Institut für Englische Philologie (WE 6)

Kernfach Englische Philologie (SPO gültig ab WS 23/24))

0042f_k90

AM1-Surveying English Literatures
0042fB1.1
- 17314 Grundkurs
  GK-Surveying English Literatures (Stephan Karschay)
  Zeit: Di 12:00-14:00 (Erster Termin: 16.04.2024)
  Ort: Hs 2 Hörsaal (Habelschwerdter Allee 45)
  
  Kommentar
  
  The concept of “English Literature” is constantly changing. As our theoretical dispositions, tastes, and ideologies shift and change, new authors, works, new genres etc. are coming into focus and, in turn, affect and transform the academy’s theoretical dispositions, tastes, and ideological positions. This lecture series will provide students with an overview of the history of English literatures, from the (early) medieval beginnings via the early modern period, the long eighteenth-century, Romanticism, Victorianism, and Modernism to Postmodernism and Postcolonialism. This survey is not meant to represent a prescriptive canon, however, but rather presents students with a snapshot of how scholars currently conceive of their respective fields of study. This lecture is team-taught, so students will have an opportunity to get to know several of our faculty members and experience their different teaching styles. Further information about the individual lectures will be available on Blackboard at the beginning of the semester.
- 17315 Proseminar
  PS-Surveying English Literatures: Make it New! Modernist Poetry (Stephan Karschay)
  Zeit: Di 16:00-18:00 (Erster Termin: 16.04.2024)
  Ort: KL 29/208 Übungsraum (Habelschwerdter Allee 45)
  
  Kommentar
  
  In 1921, T. S. Eliot famously defended the semantic obscurity of much of his own verse by stating that “poets in our civilization, as it exists at present, must be difficult”. So difficult, indeed, that the common reader of Eliot’s monumental modernist poem The Waste Land was provided with seven pages of accompanying notes by the author himself. Literary accounts of British poetry in the Modernist period (ca. 1890-1940) emphasise the artistic intricacies of modern verse and select poets like T. S. Eliot and Ezra Pound as the representative writers of the age. However, recent criticism has demanded a re-evaluation of Modernist poetry, drawing attention to the manifold ways available to writers of producing modern work without necessarily being enigmatic and elitist. This seminar will acquaint students with a broad range of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century poetry, both traditional and experimental, covering poets as diverse as Thomas Hardy, A. E. Housman, Ernest Dowson, W. B. Yeats, Charlotte Mew, the ‘War Poets’, John Masefield, D. H. Lawrence, T. S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, T. E. Hulme, Edith Sitwell, Stephen Spender and W. H. Auden. Furthermore, we will pay close attention to the diverse strands and movements responsible for the shaping of Modern(ist) poetry, most notably Impressionism, Imagism, Vorticism, Symbolism and – less highbrow – Georgian poetry. In this seminar, students will be made familiar with Modern(ist) poetry through both ‘close’ and contextual readings which should ultimately result in an understanding of the comprehensive and salient features of this intriguing genre as well as an appreciation of the particularities of the many writers under consideration. In other words, we will pay equal attention to every poet’s idiosyncracies as well as the undeniable fact that Modern(ist) poetry is deeply steeped in its historical context and significantly shaped by the dynamics of early twentieth-century culture.
  
  Voraussetzungen
  
  Erfolgreiche Absolvierung des Basismoduls 1 (Introduction to Literary Studies).
  
  Regelmäßige und aktive Teilnahme, Lektüre aller im Seminar diskutierten Texte, seminarbegleitende Studienleistungen (wie z.B. response paper, Gruppenpräsentation, Expertengruppe), abschließende Seminararbeit (abhängig von Modulbelegung). Auch die ersten Wochen der Veranstaltung zählen zur regelmäßigen Teilnahme.
  
  Literaturhinweise
  
  Baldick, Chris. “Modern Poetry.” The Oxford English Literary History, Vol. 10: 1910-1940: The Modern Movement. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2004. 75-113. Print.
  
  Davis, Alex, and Lee M. Jenkins, eds. The Cambridge Companion to Modernist Poetry. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2007. Print.
- 17316 Proseminar
  PS-Surveying English Literatures: Victorian Others (Cordula Lemke)
  Zeit: Fr 14:00-16:00 (Erster Termin: 19.04.2024)
  Ort: KL 29/208 Übungsraum (Habelschwerdter Allee 45)
  
  Kommentar
  
  Victorian Society celebrated ideals of family life and respectability. In literary texts of the time the smooth surface of social decorum and moral integrity is often challenged by the desires and experiences of outsiders. They allow glimpses into a life of unconventional values, excitement and adventure and introduce readers to alternatives worlds. However, the possibilities open to these outsiders are highly gendered. In this seminar we will look at Victorian social roles and ask how they are affected by alterity in general, by alternative ways of family life and in how far they are challenged by female characters at the margin.
  
  Texts:
  
  Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist
  
  Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights
  
  George Eliot, Silas Marner
- 17317 Proseminar
  PS-Surveying English Literatures: Metafiction (James Daniel Mellor)
  Zeit: Mi 12:00-14:00 (Erster Termin: 17.04.2024)
  Ort: KL 29/208 Übungsraum (Habelschwerdter Allee 45)
  
  Kommentar
  
  When fiction becomes openly self-conscious the reader’s suspension of disbelief becomes strained. Two options come to mind: throw the book at the wall or continue to play along with the narration. William Gass coined the term “metafiction” during the heydays of postmodern play to refer to the privileging of philosophical ideas in prose, rather than merely aiming at verisimilitude. This course will survey various prose works over the last millennium, and scholarship pertinent to the topic, to explore the limits of the concept and its suitability when applied to works outside the Western canon.
  Please read Virginia Woolf’s Orlando before the first class.
- 17318 Proseminar
  PS-Surveying English Literatures: Theatre of the Absurd (Justus Conrad Gronau)
  Zeit: Di 14:00-16:00 (Erster Termin: 16.04.2024)
  Ort: KL 29/208 Übungsraum (Habelschwerdter Allee 45)
  
  Kommentar
  
  The term ‘Theatre of the Absurd’ refers to plays written in the 1950s that deeply disturbed audiences upon their initial performance. Departing from conventional forms of traditional Aristotelian, Shakespearean, or realistic drama, and lacking clear plot structures, such plays were said to express the “metaphysical anguish of the absurdity of the human condition” as well as the “inadequacy of the rational approach by the open abandonment of rational devices and discursive thought,” as theater critic Martin Esslin, who coined the term in 1961, argued. In this context, the Theatre of the Absurd is frequently juxtaposed with existentialist and absurd philosophy, notably the works of French existentialist thinkers such as Sartre and Camus, ostensibly pointing to the meaninglessness and purposelessness of life. However, other approaches have challenged this view and reassessed the Theatre of the Absurd, suggesting “that these texts, rather, revolt against existentialism and are ethical parables that force the audience to make life meaningful” (Bennett). Therefore, we shall read and critically examine plays by two important Theatre of the Absurd playwrights, Samuel Beckett and Harold Pinter, to see to what extent they negotiate the supposed absurdity and negativity of existence, whether alternative, more ‘positive’ readings are possible, and how the plays’ idiosyncratic aesthetics open up these possibilities. At the same time, we will ponder more fundamental questions and topics such as whether existence precedes essence or vice versa, the potential meaning(lessness?) of existence, and the (in?)capability of art to address and communicate these existential inquiries.
  
  Students need to obtain the following plays:
  
  Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot (1953)
  
  Samuel Beckett, Endgame (1957)
  
  Harold Pinter, The Birthday Party (1957)
  
  Harold Pinter, The Caretaker (1959)
  
  Further course material will be made available at the beginning of the semester.
- 17319 Proseminar
  PS-Surveying English Literatures: World Texts (Jordan Schnee)
  Zeit: Fr 12:00-14:00 (Erster Termin: 19.04.2024)
  Ort: KL 29/208 Übungsraum (Habelschwerdter Allee 45)
  
  Kommentar
  
  The concepts of “world literature” and “world music” are problematic both for what they convey and what they imply. After delving into these terms and alternative concepts for understanding textual production worldwide, we will look at specific examples and situations that illustrate the issues. We will focus on 20th and 21st century English-language literature and music. Texts will include Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe (1958) and Yazoo records contemporary The Secret Museum of Mankind series. Students might also familiarize themselves with theoretical positions in World Literature, Cosmopolitanism, Globality: Beyond, Against, Post, Otherwise (2019) edited by Gesine Müller and Mariano Siskind.

AM2-Introduction to Cultural Studies
0042fB1.2
- 17321 Proseminar
  PS-Introduction to Cultural Studies: Gothic Monsters (Cordula Lemke)
  Zeit: Mo 18:00-20:00 (Erster Termin: 15.04.2024)
  Ort: KL 29/208 Übungsraum (Habelschwerdter Allee 45)
  
  Kommentar
  
  Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Bram Stoker's Dracula have greatly attracted readers, writers and the film industry to this day. From Werner Herzog and Roman Polanski to Wes Craven, Mel Brooks or Kenneth Branagh, film makers have tackled the topic of the megalomaniac scientist and the bloodthirsty vampire. In this seminar we will focus on the different shadows which Frankenstein's Creature and Dracula have cast in the media. After a close look at the novels, we will trace the Creature’s and Dracula's movements in films and TV series and ask how media approaches contribute to different images and perceptions.
  
