Course Registration for the winter term 2021/2022 will start on 13 September 2021.
Check LSF for details on individual classes.
In the winter term 2021/22 NamLitCult is offering the following classes:
For additional information and detailed descriptions, look up the winter term course pages. All departmental courses are also listed in the course directory (LSF) maintained by the university.
Bock and Seip (the book store on campus) has copies of the books for our seminars available.
together with Dr. Magdalena Pfalzgraf
VL Memories of Diversity / Diversity of Memories
Wed, 10-12
The focus of this lecture will be devoted to the topic of memory and will examine the intersections between memory and diversity. In contemporary discourse, the dehistoricization and naturalization of diversity has often concealed the diverse roles of subjectivity and memory in the social construction of difference. At the same time, the official practices of commemorating like the Vietnam War, Pearl Harbor or 9/11 have not included diversity. Overlapping memories, hidden histories, suppressed stories, narratives from the margins, public rituals, private commemorations, and the unspeakable are both diversity’s causes as well as consequences. Different ethnic and racial groups have demanded that their memories be acknowledged. At the same time, the so-called transcultural turn in memory studies has shifted the focus to the ways in which memory, commemoration, shared practices of remembering travels across various boundaries and borders: of nation, ethnicity, time. This lecture aims at exploring the various entanglements of historical projections and representations of and from the past with contemporary discourses on difference and inclusion. Memory often figures as a theme in stories of diversity; it is also an important and contested temporal dimension that defines the politics, practices and narratives of diversity. From the construction of diasporic identities to family migration histories to the conflicted politics of remembering, memories shape diversity, be they in the form of shared memories, divided memories, conflicting memories or any other forms or practices of commemoration.
This lecture will be co-taught by Prof. Fellner and Dr. Pfalzgraf and will include a series of guest lectures. A reader of primary texts will be made available on Moodle.
Course Readings:
There will be a course reader, which will be made available on Moodle.
HS Remembering 9/11 in Pandemic Times
(Graduate) Seminar for NamLitCult students (BA/MA/Stex)
Vorbesprechung online; Blockseminar hybrid in-class
After the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, New York has often been represented as a city in shock which exhibits a wounded and traumatized topography. Exploring the ways in which American literature has reflected on these traumatic events, we will analyze how literary and cultural texts have re-imagined life in the aftermath of 9/11. In which ways is 9/11 remembered 20 years later? How does remembering take place in pandemic times? Drawing on theories of trauma and memory, we will study the visual and intermedial literary strategies writers have used to write about New York City in the past 20 years. Focusing on the challenges of representing traumatic history, we will also explore the ways in which literature and film after 9/11 have changed the face of American literature.
Required Texts (please buy novels)
Jonathan Safran Foer. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close: A Novel (2006)
McInerney, Jay. The Good Life (2006)
Joseph O’Neill. Netherland (2009)
Films:
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. Dir. Stephen Daldry (2011)
The Reluctant Fundamentalist. Dir. Mira Nair (2012)
HS Cultural Encounters in Europe
MA Border Studies: Specialization Module C1: Interculturality and Diversity
MA American Studies: Research Focus Module
Anrechenbar für Zertifikat Angewandte Pop Studien: Pop-Projekt
All meetings online:
Tuesday, 14 Sept. 2021: 10-12: Constituent meeting of participants and curators from each country
Tuesday, 14 Sept. 2021: 13-16.30: Borders, Media, and Cultural Studies Research (online)
Wednesday, 15 Sept. 2021: 13-15
Thursday, 16 Sept. 2021: 13-16
Friday, 17 Sept 2021: 10-12: Introduction to Ethnographic Research Methods (online)
Friday, Sep. 24, 2021: 13-15: Q&A with the Service Team
Monday, 04 Oct. 2021: 10-12
Monday, 11 Oct. 2021: 10-12 and 13-15
Friday, 19 Nov. 2021: 12-17: Presentation of Project Results
This class should be taken in combination with Klaus Heissenberger’s tutorial “Borderlands Stories: Ethnography, Film, and Photography.”
Please register with Tobias Schank: tobias.schank[at]uni-saarland.de.
