Current American Studies Courses Summer Semester 2013

Current American Studies Courses

Summer Semester 2013

Please also consult the updates of the KVV on the department

homepage.

We are happy to announce an intensive course (Hauptseminar

and Cultural Studies Advanced) to be offered in July by Professor

Nicole Hodges Persley from the University of Kansas. For details

please see the next page.

Theories of Race and Performance

(Hauptseminar / Cultural Studies Advanced)

Prof. Dr. Nicole Hodges Persley

University of Kansas

Course Description:

Theories of Race and Performance is an inter-textual American Studies course that explores interdisciplinary

scholarship on race and performance seeking to translate these theories into practical application in various

visual, audio and performance texts in popular culture. The course is divided into modules aimed at gaining an

understanding of the shifting meaning of race over time and its relationship to ethnicity, gender, sexuality,

nation and power. How do we perform our identities? How is race constructed and maintained through

performance? To begin to answer these core American Studies questions, we will examine the ways in which

racial identities are created through performance.

Course Requirements:

Attendance, preparation, and participation; oral presentation; blog discussion;

research paper (CS Adv: 8-10 pp.; HS: 15-20 pp.).

Credit for: MAS/MEAS/BA/LaGym

Sessions:

Course organization: 22 May 2013, 18-20, ZH 4

Instruction: Tue, 9 July, 10:15-11:45, PT 3.0.80; Thu, 11 July, 10:15-11:45, ZH 6; Fri, 12 July, 10:15-11:45,

VG_2.45; Tue, 16 July, 10:15-11:45, PT 3.0.80; Thu, 18 July, 10:15-13:45, ZH 6; Fri, 19 July, 10:15-11:45,

VG_2.45; Mon, 22 July, 10:00-14:00, ZH 6; Wed, 24 July, 10:00-13:15, ZH 6; Fri, 26 July, 10:00-14:00, ZH 6

Please register for this course via email by 08 May 2013: [email protected]

Nicole Hodges Persley (Ph.D. U of Southern California, Los Angeles; M.A. U of California, Los Angeles; B.A. Spelman College) is an Assistant Professor of Theatre at the University of Kansas. She teaches courses on hip-hop, acting, African American theater, race and performance and improvisation theory. Her research interests include African American drama, performance, and culture, hip-hop, women’s and gender studies, solo performance and transnationalism. Her current book project, Sampling and Remixing Blackness in Hip-hop Theater and Performance, examines the impact of African American expressions of blackness in hip-hop on the artistic practices of non-African American artists in theater, conceptual art and dance in the United States and England. Prof. Hodges Persley is one of the founding program directors of the Hip-hop Archive at Harvard University’s W.E.B. DuBois Institute. An actress and director, she has credits in regional theater, television and film. Her performance and directing work has been featured at the Kansas City Fringe Festival, the California Hip-hop Theater Festival, the Hudson Theater and Highways Performance Space.

This course is part of the recently established exchange program between the American Studies programs at

the University of Kansas and at the University of Regensburg. Prof. Hodges Persley’s seminar is sponsored by

the Bayerisches Staatsministerium für Wissenschaft, Forschung und Kunst as part of the special program for

fostering international networking between Bavarian universities and leading academic institutions abroad. It,

thus, offers students at the University of Regensburg a very special opportunity to participate in newly evolving

programs that position our university within the international scholarly community. Students in our Master’s

programs have already been participating in the exchange program with the University of Kansas, and we feel

proud and privileged to welcome Prof. Hodges Persley as our special guest this summer semester.

Amerikanistik

Vorlesungen

35800 Introduction to American Studies Gessner

Module: AMST-M14.2(1), BRST-M14.2(1), ENGS-M14.w(1), ENGS-M15.w(1), ENGYM-M14.2(1), ENHS-

M14.w(1), ENHS-M16.1(1), ENLI-M14.2(1), ENRS-M14.2(1)

Vorlesung, SWS: 1

Tag Rhyth. von bis Zeit Beginn Ende Gruppe Raum Dozent Bemerkung

Di wöch. 12 13 c.t. H 3 Gessner

The lecture course surveys the academic discipline of American Studies and provides an

overview of materials, resources, issues, areas of study, and theories in the interdisciplinary

field of American Studies. Individual sessions will give introductory accounts of North

American geography, demographic developments and U.S. immigration history, major

issues and coordinates of North American and U.S. history, the political system of the U.S.,

American ideologies and identity constructions, the religious landscape of the U.S.,

multilingualism and language politics in North America. Requirement for credit: final exam.

Course text: Hebel, Udo. Einführung in die Amerikanistik/American Studies. Stuttgart: Metzler, 2008.

