The Monstrous Other in American Literature and Culture

Dozent/in:

Nicole K. Konopka

Termine:

Mo, 12:00 - 14:00, U5/01.18
Einzeltermin am 14.7.2023, 12:00 - 18:00, U5/02.17

Inhalt:

Following W. Scott Pool s claim that from our colonial past to the present, the monster in all its various forms has been a staple of American culture, this class is designed to identify and critically analyze the multiple and contradictory presences of such monsters in American literature and culture.

We will start with a brief historical and conceptual overview, consulting historical maps of the world, the anonymous Physiologus (200 AD), medieval almanacs, transatlantic travel accounts, freak show advertisements, medical journals, criminal records, and court files. Moving through North American history from pre-colonial times to the present, we will then study a variety of texts, such as Native American tall tales, crafts and imagery, short stories, poems, newspaper articles, pictures, TV shows and movies with an analytical focus on their changing representations of monstrosity as a particular kind of otherness.

As we navigate through the complex universe of surreal distortion, we will try to answer the following questions: How have monsters been defined in America, and how have these definitions changed over time? What is culturally specific about American monsters? Which culturally and historically specific fears (and perhaps also longings) have been projected on these monstrous others , and to which effects?

Empfohlene Literatur:

Most of the material used in class will be provided via the Virtual Campus ahead of class. Students are, however, required to purchase the following books BEFORE THE START OF THE SEMESTER:

• Arthur Miller, The Crucible (1951)
• Kirsten Bakis, Lives of the Monster Dogs (1997)
• Chris Dingess, Manifest Destiny, Volume 1: Flora and Fauna (2014)

V Britain at the Time of the French Revolution

Dozent/in:

Pascal Fischer

Termine:

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

Inhalt:

The time around 1800 was a critical period for the development of the social, political, and cultural landscape of Great Britain. Apart from the technical, economic, and social changes wrought by the Industrial Revolution, it was the overthrow of the political system across the Channel that triggered a heated discussion about the constitutional institutions, the legal system, the hierarchical order, the role of women, and the religious establishment in Britain. In the course of the French Revolution Debate ideological camps formed up, often referred to as the Jacobins and the anti-Jacobins or the conservatives and the radicals. At the same time, a new literary movement emerged now referred to as Romanticism that sometimes engaged with the social and political realities and sometimes tried to avoid them by retreating into the realm of the imagination. In order to deepen an understanding of the historical and cultural processes of the time, the lecture course analyses key texts ranging from the theoretical pamphlet to the religious tract and from the poem to the novel.