Check LSF for details on individual times/classes.

Courses Summer 2024

In the summer term 2024 NamLitCult is offering the following classes:

For additional information and detailed descriptions, look up the summer term course pages. All departmental courses are also listed in the course directory (LSF) maintained by the university.

“North American Borderlands: Histories and Cultural Practices”

Advanced Module C 2: Border Cultures im Master “Border Studies”

HS Advanced Topics im Kernfachmaster “American Studies / British Studies / English Linguistics”

Lateinamerika MA

This seminar will explore a series of literary representations that focus on border territories, border crossings, and intercultural spaces of in-betweenness. Taking our cue from Chicana border theory, we will look at different border experiences, comparing texts from the U.S.-Mexican border and the U.S.-Canadian border within a transhemispheric paradigm. Focusing on the multiple interdependencies between the United States, Canada, and their neighbors in the Americas, we will talk about a great variety of texts which deal with borders, ranging from literary texts that deal with or are set in borderlands spaces (e.g. Chicanx literature, Native American/First Nations literature) to films (e.g. Frozen River), and other cultural productions and border performances (e.g. the artwork of Guillermo Peña). 

Readings:

Rodolfo Gonzales. I am Joaquín/Yo Soy Joaquín (1972)

Sandra Cisneros’s short story “Woman Hollering Creek” (1991)

Guillermo Verdecchia’s Fronteras Americanas/American Borders (1997)

Thomas King’s short story “Borders” (1993)

Courtney Hunt, dir. Frozen River (2008)

Course requirements: oral presentation, term paper.

Course texts and other materials will be made available via our on-line platform.

Blockseminar 26/27 April and 03/04 May 2024

Thursday, April 18                                                     18.00-19.00 h Orientation Meeting (online)

Friday, April 26:                                                        12.00-18.30 h

Saturday, April 30:                                                      10.00-15.00 h 

Friday, May 3:                                                        12.00-18.30h

Saturday, May 4:                                                    10.00-16.00h

VL Anglophone Women’s Writings

Tuesday, 12-14

This lecture focuses on the achievements of women writers across the English-speaking world. 

Texts written by women have often been ignored by contemporaries and in the literay canon due to the inferior position women have held in male-dominated societies. Global and feminist since its beginnings, Anglophone women’s writing has, however, flourished in many genres and different locations, encompassing diverse works linked by their struggles against multiple forms of subordination. In this lecture, we will pay attention to the multiple ways in which female authors, trans and non-binary writers in the English-speaking world have offered representations of social struggle and inequality while articulating possibilities for resistance. Focusing on postcolonialist, queer, performative, and intersectional feminist ways of thinking about the representation, we will unearth the long tradition of Anglophone women’s writing.

Course Readings:

A course reader will be made available.

BA/MA/STEX Colloquium

Tue, 16-18

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 April 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 April 16, 2024  at 4 p.m.

Please sign up for the Blockkolloquium via email by March 30, 2023 (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 Tuesday, April 23. Further meetings will be announced in the first session.

Please sign up via LSF. 

Research Colloquium

Tue, 18-20 

This research colloquium offers writers of Ph.D. dissertations a forum for presentations of their work-in-progress. It will start on April 23, 2024.

UE/VL

Foundations of Cultural Studies

Wed 10-12

This course is intended to make students familiar with the various theoretical approaches and practices common to the study of culture. It should introduce students to the intellectual roots and contemporary applications of Cultural Studies, focusing on the theoretical bases for the analyses of meaning and power in the production and reception of texts. While this class will offer various approaches to the study of cultures in the English-speaking world, it should also provide students with an opportunity to do Cultural Studies. In our analyses we will therefore draw on a wide range of cultural material (literature, television, films, and commercials) and explore the ways in which questions of representation are interrelated with issues of identity, in particular racial/ethnic, sexual, class, and regional differences.

Texts:

A course reader will be made available. 

Ringvorlesung Facetten der Vielfalt: Genderforschung und ihre Bedeutung für die Gesellschaft

Mittwoch 18-20h

Ort: Rathaus u. Campus UdS (B 3 2, HS 003)

In Kooperation mit dem Forum Geschlechterforschung der UdS, dem Gleichstellungsbüro der UdS, dem AK Queer der UdS, dem ZelL, der htw, dem Frauenbüro der Stadt Saarbrücken und der FrauenGenderBibliothek Saar

Was ist eigentlich Genderforschung? Womit beschäftigt sie sich? Und aus welchen Gründen ist die Berücksichtigung von Geschlecht sowie anderen Diversitätsfaktoren ein wichtiger Aspekt vieler wissenschaftlicher Disziplinen und warum ist dies für die Gesellschaft wichtig? Inwiefern hängen andere Dimensionen sozialer, ethnischer, kultureller und sexueller Differenzierungsprozesse zusammen? Die interdisziplinäre Ringvorlesung „Facetten der Vielfalt: Genderforschung und ihre Bedeutung für die Gesellschaft“ stellt Fragen, bietet Antworten und will die Bedeutung verschiedener Diversitätsfaktoren in Wissenschaft und Gesellschaft beleuchten und diskutieren. Basierend auf neuesten Erkenntnissen aus der feministischen Theorie, den Gender, Queer und Trans Studies sowie der empirischen Genderforschung geben ausgewählte Expert:innen diverser Forschungsbereiche einen Einblick in rezente Forschungsbereiche und aktuelle Forschungsansätze der Geistes-, Kultur-, Sozial-, Rechts- und Naturwissenschaften.

