. To explore echoes of energy in Modernism and after, we will read poems by Carl Sandburg and Elizabeth Bishop, reinterpret The Great Gatsby through the prism of environment and resources, and read post-OPEC-crisis postmodern novels (John Updike s The Rabbit Trilogy, Cormac McCarthy s The Road) as fictions of exhaustion in an era of Peak Oil, petro-melancholia (Stephanie LeMenager) and macro- as well as micro-economic downsizing.

Much of U.S. oil literature is place-bound, so it makes sense to explore it through the works of regionalist authors, too. The selection includes fictions by Texas writers (William Goyen, Larry McMurtry, Winifred Sanford) and Tom Cooper s The Marauders, set in post-BP-oil-spill Louisiana. For insights into racial, indigenous, and gendered perspectives on petroleum economies, we discuss Linda Hogan s novel Mean Spirit about the murders on the oil-rich Osage Reservation in the 1910s 1930s and learn about the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921 against the backdrop of the Oklahoma Oil Rush through Rilla Askew's novel Fire in Beulah, before concluding with the recent How Beautiful We Were (2021), a novel about the ravages wrought by a U.S. oil company in Africa, by Cameroonian-American writer Imbolo Mbue.

In the second part of the lecture, we survey classics of American cinema that screen the elation, drama, and downfall of what historian Lewis Mumford called carboniferous capitalism from Robert J. Flaherty s Louisiana Story (1948) and Douglas Sirk s melodrama Written on the Wind (1956) to George Stevens Western Giant (also 1956) and Paul Thomas Anderson s Neo-Western There Will Be Blood (2007). The final sessions are dedicated to iconic painters and photographers of American petro-landscapes, including Thomas Hart Benton (1889 1975), Ed Ruscha (1937 ), and Richard Misrach (1949 ). The closing session revolves around the politics and culture of decarbonization, more specifically the arts and letters of the post-carbon era, from wind power photography to science fiction of the post-oil age.

Reading American Short Forms

Dozent/in:

Yildiz Asar

Termine:

Einzeltermin am 25.11.2022, 13:00 - 20:00, U5/01.17
Einzeltermin am 26.11.2022, 9:00 - 16:00, U5/01.17
Einzeltermin am 20.1.2023, 13:00 - 20:00, U5/01.17
Einzeltermin am 21.1.2023, 9:00 - 16:00, U5/01.17

Inhalt:

This course offers a survey of key American short texts from diverse literary forms, periods, genres, and authors, selected from our own reading list of American literature at the Professur für Amerikanistik. In our close readings and critical analyses of these short texts, we will pay attention to how form and content come together as well as how issues of gender, race, class, age, species and environment are depicted in a condensed form. In this way, this course is meant to encourage you to interact with the American short form and the reading list, which will guide you throughout your studies.

Empfohlene Literatur:

All required readings will be selected from the Reading List of American Literature. Therefore please familiarize yourself with the list well before the semester starts: https://www.uni-bamberg.de/amerikanistik/studium/leseliste/

All required and further readings will be available on the Virtual Campus (VC).

Since most of the stories, poems and essays in the reading list can be found in the Heath or Norton Anthologies of American Literature, it is highly recommended that you buy one of these anthologies. As a cutting-edge collection of primary texts and scholarly introductions, such an anthology will serve as an invaluable resource throughout your studies and beyond.

“The Heart of a Woman” - Female Modernist Writers in the U.S.

Dozent/in:

Susen Halank

Termine:

Do, 10:00 - 12:00, U5/02.22
The following session will take place ONLINE: Thursday, November 17.

Inhalt:

This course examines the highly influential and variable works of American women modernists who played an active part in the literary scene, and participated in literary discussions, contributing to a new literary culture in the early 20th century. Women writers provided an imaginative expression of women’s lives in general and in relation to important factors such as work, religion, or politics in particular. In this course we will first discuss the historical developments that shaped modernism in the US and Europe, and address overall literary developments, for instance, the influence of psychoanalysis and feminism on American literature and culture at the time.