  Texts: Mary Shelley, Frankenstein (Oxford World's Classics) Bram Stoker, Dracula (Oxford World's Classics)
- 17322 Proseminar
  PS-Introduction to Cultural Studies: Rewriting Mrs. Dalloway (Cordula Lemke)
  Zeit: Mo 16:00-18:00 (Erster Termin: 15.04.2024)
  Ort: KL 29/208 Übungsraum (Habelschwerdter Allee 45)
  
  Kommentar
  
  Virginia Woolf famously claimed that "in 1910 human character changed" and she spent her entire life as a writer examining this situation. The period of Modernism experienced far-reaching challenges to the certainties of Enlightenment thought which had a strong impact on art. New artistic perspectives and poetics evolved around questions of subjectivity, the relativity of truth and a strong feeling of alterity as time-honoured binaries of gender, race and class crumbled. Easily the most important female writer of the period, Virginia Woolf went on to become a pop star revered by feminists and writers today. In this seminar we will be looking not only at Virginia Woolf's own texts but at her iconic status for postmodernist or today’s writers.
  
  Texts:
  
  Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway
  
  Michael Cunningham, The Hours
  
  Michelle Cahill, Daisy & Woolf
- 17323 Proseminar
  PS-Introduction to Cultural Studies: Petromasculinity: Ecocriticism meets Gender Studies (Sophie Kriegel)
  Zeit: Do 10:00-12:00 (Erster Termin: 18.04.2024)
  Ort: KL 29/208 Übungsraum (Habelschwerdter Allee 45)
  
  Kommentar
  
  We live in an age of multiple crisis where basic gender equality is as much under threat as the earth’s climate. Why not combine different approaches to think through the looming Armageddon in search for alternatives to humanity’s demise – or at least a better understanding of it? The course uses Cara Daggett conceptualisation of Petromasculinity (2018) as a starting point to explore the intersection of Gender Studies and Ecocriticism. We will discuss the dualism of culture and nature uncovering the importance of gender in our perception of these two organising concepts. From there, we will turn to Energy Humanities and Ecofeminism to understand how the extraction of non-renewable energies relates to discourses of The End of Man (Joanna Zylinska 2018) and see where that path will lead us. The primary texts for the course will come predominantly from African, South Asian, and Southeast Asian creatives and where not easily accessible will be made available through a course reader.
- 17324 Proseminar
  PS-Introduction to Cultural Studies: Britain's got the Blues: Mental Health Crises in Contemporary Culture (Matilda Jones)
  Zeit: Do 14:00-16:00 (Erster Termin: 18.04.2024)
  Ort: KL 29/208 Übungsraum (Habelschwerdter Allee 45)
  
  Kommentar
  
  This module considers the representation of the burgeoning mental health crisis in contemporary culture. Exploring a variety of cultural forms (from films, novels, and TV shows, to poems and experimental audio), we will consider the representation of work, home and sociality in relation to the individual psyche. Attending to various strands of critical theory – acknowledging race, class, age, gender, sexuality and the environment – we will analyse secondary reading material that interrogates issues of, for example, ‘Attention Deficit’, ‘The Privatisation of Stress’ and ‘Eco-Anxiety’. From this perspective, despite celebrating the destigmatisation of psychotherapy and mental health discourse in recent years, a major segment to this course will concern the foregrounding of connections between the economic precarity of modern Britain and popular embracement of consumerist fads surrounding ‘Mindfulness’, ‘Wellness’ and ‘Self-care’. Ultimately, drawing upon the work of feminist theorists (such as Lynne Segal), we will question the entire concept of ‘happiness’ as an emotion (/affective state) that should be inherently aspired to.
  
  In order to participate in this class, please note that you must be prepared to stream selected film and TV materials (TBA), and purchase two novels:
  - 'Weirdo' by Sara Pascoe (2023)
  - 'Ordinary People' by Diana Evans (2018)
- 17325 Proseminar
  PS-Introduction to Cultural Studies: Memory and Conflict in Northern Ireland (Kübra Özermis)
  Zeit: Mi 16:00-18:00 (Erster Termin: 17.04.2024)
  Ort: KL 29/208 Übungsraum (Habelschwerdter Allee 45)
  
  Kommentar
  
  Between 1968 – 1998 Northern Ireland was shaken by a conflict between Irish Catholics, who demanded emancipation and civil rights, Protestant Unionist who defended the status-quo and the British army who initially should have ensured peace between the two parties but became quickly involved in the escalation of violence. Decades of paramilitary violence on both sides and military violence defined the lives of people in Northern Ireland and spilled over to Great Britain and mainland Europe. While outwardly the conflict, often referred to as the ‘Troubles’, seemed to evolve around religious differences, the actual dimension of the disparities between ‘Catholics’ and ‘Protestants’ runs deeper than disputes over religious identities. Disputes about the colonial past, the partition of Ireland, the position of Catholics in Northern Irish society and the British rule in Ireland contributed, and to some extent still contribute, to the sectarian conflict. The Good Friday Agreement, signed in 1998, ended the armed conflict, yet the division in Northern Irish society still remains and threatens to flare up, particularly since the re-emergence of the questions over the Irish border.
  
  In this seminar, students will gain an overview on how collective identity and memory are situated within the context of the Northern Irish conflict. We will be looking at how disputes over past events not only impacted the formation of collective memory and identity but also contributes to the sectarian division in Northern Ireland. We will analyse how at the peak of the armed conflict diverging views on the past not only resurfaced but intensified the conflict between the two communities. Likewise, it will be important to see how events that took place during the ‘Troubles’ are not only approached differently by each community but seem to form the platform for the continuation of division and dispute. In order to form an understanding of how the conflict was shaped by memory, identity and trauma students will critically engage with concepts of cultural memory and identity. For a better understanding of how these concepts impact Northern Irish society we will be looking at various forms of cultural representation in each session.
  
  The final exam in this seminar is a 2000-word term paper. Regular and active participation is required. Reading material will be made available on Blackboard.

AM3-Medieval English Literatures
0042fB1.3
- 17326 Grundkurs
  GK-Medieval English Literatures: Introduction to Medieval English Literature (Wolfram Keller)
  Zeit: Mo 14:00-16:00 (Erster Termin: 15.04.2024)
  Ort: J 32/102 (Habelschwerdter Allee 45)
  
  Kommentar
  
  This lecture surveys Middle English literature, that is, vernacular literature written in the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries. While the focus of the lecture will be on late fourteenth-century and early fifteenth-century literature—on authors like Geoffrey Chaucer, John Gower, and John Lydgate—students will also be introduced to earlier Middle English renditions of Anglo-Norman romances and Breton lays, such as King Horn and Sir Launfal as well as to late fifteenth and early sixteenth-century literature, like Thomas Malory’s Le Morte d'Arthur and John Skelton’s Garlande of Laurell.
- 17327 Proseminar
  PS-Medieval English Literatures: Beowulf (Lea von der Linde)
  Zeit: Mi 14:00-16:00 (Erster Termin: 17.04.2024)
  Ort: KL 29/208 Übungsraum (Habelschwerdter Allee 45)
  
  Kommentar
  
  The Old English epic Beowulf
  is, superficially speaking, a story about heroes, monsters, and cultures long gone, and yet continues to be remarkably productive and relevant even in the twenty-first century since it raises lasting questions that reach far beyond the boundaries of its genre and presumed cultural context. In this course, we will do a close reading of the poem in translation and discuss its various themes, issues, and challenges.
  
  The course aims at furthering the students’ understanding of the issues connected to reading and interpreting a text, especially one that is as old and culturally remote as Beowulf.
  
  Students attending this course are expected to have read Beowulf in translation by the second week of the semester, preferably the prose translation by E. Talbot Donaldson (Donaldson, E. Talbot, trans. Beowulf: A Prose Translation. Backgrounds and Context s, Criticism. Ed. Nicholas Howe. 2nd ed. New York: Norton, 2002) or the verse translation by Seamus Heaney (Seamus Heaney, trans. Beowulf: A Verse Translation: Authoritative Text, Contexts, Criticism. Ed. Donoghue, Daniel. 2nd ed., Norton, 2019). Additional readings and materials will be announced during the course of the semester.

AM4-Levels of Linguistic Analysis
0042fB1.4

17335 Vorlesung
V-Levels of Linguistic Analysis: Structure and Functions (Anatol Stefanowitsch)
Zeit: Mi 10:00-12:00 (Erster Termin: 17.04.2024)
Ort: Hs 1a Hörsaal (Habelschwerdter Allee 45)

17336 Proseminar
PS-Levels of Linguistic Analysis: Metaphor (Rosa Hesse)
Zeit: Mo 10:00-12:00 (Erster Termin: 15.04.2024)
Ort: KL 29/208 Übungsraum (Habelschwerdter Allee 45)

Kommentar

This seminar introduces students to the empirical analysis of linguistic structures and their functions at different levels of linguistic analysis, as well as to academic presentation and writing skills. The sessions will be centred around discussing research papers and modelling corpus-linguistic research with an emphasis on metaphorical patterns.

