| 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 |
| 10-76-4-D2/WD2-14 | Key Topics in Literature Tba (in English) You can find course dates and further information in Stud.IP. | 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 |