We will then focus on major texts by leading women authors and discuss their shaping role in literary modernism – including modernist movements such as Imagism and the Harlem Renaissance, the salon culture led by female authors, and women’s contributions to literary criticism and theory. In particular, we will read poetry, drama, short stories, and novels by Marianne Moore, Gertrud Stein, H.D., Alice Dunbar-Nelson, Nella Larsen and others.

Empfohlene Literatur:

The final reading list of this course will be discussed and possibly altered together with the participants in the first week of the semester. Therefore, I invite you to read as much as you can throughout the summer break and contribute your reading suggestions in the first session. While the poetry, short stories, and one of the dramas will be made available on the VC along with secondary literature, please make sure to purchase and read the following works until the start of the semester:

• Djuna Barnes, Nightwood (1936)
• Nella Larsen, Passing (1929)
• Sophie Treadwell, Machinal (1928)

Introduction to English and American Literary Studies (A)

Dozent/in:

Susan Brähler

Termine:

Mo, 14:15 - 15:45, U5/00.24
Einzeltermin am 10.2.2023, 16:00 - 18:00, U5/00.24
Einzeltermin am 11.4.2023, 14:00 - 16:00, U9/02.01

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:
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, 16:00 - 18:00, MG1/00.04
Einzeltermin am 3.11.2022, 16:00 - 18:00, U5/00.24
Einzeltermin am 16.2.2023, 16:00 - 18:00, MG1/00.04

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:

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!

Gender, Race, and Nationality: Transatlantic Literature and Culture from the 18th to the Early 20th Century

Dozent/in:

Mareike Spychala

Termine:

Do, 16:00 - 18:00, U5/01.18

Inhalt:

While U.S.-American Literature and Culture and British Literature and Culture are often researched, analyzed, and taught separately, literary and cultural texts have long travelled back and forth across the Atlantic. Accordingly, this seminar will provide an introduction to the field of Transatlantic Studies and investigate literary and cultural texts that journeyed from Great Britain to the United States and vice versa.

More specifically, by reading texts from different genres and periods, we will trace how questions of gender, race, and nationality are negotiated, adapted, and in some cases re-negotiated in transatlantic literature. Additionally, we will talk about the ways print culture and ideas surrounding authorship and copyright changed between the 18th and the early 20th century.

Empfohlene Literatur:

Students are asked to buy and start reading the following texts BEFORE the beginning of class.

• Harriet Beecher Stowe,Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852) – preferred edition: Norton Critical Edition (ISBN: 978-0393933994)
• Paula Bernat Bennett (ed.), Palace-Burner: The Selected Poetry of Sarah Piatt (2001)
• Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Lady Audley’s Secret (1862) – preferred edition: Penguin Classics (ISBN: 978-0140435849)
• Nella Larsen, Quicksand (1928) – preferred edition: Norton Critical Edition (ISBN: 978-0393932423)

Further Readings will be made available via the VC.

More than Meets the Eye: A Survey of POC Voices in U.S. American Literature and Culture

Dozent/in:

Nicole K. Konopka

Termine:

Mo, 16:00 - 18:00, U2/00.25
Einzeltermin am 23.1.2023, 16:00 - 18:00, SP17/00.13
Einzeltermin am 13.2.2023, 16:00 - 18:00, U9/01.11

Inhalt:

Studying U.S. American literature and culture would be incomplete without considering the wealth of POC perspectives. In this class we will discuss exemplary and marginal cultural artefacts of the past and present and the phenomena that are closely linked to the specific historical experiences of People of Color. Our classroom material will include mostly literary texts, but also music, film, painting, sculpture, food etc. As the title of the seminar suggests, we will employ several of our senses to deal with the topic, which may also include a field trip to an exhibition.

Since we will deal with one of the key issues of American Studies, the reading list of this class will be rather extensive and students are expected to come to class prepared for lively, critical discussions.