You are expected to engage in collaborative work which includes the evaluation of a research paper, as well as a small-scale corpus study. After the seminar, you will be equipped with the knowledge and skills necessary to elicit you own language data from electronic corpora (active cqp), to analyse these data qualitatively and quantitatively, and to interpret your findings linguistically in an empirical paper of your own.

For this course, a laptop will be needed.

17337 Proseminar
PS-Levels of Linguistic Analysis: From Lexicon to Grammar (Elif Kara)
Zeit: Di 08:00-10:00 (Erster Termin: 16.04.2024)
Ort: KL 29/208 Übungsraum (Habelschwerdter Allee 45)

Kommentar

This seminar teaches you how to apply the terminological concepts learned in Introduction to English Linguistics to the analysis of linguistic usage patterns. You will learn how to analyse the forms and meanings of authentic linguistic data, as well as to model linguistic research. The module examination will be a collaborative project involving a small-scale empirical study on a linguistic topic of your choice, with a subsequent poster presentation, and a written or oral component. At the end of the course, you will be equipped with the basic skillset required for scientific research in linguistics.

You will need to bring a laptop to class from week 1.

This seminar is complemented by the module lecture and the tutorial.

17338 Proseminar
PS-Levels of Linguistic Analysis: From Lexicon to Grammar (Kirsten Middeke)
Zeit: Mi 12:00-14:00 (Erster Termin: 17.04.2024)
Ort: KL 32/102 Übungsraum (Habelschwerdter Allee 45)

Kommentar

This seminar teaches you how to apply the terminological concepts learned in Introduction to English Linguistics to the analysis of linguistic usage patterns. You will learn how to analyse the forms and meanings of authentic linguistic data, as well as to model linguistic research. The module examination will be a collaborative project involving a small-scale empirical study on a linguistic topic of your choice, with a subsequent poster presentation, and a written or oral component. At the end of the course, you will be equipped with the basic skillset required for scientific research in linguistics.

You will need to bring a laptop to class from week 1.

This seminar is complemented by the module lecture and the tutorial.

17339 Proseminar
PS-Levels of Linguistic Analysis: From Lexicon to Grammar (Kirsten Middeke)
Zeit: Do 12:00-14:00 (Erster Termin: 18.04.2024)
Ort: KL 29/208 Übungsraum (Habelschwerdter Allee 45)

Kommentar

This seminar teaches you how to apply the terminological concepts learned in Introduction to English Linguistics to the analysis of linguistic usage patterns. You will learn how to analyse the forms and meanings of authentic linguistic data, as well as to model linguistic research. The module examination will be a collaborative project involving a small-scale empirical study on a linguistic topic of your choice, with a subsequent poster presentation, and a written or oral component. At the end of the course, you will be equipped with the basic skillset required for scientific research in linguistics.

You will need to bring a laptop to class from week 1.

This seminar is complemented by the module lecture and the tutorial.

17340 Proseminar
PS-Levels of Linguistic Analysis: Morphology (Arne Werfel)
Zeit: Mo 14:00-16:00 (Erster Termin: 15.04.2024)
Ort: KL 29/208 Übungsraum (Habelschwerdter Allee 45)

Kommentar

This seminar builds on your introductory module and deepens your knowledge of the different levels of linguistic analysis with a particular focus on morphology.
The main learning objective is to refine your understanding of the internal structure of words and to analyse different word formation processes using authentic language data.
Another learning objective is to critically read and evaluate research papers. You will acquire the methodological knowledge to replicate the research design. By the end of the lecture period, you will have modelled your own small corpus study, which will form the basis of an empirical term paper.

In order to pass this seminar, regular attendance, active participation in class and completion of weekly reading and research assignments are required.

AM5-History of English
0042fB1.5

17343 Vorlesung
V-History of English (Ferdinand von Mengden)
Zeit: Di 10:00-12:00 (Erster Termin: 16.04.2024)
Ort: J 32/102 (Habelschwerdter Allee 45)

Kommentar

This lecture will provide an overview of the history of the English language. We will start off in the pre-history of English, long before its earliest written attestations, and see what English was like before it became English and how we gain access to these pre-historic stages. The journey will then bring us to the early Middle Ages when, in the course of the Migration Period, Germanic tribes settled in Britain. We will observe the English language developing over time and explain the enormous changes that English has undergone ever since. We will see how the English language eventually spreads in almost all parts of the world, bringing forth new linguistic practices that are seen as different Englishes. As the historically most recent step, we will eventually watch English conquering new media rather than new lands and becoming the most important language of global communication.

This lecture forms an essential part of the module History of English together with the parallel seminars (Proseminare). The more specialized discussions in these seminars are based on, and therefore require the background knowledge from this lecture.

Because not all regular students are registered in Campus Management, there will be a special enrolment for this lecture in the first week of term. Students who cannot attend the first session are kindly asked to notify me before the beginning of the lecture period.

17344 Proseminar
PS-History of English II: Old English (Kirsten Middeke)
Zeit: Mo 10:00-12:00 (Erster Termin: 15.04.2024)
Ort: KL 32/102 Übungsraum (Habelschwerdter Allee 45)

Kommentar

This seminar introduces students to the history of the English language, with a special focus on the Old English period, i.e. the period between the settlement of substantial numbers of Germanic speakers in Britain, which made the dialects later to be called “English” a separate language, and the Norman Conquest, which constitutes a significant caesura in the history of English, because it led to English being replaced by French (and Latin) in most of its written functions for some 200 years.

Students will gain knowledge of the socio-historical events relevant to the external history of the English language (the Age of Migrations, Christianization, the Viking Age, the reign of Alfred the Great) and study the internal history of the language in detail (sound change, morphological change, syntactic change, lexical change). They will be introduced to the most important sources of historical language data and their analysis (text editions, dictionaries, thesauri, corpora) and will be given research tasks on all levels of linguistic analysis.

The exam will be an academic paper of 2000 words based on relevant academic literature and an original empirical investigation. Towards the end of the course, students will create and present academic posters (in groups) in preparation for their individual term papers.

Credit requirements are:

regular participation in discussions, based on weekly reading assignments, translation tasks and/or other linguistic exercises

active participation, including the design and presentation (in groups) of an academic poster

an academic paper of c2000 words

17345 Proseminar
PS-History of English II: Early Modern English (Kirsten Middeke)
Zeit: Do 10:00-12:00 (Erster Termin: 18.04.2024)
Ort: KL 32/102 Übungsraum (Habelschwerdter Allee 45)

Kommentar

This seminar introduces students to the history of the English language, with a special focus on the Early Modern English period, i.e. the period between, very roughly, 1500 and 1800, during which English was increasingly used as a language of science, learning, law and administration. The meta-linguistic discourse of the period was concerned with the huge amount of loanwords that entered the language as a consequence and with questions of standardization and variation, all of which are still contested issues in language debates today. We will discuss these sociolinguistic issues, as well as the structural changes that English underwent at this time, e.g. the grammaticalization of new tense and aspect constructions.

Students will gain knowledge of the socio-historical events relevant to the external history of the English language (the reformation, for instance, led to the introduction of the printing press, which in turn led to more widespread literacy and to the desire for standardization) and study the internal history of the language in detail (sound change, morphological change, syntactic change, lexical change). They will be introduced to the most important sources of historical language data and their analysis (text editions, dictionaries, thesauri, corpora) and will be given research tasks on all levels of linguistic analysis.

The exam will be an academic paper of 2000 words based on relevant academic literature and an original empirical investigation. Towards the end of the course, students will create and present academic posters (in groups) in preparation for their individual term papers.

Credit requirements are:

regular participation in discussions, based on weekly reading assignments, translation tasks and/or other linguistic exercises

active participation, including the design and presentation (in groups) of an academic poster

an academic paper of c2000 words

17346 Proseminar
PS-History of English II: Historical Linguistics (Ferdinand von Mengden)
Zeit: Mo 16:00-18:00 (Erster Termin: 15.04.2024)
Ort: KL 32/102 Übungsraum (Habelschwerdter Allee 45)

Kommentar

For studying the history of a language, a mere description of its development, i.e., treating history as a story, is not sufficient. If we wish to understand why and under which circumstances English developed the way it did, we will have to understand how languages change and which factors influence language in which way.

As we will see, the mechanisms underlying the historical development of English do not only vary considerably with respect to the different levels of linguistic description – phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics – but individual processes can also conflict with each other and / or mutually reinforce each other. A closer look at all historical periods of English will reveal how subtle digressions from an established grammatical system, in the long run, cause completely new structures to emerge.

Accompanied by the lecture on the History of English, we will focus on individual processes and problems in their description and their analysis. The participants of this seminar will thus profit from an introduction into the methods and aims of Historical Linguistics as a central branch of linguistics and at the same time extend and intensify their knowledge on the history of English provided in the lecture.

Requirements are a short term paper, an oral presentation in class and regular and active participation. The seminar starts in the first week of term. Students who are interested in the class but cannot come in the first week, are kindly asked to notify me via email before the start of the lecture period.

