| 10-76-4-D2/WD2-13 | Key Topic in Literature: Poetry and Nature in the Long Eighteenth Century (in English) The Long Eighteenth Century is characterised by remarkable developments in poetic form, diction, style, and subject. At the same time, through various philosophical (…) The Long Eighteenth Century is characterised by remarkable developments in poetic form, diction, style, and subject. At the same time, through various philosophical and political shifts, attitudes towards nature, and the relationship between humans and nature changed significantly. In this seminar, we will explore how poetry is transformed in the transition from neo-classicism to Romanticism, and we will consider these aesthetic changes in relation to the representation of nature.
Required Reading:
A reader of poems and other texts will be made available on Stud.IP by the beginning of term. Most of the texts will be taken from:
Noggle, James. The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Volume C: The Restoration and the Eighteenth Century. 10th Edition. Ed. Stephen Greenblatt.
Lynch, Deidre Shauna. The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Volume D: The Romantic Period. 10th Edition. Ed. Stephen Greenblatt.
Information on which texts must be read before the first session will be specified on Stud.IP. | Ursula Kluwick-Kälin |
| 10-76-4-D2/WD2-12 | Key Topic in Literature: Visualising the Nineteenth Century (in English) Much nineteenth-century literature is inter-, multi-, or transmedial by nature. Many novels pair text with illustrations and/or were serialised, i.e. published in (…) Much nineteenth-century literature is inter-, multi-, or transmedial by nature. Many novels pair text with illustrations and/or were serialised, i.e. published in magazines or monthly parts before they were published in book form. Not only did these texts, therefore, appear over a period of many months, but individual instalments were also placed in the context of different texts and images in the course of their publication. In addition, writers occasionally re-wrote their own works for different media (turning a novel into a play, or vice versa). Finally, many nineteenth-century literary texts have had transmedial afterlives and have been adapted in different media, such as film and music. In this course, we will look at several of these phenomena to explore a range of relations between literature and other media in the nineteenth century.
Important Dates:
There will be two film evening where we will watch different film adaptations of Wuthering Heights together. These will take place on 30 April and 7 May, 6-8pm (i.e., right after class). There will also be a mini conference in two parts, on Wednesday, 11 June, 16.00-19.00 (i.e. regular class time plus one additional hour) and on Thursday, 12 June, 9.00-12.00. This mini conference, at which students will present their projects, will also be the final session of the course.
Required Reading:
Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights. 1847. Preferred edition: Norton Critical Edition, 2003 (4th ed., ed. Richard J. Dunn)
Charles Dickens, The Old Curiosity Shop. 1841. Preferred edition: Penguin, 2000 (ed. Norman Page)
A selection of Romantic poems will be available on Stud.IP at the beginning of April. | Ursula Kluwick-Kälin |
| 10-76-4-D2/WD2-10 | Key Topics in Cultural History and Literature: Edgar Allen Poe: Then and Now (in English) This class will study the many works of Edgar Allen Poe, one of the most prolific and well-known US American Gothic writers of the 19th century. We will analyze Poe’s (…) This class will study the many works of Edgar Allen Poe, one of the most prolific and well-known US American Gothic writers of the 19th century. We will analyze Poe’s short stories while simultaneously watching Mike Flanagan’s Netflix Series: The Fall of the House of Usher in order to compare the original works with their current imaginings within the horror genre. Flanagan’s television series not only reimagines Poe’s short story, “The Fall of the House of Usher,” but each episode also reimagines other short stories such as “The Tell-Tale Heart,” “The Masque of the Red Death,” “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” “The Black Cat,” “The Gold Bug,” and “The Pit and the Pendulum.” We will analyze each of these short stories in their original format and then investigate how Flanagan reappropriates the stories into our current day and age in order to critique capitalism, systemic racism, and colonialism within US American society.
Please be advised, this class will engage with horrific content as Flanagan is a well-known horror film and series director. All texts for this class will be uploaded on Stud.Ip. Access to the show on Netflix is required for the seminar. Other requirements for this class include active class participation, in-depth knowledge of all primary and secondary reading materials, and a portfolio or term paper (depending on the chosen module). | Corina Wieser-Cox |
| 10-76-6-WD2-04 | Key Topics in Linguistics: Introduction to language assessment (in English) Seminar description
This introductory seminar focuses on one of the most practical areas of applied linguistics – language assessment. In this seminar, we review the (…) Seminar description
This introductory seminar focuses on one of the most practical areas of applied linguistics – language assessment. In this seminar, we review the central theoretical concepts and practical considerations in language assessment.