35801 American Literary History Balestrini

Module: AMST-M13.3(4), AMST-M13.w(4), AMST-M16.2(4), BRST-M13.3(4), BRST-M13.w(4), ENGS-

M13.2(4), ENGS-M13.w(4), ENGS-M22.2(4), ENGS-M22.w(4), ENGYM-M13.3(4), ENGYM-

M13.w(4), ENGYM-M23.w(4), ENGYM-M32A.1(4), ENHS-M13.2(4), ENHS-M13.w(4), ENHS-

M22.2(4), ENHS-M22.w(4), ENLI-M13.3(4), ENLI-M13.w(4), ENRS-M13.3(4), ENRS-M13.w(4),

ENRS-M22.w(4)

Seminar, SWS: 2


Mi wöch. 10 12 c.t. H 41 Balestrini

Taking recent developments in literary and cultural theory in general and in American

Studies in particular into account, this lecture course will survey the history of American

literature from pre-contact oral traditions to the present. Verbal texts will be discussed

alongside visual images, music, and performances. Among the topics to be covered are

Native American oral literature, texts by early European explorers of the “New World,”

literary self-expression during the colonial era, verbal and visual representations of Indian-

white relations, cultural constructs of American-ness during the American Revolution and

the Early Republic, the growing desire to develop genuinely American art as of the

nineteenth century, the so-called American Renaissance, the conflict between

idealizations of American thought and the artistic movements of Realism and Naturalism,

the innovative force of Modernism (as found in the works of the Lost Generation, of

Imagist poets, and of Harlem Renaissance writers), and artistic experimentation during the

Postmodern era and beyond (including the Beat Generation, responses to the Vietnam

conflict, depictions of suburbia, and the debate about cultural pluralism). In the course of

covering these topics, the lecture course will offer a historicized perspective on the

canonization of previously marginalized artists (such as women and so-called ‘ethnic’

writers) and forms of self-expression. Requirement for credit: final exam. Course text: Nina

Baym et al., eds., The Norton Anthology of American Literature, 8th ed., 5 vols., New York: Norton, 2012.

35802 “Home is where the heart is”:

American love affairs with places called “home” Zehelein

Module: AMS-M32.2(8), AMS-M33.2 / 3(8), AMST-M13.w(4), AMST-M23.3(4), AMST-M32.1(4), BRST-

M13.w(4), EAS-M33.1/2/3(8) , EAS-M34.1/2/3(8) , ENGS-M13.w(4), ENGS-M22.w(4), ENGYM-

M13.w(4), ENGYM-M23.w(4), ENGYM-M32A.1(4), ENHS-M13.w(4), ENHS-M22.w(4), ENLI-

M13.w(4), ENRS-M13.w(4), ENRS-M22.w(4)

Vorlesung, SWS: 2


Do wöch. 10 12 c.t. H22 N.N.

What exactly is a hometown? Why is small town life either desired or despised? Why

do people call places “home” which are not their places of birth or even places

where their families live? How – if at all – have definitions of “home” changed over

time? What is the relevance of “home” for American politics? What role does real

estate play? How strong is nostalgia in the projection of “home”? The lecture will

attempt to answer these and related questions by looking closely at American texts,

paintings, photography and film from colonial times to the 21st century. Texts:

Assigned readings will be posted on our online course platform. Course Requirement:

final exam.

35803 The History of North America V: The Age of Catastrophe, 1914-1945 Depkat

Module: AMS-M32.2(8), AMS-M33.2 / 3(8), AMST-M13.w(4), AMST-M23.3(4), AMST-M32.1(4), BRST-

M13.w(4), EAS-M33.1/2/3(8) , EAS-M34.1/2/3(8) , ENGS-M13.w(4), ENGS-M22.w(4), ENGYM-

M13.w(4), ENGYM-M23.w(4), ENGYM-M32A.1(4), ENHS-M13.w(4), ENHS-M22.w(4), ENLI-

M13.w(4), ENRS-M13.w(4), ENRS-M22.w(4)

Vorlesung, SWS: 2


Di wöch. 10 12 c.t. H 5 Depkat

The concept of a “Short Twentieth Century” lasting from the beginning of the First World

War in 1914 to the end of the Cold War in 1990/91 was developed by the late British

historian Eric Hobsbawm in his pathbreaking book Age of Extremes. It appeared shortly

after the Cold War had ended, and it identified the antagonism between democracy and

communism as the core of the last century’s history. Other historians have expanded

Hobsbawm’s interpretation, and have argued that the antagonism between democracy

and totalitarian anti-democracies was the single most important factor shaping historical

developments between 1914 and 1990/91. This global antagonism affected the history of

the North American continent deeply: It led to the self-destruction of Europe, propelled

the United States’ rise to world power status and brought Canada to full statehood.