17347 Proseminar
PS-History of English: From Synthetic to Analytic (Martin Konvicka)
Zeit: Mi 14:00-16:00 (Erster Termin: 17.04.2024)
Ort: KL 32/102 Übungsraum (Habelschwerdter Allee 45)

Kommentar

In this course, you will get familiar with earlier stages of English and with the various language change processes that shaped English in its present-day form. In particular, we will focus on the shift from synthetic to analytic language type. Old English, the earliest attested stage of English, was a highly synthetic language which means that it relied on complex morphology to express the various grammatical functions. Present-Day English, on the other hand, is much more analytic. Instead of morphology, it uses auxiliaries and word order to achieve the same.

Apart from our focus on this typological shift, we will also survey a number of other changes in phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics. We will read and analyse primary texts from different stages of English. Furthermore, our investigation of the history of the English language will at times include a comparative aspect. This means that we will contrast the developments in English with the developments in other closely related Germanic languages, mainly German and Dutch.

Against this backdrop, the aim of this is course is threefold. First, to provide you with an overview of the internal as well as the external history of the English language. Second, to familiarise you with the basic concepts of historical linguistics. Third, to demonstrate how the knowledge of the linguistic history of a language can be beneficial for understanding its current structure.

In order for you to successfully pass the course, you have to i) attend regularly and not miss more than the allowed maximum of classes, ii) attend actively and be prepared for each session in order to participate in discussions and group tasks, and iii) submit a term paper at the end of the semester.

All organisational and administrative issues will be discussed during the first session. If you, for whatever reason, cannot participate please contact me ahead of time.

Modernity and Alterity in the Literatures of Medieval Britain
0042fB2.1

17352 Vertiefungsseminar
S-Literatures of Medieval Britain: Medievalism (Wolfram Keller)
Zeit: Di 08:00-10:00 (Erster Termin: 16.04.2024)
Ort: KL 32/202

Kommentar

Whether on the Renaissance stage, in nineteenth-century fiction, in contemporary TV series, the medieval appears to be omnipresent. Why are people fascinated by the medieval—and what is the cultural (as well as ideological) backdrop for an interest in the Middle Ages? After reviewing recent (theoretical) conceptualizations of medievalism, we shall consider a time-period, the Renaissance, which seems not to be particularly interested in the Middle Ages, but rather looks beyond the medieval toward classical antiquity. Discussing medieval and early modern receptions of the Troy story, especially Geoffrey Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde and William Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida, we will address questions concerning the construction of the medieval within medieval texts—and how the latter might be connected to the Renaissance’s (seeming) neglect of the Middle Ages.

Literary Studies: Periods - Genres - Concepts
0042fB2.2

16199 Verschiedenes
Textanalyse mit R für die Geisteswissenschaften (Lisa Poggel)
Zeit: Termine siehe LV-Details (Erster Termin: 16.04.2024)
Ort: KL 29/235 Übungsraum (Habelschwerdter Allee 45)

Kommentar

Dieses Seminar vermittelt grundlegende praktische Kenntnisse der Textanalyse mit der Programmiersprache R. Der Fokus liegt auf der Verarbeitung und Analyse geisteswissenschaftlicher Daten. Das Seminar richtet sich insbesondere an Studierende ohne Programmiererfahrung und vermittelt neben Verfahren der Textanalyse und des Text Mining auch Grundlagen der Programmierung mit R. R kommt als besonders einstiegsfreundliche Programmiersprache vermehrt auch in geisteswissenschaftlichen Forschungsprojekten zur Anwendung, beispielsweise bei der quantitativen Textanalyse, in der digitalen Stilometrie, bei der Autorschaftserkennung oder zur Analyse und Visualisierung historischer Korrespondenznetzwerke. Das Seminar setzt keine Programmiererfahrung voraus.

16480 Vertiefungsseminar
Digitale Stilometrie (Frank Fischer)
Zeit: Do 14:00-16:00 (Erster Termin: 18.04.2024)
Ort: JK 31/124 (Habelschwerdter Allee 45)

Zusätzl. Angaben / Voraussetzungen

Angebot für Bachelor & Master-Studierende

Kommentar

Die digitale Stilometrie gehört zu den etablierten Praktiken des Distant Reading. Mit ihrer Hilfe können große Textmengen auf statistisch auffällige Stilmerkmale hin befragt werden. Sie hilft bei der Autor*innenschaftsattribution, wenn anonym publizierte Texte oder eine nicht gesicherte Verfasserschaft vorliegen. Auch bei der Stilanalyse einzelner Autor*innen oder innerhalb bestimmter Genres oder Epochen kommt sie zum Einsatz. Nach der Vermittlung der zugrundeliegenden Algorithmen liegt der Schwerpunkt der Veranstaltung auf dem praktischen Einsatz stilometrischer Tools anhand vorgegebener oder eigener literaturwissenschaftlicher Szenarios. Dabei werden auch Grundlagen der Datenaufbereitung vermittelt, die zum Handwerkszeug gehören, wenn mit digitalen Objekten gearbeitet wird.

17354 Vertiefungsseminar
S-Lit. Stud.: Periods-Genres-Concepts: Shakespeare's Tainted Heroes (Stephan Laqué)
Zeit: Do 12:00-14:00 (Erster Termin: 18.04.2024)
Ort: JK 31/125 (Habelschwerdter Allee 45)

Kommentar

As Kenneth Muir has noted, “there is no such thing as Shakespearean Tragedy: there are only Shakespearean tragedies.” This seminar will approach the variety of Shakespearean tragedy by taking a closer look at the ways in which the plays engage with the traditions and the conventions of the genre. Please purchase Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar, Hamlet and Coriolanus either as individual editions (preferably from the Arden Shakespeare Series) or the Norton Shakespeare: Tragedies (ed. Stephen Greenblatt) – or indeed the complete The Norton Shakespeare (ed. Stephen Greenblatt). Please start reading Romeo and Juliet before the start of the semester.

17355 Vertiefungsseminar
S-Lit. Stud.: Periods-Genres-Concepts: The Book and the Body: The Victorian Novel of Sensation (Stephan Karschay)
Zeit: Mo 12:00-14:00 (Erster Termin: 15.04.2024)
Ort: JK 31/125 (Habelschwerdter Allee 45)

Kommentar

The serialisation of Wilkie Collins’s mystery novel The Woman in White in Charles Dickens’s periodical All the Year Round from 1859 to 1860 is often regarded as the birth of a new type of fiction in Victorian England that came to dominate the literary market in the 1860s: the sensation novel. Even though recent criticism has widened the remit of the genre to include examples from earlier decades, Collins’s novel of mystery, deception and murder exerted an unprecedented cultural influence: readers (like the seasoned novelist W. M. Thackeray) are reported to have sat up all night ploughing through the pages of Collins’s doorstopper in a frenzy to find out what happened next. The novel became a singular object of consumption in other respects as well: ladies with money to spare could treat themselves to Woman-in-White fashion and Woman-in-White perfume, and music lovers could dance to Woman-in-White waltzes. Other novelists followed Collins and created ever more exciting ‘novels with a secret’, and the 1860s alone saw two further genre-shaping examples with Mary Elizabeth Braddon’s Lady Audley’s Secret (1862) and Ellen Wood’s East Lynne (1861). This overwhelming popular success prompted conservative critics to rail against these titillating productions: the novelist Margaret Oliphant was appalled by the representation of sensation fiction’s heroines as “fleshly and unlovely”, and the Dean of St Paul’s, Henry L. Mansel, condemned sensation authors like Collins, Braddon and Charles Reade for offering cheap literary fare and – more dangerously – for “preaching to the nerves” of their readers. In this seminar, students will read two long sensation novels (The Woman in White and Lady Audley’s Secret) and one shorter example taken from the genre of detective fiction (Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Hound of the Baskervilles) – a form that can be fruitfully traced to the sensation novels of the 1860s. We will place these novels in their rich historical and cultural contexts and engage with the immediate responses to the genre. We will study sensation fiction’s generic predecessors (such as the Gothic romance and the silver-fork-novel) and weigh its significance for modern forms like the crime novel and the psychological thriller.

Voraussetzungen

Erfolgreiche Absolvierung des Aufbaumoduls 1 (Surveying English Literatures)
.
Regelmäßige und aktive Teilnahme, Lektüre aller im Seminar diskutierten Texte, seminarbegleitende Studienleistungen (wie z.B. response paper, Gruppenpräsentation, Expertengruppe), abschließende Seminararbeit (abhängig von Modulbelegung). Auch die ersten Wochen der Veranstaltung zählen zur regelmäßigen Teilnahme.

Literaturhinweise

Zur Anschaffung: Wilkie Collins, The Woman in White [1859-1860], ed. John Sutherland (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996). [ISBN: 9780199535637]; Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Lady Audley’s Secret [1862], ed. Lyn Pykett (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012). [ISBN: 9780199577033]; Arthur Conan Doyle, The Hound of the Baskervilles [1902], ed. Christopher Frayling (London: Penguin, 2001). [ISBN: 9780140437867].

Zur Einführung geeignet: Kate Flint, “Sensation”, in K.F., ed., The Cambridge History of Victorian Literature (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012), 220-242.

