Displaced and on the move: Contemporary Literature on Displacement and Immigration

Dozent/in:

Touhid Chowdhury

Angaben:

Seminar/Proseminar, 2 SWS, ECTS: 6, Studium Generale, Gender und Diversität

Termine:

Do, 16:00 - 18:00, MG1/01.02

Voraussetzungen / Organisatorisches:

1. Module Allocation:

BA Anglistik/Amerikanistik:
Aufbaumodul Literaturwissenschaft/ freie Erweiterung: Seminar 6 ECTS
Ergänzungsmodul Literaturwissenschaft: Seminar max. 6 ECTS
LA Gym: Aufbaumodul Literaturwissenschaft: Seminar 6 ECTS
BA Berufliche Bildung: Aufbaumodul Literaturwissenschaft: Seminar 6 ECTS
LA GS/HS/MS/RS: Aufbaumodul Literaturwissenschaft: Seminar 6 ECTS

NOT open for Consolidation Module Literature
Open for Ergänzungsmodul Literature

2. (De)Registration:
in FlexNow! (except for guest auditors): 01.03.2022, 10:00 – 07.05.2022, 23:59
guest auditors: please contact lecturer

Inhalt:

According to the World Migration Report 2020, international migrants make up 3.6% (281 million) of the world population. They make ‘significant sociocultural, civic-political and economic contributions in origin and destination countries and community’ (WMR, 2020). In speaking about migration, one cannot ignore the possible intensification of migrants’ feeling displaced and their effort to re-embed their lives in host localities. The concept of displacement evokes images of being cut off from social and physical worlds that one calls home, which generates differentiated accounts of dispossession, disruption, and dislocation. The possible response to displacement includes a variety of facets from a sense of exile, the development of a global consciousness, the formation of a hybrid identity, and finding a new place in the host localities.

This class will address aspects of displacement as rendered in literature. In particular, it will investigate the link between displacement and immigration, displacement and literature, immigrant experiences and the narrative of displacement, leaving and arriving, nostalgia and the transitory nature of immigrant identities as articulated in literary texts. Discussion will focus on the feeling of an in-betweenness, multi/trans-cultural identities, and the complex experience of immigrant characters living in between two or more languages, societies, and cultures.

The Interdisciplinary Conference on Displacement, Emplacement, and Migration, which will be taking place in Bamberg between 24 and 26 of June 2022, is an integral part of this seminar. Therefore, it requires a mandatory student attendance at the conference; however, students can choose which (or how many) panels they wish to attend.

Empfohlene Literatur:

Obligatory reading:

Students are advised to buy and start reading the following books BEFORE the start of the semester.

Carter, Betsy. We Were Strangers Once (2017)
Gurnah, Abdulrazak. Gravel Heart (2017)
Hemon, Aleksandar. My Parents: An Introduction (2019)
Ibrahim, Djamila. Things Are Good Now (2018)
Nguyen, Viet Thanh. The Displaced (2018)
Shukla, Nikesh. Ed. The Good Immigrant (2016)
Stanišić, Saša. Where You Come From (2019)

A list with further readings will be provided during the semester.

Elizabethan and Jacobean Theatre

Dozent/in:

Kerstin-Anja Münderlein

Angaben:

Seminar/Proseminar, 2 SWS, ECTS: 8, Studium Generale

Termine:

Di, 18:00 - 20:00, U5/01.22

Voraussetzungen / Organisatorisches:

1. Module Allocation:
BA Anglistik/Amerikanistik:
Aufbaumodul Literaturwissenschaft/ freie Erweiterung: Seminar 6 ECTS
Ergänzungsmodul Literaturwissenschaft: Seminar max. 6 ECTS
LA Gym: Aufbaumodul Literaturwissenschaft: Seminar 6 ECTS
BA Berufliche Bildung: Aufbaumodul Literaturwissenschaft: Seminar 6 ECTS
LA GS/HS/MS/RS: Aufbaumodul Literaturwissenschaft: Seminar 6 ECTS

NOT open for Consolidation Module Literature
Open for Ergänzungsmodul Literature

2. (De)Registration:
in FlexNow! (except for guest auditors): 01.03.2022, 10:00 – 07.05.2022, 23:59
guest auditors: please contact lecturer

Inhalt:

The Elizabethan and Jacobean periods are highly important times for the development of English drama. While drama per se was partly forbidden in the Middle Ages or predominantly part of community or church fairs, the late 16th century saw the rise of commercial drama. Theatres were built to entertain and thereby make a profit and playwrights wrote to earn money. The most prominent name of this literary period is certainly William Shakespeare, but it must not be forgotten that Shakespeare was far from the only playwright of his time. This course will thus provide an overview of English drama in the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods and discuss six plays in more detail. During the semester, we will read and analyse plays by some of the periods’ best known authors, Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Kyd, and Ben Jonson, and in addition cover slightly lesser-known playwrights Elizabeth Cary and John Ford.

Over the course of the seminar, we will look at a variety of dramatic genres, ranging from Revenge Tragedy to City Comedy. We will trace the fast changes of dramatic conventions from the so called annus mirabilis 1587, which saw the creation of a new form of tragedy with the plays The Spanish Tragedy (Kyd) and Tamburlaine the Great, part I (Marlowe), to the end of the Jacobean period. Moreover, we will explore Elizabethan and Jacobean life and worldview, study drama theory and specifically focus on the development of theatre and its conventions. Since this course might be useful for those students doing Staatsexamen, there is room for guests and everybody interested in Renaissance theatre is very welcome. To be a guest auditor, please e-mail me so that you will get the necessary information on the course.