However, the century-long global antagonism between democracies and anti-

democracies also structured the developments at home: the rise of American-style

welfare states, the “consumer revolution”, the fierce inner social conflicts structured by

race, gender and class or the emergence of a thoroughly commercialized popular culture

in the whole of North America cannot be understood without taking the global

competition between the systems into consideration. Hobsbawm was thinking in terms of

world history when he wrote his book; over the next three semesters, this lecture will explore

the value of the concept of a “Short Twentieth Century” for understanding the political,

social, economic, and cultural developments in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

The first part will deal with what Hobsbawm and others have called the “Age of

Catastrophe”, i.e. the period from 1914 to 1945 which is structured by two world wars and

the social, economic and cultural crisis of the “Great Depression.” The approach taken will

be thoroughly continental, looking at the developments in the U.S., Canada and – in parts

– Mexico. Requirements: regular attendance, midterm essay (take-home exam), final

exam. Readings: Eric Hobsbawm, Age of Extremes. The Short Twentieth Century (London 1994). Meiron and

Susie Harries, The Last Days of Innocence. America at War, 1917-1918 (New York 1997). David M. Kennedy,

Over Here. The First World War and American Society (New York 1980). David M. Kennedy, Freedom from Fear.

The American People in Depression and War, 1929-1945 (New York 1999). Volker Depkat, Geschichte

Nordamerikas. Eine Einführung (Köln 2008). Walter LaFeber, Richard Polenberg, and Nancy Woloch, The

American Century: A History of the United States since the 1890s (5th ed., Boston 1998). Margaret Conrad and

Alvin Finkel, History of the Canadian Peoples: Volume II: 1867 to the Present (3rd ed., Toronto 2002). J.M.

Bumsted, The Peoples of Canada: A Post-Confederation History (2nd ed., Oxford 2004).

Einführungskurse American Studies

35810 American Cultural History Cavanna, Fackler, Szlezák, Uppendahl

Module: AMST-M14.4(4), BRST-M14.4(4), ENGS-M14.2(4), ENGS-M15.w(4), ENGYM-M14.4(4), ENHS-

M14.2(4), ENHS-M16.2(4), ENLI-M14.4(4), ENRS-M14.4(4)

Seminar, SWS: 3, Max. Teilnehmer: 20


Di wöch. 14 16 c.t. Gruppe 1 ZH 5 Cavanna

Do wöch. 14 15 c.t. Gruppe 1 PT 2.0.3A Cavanna

Di wöch. 14 16 c.t. Gruppe 2 ZH 4 Uppendahl

Fr wöch. 12 13 c.t. Gruppe 2 PT 3.0.77* Uppendahl

Di wöch. 16 18 c.t. Gruppe 3 ZH 6 Cavanna

Do wöch. 15 16 c.t. Gruppe 3 PT 2.0.3A Cavanna

Di wöch. 16 18 c.t. Gruppe 4 CH 33.1.91 Uppendahl

Fr wöch. 13 14 c.t. Gruppe 4 PT 3.0.77* Uppendahl

Di wöch. 18 20 c.t. Gruppe 5 PT 2.0.3A Fackler

Do wöch. 10 11 c.t. Gruppe 5 PT 1.0.2 Fackler

- n. V. c.t. Gruppe 6 s. Aushang Szlezák Blockkurs im

Aug./Sep.

The course focuses on textual, visual, and audiovisual materials that are central to a

critical understanding of North American cultural, social, and political history from the

earliest European encounters with the ‘New World’ to contemporary interpretations of

what ‘America’ might mean for different groups inside and outside of the U.S. We will

cover a broad range of cultural and historical issues including ideological interpretations

of American landscapes and spaces, attitudes toward demographic developments and

immigration, controversies about the U.S.-American political-economic system and foreign

policy, the plurality of the American religious landscape, and multilingualism and the

diversity of cultural traditions in North America. The course is to familiarize students with

materials, areas of study, and theoretical approaches in the interdisciplinary field of

American Studies and their significance for the study of American cultural history.

Requirements: in-class participation, final exam for participants of all sections of this class

on Thursday, 25 July 2013, 9-12. — Course materials: Course Reader (available at local copy shop);

Hebel, Udo. Einführung in die Amerikanistik/American Studies. Stuttgart: Metzler, 2008. — Recommended history

textbooks: Depkat, Volker. Geschichte Nordamerikas: Eine Einführung. Köln: Böhlau, 2008. Boyer, Paul S., et al.

The Enduring Vision: A History of the American People. 7th ed. Boston: Wadsworth, 2011.

