Vorlesungsverzeichnis Sommersemester 2013 - Philosophische ...

Philosophische Fakultät
INSTITUT FÜR ANGLISTIK UND AMERIKANISTIK
The British Novel: 1970s to today (Seminar: Lit.)
Di 14 – 16, 4002041 Conny Loder, 2 SWS ab 3. Sem., Steinbeckerstr. 15, R 24
In this seminar we will explore several acclaimed and prize-winning novels from the 1970s to today. P. Fitzgerald’s
Offshore vividly portrays boat people, elaborating on what literary theory calls the space of liminality: Fitzgerald’s
characters belong neither on land, nor on sea; they are set in a space of in-between, physically as much as
psychologically. A similar in-between space is rendered by A. Carter’s Passion of New Eve, a post-feminist novel, set in
a future dystopian New York in which concepts of gender, sexual difference and identity are explored. Nearly 30 years
later, A. Smith’s Girl Meets Boy explores the concept of gender from a different perspective when she reinterprets the
myth of Iphis and Iante. Three novels from the 1990s, A. S. Byatt’s Possession, G. Swift’s Last Orders and S. Fry’s
Making History deal with topics of an outgoing century. These experimental novels range from a bizarre detective story,
to a potpourri of interior monologues and the utopian/dystopian answer to the question: what if Hitler had never been
born?
Students are requested to have read at least four of the six novels to be discussed in the seminar by the beginning of
the semester.
Maximum participants: 25
George Eliot: Middlemarch (Seminar: Lit.)
Do 16 – 18 / Do 18 – 21 (not every week), 4002049 James Fanning, 2 SWS ab 3. Sem., Steinbeckerstr. 15, R
34 / R 34
George Eliot’s Middlemarch is often regarded as the pinnacle of realism among English novels, the only one which can
really compare with the great works of Tolstoy and Balzac. Virginia Woolf called it “one of the few English novels
written for grown-up people”. We shall study various aspects of it including the question of realism, plot structure,
narrative technique and ideology, including, of course, gender issues.
Students are recommended to buy the Norton Critical Edition of Middlemarch, which contains useful footnotes as well
as a generous selection of secondary literature and background material. The Cambridge Companion to George Eliot, ed.
G. Levine, CUP 2001 provides useful background; further secondary literature will be recommended in the seminar. You
are expected to have read at least the first two ‘books’ of Middlemarch (out of eight) before the beginning of the
semester.
Maximum participants: 30
Introduction to the USA (Vorlesung)
Fr 10 – 12, 4002010 Anette Brauer, 2 SWS ab 3. Sem., Steinbeckerstr. 15, HS 1
This basic course will first discuss key historical events that led to the formation of the U.S.A., then focus on the major
developments in the 18th to 20th centuries that shaped American society. In the second half, the lecture will offer a
concise look at selected aspects of contemporary American culture and society such as politics, media, education,
religion, and issues connected with immigration, ethnicity and gender. A new course handout will be made available at
the beginning of the semester.
The course is also part of the B.A. General Studies module “Introduction to Great Britain and the USA” (3 LP)