17356 Vertiefungsseminar
S-Lit. Stud.: Periods-Genres-Concepts: The Bountiful Constraint (Jordan Schnee)
Zeit: Do 14:00-16:00 (Erster Termin: 18.04.2024)
Ort: KL 29/207 Übungsraum (Habelschwerdter Allee 45)

Kommentar

How does constrained writing paradoxically open up language? What overt and covert strategies have authors used to create work that is highly formal but also highly playful? The Paris-based literary movement OuLiPo has been the headquarters of constrained writing since its inception in the middle of the last century. The group is well-known for writers like Georges Perec and Italo Calvino but has also had a considerable presence in English, from members like Harry Matthews and Ian Monk to the Feminist OuLiPo collective, Foulipo. In this seminar we will focus on OuLiPo and OuLiPo-adjacent output in English. Students should acquire Oulipo: A Primer of Potential Literature edited by Warren F. Motte.

17357 Vertiefungsseminar
S-Lit. Stud.: Periods-Genres-Concepts: Fantasy, Fairies and Nonsense (Susanne Schmid)
Zeit: Termine siehe LV-Details (Erster Termin: 11.05.2024)
Ort: KL 29/139 Übungsraum (Habelschwerdter Allee 45)

Kommentar

In this seminar, which is going to centre on Victorian fantasy, fairies (goblins, of course, too), and nonsense, we will read and discuss fiction by H. G. Wells (The Island of Dr Moreau, 1896), George MacDonald (Phantastes: A Fairie Romance, 1858), and Lewis Carroll (Through the Looking-Glass, 1871); poetry by Christina Rossetti (Goblin Market, 1862) and Edward Lear; and a few shorter texts. While looking at theories of the fantastic and of nonsense we will also consider issues as diverse as science and responsibility, gender roles, readerships, illustrations, fantastic journeys and spaces, magical and non-magical objects.

Please make sure that you obtain copies of two major texts, ideally the following editions:
Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass, ed. Peter Hunt (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), Oxford World’s Classics.
H. G. Wells, The Island of Dr Moreau, ed. Darryll Jones (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017), Oxford World’s Classics.

The other texts will be made available via Blackboard (links, scans, electronic editions accessible through the university library). Regular and active participation are necessary. You will also be expected to join a group presentation.

This course takes the form of a block seminar spread out over four days: 11 May, 24 May, 25 May, 8 June 2024, from 9:00 to 16:00.

Please register on Campus Management AND send me an email in April once you have received confirmation of your place in the course. You will receive further material in the second half of April.

Colonial and Postcolonial Literatures
0042fB2.3

17358 Vorlesung
V-Colonial and Postcolonial Literatures: Postcolonial Theories (Stephan Laqué)
Zeit: Mi 16:00-18:00 (Erster Termin: 17.04.2024)
Ort: Hs 1b Hörsaal (Habelschwerdter Allee 45)

Kommentar

Postcolonial theory analyses the lingering effects of colonial expansion and oppression and thereby addresses pivotal issues of our globalised world. It has adopted terms such as ‘hybridity’ and ‘mimicry’ from other disciplines and turned them into new and influential concepts. Starting from Edward Said's seminal book Orientalism, this lecture will follow the trajectory of Postcolonial Studies from the late 1970s to the present day.

17359 Vertiefungsseminar
S-Colonial and Postcolonial Literatures: Writing the Middle Passage (Cordula Lemke David Wachter)
Zeit: Fr 10:00-12:00 (Erster Termin: 19.04.2024)
Ort: KL 32/102 Übungsraum (Habelschwerdter Allee 45)

Kommentar

From the 16th to the 19th century, several million Africans were deported to the Americas as part of the transatlantic slave trade. The collective trauma of what later became known as “the Middle Passage” continues to haunt Carribean and North American cultural imagination. In this seminar, we will discuss literary representations of this historical injustice and its aftermath in the form of transatlantic slavery. Our course will mainly focus on two texts: Toni Morrison’s Beloved (1987) and Marlene NourbeSe Philip’s Zong! (2008). But we will also look at passages of other novels, theoretical texts, works of visual art and life writing. We will scrutinize the literary strategies employed in “writing the Middle Passage” and discuss issues such as violence, trauma, haunting, exploitation, economics and law, community and heal-ing.

This class will deal with violence and racism, and the texts contain graphic and disturbing scenes of racialized and sexualized violence. We will do our best to make our seminar a space where we can engage empathetically and thoughtfully with such content.

Preparation

Please purchase and read Morrison’s novel in the following (inexpensive) paperback edi-tions: Toni Morrison: Beloved, Vintage 1997 (ISBN 978-0099760115). Other text will be availa-ble on Blackboard.

17360 Vertiefungsseminar
S-Colonial and Postcolonial Literatures: Postcolonial Epic (Wolfram Keller)
Zeit: Mo 10:00-12:00 (Erster Termin: 15.04.2024)
Ort: KL 32/202 Übungsraum (Habelschwerdter Allee 45)

Kommentar

At a first glance, postcolonial epic seems to be an oxymoron: classical epics, which are often associated with the construction of heteronormative genealogies, national myths of origin, and the legitimation of colonial rule, appear to be central to the hegemonial power challenged by anti-colonial and postcolonial literature. Many postcolonial texts, however, do reference classical epics—intertextual references that are often discussed in the context of imperial/local hybridities, subverting hegemonial discourses. In view of the recent discussions about postcolonial genres in general, this seminar focuses on the less studied generic transformations of postcolonial epics in their specific cultural contexts. In order to do so, we will read (excerpts of) postcolonial epics that self-consciously reflect their status as epics, for instance, Derek Walcott’s Omeros (1990), Bernardine Evaristo’s The Emperor’s Babe (1997), Myung Mi Kim’s Dura (1998) or Njabulo Ndebele’s The Cry of Winnie Mandela (2003).

Culture - Gender - Media
0042fB2.4
- 16799 Vorlesung
  Einführung in die digitalen Geisteswissenschaften (Frank Fischer)
  Zeit: Mo 10:00-12:00 (Erster Termin: 15.04.2024)
  Ort: J 32/102 (Habelschwerdter Allee 45)
  
  Kommentar
  
  Immer mehr Informationen liegen digitalisiert vor oder sind ›born digital‹. Dadurch ergeben sich viele neue Forschungs- und Erkenntnismöglichkeiten, auch für die Geisteswissenschaften. Doch was stellt man eigentlich mit einer Million digitalisierter Bücher an, wie Gregory Crane einmal rhetorisch gefragt hat. Um diese Datenmengen zu verarbeiten, sind spezielle und sich stetig weiterentwickelnde Methoden vonnöten. Mittlerweile hat sich mit den ›Digital Humanities‹ eine entsprechende Praxis entwickelt. Die Vorlesung bietet einen Überblick über die Entwicklung des komputationellen Denkens in den Geisteswissenschaften seit Beginn des 19. Jahrhunderts und stellt die wichtigsten Standards vor: Methoden, Formate, Software, Tools. Da uns durch die Digitalisierung der Gegenstände auch andere epistemische Dingen vorliegen, wird immer auch kritisch gefragt, welche Folgen dies für die Interpretierbarkeit hat. Auch in diesem Semester setzen die Digital-Humanities-Lehrveranstaltungen keine Kenntnisse in diesem Bereich voraus und sind als breite Einführung sowohl für M.A.-Studierende als auch B.A.-Studierende in der Vertiefungsphase gedacht. Mit dem Fokus auf Textdaten und Korpora richten sie sich besonders an Studierende der philologischen Institute.
- 17361 Vorlesung
  V-Culture-Gender-Media: Theorizing Gender (Sabine Schülting)
  Zeit: Di 16:00-18:00 (Erster Termin: 16.04.2024)
  Ort: Hs 1b Hörsaal (Habelschwerdter Allee 45)
  
  Kommentar
  
  The course will offer a comprehensive introduction to Gender Theories. We will start with the basic terminology, the key concepts, and the historical development of Gender Studies, and address parallels and differences between Gender Studies and Feminism, Masculinity Studies and Queer Studies. Focusing on a variety of examples from literature and culture, mainly (but not exclusively) from the 20^th and 21^st centuries, we will consider the construction of gender identities and their intersections with other social categories such as race, class, sexual orientation, religion etc. This will also include a consideration of cultural differences and historical changes. The second half of the semester will be dedicated to more recent debates and approaches, such as gender and religion, gender and ecology, queer temporality, gender and Disability Studies, and Trans Studies.
  
  The course will be organised as a lecture series with discussion. Students are expected to attend regularly and read short texts in preparation of weekly classes. All texts will be available on Blackboard.
- 17145 Seminar
  Games und Literatur (Frank Fischer)
  Zeit: Mo 14:00-16:00 (Erster Termin: 15.04.2024)
  Ort: JK 29/118 (Habelschwerdter Allee 45)
  
  Hinweise für Studierende
  
  In Zusammenarbeit mit Dîlan Canan Çakir (EXC Temporal Communities)
  
  Kommentar
  
  In diesem Seminar werden die vielfältigen Beziehungen zwischen Literatur und Computerspielen untersucht und diskutiert. Dabei werden wir uns mit der Frage auseinandersetzen, wie Computerspiele literarische Texte adaptieren, sich auf literarische Traditionen beziehen und eigene narrative Formen und Techniken entwickeln. Das Seminar bietet eine Einführung in die wichtigsten theoretischen Konzepte und Debatten in diesem Bereich und stellt eine Auswahl von Computerspielen vor, die sich auf kanonische literarische Werke beziehen oder von diesen inspiriert wurden. Die Themen reichen von der Analyse konkreter Spiele und ihrer literarischen Bezüge über die Untersuchung von narrativen Techniken und ästhetischen Strategien bis hin zu den politischen, kulturellen und gesellschaftlichen Kontexten, in denen Computerspiele entstehen und rezipiert werden.
  