As a seminar participant, you will gain an understanding of what role authentic language assessment plays for different purposes. Expanding on the assessment quality, you will become familiar with construct, validity, reliability, and practicality concepts. Additionally, you will learn about the development of assessment tasks and rating approaches. Finally, the seminar will also cover recent trends in the use of technology for language assessment, as well as the main concepts in fairness and ethics of language assessment.
You will also get a chance to apply the knowledge gained by developing and presenting your small-scale project at the end of the seminar.
Aims of the seminar:
• developing a holistic understanding of the main areas of interest in language assessment
• gaining the knowledge of terminology used in language assessment and being able to apply it in the context of the seminar and outside of it
• developing competence in the critical evaluation of the existing assessment tasks
• gaining insights about methods for research in language assessment
• developing competencies in assessment task development
Overview of seminar content:
• familiarisation with the role of language assessment and its purposes
• familiarisation with qualities of effective assessment systems
• familiarisation with the main stages and principles of assessment instrument development
• familiarisation with language assessment for different purposes and of different skills
• familiarisation with recent trends in applying technology in language assessment
• familiarisation with main fairness and ethics considerations in language assessment | Valeriia Koval |
| 10-76-6-WD2-02 | Key Topics in Linguistics: Plurilingual teaching and learning (in English) This seminar will examine different aspects of plurilingualism, as well as plurilingual teaching and learning in language classrooms. In the following, you find a list (…) This seminar will examine different aspects of plurilingualism, as well as plurilingual teaching and learning in language classrooms. In the following, you find a list of topics we will talk about in the seminar:
- Defining and critically assessing terms that are used in the area of plurilingualism
- Analyzing the work done by the Council of Europe regarding plurilingualism (FREPA, CEFR descriptors, companion volume of the CEFR, European Language Portfolio
- Getting to know the importance of language awareness
- Exploring existing plurilingual teaching and learning approaches, methods, task, and activities that can be used in the language learning classroom
- Developing and implementing your own plurilingual activity within the seminar
- ...
The seminar links research to practice. The class work will consist of thematic as well as scientific work input, discussions, individual work, group work, reflection tasks, …
BA students:
For the ungraded “Seminarleistung” (SL) you will be required to do the following:
1. OASIS summary (https://www.oasis-database.org/) + short presentation of summary
For the graded "Prüfungsleistung" (PL) you will be required to do the following:
1. OASIS summary (https://www.oasis-database.org/) + short presentation of summary
2. Portfolio (8–10 pages) consisting of
2.1 Comparison of two articles (one article can be the OASIS article)
2.2 Task about language awareness
2.3 Reflection task
MA students:
For the ungraded “Seminarleistung” (SL) you will be required to do the following:
1. OASIS summary (https://www.oasis-database.org/) + short presentation of summary in which you also explain the study’s relevance for teaching practice
For the graded "Prüfungsleistung" (PL) you will be required to do the following:
1. OASIS summary (https://www.oasis-database.org/) + short presentation of summary in which you also explain the study’s relevance for teaching practice
2. Term paper (13–15 pages) consisting of
2.1 Mock research project including a developed research instrument
2.2 Reflection task
The seminar will be offered in both the BA and MA programmes. In order to ensure a suitable seminar for the different students, the internal differentiation is as follows. On the one hand, the scope of the Seminarleistung (ungraded assessment) and the Prüfungsleistung (graded assessment) will be adjusted accordingly. On the other hand, group work is used to cater for students' different prior knowledge and requirements and to integrate these into the seminar in a meaningful way.