PS Spellbinding Dissent: Exploring Satan(ism) and Witchcraft as Tools of Feminist Rebellion in U.S. American Literature and Culture

Thursdays, 12-14

U.S. American culture is replete with stories and historical accounts that feature women as practitioners of sorcery and/or accomplices of Satan, oftentimes, with the effect of stabilizing patriarchal order and control by demonizing forms of behavior or expressions of character that would not conform with white, heteronormative, Christian orthodoxy. Studies show, however, that Satan(ism) and Witchcraft have longstanding histories of being appropriated by (proto-)feminists in attempts to rebel precisely against such oppressive orthodoxy. 

In this seminar, therefore, we will turn our attention to a selection of works of U.S. literature and (pop-)culture that “[renegotiate] a sinister figure of Christian mythology, Satan, […] into something positive (specifically with feminist connotations)” (Faxneld 2017, 4). Retracing and de-mystifying this process of feminist resignification, our readings will include John Updike’s The Witches of Eastwick (1984), but the seminar will be structured in a way that also accommodates students’ interest in earlier or more recent iterations of this construction.

Readings:

Updike, John. The Witches of Eastwick. 

Secondary material will be made available. 

Requirements:

Active participation, including reading/watching and writing assignments, participation in class discussion, a short presentation, and a seminar paper (6000 words). 

PS “It is never just food”: Food in North American Literature

Thursdays 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. 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 Toni Morrison’s novel Tar Baby (1981). According to Allison Carruth, Toni Morrison’s novel presents a “narrative of hunger, consumerism, and environmental exploitation” in a fictional Caribbean setting. Further announcements on readings will be made in due time.

Readings: Please buy the following edition:

Morrison, Toni. Tar Baby. Random House UK, 1997. ISBN 978-0-09-976021-4 Shorter readings will be provided on Moodle.

Course requirements: readings, active participation, presentation of paper project, research paper (10-12 pages)

UE CS II North America "African Diasporic Resistance in the Music of the Americas: On Rastafari, Reparation, and Remembrance”

Blockseminar:
 Friday, May 24: 12-18:30
 Saturday, May 25: 9:30-15:30
 Friday, June 28: 12-18:30
 Saturday, June 29: 9:30-15:30
 All sessions are planned on campus: A 2 2, room 120.1.

Geöffnet für Zertifikat Angewandte Pop-Studien: Pflichtmodul 1: Interdisziplinäre Einführung in die Popkultur 

Course Description

This course seeks to explore the rich tapestry of African diasporic resistance as manifested through the vibrant musical traditions of the Americas and delves into the powerful nexus of history, culture, and music, focusing on the expressions of resistance embedded in rhythms, lyrics, narratives as well as aesthetics. Students will critically engage in a variety of Afro-centric musical genres (i.e. reggae, hip-hop, soul), analysing their evolution and current impact on socio-political (reparation and Black Lives Matter movements in the U.S.), and spiritual movements with a special emphasis on the Rastafari movement as an important source for claiming cultural preservation. 

Key topics include the historical context of the transatlantic slave trade, the enduring legacy of African traditions in the Americas, and the role of music as a tool for resistance and empowerment. The course critically engages with the concept of reparations, exploring how music has been a vehicle for advocating reparative justice and addressing historical injustices faced by African diasporic communities. Through in-depth analyses of iconic musicians, including Bob Marley, Burning Spear, and Nina Simone, students will gain a nuanced understanding of the ways in which music serves as a medium for cultural resilience, identity formation, and remembrance. Class discussions, readings, and multimedia resources will provide students with a comprehensive perspective on the intersections of music, resistance, and diasporic identity.

Readings/ materials: A selection of relevant essays and book excerpts will be made available via MS Teams. The course will include listening comprehensions and music video screenings.

Course requirements: Completion of reading assignments, a short (oral) presentation, and an essay at the end of the term. Regular attendance and active participation in seminar discussions is expected.

