Summer Term 2011

LECTURE

Studying TAS: A Guided Tour of Areas, Themes, and Texts

Wednesday, 12:00 - 14:00

Room: B 3.2 HS 003

This lecture series will be dealing with the main tenets of Transcultural Anglophone Studies. By focussing on cultural practices in those wide-spread regions of the Anglophone world previously subjected to British rule and their diaspora/s, the distinct features of transcultural processes will be established with reference to their reflection in texts both literary and popular, both in script and visual form. In addressing these features, we will be involved in the larger project of gaining (trans-)cultural competence while acquiring analytic skills directed towards the collocation, investigation, and eventual categorization of cultural paradigms.

 

TEXTS to be read before the first course session:

  • Ezekiel Mphahlele, Down Second Avenue (1959).
  • Jean Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea (1969).

 

Participation

Regular attendance of all sessions; thorough acquaintance with the texts listed above before the course begins; end of term written test. Please check the TAS website under Your Studies for guidelines, also for note-taking during a lecture series.

Please contact Prof. Ghosh-Schellhorn for further details.

 

HAUPTSEMINAR

Intertextuality and Intermediality: Shakespeare's The Tempest in Transcultural Perspective

Das HS findet regulär in Form von jeweils 2 Doppelsitzungen am Freitagnachmittag und Samstagvormittag statt. Co-Dozent ist Farrukh Dhondy, London/Mumbai.

Beginn: Fr., 17. Juni

Fr. von 15:00 - 19:00 und Sa. von 10:00 - 14:00

  • 17.6. + 18.6.
  • 1.7. + 2.7.
  • 8.7. + 9.7.
  • 15.7. + 16.7.

Ende: Sa. 16. Juli

Room: C 5.3 1.20



Tutorium: Larissa Klein

Das Tutorium findet an den Blockterminen

  • 17.6. + 18.6.
  • 1.7. + 2.7.
  • 8.7. + 9.7.
  • 15.7. + 16.7.

jeweils von 14 - 15 Uhr in Geb. C5 3, Raum 1.20 statt.

 

Not only were Shakespeare's plays regarded as singularly ideal models by the curriculum-makers first in British India (and later in the other Anglophone colonies), even in post-colonial times, awareness of their unique significance has not much abated. Of the plays canonised in the former colonies, The Tempest (1611/12) is the one most commonly read as being an allegory of the colonial venture as such.

This seminar therefore engages in a close reading first of Shakespeare's last play in order to then turn to adaptations of the play in Anglophone (con-)texts; of these latter-day inter-textual/medial engagements with The Tempest, the main focus will be on Dhondy's Miranda (2010 – available as part of the seminar materials for download).

We will be seeking answers to questions like the following: What has survived and why in contemporary re-workings of The Tempest? A workshop on "Shakespeareadaptations on Stage" will form part of the seminar and will take place on the final day.

 

TEXT:

William Shakespeare, The Tempest (1611/12). The latest Arden edition.

 

Participation

 

Regular attendance of all the seminar sessions as well as the mandatory tutorial; thorough acquaintance with the text listed above before the seminar commences; individual research on a relevant topic of your choice for short oral presentations / group work, followed by a term paper (15-20 pages in MLA format). Please check the TAS website under Your Studies for further details about the presentation and essay writing modalities.

 

N.B. Please urgently contact Prof. Ghosh-Schellhornfor scheduling oral presentations / group work and any further details.

 

HAUPTSEMINAR

Reading Transcultural Film: My Name is Khan

Thursday, 14:00 - 16:00

Room: C 5.2 1.28

 

How to read a film as a cultural text in its own right? And what is Bombay cinema? In engaging with these two focal points, this seminar will be looking (rather) closely at the first Bombay film to have been made in cooperation with Hollywood producers, My Name is Khan(2010). The cause of political controversy in India, the film was first released at the 2010 Berlinale, before it went on to become one of the most popular box-office hits in the Indian diaspora, both the USA and the UK, while attaining similar success at home. Is Bombay cinema perhaps changing? Or is there a new climate for films that address transculturality?

 

TEXTS: Karan Jorhar, dir. My Name is Khan[film] (2010).

 

Participation

 

Regular attendance of all the seminar sessions; thorough acquaintance with the film listed above; individual research on a relevant topic of your choice for a short oral presentation, followed by a term paper (15-20 pages in MLA format). Please check the TAS website under Your Studies for further details about presentation and essay writing modalities.

 

KOLLOQUIUM

Studying TAS: The Final Phase

Wednesday, 16:00 - 18:00 s.t.

Room: CIP Pool der Phil. Fak., C 5.4 1.10

 

All students intending to include TAS in any part of their final examinations (written or oral) or write their BA/MA thesis in TAS are urgently advised to attend this colloquium.

It provides a forum for the treatment of issues relevant to

  • academic work-in-progress, including the opportunity to participate in 'mock exams', to present BA and MA thesis-in-progress

and to

  • participation in further research, such as the application of TAS theories to selected texts, and ongoing analysis of contemporary critical issues in this field of study.

 

Please contact Prof. Ghosh-Schellhornfor further details.

 

PROSEMINAR

Reportage: Documentary Aesthetics in Literature and Visual Media

with Dr. Soenke Zehle

Wednesday, 10:00 - 12:00

Room: CIP Pool der Phil. Fak., C 5.4 1.09

 

Much more than a film genre, documentary practices range from literary
journalism to graphic novels, from photo essays to serious games. We
will critically engage and compare a range of (experimental)
approaches to the treatment of actuality and investigate possible
reasons for the current renaissance of documentary practices in
literature and visual culture. Aimed at students with a general
interest in the traditions of (literary/online) journalism,
international news media, and the question of how much poetic licence
authors/reporters have when they create representations of the world
we live in.

To successfully complete the course you need to participate in the
symposium 'Graphic Novel - Narration between Literature and the Moving
Image' (see graphicnovel.xmlab.org for more information). The
symposium will count as a 'Blockveranstaltung'.

Additional requirements: final exam, term paper.

 

PROSEMINAR

Culture Studies: The Caribbean

with Dr. Saskia Schabio

Monday, 10:00 - 12:00

Room: C 5.3 4.08

 

The Caribbean has always enticed the Western imagination, from the tradition of the Paradise islands to carnival, calypso and reggae, while the news portray Caribbean reality mostly as a series of political and natural catastrophes.

 

Writers from this area have always challenged such representations and developed innovative aesthetic strategies to address the distinct histories and cultures of the Caribbean. This course offers exemplary readings in the histories of anglophone Caribbean islands such as Trinidad and Jamaica. Through the lens of literature, we will explore topics such as as anti-colonial resistance, nationalism, the search for a pan-Caribbean identity as well as the politics behind  influential lines of postcolonial inquiry.

 

A detailed schedule will be made available in March.

 

Please read in advance:

  • Sam Selvon, Moses Migrating (ISBN-10: 0894108727)
  • Earl Lovelace, The Dragon Can’t Dance (ISBN-10: 057119317X)

 

Requirements include an oral presentation and a term paper.

 

Please register through LSF.

 

If you have any questions, please contact Dr. Saskia Schabio.