Einführungskurse Literaturwissenschaft

35755 Introduction to English and American Literary Studies Balestrini, Weß

Module: AMST-M13.1(4), AMST-M16.1(4), BRST-M13.1(4), BRST-M16.1(4), ENGS-M13.1(4), ENGYM-

M13.1(4), ENHS-M13.1(4), ENLI-M13.1(4), ENRS-M13.1(4)



Mi wöch. 13 16 c.t. Gruppe 4 ZH 4 Weß

Fr wöch. 8:30 11 c.t. Gruppe 6 ZH 5 Balestrini

Block s. LSF c.t. 11.3. 25.3. 35755 ws ZH 5 Leikam gehört noch zum

Wintersemester

The course will familiarize students with fundamental knowledge and skills necessary for the

study of English and American literatures. Participants will be introduced to critical

concepts such as “literature,” “culture,” and “text.” Influential theoretical approaches,

critical methods, and the basics and problems of literary history, canonization, and

periodization will be discussed. By covering representative examples of all major literary

forms, we will explore a broad variety of literary representations and apply important

technical terms and concepts to the analysis of specific texts. Practical problems of

research and writing (e.g., how to find and quote secondary literature) will also be

addressed. Tutors will help students with course work and assignments. All sections of this

“Introduction to English and American Literary Studies” offered by the Institut für Anglistik

und Amerikanistik will follow a shared syllabus and will conclude with a written exam on

Tuesday, 23 July 2013, 9-12. – Required textbooks: Michael Meyer. English and American Literatures.

4th rev. ed. Tübingen: Francke, 2011; Peter Barry, Beginning Theory: An Introduction to Literary and Cultural

Theory, 3rd ed., Manchester: Manchester UP, 2009. Further course materials, mandatory readings,

and course requirements will be announced in the first meetings [siehe Parallelangebot

der Anglistik!]

Proseminare

35820 American Literature I: From the Beginnings Through the 19th Century Fackler,

Szlezák

Module: AMST-M16.3(4), AMST-M22.1(4), AMST-M22.2(4), BRST-M22.2(4), ENGS-M22.w(4), ENGYM-

M23.2(4), ENHS-M22.w(4), ENLI-M13.w(4), ENRS-M22.w(4)

Proseminar, SWS: 2, Max. Teilnehmer: 20


Di wöch. 12 14 c.t. Gruppe 1 ZH 5 Fackler

Do wöch. 18 20 c.t. Gruppe 2 ZH 5 Szlezák

This course explores American literature from early written accounts of the “New World”

through late-nineteenth-century realist writings. It is designed to help students develop

their competence and skills as readers and interpreters of literary texts, which will be

studied in their respective historical and cultural contexts. The course will first focus on early

exploration narratives and selected texts from colonial America (such as a captivity

narrative and early American poetry). We will then turn to a sample of nineteenth-century

short fiction (e.g., Washington Irving, Henry James, Charlotte Perkins Gilman), a slave

narrative by Frederick Douglass, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s romance The Scarlet Letter,

selected poems by Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson. Course requirements include in-

class participation, an oral presentation, reading quizzes, annotated bibliography, and an

8- to 10-page research paper in English. — Required Texts: Nina Baym et al., eds., The Norton

Anthology of American Literature, 8th ed., vols. A, B, and C, 2012.

35825 American Literature II: The 20th and 21st Centuries Balestrini, Bauridl, Leikam

Module: AMST-M13.3(4), AMST-M16.2(4), AMST-M22.1(4), AMST-M22.2(4), BRST-M13.3(4), ENGS-

M13.2(4), ENGS-M22.2(4), ENGYM-M13.3(4), ENGYM-M23.2(4), ENHS-M13.2(4), ENHS-

M22.2(4), ENLI-M13.3(4), ENRS-M13.3(4)



Mi wöch. 16 18 c.t. Gruppe 1 ZH 6 Bauridl

Do wöch. 8:30 10 c.t. Gruppe 2 ZH 6 Balestrini

Do wöch. 14 16 c.t. Gruppe 3 PT 1.0.2 Leikam

Do wöch. 9 15 c.t. 7.3. 15.3. 35825 ws R 009 Szlezák gehört noch zum

Wintersemester

This course explores representative 20th- and 21st-century American fiction (e.g., by F.

Scott Fitzgerald, Art Spiegelman, and Toni Morrison), autobiographies, poems (e.g., by T. S.