Empfohlene Literatur:

Reading list in reading order:

Kyd, Thomas. The Spanish Tragedy. c.1587.
Marlowe, Christopher. Tamburlaine I. c.1587.
Shakespeare, William. Twelfth Night. c.1602.
Jonson, Ben. Volpone. 1605.
Cary, Elizabeth. The Tragedy of Mariam. 1613.
Ford, John. ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore. 1633.

Introduction to LGBTQIA+ Literature and Culture, part II

Dozent/in:

Igor Almeida Ferreira Baldoino

Angaben:

Seminar/Proseminar/Übung, 2 SWS, ECTS: 6, Studium Generale, Gender und Diversität

Termine:

Mi, 10:15 - 11:45, U5/02.18

Voraussetzungen / Organisatorisches:

1. Module Allocation:
1.1 Seminar
BA Anglistik/Amerikanistik:
Aufbaumodul Literaturwissenschaft / Aufbaumodul Kulturwissenschaft / freie Erweiterung: Seminar 6 ECTS
Ergänzungsmodul Literaturwissenschaft: Seminar max. 6 ECTS (NUR Literaturwissenschaft!)
LA Gym: Aufbaumodul Literaturwissenschaft / Aufbaumodul Kulturwissenschaft: Seminar 6 ECTS
BA Berufliche Bildung: Basis/Aufbaumodul Literaturwissenschaft: Seminar 6 ECTS
LA GS/HS/MS/RS: Aufbaumodul Literaturwissenschaft: Seminar 6 ECTS

1.2 Übung:
all modules including an obligatory/optional reading tutorial (Übung) for literature and culture in
LA GS/HS/MS/RS/GY
BA Anglistik/Amerikanistik
MA English and American Studies
MA WiPäd
Erweiterungsbereich English and American Studies

open for Consolidation Module Literature (Übung; literature only)
open for Ergänzungsmodule Literaturwissenschaft (literature only)

2. (De)Registration:
in FlexNow! (except for guest auditors): 01.03.2022, 10:00 – 07.05.2022, 23:59
guest auditors: please contact lecturer

Inhalt:

In the early hours of June 28, 1969, New York police raided the Stonewall Inn. The patrons, led by drag queens and trans people, fought back against years of police harassment, igniting several days and nights of pivotal demonstrations. 2019 marked the 50th Anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising and a half-century of LGBTQIA+ liberation. 
Derived from this spirit, this course offers an in-depth look at LGBTQIA+ literature, culture and history from antiquity to present days. With the aid of different media (text, film and television) we will analyse key literary gay, lesbian, trans and non-binary works such as The Picture of Dorian Gray and its homoerotic undertones as well as have a closer look at Oscar Wilde’s trials and homosexual depiction in Victorian times; one of, if not the, first gay love story by E. M. Forster Maurice; with Angels in America we will analyse gay representation in theatre and also the HIV/Aids crisis in the 1980s. 
Finally, we move to the screen as we watch and learn about political activism with Harvey Milk, Drag culture in the 80s with Paris is Burning and move on to the worldwide phenomenon RuPaul’s Drag Race. 

Empfohlene Literatur:

Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890)
Forster, E. M. Maurice (1913-71)
Hall, Radclyffe. The Well of Loneliness (1928)
Woolf, Virginia. Orlando (1928)
Kushner, Tony. Angels in America (1991)
Burroughs, William S. Queer (1985)
Livingston, Jennie. Paris is Burning (1991)
Van Sant, Gus. Milk (2009)
Sharman, Jim. Rocky Horror Picture Show (1973)

More to be added during the course

Narrating Space

Dozent/in:

Susan Brähler

Angaben:

Seminar/Proseminar/Übung, 2 SWS, ECTS: 6, Erweiterungsbereich

Termine:

Do, 14:00 - 16:00, U9/01.11
Einzeltermin am 24.6.2022, 10:00 - 12:00, U9/01.11

Voraussetzungen / Organisatorisches:

1. Module Allocation:
1.1 Seminar
BA Anglistik/Amerikanistik: Aufbaumodul Literaturwissenschaft/ freie Erweiterung: Seminar 6 ECTS und Ergänzungsmodul Literaturwissenschaft: Seminar max. 6 ECTS
LA Gym: Aufbaumodul Literaturwissenschaft: Seminar 6 ECTS
BA Berufliche Bildung: Aufbaumodul Literaturwissenschaft: Seminar 6 ECTS
LA GS/HS/MS/RS: Aufbaumodul Literaturwissenschaft: Seminar 6 ECTS

1.2 Übung
All modules including an obligatory/optional reading tutorial (Übung) for literature in
LA GS/HS/MS/RS/GY
BA Anglistik/Amerikanistik
MA English and American Studies
MA WiPäd
Erweiterungsbereich English and American Studies

NOT open for Consolidation Module Literature
Open for Ergänzungsmodul Literature

2. (De)Registration:
in FlexNow! (except for guest auditors): 01.03.2022, 10:00 07.05.2022, 23:59
guest auditors: please contact lecturer

Inhalt:

Why should you select a seminar on space in narrative texts when the rise of social media, of transitory, ahistorical places like Starbucks cafés and airports, of globalization and the time-space-compression brought about by modern travel and the internet all point into one direction: the end of space?

Proponents of the so-called Spatial Turn have, since the mid-1980s, insisted on the relevance of space as a theoretical category beyond (postmodern) geography, in the humanities and the social sciences. Instead of giving in to the disappearance of space, they have called for its re-definition: Space is a social construction relevant to [ ] the production of cultural phenomena (Warf/Arias 2009, 1). Spaces are performative, processual and multi-dimensional structures. They are political and ideological: producers of space decide who may belong and not belong; spaces reflect conceptions of self and other.

