Sommersemester 2017

- Advanced Seminar Literary Studies -
  
Inhalt der Lehrveranstaltung:
Utopia and Apocalypse are two central modes in which American culture has imagined the future from the 17th century to the present. This course will focus on the idea of America as destination and origin of hope for a better life, and as an object of critique for failing to live up to this promise. We will begin with Puritan notions of America as Promised Land, deal with political utopian ideas in the 18th and 19th centuries, and examine the ways in which writers have tapped into the nation's utopian and apocalyptic tradition to critique its politics of race, gender and sexuality. The course concludes with a look at the contemporary re-emergence of apocalypse in the face of global ecological, political and economic crisis. Primary texts will include (excerpts from) William Bradford's Of Plymouth Plantation (1630-1647), Edward Bellamy's Looking Backward (1888), Joanna Russ' The Female Man (1975), as well as speeches by Martin Luther King, Barack Obama, and Bernie Sanders. We will also discuss James Cameron's film Avatar (2009) and Paul W.S. Anderson’s Resident Evil: Retribution (2012).

Inhalt der Lehrveranstaltung:

This seminar is specifically designed to fulfil the SM Kult (alt: B2c) requirement for Lehramt Gymnasium; it will introduce major methods and theories in cultural studies with a focus on television. The seminar is project-based and will connect current theories of culture with attention to film and television form. After three introductory sessions, students will work in groups to develop original, methodologically sound readings of a contemporary television series grounded in close shot-by-shot analysis and current theories of television and culture. While each group will develop its own approach using a selection of theoretical angles as a starting point, we will all analyze the same popular series, The Walking Dead (Season 1, 2010).

Active participation in and completion of the project is required for taking the final exam.

Inhalt der Lehrveranstaltung:
This BA research seminar introduces students to fundamental theories and research methods at the intersection between Narrative Theory, Television Studies and Comics Studies. The object of this research is to study the ways in which serial storytelling (telling stories that continuously defer closure) shapes contemporary popular culture, but above all the course aims to deepen students’ understanding of the research process in literary and cultural studies. Each student will work on a small research project focusing on one or two primary texts in this context and present their results as a research poster as part of a workshop, “The Seriality of Risk in Television and Comics” (Thursday 13 July 2017).  

- Advanced Seminar Literary Studies -

Inhalt der Lehrveranstaltung:

This seminar focuses on the influential American poet Walt Whitman and the ways in which his writing responded to nineteenth-century cultural upheaval, transforming poetry in the process. The goal is not only to explore the work of one of the most important writers of American literature and the practice of reading poetry more fully , but also to develop a deeper sense of developments that still shape American culture today: slavery and race, space and movement, as well as the links between masculinity, democracy and cultural identity.

Textbook: Walt Whitman. Leaves of Grass and Other Writings. 2nd. ed. Norton, 2002. (Norton Critical Editions). More information, as well as study and research materials are available online (elearning.uni-bayreuth.de).