SOMMERSEMESTER 2004 - Institut für Anglistik/Amerikanistik

Lehrangebot - Grundstudium
Kultur Großbritanniens und Nordamerikas
Rossow Grundkurs: Introduction to Cultural Studies I Übung
Mo. 09.15-10.45, HS Radiologie
This course serves as an introduction to the study of culture and provides some of the theoretical
foundations for successive courses in cultural studies. The course is divided into two main sections.
It starts with a brief outline of the origins of the field and its history. This outline will also discuss how
changes in the meaning of culture pinpoint key shifts in the way we research society and have
influenced the landscape of social research in various disciplines.
Students will then be given accessible (easier said than done!) introductions to some of the core
concepts of cultural studies: concepts of theory; concepts of description, interpretation and analysis;
concepts that structure and order constructions of reality; concepts of social structure; concepts of
spatial-cultural order; and concepts of temporal order.
Each of the presentations of concepts is accompanied and supplemented by exemplary applications of
the theory to concrete issues. The applications should, among other things, illustrate the usefulness and
versatility of the methodological approaches and analytical tools provided by cultural studies.
A Reader will be available from the Copyshop in Brunnenhof. Participants also have to buy
Hartley, John (2002) Communication, Cultural and Media Studies. The Key Concepts, London and
New York: Routledge. (ISBN 0-415-26889-3)
Rossow Britannia Overruled - Decline or Adjustment? Proseminar
Di. 07.30-09.00, R. 8023
A century ago, Britannia still `ruled the waves´ and `straddled the globe´. Within twenty years of
victory in the Second World War Britain had ceased to be a world power and her global empire had
dissolved into fragments. Today, she is a peripheral member of the European Union. This course
attempts to offer an explanation of this `decline´ (or `adjustment´?). It provides a survey of British
overseas policy since the 1890s and examines the nature of power, and Britain’s economy, empire and
international position. The objective is to reveal not only the limitations of British power in its
Victorian heyday, but also the too-easily-underestimated extent of Britain’s continuing power into our
own century.
A reader with primary and secondary texts, a selected bibliography and the list of topics for term
papers will be provided at the beginning of the course.
Linke Views on Class in 20 th Century Britain Proseminar
Mo. 13.15-14.45, R. 8023
Since Britain has been considered the most class-ridden country under the sun (G. Orwell), class
appears to provide a key to understanding British culture. This course will look at the social and
cultural history of Britain in the 20th century through the eyes of sociologists and other keen observers
of British society. The textual basis will comprise mainly non-fictional texts such as, for example,
Wigan Pier (Orwell), political speeches and sociological descriptions from different decades. This
one-term class cannot provide a comprehensive history of social classes but will rather focus on
selected prominent issues such as Red Clydeside, the miners' situation, or social harmony in wartime.
Susemihl The Canadian North Proseminar
Di. 11.15-12.45, R. 7023
The North is Canada – Canada is the North. It is its Northern image that distinguishes Canada from the
United States in the eyes of many people who do not live in North America. But even to a Canadian
the North seems to be more than a geographical region. It is an idea, a myth, a promise, a destiny, a
world of imagination, and as such it has shaped Canadian identity. Throughout Canadian history and
culture, ideas of the North have kept a firm hold on national consciousness. For a long time, however,
the region was fairly unknown to most Canadians. Yet, as the nation struggles to understand this vast
and diverse land, Northern issues are becoming national issues.
This course intends to discover the Canadian North, its geography and history, political and economic
development, cultures and peoples, using traditional primary documents (i.e. newspapers, letters,
journals) as well as fiction, oral history, art, photography, and film. The course is a survey of the