Eliot), and plays (e.g., by Eugene O’Neill and Donald Margulies). We will situate the texts in

their cultural and historical contexts, and explore literary movements and concepts such

as realism, naturalism, expressionism, modernism, postmodernism, feminism, and the

cultural borderlands. The course deepens students’ knowledge and skills with regard to

American literature and American literary history, cultural and literary terms and concepts,

the interpretation of literary texts, and scholarly writing. Requirements include in-class

participation, an oral presentation, reading quizzes, annotated bibliography, and an 8- to

10-page research paper in English. All books will be available at Pustet’s. — Required Texts: F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby. Eugene O’Neill, The Emperor Jones. Donald Margulies, Dinner with

Friends. Nina Baym et al., eds., The Norton Anthology of American Literature, 8th ed., vols. C, D, E, 2012.

35831 Motherhood Zehelein

Module: AMST-M22.1(4), AMST-M22.2(4), AMST-M23.2(4), BRST-M13.w(4), ENGS-M13.w(4), ENGS-

M22.w(4), ENGYM-M13.w(4), ENGYM-M23.w(4), ENHS-M13.w(4), ENHS-M22.w(4), ENLI-

M13.w(4), ENRS-M13.w(4), ENRS-M22.w(4)



Mi wöch. 10 12 c.t. ZH 6 N.N.

From Ann Bradstreet to Ayelet Waldman women have always questioned,

(re)defined, and defended their views on and practices of motherhood vis à vis

cultural master discourses, traditions, and (male/gender) expectations. Covering a

wide range of texts from the early Puritans to today and looking at various genres

and forms of cultural practice (poetry, short story, novel, autobiography, painting

and photography, film, TV series), we will examine changing conceptions of

motherhood. Course requirements: Active participation, homework assignments, and

a term paper of 10 pages. Texts: Lionel Shriver, We Need to Talk about Kevin. All other

texts will be collected in a reader.

35832 Political Institutions of the USA Cavanna

Module: AMST-M16.w(4), AMST-M23.1(4), BRST-M14.w(4), ENGS-M14.w(4), ENGS-M22.w(4), ENGYM-

M14.w(4), ENGYM-M23.w(4), ENHS-M22.w(4), ENLI-M14.w(4), ENRS-M14.w(4), ENRS-M22.w(4)



Di wöch. 8:30 10 c.t. ZH 6 Cavanna

This course investigates U.S. American political institutions. After outlining major theoretical

approaches and debates found in contemporary scholarship, we will investigate not onl

the three branches of the national government – the Congress, the Presidency, and

the Supreme Court – but also the complex, ever-changing shift in power between the

federal and state governments. Topics will include the development of representative

government and individual rights from the early colonial charters and compacts to the

Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and later constitutional amendments. Is the United States a

national community or a community of communities? Is it one government or 51

governments? How, despite promises of liberty and equality in the Declaration of

Independence and Constitution, could slavery have continued for more than 80 years?

Why were a majority of Americans still denied the elective franchise at the beginning of

the 20th century? How can the death penalty be an issue left up to individual states?

Selected case studies will allow us to look in depth at major debates ranging from

ratification and interpretation of the Constitution, to states’ rights, presidential and

congressional power, and civil liberties. In each of these cases, we will explore some of the

many tensions, assumptions, and contradictions (apparent and real) found in America’s

complex history and culture. Materials will include historical documents and scholarly

essays, articles from newspapers and magazines, as well as visual aids. — All students will

be required to give an oral presentation and to actively participate in class. Those who

wish to receive credit will also be asked to submit an eight- to ten-page research paper. —

Principal texts (available in the library): O’Connor, Karen, and Larry J. Sabato. American Government:

Roots and Reform. 10th ed. New York: Longman, 2009; Hall, Kermit L., ed., Major Problems in American

Constitutional History: Documents and Essays. 2 vols. Lexington, Mass.: Heath, 1992. — Credit for BA;

Lehramt students are advised to take the course (credit for Wahlbereich possible).

Cultural Studies Advanced

Please also see the announcement of Prof. Hodges Persley’s class on p. 2 of

this document!

35834 American Feelings Gessner

Module: AMS-M32.3(8), AMS-M33.2/3(8), AMST-M23.w(5), AMST-M32.2(5), EAS-M33.1/2/3(8), EAS-

M34.1/2/3(8), EAS-M31.3/4(8), ENGS-M22.w(5), ENGYM-M23.w(5), ENGYM-M32A.2(5), ENHS-

M22.w(5), ENRS-M22.w(5)



Di wöch. 8:30 10 s.t. PT 2.0.3A Gessner

This class will focus on the production, visualization, and public performance of

feelings in America. The representation of public emotions will be examined in its

historical dimension, and in forms recently mobilized and manipulated in the field of

politics and political elections (the Tea Party Movement, the 2012 Campaign),

immigration, reproductive rights, or the war on terror. Whether emphasizing specific

feelings (e.g. happiness, anger, loss, fear) or whether pondering the significance of

feelings displayed in public life, the scholarship on affect offers new approaches to

thinking through the relationship of image and public. Taking its cue from the

“emotional turn” (cf. Lauren Berlant, “sensual turn”) the class examines structures of