Empfohlene Literatur:

Most shorter reading (poems, speeches, short stories, secondary reading) will be provided via the VC. However, students are expected to acquire the following books (in print or as e-book) BEFORE the start of the semester and start reading the first two books (Jacobs and Hansberry) as soon as possible:

• Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861) - prefered edition: The Norton Critical Edition (ISBN 0393614565)
• Lorrain Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun (1959)
• Mark Long, Jim Demonakos (authors), and Nate Powell (illustrator), The Silence of Our Friends (2012)
• James Hannaham, Delicious Foods (2018)

Additionally recommended reading:

• Kai Wright (ed.). The African American Experience: Black History and Culture Through Speeches, Letters, Editorials, Poems, Songs, and Stories. Black Dog and Leventhal Publishers, 2009.
• Neil Irvin Painter. Creating Black Americans: African-American History and Its Meanings, 1619 to the Present. New York: OUP, 2007.

Suburbia

Dozent/in:

Eva-Sabine Zehelein

Termine:

Di, 12:00 - 14:00, U5/02.18

Inhalt:

Suburbia is a field which is extravagantly large, complex and contested. It might even be called by some “intellectual sprawl.” This is not surprising, since suburbia is a geographical and architectural phenomenon, but also part of an economic system, a politics, an ethic, and suburbia is a place of cultural creation, reflection and negotiation, a set of values and a way of life. And this is just the reason why it has become a symbolic minefield which the American everyman ogles rather skeptically from his picture window, simultaneously perceiving himself in the glasses’ reflection. We will look at the historical genesis of suburbia and its contemporary realities and zoom in on some cultural (re)presentations.

Empfohlene Literatur:

Please buy and read: Jeffrey Eugenides, The Virgin Suicides (the novel!), T.C. Boyle, Tortilla Curtain. Course requirement: oral presentation.

Walt Whitman in American Culture

Dozent/in:

Christine Gerhardt

Termine:

Einzeltermin am 21.10.2022, 14:00 - 16:00, U5/01.17
Einzeltermin am 28.10.2022, 14:00 - 17:00, U5/01.17
Einzeltermin am 29.10.2022, 10:00 - 17:00, U5/01.17
Einzeltermin am 18.11.2022, 14:00 - 17:00, U5/01.17
Einzeltermin am 19.11.2022, 10:00 - 17:00, U5/01.17
Course registration starts on August 15!!!

Inhalt:

In this course, we will read the work of one of America’s most innovative and influential poets, focusing on the ways in which his work responded to major developments in nineteenth-century American culture. Walt Whitman (1819-1892) sought to forge a living connection between a new kind of poetry and the massive changes he witnessed in the US as an evolving, conflict-ridden democracy. And indeed, throughout the various editions of Leaves of Grass (1855-92), his free-flowing lines, powerful imagery, and wide range of social, political, and sexual concerns challenged conventional notions of poetry more radically, and talked about American culture more openly and inclusively, than any other nineteenth-century poet.

In our seminar, we will begin with the 1855 edition of Leaves of Grass. What was so revolutionary about this slim book of 12 poems? Who is its author, does it contain poetry at all, what does its unusual format suggest? We will move on to discuss how some of Whitman’s most iconic poems think about key events and dynamics of his time, including race, slavery, and the Civil War, changing notions of gender and sexuality, the natural sciences and beginning environmentalism, and the fate of democracy. Throughout, we will link Whitman – who always hoped to be read across space and time – to our own cultural moment, considering the resonances of his vision for the 21st century.

Empfohlene Literatur:

You need to buy a critical edition of Whitman’s Leaves of Grass, ideally this one:

• Whitman, Walt. Poetry and Collected Prose. Ed. Justin Kaplan. New York: Library of America, 1982 [or later editions].

(Alternatively, Leaves of Grass and other Writings, Norton Critical Edition, edited by Michael Moon, 2002; or the older but excellent Leaves of Grass, A Norton Critical Edition, edited by Sculley Bradley and Harold Blodgett, will also work well.)

Women's Rights in the U.S.