HS: “The Theatre of Indigenous Peoples in Canada”

Over the course of the past half-century, theatre has emerged as one of the most prominent artistic forms for representing the experience of Indigenous peoples in Canada. The following course will treat various playwrights and works from this tradition, beginning with The Ecstasy of Rita Joe, a play by the non-Indigenous author George Ryga in 1967. Our concern in discussing several important plays of this tradition will be in observing the development of formal innovations, but also in analysing both the evolution and the continuity of thematic issues of relevance to Indigenous life. Our readings will also be informed by awareness of the changing nature of the place of Indigenous peoples within Canada. Included amongst the topics of interest will be (re-)considerations of the historical experience of Indigenous peoples in Canada, the dramatic treatment of the social and psychological effects of Indigenous and Euro-Canadian contact, the multiple questions regarding the nature of Indigenous identity within Canada and the various forms of response – including artistic – available to Indigenous people to represent their collective experience.

Students are required to read the assigned texts in advance of the relevant classes and to come to discussions prepared to express their own ideas and insights. The approach taken in this course also assumes the importance of this theatrical tradition in both reflecting and enacting changing understandings of indigeneity in Canada.

List of Required Reading (tentative list):

George Ryga, The Ecstasy of Rita Joe (1967)

Tomson Highway, The Rez Sisters (1986)

Ian Ross, farewel (1998)

Daniel David Moses, Brébeuf’s Ghost (2000)

Marie Clements, The Unnatural and Accidental Women (2000)

Drew Haydon Taylor, Dead White Writer on the Floor (2010)

Kevin Loring, Where the Blood Mixes (2009)

N.B.     Course Requirements: Course readings / discussions

                                                    Presentation on a relevant topic of the student’s choice

                                                    Final essay of approximately 15 - 20 pp.

Tentative Schedule: 

Monday July 1            17:00 – 19:00              Introduction

Friday July 5               17:00 – 20:00              George Ryga, The Ecstasy of Rita Joe (1967)

Monday July 8            17:00 – 20:00              Tomson Highway, The Rez Sisters (1986)

Friday July 12             17:00 – 20:00              Ian Ross, farewel (1998)

Monday July 15          17:00 – 20:00              Daniel David Moses, Brébeuf’s Ghost (2000)

Friday July 19             17:00 – 20:00              Marie Clements, The Unnatural and Accidental

Women (2000)

Monday July 22          17:00 – 20:00              Drew Haydon Taylor, Dead White Writer on the 

Floor (2010)

Friday July 26             17:00 – 20:00              Kevin Loring, Where the Blood Mixes (2009)

PS On the Road! Narratives of Mobility and Migration in North American Literatures

Wednesday, 14-16

Mobility and migration are important aspects in North American literatures: from early exploration narratives, over (19^th-century) tales of Westward expansion to current (im)migration stories. This seminar will look at different portrayals of characters on the road or on the move in literary texts. Starting in colonial times with excerpts from exploration narratives, we will move on to narratives of Westward expansion before we discuss C. Pam Zhang’s 2011 novel How Much of These Hills Is Gold. Students will be introduced to selected approaches / methods from critical regionalism and Border Studies to foster the critical engagement with our literary corpus to find out why mobility is so important for Americanness / American society / national identity and how mobility in a physical dimension is interconnected with other factors like social mobility or identity constructions. Our readings will be short stories or excerpts from longer texts plus C. Pam Zhang’s novel How Much of These Hills Is Gold,

Readings:

The shorter primary texts as well as a selection of secondary material will be made available.

You have to buy C. Pam Zhang’s novel: if possible in this edition:
Zhang, C. Pam. How Much of These Hills Is Gold. Penguin, 2021. EAN: 9780525537212.

Requirements:

Active participation, including reading and writing assignments, participation in class discussion, a short presentation and a seminar paper.

Introduction to Cultural Studies I: North America

Thursday, 12-14

This course is intended to provide a foundational understanding of cultural myth(s), production, and analysis. This lecture will primarily focus on the United States but will feature some Canadian history and culture. The first section of the course will be dedicated to a general survey of contemporary political and social issues to prepare students for more in-depth discussions and approaches while inviting students to challenge common stereotypes. The second section will provide an overview of theoretical approaches to North American Cultural Studies with a focus on the historical development of policy, media, race, gender, and class. The course’s historical focus will primarily be centered around understanding how events in the twentieth- and twenty-first century have contributed to present-day American national identity formation. We will explore how popular narratives aim to encompass multiculturalism, while also working to universalize the American experience and what it means to be ”American.” We will discuss issues regarding race, class, gender, sexuality, discrimination, violence, and slavery. It is my intention to create a safe space for all participants to learn and engage with this discourse, as well as understand/respect different perspectives.

Readings/materials: Select essays, chapters, and excerpts will be made available on Moodle. Most readings will be from: Neil Campbell & Alasdair Kean, American Cultural Studies: An Introduction to American Culture. Fourth edition. (Routledge, 2016).
Music, film, social media, and other video footage will also be provided to students via MS Teams and/or Moodle.
Course requirements: readings, regular attendance, final exam (depending on circumstances this could take place online or in person).