Up until the Spatial Turn, space had traditionally been a neglected category in narrative theory. Narratologists conceived of it as a mere backdrop to plot, prioritising time over space . If narrative is defined as a sequence of events, where events are changes of states which are brought about or endured by individual existents, then it is indispensable to note, however, that these existents have bodies that both occupy space and are situated in space (Ryan/Foote/Azaryahu 2016, 16). Cognitive narratology grants space an essential part [in] the mental act of narrative world (re)construction, since the imagination can only picture objects that present spatial extension (ibid.) Since the expansion of structuralist narratology into an array of postclassical and especially contextualist narratologies, scholarly interest in the narrativisation of space has been unbroken and has profited from the spatial concepts of, for example, Postcolonial, Refugee, Tourism and Gender Studies.

This seminar offers a survey of narratological approaches to the analysis of narrative space spanning from the work of Jurij Lotman to Marie-Laure Ryan. Students will be introduced to the spatial theories of Michel Foucault, Henry Lefebvre, Edward Soja as well as those developed within Gender, Postcolonial and Tourism Studies. The primary texts we will cover in class span a variety of genres, themes and narrative/narrated spaces: We will be interested in Charles Dickens s as well as post-7/7 London, the Yorkshire moors, the Africa of Mary Kingsley and Henry Morton Stanley, in borders and border-crossings, in houses which spread a feeling of at-homeness and labyrinthine Gothic houses preventing in its inhabitants any such feelings. We will travel to Cold-War Berlin and to the Caribbean, investigate the unnatural, i. e. physically impossible, spaces of postmodern and postcolonial writing and follow refugees through magic doors around the globe.

Empfohlene Literatur:

Mandatory reading:

Students need to read the following texts:
E. M. Forster, Howards End (1910)
Gabriel Josipovici, Second Person Looking Out (1977), Mobius the Stripper (1974; short stories will be made available on VC)
Ian McEwan, The Innocent (1990)
Helen Oyeyemi, White Is for Witching (2009)
Mohsin Hamid, Exit West (2017)

Excerpts from the following texts will be made available on the Virtual Campus:
Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist (1837-9)
Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights (1847)
Henry Morton Stanley, Through the Dark Continent (1878)
Mary Kingsley, Travels in West Africa (1897)
D. H. Lawrence, Lady Chatterley s Lover (1928)
Jamaica Kincaid, A Small Place (1988)
J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Philosopher s Stone (1997)
John Lanchester, Capital (2012)
Ali Smith, Autumn (2016)

Reading Black British Women Writers

Dozent/in:

Touhid Chowdhury

Angaben:

Seminar/Proseminar, 2 SWS, ECTS: 6, Gender und Diversität, Erweiterungsbereich, Modulstudium

Termine:

Mi, 18:00 - 20:00, U5/02.17

Voraussetzungen / Organisatorisches:

1. Module Allocation:
BA Anglistik/Amerikanistik:
Aufbaumodul Literaturwissenschaft/ freie Erweiterung: Seminar 6 ECTS
Ergänzungsmodul Literaturwissenschaft: Seminar max. 6 ECTS
LA Gym: Aufbaumodul Literaturwissenschaft: Seminar 6 ECTS
BA Berufliche Bildung: Aufbaumodul Literaturwissenschaft: Seminar 6 ECTS
LA GS/HS/MS/RS: Aufbaumodul Literaturwissenschaft: Seminar 6 ECTS

NOT open for Consolidation Module Literature
Open for Ergänzungsmodul Literature

2. (De)Registration:
in FlexNow! (except for guest auditors): 01.03.2022, 10:00 – 07.05.2022, 23:59
guest auditors: please contact lecturer

Inhalt:

Bernardine Evaristo winning the Booker Prize in 2019, acknowledged the new group of writers: Black, female writers, who do not fall under the canonical scenario of the British literary culture. On the one hand, categorising this group of writers under the umbrella term “Black British Women Writers” because of their racial and sexual identity may often appear to be, what Salman Rushdie argued about the Commonwealth literature too, an “exclusive ghetto.” However, on the other hand, this categorisation enables a renewed discussion on re-imagining and re-contextualising the never old debates on race, sexuality, diversity, and identity. Moreover, the works of these writers also provoked a new debate and conversation about the concepts of nation, home, and belonging.

Suzanne Scafe, co-author of Heart of the Race: Black Women’s Lives in Britain (1985), once said in an interview that writing by Black authors, in general, aspires to disrupt, intervene, and transform contemporary discourses of power, knowledge, and feeling. In line with Suzanne Scafe, this course will read and discuss writings by “Black British Women Writers” to see the disruption, intervention, and transformation it brings into our understanding of race and gender discourse of contemporary Great Britain. We will read and critically analyse works by authors like Andrea Levy, Bernardine Evaristo, and Zadie Smith in relation to race, gender, ethnicity, diversity, nationality, and identity.

Empfohlene Literatur:

Obligatory reading:

Bedford, Simi. Yoruba Girl Dancing (1991)
Evaristo, Bernardine. Girl, Women, Other (2019)
green, debbie tucker. Hang (2015)
Kay, Jackie. Wish I Was Here (2006)
Levy, Andrea. Small Island (2004)
Smith, Zadie. White Teeth (2000)

A list with further readings will be provided during the semester.