| Stephanie Bergmann, M.A. |
| 10-76-4-D2/WD2-14 | Key Topics in Literature: (Post)Colonial Texts and Contexts: Literature on South and Southeast Asia (in English) Course Description
South and Southeast Asia are regions comprising a tantalising variety of peoples, languages, customs and religions, spread out across a number of (…) Course Description
South and Southeast Asia are regions comprising a tantalising variety of peoples, languages, customs and religions, spread out across a number of ‘multicultural’ societies and emerging economies. The wider area has been shaped by a long history of European (colonial) presence, wartime occupation and, in several states, post-independence dictatorial regimes. In one way or another, the region has also always been part of the multifaceted dynamics nowadays associated with the term globalisation. In this seminar, we will engage with a variety of historical and contemporary literary texts produced in or about several locations in South and Southeast Asia, examining them in conjunction with some of the key concerns raised by the field of postcolonial studies. Analysing classic colonial fiction as well as more recent engagements with the area, we will explore such diverse issues as individual identity formation, the (state-sanctioned) construction of self and other, notions of home and belonging and the role of the past for the present and future of a number of rapidly changing and highly diverse societies.
Novels to be Discussed
• E.M. Forster, A Passage to India (1924; Penguin Classics edition)
• Wendy Law-Yone, The Road to Wanting (Chatto & Windus, 2010)
• Tan Twan Eng, The House of Doors (Canongate, 2023)
It would be ideal if students could acquire these as soon as possible after signing up for the course.
Further shorter materials, including secondary literature, short stories and poems, will be made available for the students online. | Dr. Marijke Denger |
| 10-76-4-D2/WD2-05 | Key Topics in Literature: Anthropology in Film and Fiction (in English) Twentieth-century anthropology, anthropologists and anthropological fieldwork have found a renewed interest in contemporary film and fiction. Such fictional – or (…) Twentieth-century anthropology, anthropologists and anthropological fieldwork have found a renewed interest in contemporary film and fiction. Such fictional – or fictionalised – representations are engaged in complex constellations of anthropological observation and situate anthropological inquiry in relation to other scientific disciplines as well as evolving cultural concerns. Crucially, the production of anthropological knowledge often seems to coincide with the death or destruction of those investigated. In this seminar, we will explore how specific examples of contemporary film and fiction address the history of the discipline of anthropology, as well as anthropology's distinctive position in knowledge production. We will analyse the representations of such complex constellations of observation and destruction in the context of debates from ‘Western science’ to ‘local knowledge’, from ‘cultural difference’ to ‘epistemic violence’. The course comprises in-presence meetings with group presentations, reading weeks and online research, as well as a planned visit to the Übersee Museum Bremen.
Please, buy and read the following novels:
• Lily King. Euphoria. London: Picador, 2014. [978-1-5290-9265-3]
• Hania Yanagihara. The People in the Trees [2013]. London: Picador, 2018. [978-1-5098-9298-3]
In addition, we will watch and discuss a documentary film about the 1948 American-Australian Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land and its aftermath:
- Etched in Bone (2018, dir. Martin Thomas and Béatrice Bijon) [available via vimeo: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/etchedinbone] | Anna Auguscik |
| 10-76-4-D2/WD2-06 | Key Topics in Literature: Australian Expedition Narratives (in English) From modernist to postcolonial Australian literature, historical fiction has sought to challenge colonial discourse, while also at times reproducing perspectives of (…) From modernist to postcolonial Australian literature, historical fiction has sought to challenge colonial discourse, while also at times reproducing perspectives of (white) historiography. The goal of this seminar is to familiarize students with Australia and its popular identity as ‘terra australis incognita’, ‘terra nullius’, or the ‘land down under’. We will focus especially on literary negotiations of encounters between colonizers and colonized, re-imaginations of settler colonialism and national identity, as well as the efforts and prospects of ‘reconciliation’. The course comprises in-presence meetings with group presentations, reading weeks and online research, as well as a planned visit to the Übersee Museum Bremen.
