Englisches Seminar - Ruhr-Universität Bochum

Übungen
050 752 Berg
Social Movements in Britain, 3 CP
2 st. fr 10-12 GABF 04/252 Nord
This course investigates groups which formulated critiques of, and suggested
alternatives to, the social and political status quo in Britain. Such criticisms have been
expressed continuously since 1945 (for example, by the peace movement and the
New Left in the late 1950s, the students movements in the late 1960s and early
2010s, the feminist and the environmentalist movements since the 1970s, or the
protests against globalisation and war since the 1990s). However, they have not
always been widely heard. Investigating these movements has the following goals:
We will discuss the opinions of people who ‘think at the limits’ – who believe that
politics should be more than the ‘art of the possible’ and that British people did or do
not live in the ‘best of all possible worlds’. And we will find out in how far they have
been able to influence changes and developments within society. Such interventions
– when successful – often transcend politics in a strict sense and influence the whole
ensemble of social and cultural relations.
Additionally, we will try to establish analytical categories for identifying particular
types of movements – for example, whether their criticism focuses on the socioeconomic
organisation of society or on perceived moral and ethical deficiencies (or
on both). A reader with key texts will be provided.
Assessment/requirements: active participation, organising and chairing part of a
course session.
050 732 Klawitter
Georgian Poetry, 3 CP
2 st. di 10-12 GABF 04/252 Nord
'Georgian Poetry' was the title given to a series of highly popular poetry anthologies
published by Edward Marsh between 1912 and 1922. These collections provided a
forum for talented poets such as Rupert Brooke, Edward Thomas, Edmund Blunden
Walter de la Mare and John Masefield. Judging by a poll on ‘The Nation’s Favourite
Poems’ conducted in Britain in 1995, some of the poems produced by these poets
still rank very highly in readers’ esteem.