Dozent/in:

Johanna Feier

Termine:

Di, 18:00 - 21:00, MG2/01.10
Einzeltermin am 14.2.2023, 14:00 - 15:00, U5/01.17
Classes will take place biweekly. Some of the Tuesday evening time slots in alternate weeks will be used for film screenings.

Inhalt:

By overturning Roe v. Wade in June 2022, the Supreme Court effectively ended bodily autonomy for more than half of the U.S. population. In their dissenting opinion, the liberal justices succinctly stated that young women today will come of age with fewer rights than their mothers and grandmothers. In view of that historic decision, this course will explore the cultural evolution of women s rights in the U.S. While tracing texts from the American Revolution until now, we will pay particular attention to how the issue of women s rights intersects with other realms of inequality, specifically racism. In addition to several audio-visual texts, we will discuss writings from the traditional feminist canon as well as lesser-known examples by literary activists.

Classes will take place biweekly. Some of the Tuesday evening time slots in alternate weeks will be used for film screenings.
Seminar Sessions:

• 2022: Oct. 18+25; Nov. 08+22; Dec. 06
• 2023: Jan. 10+24; Feb. 07

Empfohlene Literatur:

A reader will be provided in the first week of classes.

“Daddy, is it you?” – American Father(hood)s

Dozent/in:

Eva-Sabine Zehelein

Termine:

Mo, 12:00 - 14:00, U5/01.18

Inhalt:

Fathers have long been banned to the side-lines of gender(ed) research to an extent that somewhat polemically inclined writers such as D. Blankenhorn diagnosed a Fatherless America (1995) psychologist Helen Smith has spoken about Men on Strike: why men are boycotting marriage, fatherhood, and the American Dream (2013), and Susan Faludi would write some 550 pages on Stiffed: The Roots of Modern Male Rage (1999/2019).

What does all of this mean? How come? And what, indeed, has happened to men and men as fathers from the Puritan head of household via the Victorian hegemonic male to today’s partner in parenting? In other words: how have changes in the American fabric as well as within normative expectations vis à vis the American family affected manhood and the role and function of the father and of fathering as a social practice? In how far do cultural representations and social practices conform or clash, and how are these discursively framed?

In multidisciplinary fashion we will explore concepts of (toxic) masculinity and patriarchy, male identity and various definitions of father(hood)s, and discuss a variety of cultural texts—short story, poem, (graphic) novel, painting, photograph and film.

Empfohlene Literatur:

Please buy and read: Cormac McCarthy, The Road; Alison Bechdel, Fun Home; Noah Hawley, The Good Father. Course requirement: oral presentation.

From Moby-Dick to the Green New Deal: A Literary and Cultural History of American Energy

Dozent/in:

Georgiana Banita

Termine:

Di, 18:00 - 20:00, MG1/00.04
Einzeltermin am 8.2.2023, 14:00 - 16:00, U9/01.11

Inhalt:

The shift from coal, oil, and natural gas to solar and wind energy is one of the defining events of our time. But it is not the first energy transition. Replacing the elemental power harnessed through windmills and the biomass energy of wood and whale oil with fossil fuels marked the earliest energetic transformation of society, not least in heavily carbonized America. The lecture charts the history of U.S. literature and culture around energy regimes to uncover connections between resources and cultural forms and to shed light on the evolution of aesthetic genres from the mid-19th century to the present.

We begin with the Romantic Period (Melville, Emerson, Thoreau, Whitman) and the tensions it staged between the celebration of nature and excitement about subsoil resources, growth, and new technology like the railroad and the steam engine. The full scope of the social change engendered by the fossil fuel economy didn t come fully into view until the Age of Realism (William Dean Howells) and Naturalism (Frank Norris, Upton Sinclair, John Dos Passos, John Steinbeck) as the rise of Big Business (and Standard Oil) began to take a toll on the value of the land and the individual. To explore echoes of energy in Modernism and after, we will read poems by Carl Sandburg and Elizabeth Bishop, reinterpret The Great Gatsby through the prism of environment and resources, and read post-OPEC-crisis postmodern novels (John Updike s The Rabbit Trilogy, Cormac McCarthy s The Road) as fictions of exhaustion in an era of Peak Oil, petro-melancholia (Stephanie LeMenager) and macro- as well as micro-economic downsizing.