Black dogs: Figurations of Mental Illness in Modern English Literature and Culture

Dozent/in:

Robert Craig

Angaben:

Seminar/Proseminar, 2 SWS, ECTS: 6, An-/Abmeldung über FlexNow: 15.03.2022 (10:00 Uhr) bis 29.04.2022 (23:59 Uhr); An-/Abmeldung zur Prüfung über FlexNow: 20.06.2022 (10:00 Uhr) bis 15.07.2022 (23:59 Uhr)

Termine:

Mo, 11:30 - 13:00, LU19/00.11

Voraussetzungen / Organisatorisches:

Teilnahmevoraussetzungen/Conditions of participation

I. Literaturwissenschaft:

B.A./LA Anglistik/Amerikanistik: Abgeschlossenes Basismodul Literaturwissenschaft

II. Kulturwissenschaft:

B.A. Anglistik/Amerikanistik: Abgeschlossenes Basismodul Britische und Amerikanische Kulturwissenschaft Lehrämter (neu): GYM Abgeschlossenes Basismodul Landeskunde/Kulturwissenschaft

Modulzugehörigkeit/Module applicability

I. Literaturwissenschaft:

BA Anglistik/Amerikanistik: Aufbaumodul Literaturwissenschaft / freie Erweiterung: Seminar 6 ECTS
Ergänzungsmodul Literaturwissenschaft: Seminar max. 6 ECTS
LA Gym: Aufbaumodul Literaturwissenschaft: Seminar 6 ECTS
BA Berufliche Bildung: Basis/Aufbaumodul Literaturwissenschaft: Seminar 6 ECTS
LA GS/HS/MS/RS: Aufbaumodul Literaturwissenschaft: Seminar 6 ECTS

NOT open for Consolidation Module Literature
open for Ergänzungsmodule Literaturwissenschaft

II. Kulturwissenschaft:

B.A. Anglistik/Amerikanistik: Aufbaumodul Britische und Amerikanische Kultur: Seminar Britische Kultur (6 ECTS)
B.A. Anglistik/Amerikanistik: Ergänzungsmodul (ab WS 2014/15; je nach Belegung des Faches 6, 4 oder 3 ECTS)
Lehrämter (neu): GYM Aufbaumodul; GYM Wahlpflichtmodul (Kombination mit Russisch) Kulturwissenschaft: Seminar Britische Kultur (5 ECTS)
Erasmus and other visiting students: Seminar (6 ECTS)

The module will be examined by a short (20-minute) presentation, and a term paper (word limit: 4,000 words). Further information on the term paper can be obtained from this address: http://www.uni-bamberg.de/britcult/leistungen/studium/.

Inhalt:

‘[T]o define true madness, / What is ’t but to be nothing else but mad?’ As Polonius, the would-be sage of Shakespeare’s Hamlet (1609) recognized, the true nature of mental illness is one of human society’s least fathomable riddles. By the early twentieth century, the asylum gates were rattling in strange new ways, even as the mystery remained essentially as intractable as ever. The development of modern psychiatry in the 1870s had challenged old models of disease classification; the fin-de-siècle emergence of psychoanalysis was drawing into question our innate morality and rationality; and a relentless process of urbanization seemed to be intensifying symptoms of such ‘modern’ disorders as schizophrenia and neurasthenia.

We start with a theoretical introduction to mental illness in modern literature on the basis of Michel Foucault’s History of Madness (1961). Our literary explorations will begin with a selection of Stevie Smith’s poems of mental illness. Virginia Woolf’s celebrated novel, Mrs Dalloway (1925) was not only one of the first literary texts to sound out the reverberations of shellshock in the years following the Great War, but also a searing critique of contemporary social attitudes towards mental illness. Samuel Beckett’s stage masterpiece, Waiting for Godot (1952), in turn, is an absurdist reflection of the madness of modernity itself in the wake of World War II. We then move into the 1960s, which saw a proliferation of literary treatments of mental illness. After discussing Doris Lessing’s devastating portrayal of female depression in her story ‘To Room 19’ (1963), we will read Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea of 1966: a subversive twist on Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, which probes the problematic relationship between colonialism, racial politics, and the exploitation of ‘madness’ as a clinical and social label. Finally, we close with a selection from A. S. Byatt’s 1987 collection, Sugar and Other Stories, including ‘The July Ghost’, a poignant reflection on the delicate links between mourning, loss, and mental illness.

Empfohlene Literatur:

I. Primärliteratur:

Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot (London: Faber & Faber, 2006).

A. S. Byatt, Sugar & Other Stories (London: Vintage, 1996).

Jean Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea, new edn (London: Penguin, 2000).

Virginia Woolf, Mrs Dalloway, ed. with an Introduction and Notes by David Bradshaw (Oxford: Oxford World’s Classics, 2008).

N.B.: Smith’s poems, Lessing’s short story, and extracts from Foucault’s History of Madness, will be made available on the Virtual Campus in the first week of the semester.

II. Sekundärliteratur:

A list of useful secondary literature, together with a TB4 Semesterapparat, will be made available in the first week of the semester.

Please note that you alone are responsible for knowing and keeping track of information made available to you in printed documents and on the Virtual Campus. Needless to say that your active and regular participation is expected.

