2. June 2013 - Université du Luxembourg

5.2 American Studies 2: Ethnicity and Identity
20
open@uni.lu Semestre d’été | Summer semester 2012/2013
Course description:
This is the second part of the American Studies course. Again, we encourage you to discard the preconceived ideas you may have
formed about American society and culture. By focusing on more recent works this time, we will look at ‘ethnic variety’ and some
of the problems arising in multi-ethnic communities and societies. In other words, we will explore how individual people affiliated to
different communities are negotiating and articulating some of the issues and dilemmas they have encountered as a result of their
perceived 'ethnic difference'."
Type of course : Seminar with students' contributions
5.3 Introduction to Poetry Analysis
Course description:
This course will focus on the main structural elements of poetry and their specific functions: verse, rhythm, sound, and metaphor. In
addition, specific poetic genres such as the sonnet, the lyric, the ode, the ballad, and the dramatic monologue will be considered.
Paying special attention to the ‘speaker’ of a poem, we will practice a ‘dramatising’ approach, coming closer to the meaning of
poems by (sometimes) acting them out. We might record some of our ‘performances’ on video."
Type of course : Séminaire avec contribution des étudiants / Seminar with students' contributions
5.4 Poetry and the Other Arts
Course description:
This course will introduce students to an examination of the relationships between poetry and other art forms, such as film, photo,
painting, dance, performance, blues, jazz, etc. Our practice in the classroom will be to discuss poems, art reproductions and sound
recordings that emphasize both the visual and acoustic dimensions of poetic texts. We will have a look at the historical context and
examine the ways in which class, race, and gender have affected the transfer, function and evaluation of other arts in poetry."
7 double sessions, details t.b.a.
Type of course : Séminaire avec contribution des étudiants / Seminar with students' contributions
5.5 Film and Popular Culture: Facts, Fiction and more
Course description:
Movies and films are more than mere entertainment. They are an integral part of our everyday experience, blurring distinctions and
categories. Yet, in many ways, we tend to underestimate the impact they have on our perceptions of culture and reality. Learning
how to ‘read’ movies should help us understand how we encode the world. Indeed, we construct our realities in complex processes
that involve many different cultural practices and actors (not movie stars!). We will thus pay close attention to precisely this aspect of
cinema: How do movies interact with our perception of self and reality? How do they shape the stories we tell about ourselves and
the world? How do they format how we make sense of things? In what ways do fictional plots affect how we tell and construct history?
How does our experience feed into our film‐watching strategies?
This course is taught by a team of lecturers from different fields, and will be taught in French, German and English. On the other
hand, our interdisciplinary approach should allow us to explore different aspects of the cinematic medium, ranging from photography
and scores, over dialogue, narrative strategies and contexts to the intertextuality of film and the experience of watching movies. This
also presupposes knowledge of French and/or German."
In addition to the weekly seminar sessions, this course requires attendance for 7 screenings at Ciné UTOPIA (Monday 18:30)
This course is co-organised by the BCE-Histoire and the BCE-English Studies.
Type of course : Séminaire avec contribution des étudiants / Seminar with students' contributions