(public) feeling, embodied – mainly, but not exclusively – in visual evidence. Looking

at different visual and political cultures – including war photography from the Civil

War to present wars, documentary photography of political activism (e.g.,

countercultures of the 1960s, or immigration and health/reproduction policy

protests), politicians (from Kennedy to Obama), living conditions (from tenement

housing to suburbia), and sports events – this class considers how and why feelings

define America and have been reaffirmed as a fruitful lens for cultural analysis. A full

list of texts and case studies will be available by the beginning of the semester.

Course requirements: a research paper (8-10 pp.) incl. an oral presentation;

participation in discussions.

35835 Traitors and Spies in American Cultural History Depkat

Module: AMS-M32.3(8), AMS-M33.2 / 3(8), AMST-M23.w(5), AMST-M32.2(5), EAS-M33.1/2/3(8), EAS-


M22.w(5), ENRS-M22.w(5)



Mi wöch. 8:30 10 c.t. PT 2.0.3A Depkat

Benedict Arnold, Aaron Burr, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, Aldrich Ames – American history is full

of spies and traitors who attempted to change the course of history by overthrowing or

sabotaging the United States government to which they owed allegiance. They either tried to

make war against the U.S., or they supported its enemies by selling secrets and collaborating in

conspiracies. However, treason and espionage is not only a criminal offense, it is also a cultural

pattern, a discourse that reveals a lot about value systems and the anxieties circulating in a

culture. Traitors and spies are subject of social and cultural battles that create both the ‘good

guys’ and the ‘bad guys’ in the same discursive operation. This seminar will conduct a series of

case studies on individual traitors and spies, each pursuing the double goal of a thick

description of what happened, on the one hand, and an investigation into the cultural history

of traitors and spies in America on the other. Requirements: regular attendance, presentation

and essay (10-15 pages). Readings: A reader will be available at the beginning of the term.

35836 Transnational Pictures of America Bauridl

Module: AMS-M32.3(8), AMS-M33.2 / 3(8), AMST-M23.w(5), AMST-M32.2(5), EAS-M33.1/2/3(8), EAS-


M22.w(5), ENRS-M22.w(5)



Do wöch. 8:30 10 c.t. PT 2.0.3A Bauridl

The ‘pictorial turn’ of the 1990s challenges the dominance of the written text and draws

attention to the cultural, political, and social efficacy of visuals. Concordantly, this course

focuses on visuals as both a reflection and constituent of American culture(s). Moreover, in

times when discussions of global mobility and the porousness of physical, cultural, and

national borders figure prominently in American Studies discourses, this course is particularly

interested in an exploration of the role visual culture takes in negotiations of cultural

encounters and diverse ethnic, cultural, and national identities. After familiarizing students with

theories of visual culture studies and concepts of transnational American Studies, it

investigates images from and of America produced within and outside the United States.

Scrutinizing various elements of visual culture which range from paintings to photographs to

murals and graffiti art to memorials to consumer products to landscapes and urban design

and which debate similarly diverse instances of cultural contact from colonial encounters to

the African American experience to immigrant and emigrant perspectives to tourism to

international warfare to the export of American pop culture, we will elaborate on questions

such as: Which iconic images prove especially productive in the construction of American

identity/ies and to what effect? How does visual culture by diverse agents generate protest

and counter narratives? How is America represented in visuals produced outside the United

States? And how does visual culture participate in the negotiation of self and Other? Course

requirements include preparation and participation, a research paper (8-10 pp.) including an

oral proposal, and a critical response blog.

35837 Topical Issues Uppendahl

Module: AMST-M23.w(5), AMST-M32.2(5), ENGS-M22.w(5), ENGYM-M23.w(5), ENGYM-M32A.2(5), ENHS-

M22.w(5), ENRS-M22.w(5)



Do wöch. 14 16 c.t. ZH 4 Uppendahl

This class will explore major developments in recent American culture. Attention will be paid to

important trends and crucial events since the 1990s and their historical and cultural

significance. Issues to be discussed will include landmark U.S. Supreme Court cases; trends in

American foreign policy and relations; demographical changes; major social and political

controversies involving race and ethnicity; Native Americans; issues in education (e.g.,

admission policies, bilingual education, home schooling, creationism); American self-

definitions and collective memory after 9/11; religion in America; American culture and

violence; U.S. economy and business values; expressions of popular culture; recent election

campaigns and results. – Participants from the old Lehramt-Studiengang are strongly advised

to have completed “Introduction to American Studies”; all participants are expected to

already have or to acquire a firm footing in American history and culture. – Course materials

will encompass textual as well as visual materials which allow for a discussion of America’s

many tensions, paradoxes, and promises. — Requirements will include an oral presentation, in-

class participation, and an 8- to 10-page research paper. .

