Current Courses
Courses - Winter Term 2019/20
Prof. Dr. Cecile Sandten
Content:
This lecture course provides an overview of literary history in Great Britain. It covers literary movements such as Romanticism, Victorianism, Edwardianism, Modernism, Postmodernism, and Postcolonialism. The lecture course will focus on selected texts that represent each historical period and the literary movement associated with it. In addition, the course will introduce students to the governing principles of English literature that shaped its literary heritage and history.
Objectives:
Prior to introducing the key figures of the literary movements, each period will be situated in its historical and cultural contexts. As such, the lectures will move beyond mere factual introductions in order to both contextualise and characterise the socio-political predicaments of the respective literary figures and genres.
Prerequisites:
None
Requirements for credits/Type of Module Exam:
Apart from active participation, regular attendance is strongly recommended. For the successful completion of this course there will be one written assignment due in January 2020: PL Modul 2.3 and PVL Modul 2.4. For the LAGS-students the requirement is either a 6-page term paper (processing time: 3 weeks) or the preparation of a transcript of 3 lectures.
Registration:
There will be a list at the door of my office (Rh 39, room 214). Please register there.
Recommended Reading:
Poplawski, Paul (ed.) (2007): English Literature in Contexts. Cambridge: Cambridge UP.
In addition, a reader with seminal material will be provided at the beginning of the semester.
Content:
The Good Friday Agreement of 1998 and the destruction of IRA weapons in Summer 2005 raised hopes that the Northern Ireland conflict passed into history, even though cross-communal violence has kept flaring up at regular intervals. The latest Brexit discussions, however, are threatening to interrupt the 20-year peace process in Northern Ireland severely.This seminar will focus on Northern Ireland during the time of the 'Troubles', between the late 1960s and the mid 1990s. Students will first look at the historical background to the conflict, and at the developments after 1998.
Objectives:
Apart from taking into account the changing political system of Northern Ireland, learning about the paramilitaries and terrorism, cultural and religious divisions and diverging national aspirations, students will particularly study the literary responses to the conflict. In order to get a scholarly insight into the variety of literary reactions to the 'Troubles', students will read Bernard MacLaverty's novel Cal (also filmed in 1984), Deirdre Madden's novel One by One in the Darkness(1996), Robert Macliam Wilson's novel Eureka Street(1999), and Siobhan Dowd's novel Bog Child(2008). In addition to the novels, and also to broaden students' engagement in other literary genres, poetry, music, and the study two films, namely A Prayer For The Dying(1987) by Mike Hodges and The Crying Game(1992) by Neil Jordan, will be on the agenda.
Prerequisites:
In order to participate, students of Anglistik/Amerikanistik need to have completed the lecture course “Introduction to the Study of Literatures in English” successfully (this does not apply to visiting students).
Requirements for credits:
Close readings of primary, historical, theoretical, as well as secondary texts, discussions and oral presentations as part of the allocation of the Credit Points. Each student will give an oral presentation (approx. 15 minutes), write a response paper or prepare questions for discussion (PVL), and write a substantial seminar paper (12-15 pages) (PL).
Set Texts:
Siobhan Dowd. Bog Child. Oxford: David Fickling Books, 2008.
MacLaverty, Bernard, Cal (1983). London: W. W. Norton & Company, 1995.
Madden, Deirdre, One by One in the Darkness(1996). London: Faber & Faber, 2003.
Mulholland, Marc. Northern Ireland: A Very Short History. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2002.
Robert McLiam Wilson, Eureka Street. London: Ballantine Books, 1999.
Anna Burns. Milkman. London Faber, 2018.
In addition, a reader will be provided at the beginning of the semester.
Registration:
There will be a list at the door of my office (Rh 39, room 214). Please register there.