  Literaturhinweise
  
  Empfohlene Literatur: Beil, Benjamin/Hensel, Thomas/Rauscher, Andreas (Hgg.): Game Studies. Wiesbaden 2018. (online: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-13498-3) Zimmermann, Olaf/Falk, Felix (Hgg.): Handbuch Gameskultur. Über die Kulturwelten von Games. Kulturrat 2020 (online: https://www.kulturrat.de/publikationen/handbuch-gameskultur/)
- 17362 Vertiefungsseminar
  S-Culture-Gender-Media: Jews and Jewishness in Contemporary Britain (Sabine Schülting)
  Zeit: Mi 12:00-14:00 (Erster Termin: 17.04.2024)
  Ort: KL 32/202 Übungsraum (Habelschwerdter Allee 45)
  
  Kommentar
  
  The course will focus on the representations, constructions, and negotiations of Jewishness in late 20^th and early 21^st-century British literature, film, and culture. This will include the various responses to both the long tradition of anti-Jewish hatred and the recent rise in anti-Semitism. We will read texts by British Jewish and non-Jewish writers that address topics such as Holocaust remembrance, religion and sexuality, the conflicts in a multi-ethnic society, the tensions between the individual and the community, as well as between orthodoxy and secularism. In addition, we will discuss contemporary rewritings, screen and stage adaptations of Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice and explore how they re-imagine the character of Shylock, Shakespeare’s Jewish moneylender.
  
  Texts: Students should purchase and read Naomi Alderman’s Disobedience (2006) and Howard Jacobson’s Shylock Is My Name (2016). Both novels are available in paperback editions and can be ordered at local bookshops. Shorter texts will be available on Blackboard. Participants are expected to be familiar with Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice.
  
  Assessment will be on the basis of regular attendance, active participation in class activities (such as response papers, short presentations, group work) and the submission of an essay (c. 4000 words).
- 17363 Verschiedenes
  S-Culture-Gender-Media: Imagining the English Countryside (Stephan Karschay)
  Zeit: Mo 16:00-18:00 (Erster Termin: 15.04.2024)
  Ort: KL 32/202 Übungsraum (Habelschwerdter Allee 45)
  
  Kommentar
  
  The English countryside is usually imagined in distinctly ‘pastoral’ terms. Ideas of a ‘pastoral’ landscape derive from classical literature and are found in literary texts that deal with the beauties of the natural world and often focus on the lives of shepherds (pastor in Latin) and nymphs. Originating in the Hellenistic period with Theocritus’s Idylls (third century BC) and popularised by the Roman poet Virgil, this mode of writing spread throughout Europe in the High Middle Ages and the Renaissance and came to be almost synonymous with the notions of prelapsarian peace and escapism. Yet pastoral representations of nature have always implicitly gestured beyond themselves to reflect human and natural predicaments and express social, political and religious criticism. In other words, pastoral always has an ulterior motive. Often, pastoral’s nostalgic perspective on a lost ‘Golden Age’ reveals itself to be a cry for radical change that still lies in the future. Thus, pastoral literature and art can reveal several, apparently contradictory, orientations in terms of time: it can hanker after a glorious past (elegiac mode), rejoice at a bountiful present (idyllic mode) or anticipate an improved future (utopian mode). From an ecocritical perspective, the pastoral lends itself to reconfigurations of the relationship between us and the non-human (or better: more-than-human) world, and this seminar is also conceived as a first introduction to the theory and practice of ecocriticism. Even though the genre has somewhat declined in popularity since the beginning of the twentieth century, pastoral as a cultural and literary strategy has proved to be remarkably resilient and malleable. In this seminar we will look at a broad range of different genres and media – from the pastoral’s origins in Graeco-Roman literature and its heyday in Renaissance poetry and drama, to the ingenious uses of pastoral in contemporary British art, literature and advertising. We will specifically look at the pastoral’s inherent spatial opposition (town versus country) and its triple distinction of time (past versus present versus future) to appreciate the modifications the genre has undergone over the centuries. In seminar discussions and group presentations, students will engage with a large variety of literary and non-literary texts, paintings, photographs, performances, as well as film and television.
  
  Voraussetzungen
  
  Erfolgreiche Absolvierung des Aufbaumoduls 2 (Introduction to Cultural Studies).
  
  Regelmäßige und aktive Teilnahme, Lektüre aller im Seminar diskutierten Texte, seminarbegleitende Studienleistungen (wie z.B. response paper, Gruppenpräsentation, Expertengruppe), abschließende Seminararbeit (abhängig von Modulbelegung). Auch die ersten Wochen der Veranstaltung zählen zur regelmäßigen Teilnahme.
  
  Literaturhinweise
  
  Zur Einführung geeignet: Garrard, Greg. “Pastoral”, in G. G., ed., Ecocriticism(London: Routledge, 2004), 33–58.
  
  Gifford, Terry. “Pastoral, Anti-Pastoral, and Post-Pastoral”, in Louise Westling, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Literature and the Environment (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014), 17–30.
  
  Rigby, Kate. “Ecocriticism”, in Julian Wolfreys, ed., Introducing Criticism in the 21st Century (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2022), 122–54.
  
  Zur Anschaffung
  
  William Shakespeare, As You Like It [1599], Norton or Arden edition.
  
  Thomas Hardy, Tess of the D’Urbervilles [1891], ed. Tim Dolin, London: Penguin.
- 17364 Vertiefungsseminar
  S-Culture-Gender-Media: Conceptualising Cultural Memory in Contemporary British Literature (Marie Catherine Menzel)
  Zeit: Mo 18:00-20:00 (Erster Termin: 15.04.2024)
  Ort: KL 32/202 Übungsraum (Habelschwerdter Allee 45)
  
  Kommentar
  
  In this class, we will be approaching “memory” from the perspective of what is sometimes called “new cultural memory studies” (Erll Memory in Culture, 13). Paralleling other postmodern critical moments, this research field developed under the influence of poststructuralism and the notion of social and cultural construction, with roots in the early 20th century and a significant presence in the humanities since the 1980s and 90s. At the core of this perspective lies the conceptualisation of “memory” in its qualities as a constructed collective, cultural, and social phenomenon.
  
  In the course of the semester, we will first familiarise ourselves with some foundational theoretical perspectives on memory (and cultural memory) as socially constructed and collective. Then, we will look into some topics pertaining to a specifically British collective and cultural form of memory, touching on topics such as national identity narratives. And finally, we will discuss some literary representations of British collective memory, covering both their memory-reflexive and memory-productive aspects.
  
  Required Reading:
  
  Students need to acquire access to the following novels, further required reading will be made available via Blackboard:
  
  Small Island by Andrea Levy
  
  England, England by Julian Barnes
  
  The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro
  
  Suggested introductory and preparatory reading (excerpts will be read in class):
  
  Memory in Culture by Astrid Erll
  
  The Making of English National Identity by Krishan Kumar
  
  The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge by Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckmann
  
  Requirements for course participation:
  
  Successful completion of the module “Introduction to Cultural Studies”.
  
  Assessment:
  
  Assessment for full credits is done on the basis of regular attendance, active participation in all class activities (e.g. assignments, presentations, group work, quizzes, preparation of the required reading), and—depending on your chosen module type—a ca. 4000 word essay.

Sociolinguistics and Varieties of English
0042fB3.1
- 17365 Übung
  Ü-Sociolinguistics and Varieties: Introduction to Sociolinguistics (Antje Wilton-Franklin)
  Zeit: Mi 08:00-10:00 (Erster Termin: 17.04.2024)
  Ort: KL 32/202 Übungsraum (Habelschwerdter Allee 45)
  
  Kommentar
  
  This lecture will provide an overview over the most important issues, approaches and methodologies in contemporary Sociolinguistics, addressing aspects of social, regional and functional variation, standardization, genre & register, gender, conversation and discourse, and multilingualism. We will put particular emphasis on the English language, investigating variation and change in its use and relevance for speech communities around the world.
- 17366 Vertiefungsseminar
  S-Sociolinguistics and Varieties: Sociolinguistics and the Law (Antje Wilton-Franklin)
  Zeit: Mi 10:00-12:00 (Erster Termin: 17.04.2024)
  Ort: KL 32/202 Übungsraum (Habelschwerdter Allee 45)
  
  Kommentar
  
  This seminar focuses on language use in legal contexts and investigates the ways in which sociolinguistic research can help to shed light on language use in the legal process, and the ways in which sociolinguists can contribute to the process for instance by uncovering issues of linguistic inequality or by acting as expert witnesses in criminal cases. We will focus on both spoken and written language in legal institutional contexts, in particular on emergency calls, police interviews and witness statements, courtroom discourse and authorship analysis.