Dystopias, Utopias, and ‘Other Places’ in Modern and Contemporary English and German Literature

Dozent/in:

Robert Craig

Angaben:

Seminar/Proseminar, 2 SWS, ECTS: 6, An-/Abmeldung über FlexNow: 15.03.2022 (10:00 Uhr) bis 29.04.2022 (23:59 Uhr); An-/Abmeldung zur Prüfung über FlexNow: 20.06.2022 (10:00 Uhr) bis 15.07.2022 (23:59 Uhr)

Termine:

Di, 16:00 - 18:00, LU19/00.11

Voraussetzungen / Organisatorisches:

Teilnahmevoraussetzungen/Conditions of participation:

B.A. Anglistik/Amerikanistik: Abgeschlossenes Basismodul Britische und Amerikanische Kulturwissenschaft
Lehrämter (neu): GYM Abgeschlossenes Basismodul Landeskunde/Kulturwissenschaft
B.A./LA Anglistik/Amerikanistik: Abgeschlossenes Basismodul Literaturwissenschaft

Modulzugehörigkeit/Module applicability:

I. Literaturwissenschaft:

BA Anglistik/Amerikanistik: Aufbaumodul Literaturwissenschaft / freie Erweiterung: Seminar 6 ECTS
Ergänzungsmodul Literaturwissenschaft: Seminar max. 6 ECTS
LA Gym: Aufbaumodul Literaturwissenschaft: Seminar 6 ECTS
BA Berufliche Bildung: Basis/Aufbaumodul Literaturwissenschaft: Seminar 6 ECTS
LA GS/HS/MS/RS: Aufbaumodul Literaturwissenschaft: Seminar 6 ECTS
NOT open for Consolidation Module Literature
open for Ergänzungsmodule Literaturwissenschaft

II. Kulturwissenschaft:

B.A. Anglistik/Amerikanistik: Aufbaumodul Britische und Amerikanische Kultur: Seminar Britische Kultur (6 ECTS)
B.A. Anglistik/Amerikanistik: Ergänzungsmodul (ab WS 2014/15; je nach Belegung des Faches 6, 4 oder 3 ECTS)
Lehrämter (neu): GYM Aufbaumodul; GYM Wahlpflichtmodul (Kombination mit Russisch) Kulturwissenschaft: Seminar Britische Kultur (5 ECTS)
Erasmus and other visiting students: Seminar (6 ECTS)

The Aufbaumodul will be examined by a short (20-minute) presentation, and a term paper (word limit: 4,000 words); the Ergänzungsmodul will be examined by an oral examination.

Further information on the term paper can be obtained from this address: http://www.uni-bamberg.de/britcult/leistungen/studium/.

Inhalt:

In his landmark study of science fiction, Archaeologies of the Future (2007), the Marxist critic Fredric Jameson argued that the paradox of Utopia lies in the fact that it can never truly be represented. As a literal ‘no place’, it remains positively unimaginable from the damaged perspective of the present. Still, writers have never stopped trying – and as the twentieth century lurched through two world wars, it was utopia’s apparent opposite which came to exert a far stronger imaginative grip. Even after a turn away from optimistic projections in space and time, the distinction between ‘utopia’ and ‘dystopia’ has remained a profoundly ambiguous one; and as many have argued, their literary portrayals often tell us far more about the present than any supposed ‘future’.

This seminar takes these theoretical premises as a starting point for an exploration of various utopias, dystopias, and ‘other places’ in both English and German. We begin with Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World (1932), a satire of consumption and capitalism, which suggests that Western society’s dreams and nightmares are closer to one another than we might think. We then turn to The Drowned World by J. G. Ballard (1962), the story of a post-apocalyptic Earth transformed beyond recognition by global warming. Following this, we will discuss either Iain M. Banks’s The Player of Games (1988) or Jeanette Winterson’s The Stone Gods (2007). While the former takes us on an intergalactic journey to ‘the Culture’, a liberal techno-utopia, the latter is a dystopian meditation on humankind’s tendency to repeat the same fatal mistakes time and again. Andreas Eschbach’s Die Haarteppichknüpfer (1995) has us reflect on the nature of work, and its relation to ‘life’, through the lens of a radically different universe, an entirely ‘other’ place. And finally, Dietmar Dath’s epic political allegory, Die Abschaffung der Arten (2008), takes us forward in time to a world in which our own species is virtually extinct – and the kingdom of animals do battle against alien forms of AI.

Empfohlene Literatur:

I. Primärliteratur:

J. G. Ballard, The Drowned World, with an Introduction by Martin Amis (London: Fourth Estate, 2014).

Iain M. Banks, The Player of Games (London: Orbit, 2012).

Dietmar Dath, Die Abschaffung der Arten (Frankfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp, 2008).

Andreas Eschbach, Die Haarteppichknüpfer (Köln: Lübbe, 2012).

Aldous Huxley, Brave New World and Brave New World Revisited, with a Foreword by Christopher Hitchens (New York: Harper Perennial, 2005).
Jeanette Winterson, The Stone Gods (London: Penguin, 2008).

II. Sekundärliteratur:

A list of useful secondary literature, together with a TB4 Semesterapparat, will be made available in the first week of the semester.

Please note that you alone are responsible for knowing and keeping track of information made available to you in printed documents and on the Virtual Campus. Needless to say that your active and regular participation is expected.

In the Spotlight: A Survey of US-American Literary History (e-learning course)

Dozent/in:

Nicole K. Konopka

Angaben:

Proseminar, 2 SWS, ECTS: 6, Gender und Diversität, Dies ist ein reines Online-Seminar. Anmeldung erfolgt über die VHB!

Termine:

Zeit n.V., Online-Webinar
Der Kurs findet ausschließlich virtuell statt. Er steht über die virtuelle Hochschule Bayern Studierenden aller bayerischen Universitäten bzw. Hochschulen zur Verfügung.