Please, buy and read the following novels:
- Patrick White. Voss. London: Vintage, [1957] 1994. [ISBN-13: 978-0099324713]
- Kate Grenville. The Lieutenant. Edinburgh: Canongate, [2008] 2022. [ISBN-13: 978-178689602]
In addition, we will watch and discuss a documentary film about the 1948 American-Australian Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land and its aftermath:
- Etched in Bone (2018, dir. Martin Thomas and Béatrice Bijon) [available via vimeo: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/etchedinbone] | Anna Auguscik |
| 10-76-4-D2/WD2-07 | Key Topics in Literature: Literature and/in the Anthropocene (in English) Although a proposal to name a new geological epoch following the Holocene as ‘the Anthropocene’ has recently been rejected by the International Commission on (…) Although a proposal to name a new geological epoch following the Holocene as ‘the Anthropocene’ has recently been rejected by the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS) and the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS), the term continues to be used both in public discussions as well as across a wide range of disciplines in the sciences and the humanities to describe human impact on the Earth system. The goal of this seminar is to familiarize students with the concept of the Anthropocene, its discursive relevance and specific use in relation to literary and cultural representations. We will focus especially on literary negotiations of binary oppositions such as nature and culture, human and other-than-human, globe and planet, as well as the positionality of climate knowledge production, and related concepts such as the Capitalocene, the Plantationocene, or the Chthulucene. The course comprises in-presence meetings with group presentations, reading weeks and online research.
Please, buy and read the following novels:
- Jaspreet Singh. Face: A Novel of the Anthropocene. Victoria, BC: Touchwood Editions, 2022. [ISBN: 978-1-927366-97-4]
- Laline Paull. POD. Little, Brown, 2023. [978-1-4721-5662-4]
- Samantha Harvey. Orbital. London: Vermilion, 2024. [ISBN: 978-1-5299-2293-6] | Anna Auguscik |
| 10-76-4-D2/WD2-11 | Key Topics in Literature: Ocean Literacy in Anglophone Literature and Film (in English) This class will be conducted within the research area Blue Humanities. Blue Humanities studies oceans, rivers, and coastal areas in terms of (colonial) histories, (…) This class will be conducted within the research area Blue Humanities. Blue Humanities studies oceans, rivers, and coastal areas in terms of (colonial) histories, migration and travel, sustainability and ecological issues, circulation of people and ideas, marine and Indigenous knowledges, literature and cultures, new geographies, extractivism, energy and economic issues, among others.
After discussing ocean literacy in general and the sustainable development goals of the UN on water, we will read theoretical texts on ocean literacy. We will also watch documentaries and invite experts on ocean knowledge to class. We will read and discuss short texts from the collection The Imperiled Ocean: Human Stories from a Changing Sea by Laura Trethewey and the The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway. The idea is that in class we develop materials on ocean literacy together.
Hemingway’s text will be ready for purchase at the university bookstore at the beginning of the semester (10,50€; pls purchase the Pengion edition, should you want to acquire it yourself). Other primary and secondary texts will be uploaded on StudIP.
Pls note that regular attendance, class preparation and active class discussion are mandatory. You must register on StudIP for this class. | Prof. Dr. Kerstin Knopf |
| 10-76-4-D2/WD2-08 | Key Topics in Literature: Pacific Fictions, Pacific Literatures (in English) In the 1990s, Pacific Studies scholar Epeli Hau’fa postulated a reimagining of Oceania from 'islands in a far sea' to 'a sea of islands’. More recently, these very (…) In the 1990s, Pacific Studies scholar Epeli Hau’fa postulated a reimagining of Oceania from 'islands in a far sea' to 'a sea of islands’. More recently, these very islands have reappeared in global affairs in the course of debates ranging from geopolitical shifts and power play between China and the US to climate change and the rise of sea levels. The goal of this seminar is to familiarize students with the historical and cultural contexts of such discussions and the discursively constructed identity of ‘the Pacific’ in literary representations from the 19th to the 21st century. We will focus especially on literary negotiations of encounters between colonizers and colonized, on Pacific islands as anthropological laboratories and their relevance for the 'cultural turn', as well as on the work of 'writing back' to Western fictions of a highly sexualized 'paradise' and re-imagining Oceania as home in the ‘new Pacific literatures’. The course comprises in-presence meetings with group presentations, reading weeks and online research, as well as a planned visit to the Übersee Museum Bremen.
Please, buy and read the following novels:
• Herman Melville. Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life [1846]. Ed. John Bryant. London: Penguin Classics, 1996. [978-0-14-043488-0]
• Lily King. Euphoria. London: Picador, 2014. [978-1-5290-9265-3]
• Sia Figiel. Where We Once Belonged [1996]. New York: Kaya, 2007. [978-1-885030-27-6] | Anna Auguscik |