This class is about cultural encounter in borderlands. Collaborating with students from Mykolaiv, Ukraine, students will have to engage in a serious dialogue about lives in the borderlands. In doing comparative and practical Border Studies and analyzing border lives and border stories, we hope that you will learn from each other. You will be able to critically reflect upon border issues. You will also engage in a critical intervention in identity construction processes that involve cross-border or other identity conflicts and power differentials. The practical intercultural knowledge acquired in this course will enable you to intervene critically in a real-life situation.
In doing ethnographic analysis, you will engage in discussions of both a general as well as a context-specific nature on how borders are experienced differently by different people, how bordering and de/rebordering processes have shaped identities, and how processes of the construction of “Europe” and “Europeanness” are structured differently in different contexts.
BA/MA/STEX Colloquium
Tue, 16-18
Online or in 2.03
This workshop-like colloquium allows candidates (BA-students, MA-students and Stex-students) to talk about the topics of their theses and the topics for their oral exams.
This colloquium consists of two parts:
1) “Blockkolloquium” in October for those students who will participate in the oral state exam (LAG, LAR, LAB). All topics can be presented and discussed. Please bring handouts for your brief presentations. This “Blockkolloquium” will take place on October 19 at 4pm.
Please sign up for the Blockkolloquium (amerikanistik[at]mx.uni-saarland.de).
2) Workshop for those students who will write/or are working on their BA, MA or Staatsexamensarbeit. A major goal of this course is to guide students through the process of writing a research paper. All candidates in NamLitCult who are working on a written thesis are therefore encouraged to attend regularly.
This colloquium starts on November 2. The exact dates of when these workshops will meet will be published on our website.
Please sign up via LSF.
Research Colloquium
Tue, 18-20
Online / Building A 5 3, room 2.03
PS Narratives of Science in Literature
Mon, 14-16
The discourse of science is increasingly prominent in contemporary imaginaries; the scientific paradigm in contemporary culture wields considerable authority and commands fascination. Yet science is also a contested field that is subject to a number of cultural debates, starting with what science actually is and who controls it. In his Foreword to Gregory Cajete’s (Tewa) famous book Native Science: Natural Laws of Interdependence (2000), Leroy Little Bear (Blackfoot) writes: “Science has been and can be defined many different ways depending on who is doing the defining” (ix). Little Bear’s assertion serves to question discursive certainties as it positions scientific inquiry as a field governed by diversity. When read in the context of histories of colonization, it also points towards mechanisms of exclusion that scientific authority can set in motion. Since Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein at the latest, literature has interrogated the societal implications of scientific discovery and the question of moral obligation of the scientist. Contemporary literature pushes this inquiry further, asking questions that point towards potential and actual sets of societal problems associated with visions of a scientific life: What is science and who defines it? Who has science, and who is considered not to? Who is allowed to participate in the scientific practice and on which terms? Whose contributions are acknowledged and whose are left out? These questions illustrate exclusionary practices within the scientific field that can function on the level of both its conceptualization and application. In this class we will adopt an analytical lens that is focused on intersections of science and diversity in literature, focusing both on issues of participation and epistemic diversity. Reading works by authors of diverse backgrounds, we will consider ways in which the figure of the scientist and the branches of science are portrayed in those narratives, as well as ways in which these works question boundaries of scientific inquiry and definitions based on Eurocentric epistemologies.
Please buy the following books for this class:
Michael Ondaatje, Anil’s Ghost. Vintage, 2011. ISBN 978-0099554455.
Teresa May, Salmon Is Everything: Community-Based Theatre in the Klamath Watershed. Oregon State UP, 2018. ISBN 978-0870719479.
Larissa Lai, The Tiger Flu. Arsenal Pulp Press, 2018. ISBN 978-1551527314.
Additional texts will be made available. We will also discuss Theodore Melfi’s film Hidden Figures as part of this class.
PS “It is never just food”: Food in Literature
Thu, 16-18
Literary texts are infused with references to food—as sensuous experience, feast, excessive or cannibalistic transgression, creative outlet, as much as (religious) self-discipline, necessity, painful absence, as destructive or sustaining, as ethical or palatal choice. While the analysis of food as trope is itself fruitful (sorry, couldn’t resist), food is also related to questions of power and identity in terms of race, class, and gender. Literary food studies have increasingly become of interest in animal studies, critical race theory, ecocriticism, postcolonial studies, gender studies, to name but a few.