35838 1913 - The U.S. and Europe on the Eve of World War I Depkat

Module: AMS-M32.3(8), AMS-M33.2/3(8), AMST-M23.w(5), AMST-M32.2(5), EAS-M33.1/2/3(8), EAS-


M22.w(5), ENRS-M22.w(5)



Do wöch. 16 18 c.t. PT 2.0.3A Depkat

The contemporaries of 1913 did not know that they were only a year away from the First World

War, the “seminal catastrophe of the twentieth century” (George F. Kenan). Yet, the

paradoxes of modernity had fully developed by then. It was a time of faith in technology and

rational planning as the instruments of progress and the roads to an ever-increasing standard

of living. In 1913, industry was booming, the Western colonialism was at its height, the

knowledge revolution of the sciences created a great optimism that many things were

doable, and the great metropolitan centres like London, Berlin, Paris and New York were

breeding grounds of an exciting cultural modernism. However, all these developments had a

downside to them: technological progress, rationalization, and bureaucratization were

creating new dependencies and forms of domination, the emerging mass-society created

multiple forms of alienation, and the agitation of the two great emancipatory movements of

the twentieth century – the women’s movement and the African American civil rights

movement – triggered violent social conflicts. All in all, therefore, the tumultuous breakthrough

of industrial modernity produced a deep sense of crisis, and disorientation triggered modernist

literature and culture to a very large degree. The seminar will aim at a cross-section of the year

1913, when contemporaries were dancing on a volcano. Looking at the developments in

politics, society and culture, the seminar will deliver a thick description of the year’s historical

contexts and constellations in Europe and America. Requirements: regular attendance,

presentation and essay (10-15 pages). Readings: Barbara W. Tuchman, The Proud Tower: A Portrait of the

World before the War, 1890-1914 (London 1966). –––, The Guns of August (New York 1962). Florian Illies, 1913. Robert

Wohl, The Generation of 1914 (Cambridge, MA 1979). Modris Eksteins, Rites of Spring: The Great War and the Birth of

the Modern (Boston 1989). Florian Illies, 1913: Der Sommer des Jahrhunderts (Frankfurt a.M. 2012).

35843 Blackness, Multiculturalism and the American Screen Pospíšil

Module: AMS-M32.1(10), AMS-M33.1/2/3(10), AMST-M32.3(7), EAS-M33.1/2/3(10), EAS-M34.1/2/3(10),

EAS-M31.1/4(10), ENGYM-M32A.3(7), AMS-M32.3(8), AMS-M33.2 / 3(8), AMST-M23.w(5),

AMST-M32.2(5), EAS-M33.1/2/3(8), EAS-M34.1/2/3(8), EAS-M31.3/4(8), ENGS-M22.w(5),

ENGYM-M23.w(5), ENGYM-M32A.2(5), ENHS-M22.w(5), ENRS-M22.w(5)

Hauptseminar/Cultural Studies Advanced Seminar, SWS: 2, Max. Teilnehmer: 15

Weitere Informationen siehe “Amerikanistik: Hauptseminare”.

35837ws Humor and Comedy in American Culture Uppendahl

Module: AMST-M23.w (5), AMST-M32.2 (5), ENGS-M22.w(5), ENGYM-M23.w(5), ENGYM-M32A.2 (5), ENHS-

M22.w(5), ENRS-M22.w


Block 9 13 c.t. 11.3. 20.3. 35837 ws VG_2.45 Uppendahl gehört noch zum

Wintersemester

Hauptseminare

Please also see the announcement of Prof. Hodges Persley’s class on p. 2 of

this document!

35839 Capital Stories: Washington D.C. Zehelein


EAS-M31.1/4(10), ENGYM-M32A.3(7)

Hauptseminar, SWS: 2, Max. Teilnehmer: 15


Di wöch. 14 16 c.t. ZH 6 N.N.

http://lsf/qisserver/rds?state=verpublish&status=init&vmfile=no&moduleCall=webInfo&publishConfFile=webInfoPerson&publishSubDir=personal&keep=y&personal.pid=3958

D.C. is probably the world’s first planned capital, based in principle on Charles Pierre

L’Enfant’s plans. It was created on the basis of ideas and future hopes and

projections, on thoughts and self-understandings of what that newly created nation,

the United States of America, under that innovative and never before seen

document, the Constitution, should be, become, and represent. In the course of this

semester, we will aim at an elucidation of a variety of aspects which all take the

geo-political and social space of Washington D.C. as its launching pad. We will look

at the plans for Washington, the visions and realizations. We will look at icons of

