Winter Semester 23/24

Here are the classes taught by staff members of the Chair of English, Postcolonial and Media Studies during the winter semester 2023/24.

Prof. Dr. Mark U Stein
AR Felipe Espinoza Garrido
Rita Maricocchi
Can Çakır
Dorit Neumann
yashka Chavan

Prof. Dr. Mark U Stein

Global literature in English
094750 | Lecture | Thu 12-14

Writing the World: Global Literature
094844 | Seminar | Wed 10-12

Contemporary Australian Transmedia Cultures
(co-teaching with yashka Chavan)
094858 | Seminar | Wed 14-16

Postgraduate Class I (Literary Studies)
094855 | Colloquium | Tue 14-16 (s.t.)

PTTS Colloquium
094871 | Colloquium | Tue 10-12

AR Felipe Espinoza Garrido

Nation, Nationalism, Transnationalism: Historical and Theoretical Foundations
094851 | Seminar | Tue 12-14 & Fri 10-12

This MA level seminar offers a transdisciplinary take on the study of nationhood, nationalism, and transnationalism and engages with various conceptualizations of these notions in both the humanities and the social sciences. Using Benedict Anderson’s influential idea of Imagined Communities as one of its departure points, the course takes seriously the idea of the social constructedness of the nation and tries to situate nations in their historical and geopolitical contexts. It questions how the nation came to be considered as culturally given and why it is regarded as the most potent unit of political organization and expressing sovereignty. In keeping in tune with this interrogation of how the idea of the nation and nationalism came to be, the seminar also engages with countervailing trends (such as transnationalism, globalization, and cosmopolitanism) which undercut the resilience of nationalism. The course also explores how related notions of gender, race, class, citizenship, imperialism, decolonization, and migration feature in the (de)construction and reproduction of nations. The main course aims include:

Placing contemporary theoretical debates into a wider historical context and considering earlier theorizations and discussions on the ‘origins’ of nations
Providing an overview of key theoretical approaches to nationalism and considering some of the main criticisms levelled against them in a comparative perspective
Considering how alternative forms of knowledge including ideas of decolonization challenge dominant Euro-American conceptualizations of nationhood and nationalism

Examining the ways in which cultural products such as novels, art, music, media, film, language, etc participate in both entrenching and undermining the idea of the nation, as well as transcending it. Students are particularly encouraged to engage with diverse forms of cultural artifacts such as fashion, gaming, sport, celebrity, media, TV to understand ideas of nation, nationalism and transnationalism.

Course readings will be made available in a course folder on Learnweb. A separate introductory reading list for independent study will also be made available. This is a reading-intensive course and students are encouraged to complete all their readings in readiness for class discussions. To pass this course, students will be expected to complete and pass a final exam.

Rita Maricocchi

Reading Postcolonially
094756 | Seminar | Tue 16-18

Indigenous Australian Literature: An Introduction
094840 | Blockseminar | 12.10.2023 12-14 & 06.02-08.02.2024 10-18

Recently, Wiradjuri scholar Jeanine Leane has drawn attention to the fact that in the Australian context largely white settler critics and academics decide “what is and isn’t Western literature” (27) and that Indigenous writing is still treated as Australian literature’s ‘poor relation’. It is, hence, the objective of this course to read texts by Indigenous Australian authors which use the English language to expand and resist these colonial and imaginative limits. This course is designed to give students an overview of contemporary Indigenous Australian writing and to introduce them to recent tensions and issues in Indigenous Studies in general. Primary materials will include: novels, poetry, film and artwork.

Please note that this course is designed as a Blockseminar. It has a separate session at the start of term followed by three full day sessions for intense discussions and group work in the first week after the end of term. There will be sufficient breaks scheduled during the latter.

The full list of primary material will be announced on HIS/LSF over the course of the summer. Please note, this is a reading intensive course. Students should be willing to engage with the aforementioned different text forms. They should be ready to approach the texts with curiosity and open-mindedness in order to challenge and rethink their own assumptions, and to engage with each other in a shared process of learning. Students are asked to complete the weekly readings and participate actively in in-class discussions.