Content:
Over the decades before, during and after Independence, Indian English literature has seen many important literary figures that have prominently contributed to the growth of writing in English in India. However, over the past few decades, women have added significantly to public life and literature by interrogating and exploring their own lives and that of other women in their writings. Women in India had for a long time been denied access to education, equal rights, the right to work and the freedom to make choices. Much of women’s writing, therefore, is primarily a critique of the social injustice in a patriarchal society. In spite of this, Indian English literature by women nevertheless deals with multiple issues concerning women, self and society.
Objectives:
Concentrating on the literature written by women, students of this seminar will be introduced to a selection of texts by the most prominent Indian English women writers, e.g. Anita Desai, Shashi Deshpande, or Arundhati Roy. By focussing on women’s roles in an Indian patriarchal society, three novels, a selection of short stories and poems will be read in the framework of Indian feminist literary criticism. This will be done in particular with reference to the notion of the “New Indian Woman” and the idea of the “threshold” (Malashri Lal) – a real, as well as symbolic, bar placed on women by patriarchy. These approaches will help students to be able to examine multiple experiences of women in Indian English writing, the politics of power and exclusion, as well as the conceptions of home and self.
Prerequisites:
Masters students need to have successfully completed their BA in English.
Requirements for credits:
Regular attendance as well as reading and preparing the set texts for discussions in class is required and part of the allocation of the Credit Points. The format of this seminar will consist of oral presentations, group work, and discussions. Each student will present an oral report (approx. 20 minutes), chair a session or prepare questions for a discussion (PVL). For the successful completion of the course students are required to take an oral exam (PL).
Set Texts:
Desai, Anita. Cry, the Peacock. Orient Paperbacks: New Delhi, 1993 [1963].
Deshpande, Shashi. The Dark Holds No Terrors. New Delhi: Penguin, 1980.
Roy, Arundhati. The God of Small Things. London: Flamingo, 1997.
In addition, a reader will be provided at the beginning of the semester.
Registration:
There will be a list at the door of my office (Rh 39, room 214). Please register there.
Content:
The Examenskolloquium/Research Colloquium is open to students who are preparing for their final oral and written exams. It is intended to give students a platform to present their projects and to raise questions and/or difficulties they may be facing at an early stage of their research. Further, students are encouraged to engage in critical discussions, and gain feedback from their peers concerning their research projects. We will also discuss a wide range of general topics and individual topics required for final exams.
Requirements for credits:
The format of this seminar consists of a close reading of texts, discussions and thesis presentations (abstract, outline, or single chapters). Each student will present an oral report (approx. 15 minutes), chair a session or prepare questions for a discussion (PVL).
Set Texts/Required Reading:
A reader with seminal material will be provided at the beginning of the semester.
Registration:
There will be a list at the door of my office (RH39/214). Please register there.
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Meetings will be arranged in due course.
Content: This course aims to provide support for post-graduate students who are developing their dissertation ideas and first draft outlines. The focus of this seminar will be on research in English Literature (including close readings of secondary theoretical texts and primary texts, but also the students’ own written work). Post-graduate candidates who engage in interdisciplinary approaches and topics beyond English Literature are most welcome to participate to enhance the group’s interdisciplinary awareness.
Objectives: This seminar will also offer special supervision through individual counseling. Moreover, the seminar will support doctoral and post-doctoral candidates on a professional level, especially with regard to topics such as scholarly writing for publication, pedagogic issues of teaching at university level, as well as information on how to apply for positions in the job market. In addition, support to present their work at (international) conferences will be given, as well as information on careers and funding support for scholarship applications and opportunities for gaining key supplementary qualifications (in cooperation with the Forschungsakademie TUC).
Prerequisites:Participants must have completed a Magister, Master or Doctoral thesis graded at least 2.0.
Dr. Eike Kronshage
Content:
Shakespeare, however central to the canon of early modern drama, was not the only playwright of his day, not even, in many regards, the most successful. He was part of a vibrant literary market that bustled with creative energy. The seminar traces that energy by reading four plays that either precede Shakespeare’s (Kyd, Marlowe), are simultaneous to them (Middleton, Rowley), or were written at the end of the Bard’s active career (Webster).