Our readings will include shorter texts or excerpts as well as Toni Morrison’s novel Tar Baby (1981) and Sara Suleri’s memoir Meatless Days (1989). According to Allison Carruth, Toni Morrison’s novel presents a “narrative of hunger, consumerism, and environmental exploitation” in a fictional Caribbean setting. Sara Suleri, who has roots in Pakistan and Wales and has been living in the US, addresses the complexities of cultural identity within her family setting as expressed through the metaphor of food.
Please buy the following editions of the texts:
Morrison, Toni. Tar Baby. Random House UK, 1997. ISBN 978-0-09-976021-4
Suleri, Sara. Meatless Days. Penguin Books UK, 2018. ISBN 978-0-241-34246-6
The shorter readings will be provided in Moodle.
together with Prof. Dr. Astrid M. Fellner
VL Memories of Diversity / Diversity of Memories
Wed, 10-12
The focus of this lecture will be devoted to the topic of memory and will examine the intersections between memory and diversity. In contemporary discourse, the dehistoricization and naturalization of diversity has often concealed the diverse roles of subjectivity and memory in the social construction of difference. At the same time, the official practices of commemorating like the Vietnam War, Pearl Harbor or 9/11 have not included diversity. Overlapping memories, hidden histories, suppressed stories, narratives from the margins, public rituals, private commemorations, and the unspeakable are both diversity’s causes as well as consequences. Different ethnic and racial groups have demanded that their memories be acknowledged. At the same time, the so-called transcultural turn in memory studies has shifted the focus to the ways in which memory, commemoration, shared practices of remembering travels across various boundaries and borders: of nation, ethnicity, time. This lecture aims at exploring the various entanglements of historical projections and representations of and from the past with contemporary discourses on difference and inclusion. Memory often figures as a theme in stories of diversity; it is also an important and contested temporal dimension that defines the politics, practices and narratives of diversity. From the construction of diasporic identities to family migration histories to the conflicted politics of remembering, memories shape diversity, be they in the form of shared memories, divided memories, conflicting memories or any other forms or practices of commemoration.
This lecture will be co-taught by Prof. Fellner and Dr. Pfalzgraf and will include a series of guest lectures. A reader of primary texts will be made available on Moodle.
Course Readings:
There will be a course reader, which will be made available on Moodle.
"Introduction to Cultural Studies: North America"
Thu, 12-14
This lecture deals with many aspects of contemporary life in the United States and, to a lesser extent, Canada. Among the many items on our agenda are family life, religion, education, the relationships between (non-)citizens and the state, class, gender, ethnicity, (im)migration, and culinary delights. In several cases, music and film will be used to help illustrate important points. Some of the major themes in cultural studies will be touched upon so that students might begin to consider what analysis, explanation, and research can include when “peoples,” “cultures,” and “states” are considered, and this knowledge will provide a foundation for the myriad courses one might subsequently take in our department. Students will be urged to take a much more critical look at some German/European stereotypes ― some fairly accurate, some of them woefully inaccurate ― of the U.S., Canada, and their populations. In so doing, it is hoped that students will come to see their own homes/cultures in a different light.
Introduction to Media Studies: Fear the (Un-)Known: Suspense and Mystery in American Movies
Wed, 14-16
Anrechenbar für Zertifikat Gender Studies (Aufbaumodul 2: Aktuelle Fragestellungen der Genderforschung)
Anrechenbar für Zertifikat Angewandte Pop-Studien (Pflichtmodul 1: Interdisziplinäre Einführung in die Pop-Kultur)
This course introduces students to the study of media with particular emphasis on film studies and gender representations within media. After an overview on various aspects of media history, media theory, and media analysis, we will focus on award-winning American movies which utilize mystery and suspense and analyze changing gender representations within these films. American movies often utilize mystery and suspense to comment on American society, incorporating criticism about the American dream and American ideals. Ultimately, fear of the unknown or “other” is frequently not connected to unfamiliar objects/entities but interconnected to well-known institutions and hierarchies. This course will provide students with a tool kit to critically analyze different media productions and investigate how media productions are shaped by current discourses in society while they at the same time add to these discourses. Students will be introduced to foundations of film studies, for example film narrative, cinematique techniques, approaches to contextual interpretation, genre analysis; some seminal texts to foster discussions on American/Southern Gothic, horror/terror, the uncanny and suspense, as well as selected Gender theories to enhance critical discussion of our examples. We will discuss a selection of award-winning films like Jaws (1974), Sleepy Hollow (1999), Mystic River (2003) and Get Out (2017) to explore how media productions are shaped by historical and social contexts on the one hand, while they contribute to and influence discourses in society at the same time.
