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.