A second focus will be on the concept of collaboration, as Shakespeare collaborated with many of the playwrights mentioned here (with Middleton on Macbethand Timon of Athens, with Marlowe on the Henry VI-plays).
Finally, the generic focus of the seminar will be on the so-called revenge tragedy, which started Shakespeare’s career as a playwright (Titus Andronicus). We will be analyzing how the genre developed beyond Shakespeare to get a fuller picture of early modern drama; a picture, in which Shakespeare is but one actor on the literary market.
Objectives:
We have three sessions per play: Discussion of each play will contain a close reading (session 1), scholarly criticism (session 2), and a stage performance/film production (session 3). Thus, students will practice analysis of dramatic texts on both page and stage. Cultural studies concepts like intersectional discrimination with its focus on race, class, gender, and religion, will serve as an entrance point for analyzing literary texts. Students may therefore expect a seminar that equally values theoretical and methodological approaches from literary and cultural studies. Also, students will become acquainted with the then immensely popular genre of the revenge tragedy.
Prerequisites:
I expect students to be acquainted with the analysis of dramatic texts and performances. If you wish to refresh your knowledge, I recommend Manfred Pfister’s Theory and Analysis of Drama(CUP 1991) / Das Drama: Theorie und Analyse(Fink, 2001).
Requirements for credit:
Regular attendance as well as reading and preparing the set texts for discussions is required and part of the Credit Points allocation.
PVL: Oral presentation or alternative forms of assessment (details in class). (PVL: MA_1, MA_3)
PL: A substantial seminar paper (15-18 pages; MA_1) or an oral exam (15 minutes; MA_3).
Set Texts/Required Reading:
These editions only. I repeat, these editions only. And, just to make sure that all students use these editions only, let me say it once more: These editions only (use ISBN numbers to get the correct editions!).
- Thomas Kyd, The Spanish Tragedy(Arden Early Modern Drama) [ISBN: 978-1904271604]
- Christopher Marlowe, Doctor Faustus(Oxford World’s Classics) [ISBN: 978-0199537068]
- Thomas Middleton and William Rowley, The Changeling(Revels Student Editions) [ISBN: 978-0719044816]
- John Webster, The Duchess of Malfi(Arden Early Modern Drama) [ISBN: 978-1904271512]
And don’t forget: No other editions allowed(I am really serious about this), because we will be working with the critical apparatus provided by these editions.
We will be reading the plays in this order.
Registration:
By e-mail: eike.kronshage@phil.tu-chemnitz.de. Required information: Name, semester, student ID, and status (e.g. ERASMUS, AA student, EEE student etc).
Content:
Shakespeare’s plays negotiate questions of Otherness, of selfhood, of identity construction, of exclusion and inclusion. The seminar will investigate these issues by discussing the Other in terms of race (Othello), class (2 Henry VI), gender (Taming of the Shrew), and religion (King John). It thus provides a good overview of Shakespeare’s work by reading a comedy, a tragedy, and two history plays. Therefore, Shakespeare experts are just as welcome as students who hitherto had no or little contact with the Bard’s dramatic work.
Objectives:
We have three sessions per play: Discussion of each play will contain a close reading (session 1), scholarly criticism (session 2), and a stage performance/film production (session 3). Thus, students will practice analysis of dramatic texts on both page and stage. Cultural studies concepts like intersectional discrimination with its focus on race, class, gender, and religion, will serve as an entrance point for analyzing literary texts. Students may therefore expect a seminar that equally values theoretical and methodological approaches from literary and cultural studies.
Prerequisite:
I expect students to be acquainted with the analysis of dramatic texts and performances. If you wish to refresh your knowledge, I recommend Manfred Pfister’s Theory and Analysis of Drama(CUP 1991) / Das Drama: Theorie und Analyse(Fink, 2001).
Requirements for credit:
Regular attendance as well as reading and preparing the set texts for discussions is required and part of the Credit Points allocation.