Much of U.S. oil literature is place-bound, so it makes sense to explore it through the works of regionalist authors, too. The selection includes fictions by Texas writers (William Goyen, Larry McMurtry, Winifred Sanford) and Tom Cooper s The Marauders, set in post-BP-oil-spill Louisiana. For insights into racial, indigenous, and gendered perspectives on petroleum economies, we discuss Linda Hogan s novel Mean Spirit about the murders on the oil-rich Osage Reservation in the 1910s 1930s and learn about the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921 against the backdrop of the Oklahoma Oil Rush through Rilla Askew's novel Fire in Beulah, before concluding with the recent How Beautiful We Were (2021), a novel about the ravages wrought by a U.S. oil company in Africa, by Cameroonian-American writer Imbolo Mbue.

In the second part of the lecture, we survey classics of American cinema that screen the elation, drama, and downfall of what historian Lewis Mumford called carboniferous capitalism from Robert J. Flaherty s Louisiana Story (1948) and Douglas Sirk s melodrama Written on the Wind (1956) to George Stevens Western Giant (also 1956) and Paul Thomas Anderson s Neo-Western There Will Be Blood (2007). The final sessions are dedicated to iconic painters and photographers of American petro-landscapes, including Thomas Hart Benton (1889 1975), Ed Ruscha (1937 ), and Richard Misrach (1949 ). The closing session revolves around the politics and culture of decarbonization, more specifically the arts and letters of the post-carbon era, from wind power photography to science fiction of the post-oil age.

V Class in Britain

Dozent/in:

Pascal Fischer

Termine:

Di, 12:00 - 14:00, U7/01.05

Inhalt:

While it is a truism that British society is organised along strict class lines, the meaning of the word class is far from evident. In contrast to some sociologists who try to pin down the phenomenon to economics only, scholars of culture should acknowledge that it has a multiplicity of facets. After discussing theoretical approaches to class and different ways the stratification of society has been conceptualized, the lecture course looks at the historical development of social diversification from the early modern period onwards. The course also turns to the cultural determinants and manifestations of class, from ancestry to education, from language to manners, from clothing to patterns of recreation. We will furthermore examine intersections between class on the one hand and place, gender, ethnicity and religion on the other. In a final step, the situation in Britain will be compared to the USA, a country that is sometimes overhastily described as a classless – albeit unequal – society.

Introduction to British and American Cultural Studies (Course 4)

Dozent/in:

Nicole K. Konopka

Termine:

Mi, 15:55 - 18:10, MG1/00.04
Einzeltermin am 3.11.2022, 18:00 - 20:00, U5/01.22
Einzeltermin am 15.2.2023, 15:55 - 18:10, MG1/00.04

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!

Gender, Race, and Nationality: Transatlantic Literature and Culture from the 18th to the Early 20th Century

Dozent/in:

Mareike Spychala

Termine:

Do, 16:00 - 18:00, U5/01.18

Inhalt:

While U.S.-American Literature and Culture and British Literature and Culture are often researched, analyzed, and taught separately, literary and cultural texts have long travelled back and forth across the Atlantic. Accordingly, this seminar will provide an introduction to the field of Transatlantic Studies and investigate literary and cultural texts that journeyed from Great Britain to the United States and vice versa.

More specifically, by reading texts from different genres and periods, we will trace how questions of gender, race, and nationality are negotiated, adapted, and in some cases re-negotiated in transatlantic literature. Additionally, we will talk about the ways print culture and ideas surrounding authorship and copyright changed between the 18th and the early 20th century.

Empfohlene Literatur:

Students are asked to buy and start reading the following texts BEFORE the beginning of class.