Introduction to Media Studies: Love, Death and Robots - Reflections on Technology, AI and Robots in American Media, Culture and Society

Monday, 10-12 

Future technologies from (Sci-fi) movies and TV series—such as touch screens, video calls or VR glasses—have long become an important part of our everyday lives. Media are everywhere around us; we consume, use, mediate and digest media daily. Most of these media are—and have become—digital; books, newspapers, or physical films become relics when they are transferred into the well-connected and omnipresent digital sphere. As media also mirror and influences the society they are produced in, media productions such as movies and series are a fruitful subject within the field of cultural studies. Artificial intelligence(s) and future technologies have interested and fascinated directors and viewers but also influenced developments in computer science and artificial intelligence, which then inspired directors for new media productions.

This course introduces students to the study of media and its interrelations with culture, society, and itself, laying particular emphasis on film studies and gender representations within media on the theoretical level. After an overview on various aspects of media history, media theory, and media analysis, we will reflect on the roles of and interconnections between media, technology, culture, and society as well as their representations in the media, especially in the Netflix anthology series Love, Death and Robots. The sci-fi series will serve as a starting point from which to analyze the mutual influences of media, culture, and society with a focus on technology from various angles. The series not only offers a broad spectrum of themes and future visions but also bears many references to earlier media productions, which will also be considered to retrace changes over time. Although the course focuses on a specific series and genre, the students will be provided with a toolkit to critically analyze media productions in general and from various angles.

We/you will take the closest look on Love, Death and Robots (2019-present), available on Netflix, as well as related productions, depending on their availability on streaming platforms (Netflix, Prime, Disney+) during the summer term. Possible media productions to investigate are e.g.: 

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) 

Total Recall (1990)

The Fifth Element (1997) 

The Matrix franchise (1999-2021)

A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001) 

Minority Report (2002)

I, Robot (2004) 

WALL-E (2008)

Surrogates (2009) 

Total Recall (2012) 

Pacific Rim (2013) 

Detroit: Become Human (2018)

Altered Carbon (2018-2020)

Upload (2020-present)

You will watch some of the films completely, I will use excerpts from others in class. You may, of course, watch all of them! If you have a specific American sci-fi production in mind, which you would like to work on although it is not on this list, no problem. Over the first weeks of the semester, you will have time to explore the corpus and find a media production and topic to work on in your presentation and short paper.

Readings and material: a selection of texts will be provided; the films we will work with are available on Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Disney+ respectively.

Requirements: The introductory part of the course will be accompanied by readings and small writing assignments, students will give a presentation, either in class or as a recording (depending on the number of participants), and write a short paper, which has to be handed in until September 30.

Bemerkung:

Dieser Kurs kann in das Zertifikat “Digitalität. KI. Gesellschaft” eingebracht werden. Sollten Sie an dieser Option interessiert sein, tragen Sie einfach das Zertifikat auf dem Deckblatt ein. Weitere Infos zum Zertifikat finden Sie unter: https://www.uni-saarland.de/studieren/optionalbereich/zertifikate/mensch-gesellschaft-ki.html

Ringvorlesung Facetten der Vielfalt: Genderforschung und ihre Bedeutung für die Gesellschaft

Mittwoch 18-20h

Ort: Rathaus u. Campus UdS (B 3 2, HS 003)

In Kooperation mit dem Forum Geschlechterforschung der UdS, dem Gleichstellungsbüro der UdS, dem AK Queer der UdS, dem ZelL, der htw, dem Frauenbüro der Stadt Saarbrücken und der FrauenGenderBibliothek Saar

Was ist eigentlich Genderforschung? Womit beschäftigt sie sich? Und aus welchen Gründen ist die Berücksichtigung von Geschlecht sowie anderen Diversitätsfaktoren ein wichtiger Aspekt vieler wissenschaftlicher Disziplinen und warum ist dies für die Gesellschaft wichtig? Inwiefern hängen andere Dimensionen sozialer, ethnischer, kultureller und sexueller Differenzierungsprozesse zusammen? Die interdisziplinäre Ringvorlesung „Facetten der Vielfalt: Genderforschung und ihre Bedeutung für die Gesellschaft“ stellt Fragen, bietet Antworten und will die Bedeutung verschiedener Diversitätsfaktoren in Wissenschaft und Gesellschaft beleuchten und diskutieren. Basierend auf neuesten Erkenntnissen aus der feministischen Theorie, den Gender, Queer und Trans Studies sowie der empirischen Genderforschung geben ausgewählte Expert:innen diverser Forschungsbereiche einen Einblick in rezente Forschungsbereiche und aktuelle Forschungsansätze der Geistes-, Kultur-, Sozial-, Rechts- und Naturwissenschaften.