PVL: Writing exercise (details in class).
PL: A substantial seminar paper (15-18 pages).
These editions only. I repeat, these editions only. And, just to make sure that all students use these editions only, let me say it once more: These editions only (use ISBN numbers to get the correct editions!).
- Shakespeare, Othello(Arden Shakespeare Third) [ISBN 978-1903436455]
- Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 2(Arden Shakespeare Third) [ISBN 978-1903436639]
- Shakespeare, Taming of the Shrew(Arden Shakespeare Third) [ISBN 978-1903436936]
- Shakespeare, King John(Arden Shakespeare Third) [ISBN 978-1904271390]
And don’t forget: No other editions allowed(I am really serious about this), because we will be working with the critical apparatus provided by these editions.
We will be reading the plays in this order.
Registration:
By e-mail: eike.kronshage@phil.tu-chemnitz.de. Required information: Name, semester, student ID, and status (e.g. ERASMUS, AA student, EEE student etc).
Mandy Beck
Content/Objectives:
Conducting literary studies at university level, this lecture course will provide an accessible introduction to the fundamentals of literary analyses, such as terms, concepts and methods. A number of texts of different genres (i.e. poetry, drama and narrative fiction including examples from the so-called New English Literatures), covering a period from the 17th to 21st century, have been selected. Discussions in class and short assignments will emphasize close reading skills and the development of effective strategies for critical and analytical thinking. Moreover, this lecture will be paying attention to working and research techniques. To that end, you will all be exposed to the essential library and reference tools for serious literary research.
The lecture will be accompanied by a weekly tutorial (details will be announced at the beginning of the course).
Prerequisites:
None
Requirements for credits/Type of module exam:
Apart from regular attendance, active participation will be expected: as this lecture class also is a community, you are all asked to support that community also as part of your credit points. For the successful completion of the course there will be a 90-minute written exam at the end of the semester.
Please note: Instead of the written exam, LAGS students are required to attend at least 10 sessions and write a portfolio in order to complete the course.
Required textbooks:
Ansgar und Vera Nünning (latest edition): Introduction to the Study of English and American Literature. Klett Verlag.
In addition, a reader will be provided at the beginning of the semester.
Registration:
There will be a list at the door of my office (Rh 39, room 213). Please register there.
Content
This seminar turns towards the genre of short fiction and its wide scope that includes short stories, flash fiction, mini-sagas and six-word-stories. It will offer an overview of the beginnings and characteristics of short fiction in the English literary canon, origins and types of short stories, and the development of contemporary flash fiction and mini-sagas. Essential questions in this regard, such as “How short can a story be?” or “What does a story need in order to be a story?” will be discussed in the seminar in relation to different aspects (narrative techniques, literary periods, reader response, creative writing). The consideration of a mixture of texts, styles and forms seeks to illustrate the spectrum of short fiction.
Objectives
Students will become familiar with short fiction and deepen their knowledge about various aspects across different literary periods and countries (UK, Canada, New Zealand, etc.). Furthermore, students will engage in close readings and other methods of literary analysis. On the basis of a close engagement with the texts and lively discussions, students will also be encouraged to write their own texts and become acquainted with techniques of creative writing as an interpretation of and/or reaction to the texts they have read.
Prerequisites
In order to participate, students of Anglistik/Amerikanistik need to have completed the lecture course “Introduction to the Study of Literatures in English” successfully (does not apply to ERASMUS students).
Requirements for Credit
The format of this seminar will consist of close readings, creative writing exercises, discussions and contributions.
For the PVL, each student will do an oral presentation (approx. 15 minutes) or write a response paper (2000 words). For the PL, each student will hand in a collection of stories and write a portfolio that reflects on his/her learning process (total: 4-5 stories, 5-7 pages portfolio).
Set Texts
A reader with all texts for readings in class will be available at the Uni-Copy Dietze, Reichenhainer Str 55.
Registration
There will be a list on the door of my office (Rh 39, room 213). Please register there.