Structure of English
0042fB3.2
- 17367 Übung
  Ü-Structure of English: Construction Grammar (Anatol Stefanowitsch)
  Zeit: Mi 12:00-14:00 (Erster Termin: 17.04.2024)
  Ort: J 30/109 (Habelschwerdter Allee 45)
- 17368 Vertiefungsseminar
  Ü-Structure of English: Structure between Lexicon and Grammar (Anatol Stefanowitsch)
  Zeit: Mo 10:00-12:00 (Erster Termin: 15.04.2024)
  Ort: J 30/109 (Habelschwerdter Allee 45)

Semantics and Pragmatics
0042fB3.3
- 17369 Übung
  Ü-Semantics and Pragmatics (Ferdinand von Mengden)
  Zeit: Mo 14:00-16:00 (Erster Termin: 15.04.2024)
  Ort: J 30/109 (Habelschwerdter Allee 45)
  
  Kommentar
  
  That linguistic expressions (words, utterances) have a meaning seems to be a very natural thing to assume. How else would it be possible to communicate successfully by means of linguistic expressions? But what exactly is meaning? What does it mean for an expression to ‘have’ a meaning? And how do linguistic expressions actually acquire their meaning?
  
  We can argue that linguistic expressions must have some meaning prior to us speakers using them – otherwise, how could we use them reasonably if we didn’t know what a word can be used for? But this approach doesn’t explain where a word meaning comes from in the first place. We could also argue that we create the meaning of an expression the moment we use it. But how exactly does this work and how do we know which expressions we can or cannot use in a given situation?
  
  The main aim of this seminar will be to resolve this paradox. A crucial factor in determining the meaning of an expression will be the clues which the context provides in each specific act of communication. In order to study the interaction between conceptual notions and the contribution of context and of speakers’ intentions, ‘semantics’ and ‘pragmatics’ – according to our terminological conventions two separate, albeit related fields in linguistics – will therefore be presented as one large domain of linguistic studies that cannot be reasonably kept apart.
  
  The requirements for the credits are regular attendance, active participation and reading assignments. Students who are interested in the class but cannot come in the first week, are kindly asked to notify me via email before the start of the lecture period.
- 17370 Vertiefungsseminar
  VS-Semantics and Pragmatics: The Pragmatics of Space (Antje Wilton-Franklin)
  Zeit: Di 10:00-12:00 (Erster Termin: 16.04.2024)
  Ort: JK 31/228 (Habelschwerdter Allee 45)
  
  Kommentar
  
  In this seminar we will investigate the complex relationship between language and (material) space from a pragmatics perspective. Sessions will be based on the handbook on “Pragmatics of Space” (https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110693713/html), comprising various contributions on the linguistic description of space, interaction in different spaces, communicative resources of constructed spaces and cultural differences in the pragmatics of space. We will work closely with a selection of texts from the handbook, which students will be required to read, summarise and discuss. Additionally, we will explore the relationship between language, interaction and space in a practical way by experiencing different spaces and environments interactionally. The course will be linked to a workshop on The Co-Evolution of Language, Interaction and Architecture (https://blogs.fu-berlin.de/interactionlab/workshop-the-co-evolution-of-language-interaction-and-architecture/), where students will be able to participate in and learn from discussion with experts from a variety of different fields.

Oral Skills and Writing Skills 1
0042fC1.1
- 54010 Sprachpraktische Übung
  Oral Skills and Writing Skills 1, 1. Gr. (Kimberly Specht)
  Zeit: Mi 16:00-18:00, Fr 12:00-14:00 (Erster Termin: 17.04.2024)
  Ort: JK 30/021 Übungsraum (Habelschwerdter Allee 45)
  
  Zusätzl. Angaben / Voraussetzungen
  
  Entspricht
  - dem Modul "Oral Skills and Writing Skills 1" (Bachelor Englische Philologie),
  - dem Modul "Oral and Writing Skills A" (Bachelor Nordamerikastudien / Angewandte Nordamerikastudien) und
  - der Sprachpraktischen Übung 1 des Moduls "Oral & Writing Skills I plus" (Bachelor Grundschulpädagogik)
  Kommentar
  
  Anmeldung vom 20.03. bis 09.04.2024, 9:00 Uhr an der ZE Sprachenzentrum > Anmeldeverfahren
- 54011 Sprachpraktische Übung
  Oral Skills and Writing Skills 1, 2. Gr. (Kimberly Specht)
  Zeit: Di 14:00-16:00, Mi 14:00-16:00 (Erster Termin: 16.04.2024)
  Ort: KL 25/201 Übungsraum (Habelschwerdter Allee 45)
  
  Zusätzl. Angaben / Voraussetzungen
  
  Entspricht
  - dem Modul "Oral Skills and Writing Skills 1" (Bachelor Englische Philologie),
  - dem Modul "Oral and Writing Skills A" (Bachelor Nordamerikastudien / Angewandte Nordamerikastudien) und
  - der Sprachpraktischen Übung 1 des Moduls "Oral & Writing Skills I plus" (Bachelor Grundschulpädagogik)
  Kommentar
  
  Anmeldung vom 20.03. bis 09.04.2024, 9:00 Uhr an der ZE Sprachenzentrum > Anmeldeverfahren
- 54012 Sprachpraktische Übung
  Oral Skills and Writing Skills 1, 3. Gr. (Matthew Emery)
  Zeit: Mo 10:00-12:00, Mi 08:00-10:00 (Erster Termin: 15.04.2024)
  Ort: Mo KL 25/112 Übungsraum (Habelschwerdter Allee 45), Mi L 201 (Habelschwerdter Allee 45)
  
  Zusätzl. Angaben / Voraussetzungen
  
  Entspricht
  - dem Modul "Oral Skills and Writing Skills 1" (Bachelor Englische Philologie),
  - dem Modul "Oral and Writing Skills A" (Bachelor Nordamerikastudien / Angewandte Nordamerikastudien) und
  - der Sprachpraktischen Übung 1 des Moduls "Oral & Writing Skills I plus" (Bachelor Grundschulpädagogik)
  Kommentar
  
  Anmeldung vom 20.03. bis 09.04.2024, 9:00 Uhr an der ZE Sprachenzentrum > Anmeldeverfahren
- 54013 Sprachpraktische Übung
  Oral Skills and Writing Skills 1, 4. Gr. (Mark Baker)
  Zeit: Di 16:00-18:00, Do 16:00-18:00 (Erster Termin: 16.04.2024)
  Ort: KL 23/216 Übungsraum (Habelschwerdter Allee 45)
  
  Zusätzl. Angaben / Voraussetzungen
  
  Entspricht
  - dem Modul "Oral Skills and Writing Skills 1" (Bachelor Englische Philologie),
  - dem Modul "Oral and Writing Skills A" (Bachelor Nordamerikastudien / Angewandte Nordamerikastudien) und
  - der Sprachpraktischen Übung 1 des Moduls "Oral & Writing Skills I plus" (Bachelor Grundschulpädagogik)
  Kommentar
  
  Anmeldung vom 20.03. bis 09.04.2024, 9:00 Uhr an der ZE Sprachenzentrum > Anmeldeverfahren

Oral Skills and Writing Skills 2
0042fC1.2
- 54020 Sprachpraktische Übung
  Oral Skills and Writing Skills 2, 1. Gr. (Louise Catherine Steinike McCloy)
  Zeit: Mi 08:00-10:00, Fr 10:00-12:00 (Erster Termin: 17.04.2024)
  Ort: Mi KL 24/105 Übungsraum (Habelschwerdter Allee 45), Fr KL 25/137 Übungsraum (Habelschwerdter Allee 45)
  
  Zusätzl. Angaben / Voraussetzungen
  
  Entspricht den Modulen
  - "Oral Skills and Writing Skills 2" (Bachelor Englische Philologie) und
  - "Oral and Writing Skills B" (nur Mono-Bachelor Nordamerikastudien)
  Kommentar
  
  Anmeldung vom 20.03. bis 09.04.2024, 9:00 Uhr an der ZE Sprachenzentrum > Anmeldeverfahren
- 54021 Sprachpraktische Übung
  Oral Skills and Writing Skills 2, 2. Gr. (Louise Catherine Steinike McCloy)
  Zeit: Mi 10:00-12:00, Fr 08:00-10:00 (Erster Termin: 17.04.2024)
  Ort: Mi KL 24/105 Übungsraum (Habelschwerdter Allee 45), Fr KL 25/137 Übungsraum (Habelschwerdter Allee 45)
  
  Zusätzl. Angaben / Voraussetzungen
  
  Entspricht den Modulen
  - "Oral Skills and Writing Skills 2" (Bachelor Englische Philologie) und
  - "Oral and Writing Skills B" (nur Mono-Bachelor Nordamerikastudien)
  Kommentar
  
  Anmeldung vom 20.03. bis 09.04.2024, 9:00 Uhr an der ZE Sprachenzentrum > Anmeldeverfahren
- 54022 Sprachpraktische Übung
  Oral Skills and Writing Skills 2, 3. Gr. (Annette Stemmerich)
  Zeit: Di 14:00-16:00, Do 12:00-14:00 (Erster Termin: 16.04.2024)
  Ort: Di KL 25/137 Übungsraum (Habelschwerdter Allee 45), Do KL 24/121a Multifunktionsraum (Habelschwerdter Allee 45)
  