• Harriet Beecher Stowe,Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852) – preferred edition: Norton Critical Edition (ISBN: 978-0393933994)
• Paula Bernat Bennett (ed.), Palace-Burner: The Selected Poetry of Sarah Piatt (2001)
• Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Lady Audley’s Secret (1862) – preferred edition: Penguin Classics (ISBN: 978-0140435849)
• Nella Larsen, Quicksand (1928) – preferred edition: Norton Critical Edition (ISBN: 978-0393932423)

Further Readings will be made available via the VC.

More than Meets the Eye: A Survey of POC Voices in U.S. American Literature and Culture

Dozent/in:

Nicole K. Konopka

Termine:

Mo, 16:00 - 18:00, U2/00.25
Einzeltermin am 23.1.2023, 16:00 - 18:00, SP17/00.13
Einzeltermin am 13.2.2023, 16:00 - 18:00, U9/01.11

Inhalt:

Studying U.S. American literature and culture would be incomplete without considering the wealth of POC perspectives. In this class we will discuss exemplary and marginal cultural artefacts of the past and present and the phenomena that are closely linked to the specific historical experiences of People of Color. Our classroom material will include mostly literary texts, but also music, film, painting, sculpture, food etc. As the title of the seminar suggests, we will employ several of our senses to deal with the topic, which may also include a field trip to an exhibition.

Since we will deal with one of the key issues of American Studies, the reading list of this class will be rather extensive and students are expected to come to class prepared for lively, critical discussions.

Empfohlene Literatur:

Most shorter reading (poems, speeches, short stories, secondary reading) will be provided via the VC. However, students are expected to acquire the following books (in print or as e-book) BEFORE the start of the semester and start reading the first two books (Jacobs and Hansberry) as soon as possible:

• Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861) - prefered edition: The Norton Critical Edition (ISBN 0393614565)
• Lorrain Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun (1959)
• Mark Long, Jim Demonakos (authors), and Nate Powell (illustrator), The Silence of Our Friends (2012)
• James Hannaham, Delicious Foods (2018)

Additionally recommended reading:

• Kai Wright (ed.). The African American Experience: Black History and Culture Through Speeches, Letters, Editorials, Poems, Songs, and Stories. Black Dog and Leventhal Publishers, 2009.
• Neil Irvin Painter. Creating Black Americans: African-American History and Its Meanings, 1619 to the Present. New York: OUP, 2007.

Suburbia

Dozent/in:

Eva-Sabine Zehelein

Termine:

Di, 12:00 - 14:00, U5/02.18

Inhalt:

Suburbia is a field which is extravagantly large, complex and contested. It might even be called by some “intellectual sprawl.” This is not surprising, since suburbia is a geographical and architectural phenomenon, but also part of an economic system, a politics, an ethic, and suburbia is a place of cultural creation, reflection and negotiation, a set of values and a way of life. And this is just the reason why it has become a symbolic minefield which the American everyman ogles rather skeptically from his picture window, simultaneously perceiving himself in the glasses’ reflection. We will look at the historical genesis of suburbia and its contemporary realities and zoom in on some cultural (re)presentations.

Empfohlene Literatur:

Please buy and read: Jeffrey Eugenides, The Virgin Suicides (the novel!), T.C. Boyle, Tortilla Curtain. Course requirement: oral presentation.

Walt Whitman in American Culture

Dozent/in:

Christine Gerhardt

Termine:

Einzeltermin am 21.10.2022, 14:00 - 16:00, U5/01.17
Einzeltermin am 28.10.2022, 14:00 - 17:00, U5/01.17
Einzeltermin am 29.10.2022, 10:00 - 17:00, U5/01.17
Einzeltermin am 18.11.2022, 14:00 - 17:00, U5/01.17
Einzeltermin am 19.11.2022, 10:00 - 17:00, U5/01.17
Course registration starts on August 15!!!