Voraussetzungen / Organisatorisches:

1. Module Allocation:

All modules including an advanced level seminar (Aufbaumodul) for literary studies:

• BA Anglistik/Amerikanistik (Seminar 6 ECTS)
• Lehramt GS/HS/MS/RS/GY (Seminar 6 ECTS)

>> NOT open for ‘Ergänzungsmodul’ literary studies!

2. Prerequisites for obtaining credit points:

• completion of the basic module literary studies (Basismodul Literaturwissenschaft)
• active participation (individual tasks and group work)
• term paper in English (following the Style Sheet)

3. Registration:

• via Virtuelle Hochschule Bayern!
• Course Participation (de)enrollment: March 15 – April 29, 2022 (via vhb website!)
• ECTS/Exam (de)registration: June 01 – July 01, 2022 (via email to the instructor!)

Die Lehrveranstaltung ist dauerhaft als Online-Kurs konzipiert. Sie steht über die virtuelle Hochschule Bayern [https://www.vhb.org/startseite ] Studierenden aller bayerischen Universitäten bzw. Hochschulen zur Verfügung.

Zur Kursdemo auf dem Virtuellen Campus: https://vc.uni-bamberg.de/course/view.php?id=27003

Inhalt:

This seminar is an internet-based survey course that offers students in the “Aufbaumodul Literaturwissenschaft” an overview of the main developments in US-American literary history. The class will help students to understand the links between literary periods, their central ideas, and important stylistic features. The course provides participants with detailed information about the complexities that underlie and connect each literary work and period. The course’s other main goal is to familiarize students with key texts and key discourses of US-American literature, such as race, class, and gender. The texts were chosen because they either represent crucial aspects of their respective literary periods, or because they address topics and concepts that were controversial at this particular point in history.

Despite being an E-Learning course, this is a discussion-based class, so active participation is crucial. Participants are required to contribute to class discussions by posting at least two quality responses per forum. Your learning process will be enabled through your active involvement in the different assignments, which are designed to allow you as much creative freedom as possible while assisting you in your reading and understanding of the poems, short stories, novels, and plays.

Empfohlene Literatur:

Most readings will be made available via the Learning Management System (VC/Moodle).
Two texts, however, need to be acquired by each participant individually:

• Kate Chopin, The Awakening (1899)
• Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five, or The Children’s Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death (1969)

New Woman, New Earth : Ecofeminism and Natureculture in Contemporary American Literature

Dozent/in:

Yildiz Asar

Angaben:

Proseminar, 2 SWS, ECTS: 6, Gaststudierendenverzeichnis, Gender und Diversität

Termine:

Di, 16:00 - 18:00, U5/00.24
Einzeltermin am 24.6.2022, 12:00 - 14:00, U5/01.22

Voraussetzungen / Organisatorisches:

1. Module Allocation:

All modules including an advanced level seminar (Aufbaumodul) for literary studies:

• BA Anglistik/Amerikanistik (Seminar 6 ECTS)
• BA Berufliche Bildung (Seminar 6 ECTS)
• Lehramt GS/HS/MS/RS/GY (Seminar 6 ECTS)

>> Open for Ergänzungsmodul literary studies!

2. Prerequisites for obtaining credit points:

• completion of the basic module (Basismodul)
• active participation (individual tasks and group work)
• term paper in English (following the Style Sheet)
• only Ergänzungsmodul: oral exam (see website for more information: https://www.uni-bamberg.de/amerikanistik/studium/ergaenzungsmodul-ba/ )

3. FlexNow-Registration:

• Course Participation (de)enrollment: March 15 May 01, 2022
• ECTS/Exam (de)registration: June 01 July 01, 2022

Guest auditors: please contact lecturer via e-mail.

Information on how to solve problems with your registration: https://www.uni-bamberg.de/anglistik/studium/informationen-zu-flexnow/

Für Studienortwechsler, Erasmusstudenten sowie Studierende, die den Leistungsnachweis zur baldigen Prüfungsanmeldung benötigen, werden im begrenzten Umfang Plätze freigehalten. Bei Überbuchung der Lehrveranstaltung fällt die Entscheidung über die Teilnahme in Rücksprache mit der Dozentin.

Inhalt:

Since the early 1970s, ecofeminists have argued that the environment is a feminist issue, for they could trace important connections between the domination of women [or of any other oppressed group] and the domination of nature (Warren 1993). Accordingly, in Greta Gaard s words, ecofeminism s key argument is that the ideology which authorizes oppressions such as those based on race, class, gender, sexuality, physical abilities, and species is the same ideology which sanctions the oppression of nature (Gaard 1993). In this way, ecofeminism then calls for an end to all oppressions, for no attempt to liberate women and other minorities can succeed without an equal attempt to liberate nature (Gaard).

Ecofeminism, as a diverse and multi-directional movement, assumes that traditional categories such as nature, women, animals, and humans as well as dualistic dichotomies such as reason/emotion, mind/body, culture/nature, human/nature, human/animal, man/woman are all socially constructed. To expose and dismantle these hierarchical dichotomies, ecofeminism locates a need to theorize [the natural and the cultural] together, and analyze their complex relationships in terms of their indivisibility and thus their mutual effect on one another (Iovino and Oppermann 2012). Donna Haraway s concept of natureculture for instance, is one such theoretical attempt to encapsulate the complex entanglements of all seemingly separate patriarchal-hierarchical binaries as well as discursive practices and material phenomena.