  Zusätzl. Angaben / Voraussetzungen
  
  Entspricht den Modulen
  - "Oral Skills and Writing Skills 2" (Bachelor Englische Philologie) und
  - "Oral and Writing Skills B" (nur Mono-Bachelor Nordamerikastudien)
  Kommentar
  
  Anmeldung vom 20.03. bis 09.04.2024, 9:00 Uhr an der ZE Sprachenzentrum > Anmeldeverfahren
- 54023 Sprachpraktische Übung
  Oral Skills and Writing Skills 2, 4. Gr. (Darren Paul Foster)
  Zeit: Di 10:00-12:00, Do 08:00-10:00 (Erster Termin: 16.04.2024)
  Ort: KL 26/130 Übungsraum (Habelschwerdter Allee 45)
  
  Zusätzl. Angaben / Voraussetzungen
  
  Entspricht den Modulen
  - "Oral Skills and Writing Skills 2" (Bachelor Englische Philologie) und
  - "Oral and Writing Skills B" (nur Mono-Bachelor Nordamerikastudien)
  Kommentar
  
  Anmeldung vom 20.03. bis 09.04.2024, 9:00 Uhr an der ZE Sprachenzentrum > Anmeldeverfahren
- 54024 Sprachpraktische Übung
  Oral Skills and Writing Skills 2, 5. Gr. (Darren Paul Foster)
  Zeit: Mo 08:00-10:00, Mi 08:00-10:00 (Erster Termin: 15.04.2024)
  Ort: Mo KL 25/122a Multifunktionsraum (Habelschwerdter Allee 45), Mi KL 26/130 Übungsraum (Habelschwerdter Allee 45)
  
  Zusätzl. Angaben / Voraussetzungen
  
  Entspricht den Modulen
  - "Oral Skills and Writing Skills 2" (Bachelor Englische Philologie) und
  - "Oral and Writing Skills B" (nur Mono-Bachelor Nordamerikastudien)
  Kommentar
  
  Anmeldung vom 20.03. bis 09.04.2024, 9:00 Uhr an der ZE Sprachenzentrum > Anmeldeverfahren
- 54025 Sprachpraktische Übung
  Oral Skills and Writing Skills 2, 6. Gr. (Kimberly Specht)
  Zeit: Di 16:00-18:00, Fr 10:00-12:00 (Erster Termin: 16.04.2024)
  Ort: JK 30/021 Übungsraum (Habelschwerdter Allee 45)
  
  Zusätzl. Angaben / Voraussetzungen
  
  Entspricht den Modulen
  - "Oral Skills and Writing Skills 2" (Bachelor Englische Philologie) und
  - "Oral and Writing Skills B" (nur Mono-Bachelor Nordamerikastudien)
  Kommentar
  
  Anmeldung vom 20.03. bis 09.04.2024, 9:00 Uhr an der ZE Sprachenzentrum > Anmeldeverfahren
- 54026 Sprachpraktische Übung
  Oral Skills and Writing Skills 2, 7. Gr. (Mark Baker)
  Zeit: Mo 14:00-16:00, Mi 14:00-16:00 (Erster Termin: 15.04.2024)
  Ort: K 26/21 Übungsraum (Habelschwerdter Allee 45)
  
  Zusätzl. Angaben / Voraussetzungen
  
  Entspricht den Modulen
  - "Oral Skills and Writing Skills 2" (Bachelor Englische Philologie) und
  - "Oral and Writing Skills B" (nur Mono-Bachelor Nordamerikastudien)
  Kommentar
  
  Anmeldung vom 20.03. bis 09.04.2024, 9:00 Uhr an der ZE Sprachenzentrum > Anmeldeverfahren
- 54027 Sprachpraktische Übung
  Oral Skills and Writing Skills 2, 8. Gr. (Mark Baker)
  Zeit: Mo 16:00-18:00, Mi 16:00-18:00 (Erster Termin: 15.04.2024)
  Ort: KL 25/122a Multifunktionsraum (Habelschwerdter Allee 45)
  
  Zusätzl. Angaben / Voraussetzungen
  
  Entspricht den Modulen
  - "Oral Skills and Writing Skills 2" (Bachelor Englische Philologie) und
  - "Oral and Writing Skills B" (nur Mono-Bachelor Nordamerikastudien)
  Kommentar
  
  Anmeldung vom 20.03. bis 09.04.2024, 9:00 Uhr an der ZE Sprachenzentrum > Anmeldeverfahren
- 54028 Sprachpraktische Übung
  Oral Skills and Writing Skills 2, 9. Gr. (Annette Stemmerich)
  Zeit: Fr 10:00-14:00 (Erster Termin: 19.04.2024)
  Ort: KL 26/130 Übungsraum (Habelschwerdter Allee 45)
  
  Zusätzl. Angaben / Voraussetzungen
  
  Entspricht den Modulen
  - "Oral Skills and Writing Skills 2" (Bachelor Englische Philologie) und
  - "Oral and Writing Skills B" (nur Mono-Bachelor Nordamerikastudien)
  Kommentar
  
  Anmeldung vom 20.03. bis 09.04.2024, 9:00 Uhr an der ZE Sprachenzentrum > Anmeldeverfahren

Mediating Skills
0042fC1.3
- 54030 Sprachpraktische Übung
  Mediating Skills (Englische Philologie) 1. Gr. (Peter Stear)
  Zeit: Mo 12:00-14:00, Mi 12:00-14:00 (Erster Termin: 15.04.2024)
  Ort: Mo KL 25/122a Multifunktionsraum (Habelschwerdter Allee 45), Mi KL 25/121b Übungsraum (Habelschwerdter Allee 45)
  
  Kommentar
  
  Anmeldung vom 20.03. bis 09.04.2024, 9:00 Uhr an der ZE Sprachenzentrum > Anmeldeverfahren
- 54031 Sprachpraktische Übung
  Mediating Skills (Englische Philologie) 2. Gr. (Peter Stear)
  Zeit: Mo 14:00-16:00, Mi 14:00-16:00 (Erster Termin: 15.04.2024)
  Ort: KL 25/122a Multifunktionsraum (Habelschwerdter Allee 45)
  
  Kommentar
  
  Anmeldung vom 20.03. bis 09.04.2024, 9:00 Uhr an der ZE Sprachenzentrum > Anmeldeverfahren
- 54032 Sprachpraktische Übung
  Mediating Skills (Englische Philologie) 3. Gr. (Darren Paul Foster)
  Zeit: Di 08:00-10:00, Do 10:00-12:00 (Erster Termin: 16.04.2024)
  Ort: Di KL 25/122a Multifunktionsraum (Habelschwerdter Allee 45), Do L 201 (Habelschwerdter Allee 45)
  
  Kommentar
  
  Anmeldung vom 20.03. bis 09.04.2024, 9:00 Uhr an der ZE Sprachenzentrum > Anmeldeverfahren
- 54033 Sprachpraktische Übung
  Mediating Skills (Englische Philologie) 4. Gr. (Darren Paul Foster)
  Zeit: Mo 10:00-12:00, Mi 10:00-12:00 (Erster Termin: 15.04.2024)
  Ort: Mo KL 25/122a Multifunktionsraum (Habelschwerdter Allee 45), Mi KL 26/130 Übungsraum (Habelschwerdter Allee 45)
  
  Kommentar
  
  Anmeldung vom 20.03. bis 09.04.2024, 9:00 Uhr an der ZE Sprachenzentrum > Anmeldeverfahren
- 54034 Sprachpraktische Übung
  Mediating Skills (Englische Philologie) 5. Gr. (Mark Baker)
  Zeit: Di 12:00-14:00, Do 14:00-16:00 (Erster Termin: 16.04.2024)
  Ort: KL 25/122a Multifunktionsraum (Habelschwerdter Allee 45)
  
  Kommentar
  
  Anmeldung vom 20.03. bis 09.04.2024, 9:00 Uhr an der ZE Sprachenzentrum > Anmeldeverfahren

Module ohne Lehrangebot in diesem Semester
3 Module
- BM1-Introduction to Literary Studies 0042fA1.1
- BM2-Introduction to English Linguistics 0042fA1.2
- Language Change 0042fB3.4

Freie Universität Berlin

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Institut für Englische Philologie (WE 6)

Kernfach Englische Philologie (SPO gültig ab WS 23/24))

AM1-Surveying English Literatures

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AM2-Introduction to Cultural Studies

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AM3-Medieval English Literatures

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AM4-Levels of Linguistic Analysis

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AM5-History of English

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Modernity and Alterity in the Literatures of Medieval Britain

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Literary Studies: Periods - Genres - Concepts

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Colonial and Postcolonial Literatures

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Culture - Gender - Media

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Hinweise für Studierende

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Literaturhinweise

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Sociolinguistics and Varieties of English

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Structure of English

Semantics and Pragmatics

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Oral Skills and Writing Skills 1

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Oral Skills and Writing Skills 2

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