Inhalt:

In this course, we will read the work of one of America’s most innovative and influential poets, focusing on the ways in which his work responded to major developments in nineteenth-century American culture. Walt Whitman (1819-1892) sought to forge a living connection between a new kind of poetry and the massive changes he witnessed in the US as an evolving, conflict-ridden democracy. And indeed, throughout the various editions of Leaves of Grass (1855-92), his free-flowing lines, powerful imagery, and wide range of social, political, and sexual concerns challenged conventional notions of poetry more radically, and talked about American culture more openly and inclusively, than any other nineteenth-century poet.

In our seminar, we will begin with the 1855 edition of Leaves of Grass. What was so revolutionary about this slim book of 12 poems? Who is its author, does it contain poetry at all, what does its unusual format suggest? We will move on to discuss how some of Whitman’s most iconic poems think about key events and dynamics of his time, including race, slavery, and the Civil War, changing notions of gender and sexuality, the natural sciences and beginning environmentalism, and the fate of democracy. Throughout, we will link Whitman – who always hoped to be read across space and time – to our own cultural moment, considering the resonances of his vision for the 21st century.

Empfohlene Literatur:

You need to buy a critical edition of Whitman’s Leaves of Grass, ideally this one:

• Whitman, Walt. Poetry and Collected Prose. Ed. Justin Kaplan. New York: Library of America, 1982 [or later editions].

(Alternatively, Leaves of Grass and other Writings, Norton Critical Edition, edited by Michael Moon, 2002; or the older but excellent Leaves of Grass, A Norton Critical Edition, edited by Sculley Bradley and Harold Blodgett, will also work well.)

Women's Rights in the U.S.

Dozent/in:

Johanna Feier

Termine:

Di, 18:00 - 21:00, MG2/01.10
Einzeltermin am 14.2.2023, 14:00 - 15:00, U5/01.17
Classes will take place biweekly. Some of the Tuesday evening time slots in alternate weeks will be used for film screenings.

Inhalt:

By overturning Roe v. Wade in June 2022, the Supreme Court effectively ended bodily autonomy for more than half of the U.S. population. In their dissenting opinion, the liberal justices succinctly stated that young women today will come of age with fewer rights than their mothers and grandmothers. In view of that historic decision, this course will explore the cultural evolution of women s rights in the U.S. While tracing texts from the American Revolution until now, we will pay particular attention to how the issue of women s rights intersects with other realms of inequality, specifically racism. In addition to several audio-visual texts, we will discuss writings from the traditional feminist canon as well as lesser-known examples by literary activists.

Classes will take place biweekly. Some of the Tuesday evening time slots in alternate weeks will be used for film screenings.
Seminar Sessions:

• 2022: Oct. 18+25; Nov. 08+22; Dec. 06
• 2023: Jan. 10+24; Feb. 07

Empfohlene Literatur:

A reader will be provided in the first week of classes.

“Daddy, is it you?” – American Father(hood)s

Dozent/in:

Eva-Sabine Zehelein

Termine:

Mo, 12:00 - 14:00, U5/01.18

Inhalt:

Fathers have long been banned to the side-lines of gender(ed) research to an extent that somewhat polemically inclined writers such as D. Blankenhorn diagnosed a Fatherless America (1995) psychologist Helen Smith has spoken about Men on Strike: why men are boycotting marriage, fatherhood, and the American Dream (2013), and Susan Faludi would write some 550 pages on Stiffed: The Roots of Modern Male Rage (1999/2019).

What does all of this mean? How come? And what, indeed, has happened to men and men as fathers from the Puritan head of household via the Victorian hegemonic male to today’s partner in parenting? In other words: how have changes in the American fabric as well as within normative expectations vis à vis the American family affected manhood and the role and function of the father and of fathering as a social practice? In how far do cultural representations and social practices conform or clash, and how are these discursively framed?

In multidisciplinary fashion we will explore concepts of (toxic) masculinity and patriarchy, male identity and various definitions of father(hood)s, and discuss a variety of cultural texts—short story, poem, (graphic) novel, painting, photograph and film.

Empfohlene Literatur:

Please buy and read: Cormac McCarthy, The Road; Alison Bechdel, Fun Home; Noah Hawley, The Good Father. Course requirement: oral presentation.