In this course, we will first inspect the theoretical origins, frameworks, and directions of ecofeminism in the US and beyond through our readings and analyses of some of the most important theoretical works by ecofeminist scholars. Later, we will move on to how such ecofeminist re-conceptualizations of the environment, gender, species, justice, body, material & discourse, nature & culture, are dealt with in the literary works of contemporary American feminist writers. In our literary readings and analyses throughout the semester, we will thus engage with critical and non-binary perspectives when thinking about the social and environmental issues of our age, through an ecofeminist lens which acknowledges connections between the isms of domination and environmental destruction.

Empfohlene Literatur:

Primary Readings:

• Margaret Atwood, Surfacing (1972)
• Ursula K. Le Guin, The Dispossessed (1974)
• Ntozake Shange, Sassafrass, Cypress & Indigo (1982)
• Linda Hogan, Solar Storms (1994)

Please acquire and start reading these texts BEFORE the beginning of our class!
Further Readings will be made available via the VC.

“East Goes West”: Tracing Developments in Asian American Literature and Culture

Dozent/in:

Mareike Spychala

Angaben:

Proseminar, 2 SWS, ECTS: 6, Studium Generale, Gender und Diversität, Kultur und Bildung

Termine:

Do, 10:00 - 12:00, U5/02.22

Voraussetzungen / Organisatorisches:

1. Module Allocation:

All modules including an advanced level seminar (Aufbaumodul) for literary studies or cultural studies:

• BA Anglistik/Amerikanistik (Seminar 6 ECTS)
• BA Berufliche Bildung (Seminar 6 ECTS)
• Lehramt GS/HS/MS/RS/GY (Seminar 6 ECTS)

>> Open for ‘Ergänzungsmodul’ literary studies and cultural studies!

2. Prerequisites for obtaining credit points:

• completion of the basic module (Basismodul)
• active participation (individual tasks and group work)
• term paper in English (following the Style Sheet)
• only Ergänzungsmodul: oral exam (see website for more information: https://www.uni-bamberg.de/amerikanistik/studium/ergaenzungsmodul-ba/ )

3. FlexNow-Registration:

• Course Participation (de)enrollment: March 15 – May 01, 2022
• ECTS/Exam (de)registration: June 01 – July 01, 2022

Guest auditors: please contact lecturer via e-mail.

Information on how to solve problems with your registration: https://www.uni-bamberg.de/anglistik/studium/informationen-zu-flexnow/

Für Studienortwechsler, Erasmusstudenten sowie Studierende, die den Leistungsnachweis zur baldigen Prüfungsanmeldung benötigen, werden im begrenzten Umfang Plätze freigehalten. Bei Überbuchung der Lehrveranstaltung fällt die Entscheidung über die Teilnahme in Rücksprache mit der Dozentin.

Inhalt:

After U.S. public discourse during the late-19th and early-20th century vilified Asian – and especially Chinese – immigrants as “Yellow Peril,” Americans of Asian descent have more recently been (mis-)represented as a “Model Minority.” However, neither of these labels are self-chosen, nor do they communicate the vibrant and diverse literatures and cultures gathered under the label “Asian American,” coined during the activism of the 1960s. “Asian American” as an umbrella term covers people from many different countries and cultures of origin who moved to the United States during vastly different time periods and under varied circumstances, sometimes voluntary, in search of education or work opportunities, and sometimes seeking refuge from persecution or war. In addition, the term also applies to the second- or third-generation descendants of earlier (im-)migrants, whose experiences and (self-)positionings differ yet again.

This course aims to offer an introduction to a wide variety of Asian American literary and cultural texts and trace how these texts negotiate questions of ethnicity, citizenship, gender, and belonging in the United States from the assimilationist late-19th century to the transcultural 21st century. In doing so, it aims to help students to trace and tease out both the commonalities and the differences that emerge between and among these texts.

Empfohlene Literatur:

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

• Younghill Kang, East Goes West (1937)
• Amy Tan, The Joy Luck Club (1989)
• Julie Otsuka, The Buddha in the Attic (2011)
• Thi Bui, The Best We Could Do: An Illustrated Memoir (2017)
• George Takei, They Called Us Enemy (2020)

Further Readings will be made available via the VC.

Films

• The Joy Luck Club (1993)
• Allegiance: A New Musical Inspired by a True Story (2012)

PS 9/11 in American Literature and Culture

Dozent/in:

Simone Linz

Angaben:

Proseminar, 2 SWS, benoteter Schein, ECTS: 6

Termine:

Einzeltermin am 28.5.2022, Einzeltermin am 4.6.2022, 10:30 - 17:30, U5/02.17
Einzeltermin am 18.6.2022, Einzeltermin am 2.7.2022, 10:30 - 17:30, MG1/02.06

Voraussetzungen / Organisatorisches:

Modulzuordnung und Zugangsvoraussetzung / Part of modules resp. courses of study:
BA Anglistik/Amerikanistik:
Aufbaumodul Literaturwissenschaft: Seminar 6 ECTS;
Aufbaumodul Britische und Amerikanische Kulturwissenschaft: Seminar Kulturwissenschaft 6 ECTS; Ergänzungsmodul (ab WS 2014/15; je nach Belegung des Faches 6, 4 oder 3 ECTS)

BA Berufliche Bildung:
Aufbaumodul Literaturwissenschaft/Aufbaumodul Kulturwissenschaft: Seminar 6 ECTS

LA GS/MS/RS/BS:
Aufbaumodul Englische und Amerikanische Literaturwissenschaft: Seminar 6 ECTS

LA GY:
Aufbaumodul Englische und Amerikanische Literaturwissenschaft: Seminar 6 ECTS Aufbaumodul Kulturwissenschaft: Seminar 5 ECTS

M.A. WiPäd:
Aufbaumodul Kulturwissenschaft (thematisches Seminar 6 ECTS)

Erasmus and other visiting students:
Seminar (6 ECTS)

Voraussetzungen für Punktevergabe / Prerequisites for obtaining credit points:
active participation
presentation (30 minutes)
term paper in English, 3.000-4.000 words

An- und Abmeldung Lehrveranstaltung / Enrollment:
March 15 until April 29, 2022

via FlexNow "Professur für Anglistische und Amerikanistische Kulturwissenschaft" (Students without access to FlexNow (Erasmus) please send an email to pascal.fischer(at)uni-bamberg.de or carmen.zink(at)uni-bamberg.de.)

