Shakespeare Reading Group

Dozent/in:

Kerstin-Anja Münderlein

Termine:

Do, 18:00 - 19:30, U2/00.26

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. 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. Merchant of Venice. (first play to be read)
William Shakespeare. Troilus and Cressida. (second play to be read)

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare

Dozent/in:

Beatrix Hesse

Termine:

Di, 16:00 - 18:00, Online-Webinar
Einzeltermin am 21.7.2023, 16:00 - 18:00, U9/01.11

American Literature II (Realism-Postmodernism)

Dozent/in:

Christine Gerhardt

Termine:

Mo, 14:00 - 16:00, KR12/02.18
Einzeltermin am 24.7.2023, 14:00 - 16:00, U9/01.11

Inhalt:

This lecture provides an overview of US-American literary history from the 1870s until today, highlighting characteristic features of realism, naturalism, modernism, and post-modernism, as well as key trends in 21st-century literary production. For each of these periods, the thematic, formal, and stylistic elements of a wide range of novels, stories, poems, plays, and essays will be discussed in connection with broader cultural and political developments.

Several questions that revolve around the tensions between coherence and difference will guide our explorations. For one, we will investigate how from the end of the Civil War until today, various groups of American writers have engaged, and frequently exploded, the possibilities of specific literary genres to re-imagine the world. This also means that we will discuss the ways in which changing notions of gender, sexuality, race, class, religion, and region have intersected with the development of American literature as a pluriform, multi-voiced field of expression. Finally, we will interrogate the significance of core thematic and conceptual concerns that have been identified in American literature over the years, including processes of modernization and the ideal of democratization, a sense of national self in relation to other cultures, and the challenges of living with the natural environment without destroying it.

Empfohlene Literatur:

All readings will be provided via the VC!

One Hundred Years of Herland: Reading Gilman and Piercy’s Feminist Utopias

Dozent/in:

Yildiz Asar

Termine:

Do, 16:00 - 19:15, U5/01.18
The course consists of regular and double sessions. The exact schedule will be announced in the first session (April 20).

Inhalt:

In 1915, as the globe lamented the biggest war that humankind had hitherto seen, the first monthly installment of Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s Herland serial appeared in The Forerunner magazine. Herland, along with its prequel Moving the Mountain (1911) and sequel With Her in Ourland (1916), presented to its readers a fictional utopian society – composed entirely of women who lived in harmonious isolation without conflicts, and procreated without men. With its bold and progressive critique of traditional approaches to gender and procreative rights, Herland was discussed quite controversially at the time, but swiftly forgotten. It was not until the 1960s and 70s, that the oppositional political culture – shaped by the civil rights, feminist, and environmental movements – rediscovered Herland and occasioned a revival of feminist utopian writing more broadly, including a range of now-classic novels such as Joanna Russ’s The Female Man (1975), Marge Piercy’s Woman on the Edge of Time, (1976), Sally Miller Gearhart’s The Wanderground (1979), and Ursula K. Le Guin’s Always Coming Home (1985). Like Gilman’s much earlier novels, these feminist critical utopias imagined ambiguous female spaces in ways that also navigated early ecofeminist themes, such as “partnership with nature rather than domination, non-hierarchical cooperation as a social principle, abolition of antagonistic dualisms (like body and spirit), acceptance of change (including death), and an ethic of care” (Donawerth 62).

In this course, we will revisit the 20th-century feminist critical utopia with a focus on works by Gilman and Piercy, engaging intersectional, non-binary approaches to explore how issues of gender, race, age, class, species, ecology, etc. are addressed by these literary texts. It is from the perspective of contemporary, early 21st-century debates about social, ecological, and gender injustices, and in the attempt to develop a critical but optimistic reading practice, that we will discuss the cultural work performed by Gilman’s and Piercy’s novels in their respective historical contexts.

Empfohlene Literatur:

Please acquire and start reading these texts BEFORE the beginning of our class!

• Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Herland (1915)
• Marge Piercy, Women on the Edge of Time (1976)

Further primary readings will be announced here by mid-March.

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)

Introduction to English and American Literary Studies (A)

Dozent/in:

Susan Brähler

Termine:

Mo, 14:15 - 15:45, U5/00.24
Einzeltermin am 19.6.2023, 14:15 - 15:45, U2/01.33
Einzeltermin am 21.7.2023, 16:00 - 18:00, U5/00.24
Einzeltermin am 11.10.2023, 11:00 - 12:30, U2/02.27

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:

Mi, 16:00 - 18:00, MG1/00.04
Einzeltermin am 26.7.2023, 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!

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)

Emily Dickinson and Her Contemporaries

Dozent/in:

Mareike Spychala

Termine:

Mi, 16:00 - 18:15, LU19/00.11

Inhalt:

While Emily Dickinson’s work had been seen as isolated and different from that by other 19th-century women poets in the first half of the 20th century, feminist scholars have for the past several decades focused on reading Dickinson’s poems in conjunction with those by other poets of her time, such as Sarah Morgan Bryan Piatt, Lydia Sigourney, or Frances Ellen Watkins Harper.

In this seminar we will practice exactly such comparative close readings, supported by recent scholarship on 19th-century women’s poetry. We will talk about dominant genres, topics, and motifs the works of these poets have in common and will also tease out important differences between them.

Empfohlene Literatur:

Students are asked to buy and start reading the following text BEFORE the beginning of class:

• R.W. Franklin (ed.), The Poems of Emily Dickinson (2005), ISBN: 978-0674018242

Narrating Change: The American Short Story

Dozent/in:

Johanna Feier

Termine:

Di, 18:00 - 21:00, MG2/01.10
Classes will take place biweekly. The first session takes place on April 18.

Inhalt:

As a popular, ubiquitous literary form, the short story provides a window into the ever-changing landscapes of American cultures across the centuries. In this class, we will discuss narratives by culturally diverse American writers, from the origins of the short story in the 19th century up until the present day. In addition to analyzing the genre and its formal structures, we will examine how authors from different backgrounds have used the short prose form to reflect and comment on the plethora of American identities and experiences.

Empfohlene Literatur:

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