Readings/materials: A selection of relevant essays and excerpts from books will be made available via moodle. We will discuss access to visual material in the first session.
Course requirements: Completion of reading assignments, a short (oral) presentation, and a short written assignment at the end of the course. Students are required to watch (excerpts) from movies in advance of the sessions in which we discuss them. Regular attendance and active participation in seminar discussions is expected.
UE Borderlands Stories: Ethnography, Film, and Photography
MA Border Studies: Specialization Module C1: Interculturality and Diversity
MA American Studies: Module Research Focus
Anrechenbar für Zertifikat Angewandte Pop Studien: Pop-Projekt
All meetings online:
Tuesday, 14 Sept. 2021: 10-12: Constituent meeting of participants and curators from each country
Tuesday, 14 Sept. 2021: 13-16.30: Borders, Media, and Cultural Studies Research (online)
Wednesday, 15 Sept. 2021: 13-15
Thursday, 16 Sept. 2021: 13-16
Friday, 17 Sept 2021: 10-12: Introduction to Ethnographic Research Methods (online)
Friday, Sep. 24, 2021: 13-15: Q&A with the Service Team
Monday, 04 Oct. 2021: 10-12
Monday, 11 Oct. 2021: 10-12 and 13-15
Friday, 19 Nov. 2021: 12-17: Presentation of Project Results
This class should be taken in combination with Prof. Fellner’s seminar “Cultural Encounters in Europe.”
Please register with Tobias Schank: tobias.schank[at]uni-saarland.de.
In this international media school tutorial “Borderlands Stories” we will do Border Studies, that is we will conduct ethnographic research on lives, cultures, and linguistic practices in the borderlands of the Greater Region and Ukraine, and we will do so as participant-observers. Students from the University of the Greater Region (Saarland U, U of Luxembourg, U of Lorraine) and Petro-Mohyla Black Sea National University in Mykolaiv collaborate in joint scientific and cultural studies research to work on border stories, issues of languages and identities in border areas, and experiences of living in the borderlands. Students will be able to conduct individual or joint projects (in small groups of 3-4 participants from both countries) with the support of a group of teachers, media experts and consultants. The focus of students’ projects should address the problems of peripheral places, border areas and border cultures whose inhabitants “live the border” and have constructed border identities. The result of this ethnographic research will be short creative media products created by the participants, which will be published on a joint website.
UE CS II North America: Snoop Dogg, Slipknot & Strait: A Cultural Analysis of America's Main Music Genres
Block: details tba
Anrechenbar für Zertifikat Angewandte Pop Studien (Pflichtmodul 1: Interdisziplinäre Einführung in die Popkultur)
American music has always been more than just an acoustic experience. From the early days of hillbilly music, when musicians would travel from village to village in the Appalachian Mountains, singing songs that included the latest news and gossips that they had heard of, until the early 21st ct., when rock musicians try to raise awareness to the world's social issues, and hip-hop artists describe the hardships of life that come with growing up ghettos, music has always delivered comments on US history, society and culture.
In addition to an analysis of these main categories, this course also deals with issues of identity, gender, race and ethnicity in the United States, and how they are represented in contemporary music forms, with a strong focus on the three most popular genres in the U.S., those being R&B/Soul, Country and (modern) Rock. Based on their cultural studies 'tool set', students will have a closer look at the lyrics and analyze music videos, in an attempt to find out how (and why) the United States are portrayed in mainstream music.