Für Studienortwechsler, Erasmusstudenten sowie Studierende, die den Leistungsnachweis zur baldigen Prüfungsanmeldung benötigen, werden im begrenzten Umfang Plätze freigehalten. Bei Überbuchung des Seminars fällt die Entscheidung über die Teilnahme in Rücksprache mit der Dozentin/dem Dozenten.

Studierende, die an der Lehrveranstaltung als Gäste teilnehmen wollen, melden sich bitte nicht über FlexNow! sondern per Email an und erscheinen zur ersten Sitzung; erst dann kann endgültig geklärt werden, ob Gäste aufgenommen werden können.

Inhalt:

The events of September 11, 2001, changed the world forever. The aftermath of the 9/11 attacks led to immediate responses to the event, including national and international reactions, hate crimes, and military responses to the events. In this seminar, we will look at what led up to the attacks, what happened on that fateful day, and how the press covered the attacks. We will look at how 9/11 is portrayed in literature, movies, and songs, and how the events have changed American popular culture to this day.

Empfohlene Literatur:

Please read the following books before the start of the seminar:
Don DeLillo: Falling Man Jonathan Safran Foer: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

PS Migration and Identity

Dozent/in:

Lina Strempel

Angaben:

Proseminar, 2 SWS, benoteter Schein, ECTS: 6

Termine:

Do, 14:00 - 16:00, OK8/02.04

Voraussetzungen / Organisatorisches:

Modulzuordnung und Zugangsvoraussetzung / Part of modules resp. courses of study:
BA Anglistik/Amerikanistik:
Aufbaumodul Literaturwissenschaft: Seminar 6 ECTS;
Aufbaumodul Britische und Amerikanische Kulturwissenschaft: Seminar Kulturwissenschaft 6 ECTS; Ergänzungsmodul (ab WS 2014/15; je nach Belegung des Faches 6, 4 oder 3 ECTS)

BA Berufliche Bildung:
Aufbaumodul Literaturwissenschaft/Aufbaumodul Kulturwissenschaft: Seminar 6 ECTS

LA GS/MS/RS/BS:
Aufbaumodul Englische und Amerikanische Literaturwissenschaft: Seminar 6 ECTS

LA GY:
Aufbaumodul Englische und Amerikanische Literaturwissenschaft: Seminar 6 ECTS Aufbaumodul Kulturwissenschaft: Seminar 5 ECTS

M.A. WiPäd:
Aufbaumodul Kulturwissenschaft (thematisches Seminar 6 ECTS)

Erasmus and other visiting students:
Seminar (6 ECTS)

Voraussetzungen für Punktevergabe / Prerequisites for obtaining credit points:
active participation
presentation (30 minutes)
term paper in English, 3.000-4.000 words

An- und Abmeldung Lehrveranstaltung / Enrollment:
March 15 until April 29, 2022

via FlexNow "Professur für Anglistische und Amerikanistische Kulturwissenschaft" (Students without access to FlexNow (Erasmus) please send an email to pascal.fischer(at)uni-bamberg.de or carmen.zink(at)uni-bamberg.de.)

Für Studienortwechsler, Erasmusstudenten sowie Studierende, die den Leistungsnachweis zur baldigen Prüfungsanmeldung benötigen, werden im begrenzten Umfang Plätze freigehalten. Bei Überbuchung des Seminars fällt die Entscheidung über die Teilnahme in Rücksprache mit der Dozentin/dem Dozenten.

Studierende, die an der Lehrveranstaltung als Gäste teilnehmen wollen, melden sich bitte nicht über FlexNow! sondern per Email an und erscheinen zur ersten Sitzung; erst dann kann endgültig geklärt werden, ob Gäste aufgenommen werden können.

Inhalt:

Be it by choice or by force, emigrating from one’s country of origin and permanently settling in a new place is a highly complex process with far-reaching implications for individual biographies and identities as well as for communities and societies as a whole. While (mass) migration has become a particularly defining feature of our globalised world today and an increasingly diverse phenomenon, certain dynamics and characteristics of migratory experiences are relatively consistent over time and different national contexts. In this seminar we want to approach the interplay between migration and identity from a cultural studies perspective: We will fathom out the influence of aspects of gender, race and class and analyse their representation in a choice of primary texts and cultural artefacts. The students will advance their understanding further through the selected theoretical and secondary readings. In addition to addressing these issues on a general and theoretical level, we mainly want to use Irish emigration to the United States as a reference and example. With their long-standing and extensive history of migration, the emigrant and immigrant nation respectively are particularly well-suited to discuss aspects of migrant identity construction and the concepts of diaspora and transnationalism. Please purchase or borrow a copy of Colm Tóibín’s novel Brooklyn (2009) and start reading it in preparation for the seminar, all other texts and materials will be made available on the VC at the beginning of term. Students of this seminar are also invited to attend the international, interdisciplinary conference on “Displacement, Emplacement, and Migration”, which will be held in Bamberg between 24 and 26 June 2022; attendance is not obligatory though.