American self-understanding and auto-mythology, at various important monuments

and memorials, most of them to be found on the National Mall, the “Monumental

Core”. We will also see how Washington features in literature. And we will discuss

what Washington’s role is in international and global affairs. Is it a global city? This

class will rely on active student participation, each student taking up one

theme/text/film etc. to prepare for class presentation. Texts: Henry Adams,

Democracy. Dan Brown, The Lost Symbol. All other texts will be part of a course

reader. Course Requirements: Active participation, homework assignments, and a

term paper of 15-20 pages.

35840 Bob Dylan Depkat


EAS-M31.1 / 4(10), ENGYM-M32A.3(7)



Di wöch. 16 18 c.t. PT 1.0.2 Depkat

Bob Dylan may well be the single most important American musician of the twentieth

century. His biography and work is inextricably tied to the major phases and problems of

American music since 1945. He started out as a folk singer and became the poet and

voice of the emerging protest culture in the 1960s. In 1965 he went electric, producing

some of the most important albums in music history but alienating large parts of his

audience. In the 1970s/80s Dylan had his spiritual good-seeking phase, only to return

around 2000 with a much admired late work that has not ended yet. In it he fashioned

himself as the mere medium of a vast pool of anonymous musical traditions in America.

Bob Dylan’s lyrics are of a literary quality that has led many a journalist and scholar to

demand that Dylan should be given the Nobel Prize, and his music was as trendsetting as

it was path-breaking. Thus, dealing with the life and music of Bob Dylan paves many paths

into the political, social, economic, and cultural history of the United States and Europe

since 1945. The seminar will deal with the biography of Bob Dylan and his music in the

multiple and repeatedly changing contexts of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

Requirements: regular attendance, presentation and research paper (15-20 pages).

Readings: Clinton Heylin, Behind the Shades. 20th Anniversary Edition (London 2011). Heinrich Detering, Bob

Dylan (3rd ed., Stuttgart 2009). DVD: Martin Scorsese, No Direction Home. Bob Dylan (2009).

35841 Some highlights in late 20th and early 21st century Canadian literature Zehelein


EAS-M31.1/4(10), ENGYM-M32A.3(7)



Mi wöch. 14 16 c.t. ZH 6 N.N.

We will look at some of the most outstanding later-twentieth-century Canadian authors,

and, covering all major genres (short stories, novels, poems, and plays), aim to analyze

how Canada’s literati have reacted to social, political and cultural change since the

1980’s. The sessions will feature a combination of lecture, discussion, and group work. Texts:

Margaret Atwood, The Year of the Flood. Carol Shields, The Stone Diaries. All other texts

with be provided in a reader. Course Requirements: Active participation, homework

assignments, and a term paper of 15-20 pages.

35842 Concepts of Reality in American Culture Balestrini

Module: AMS-M32.1(10), AMS-M33.1/2/3(10), AMST-M32.3(7), EAS-M33.1/2/3(10), EAS-

M34.1/2/3(10), EAS-M31.1/4(10), ENGYM-M32A.3(7)



Do wöch. 10 12 c.t. PT 2.0.3A Balestrini

Postmodernist theorists posit that not what but how we see is crucial. The writer and

entomologist Vladimir Nabokov demanded that the word “reality” should always be

written in quotation marks in order not to elevate a supposedly “common sense” of

existence to the level of truth. Linda Hutcheon argues in her seminal study The Politics of

Postmodernism that “[p]ostmodern art cannot but be political, at least in the sense that its

representations—its images and stories—are anything but neutral, however ‘aestheticized’

they may appear to be in their parodic self-reflexivity” (2nd ed., New York: Routledge,

2002: 3). In this seminar, we will discuss how literature, the visual arts, and popular culture

negotiate competing approaches to “reality,” especially when it comes to social and

political taboos related to issues of race, economic status, sexuality, and aesthetics. We

will study works and/or excerpts from works such as Nabokov’s Lolita with its solipsistic

narrator who cannot fathom his victim’s perception of reality, Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man

with its central trope of racism as blindness, Grace Metalious’s Peyton Place (as well as its

film adaptation and its sequels), Maxine Hong Kingston’s Tripmaster Monkey, narratives

and poems by Beat writers, and a broad range of visuals and performances found in

“real” and “virtual” environments (such as the Internet). A reading list and preliminary

syllabus will be emailed to registered course participants so that participants can select

presentation topics before the beginning of instruction. Course requirements: in-class

participation, presentation, paper proposal with annotated bibliography, 15- to 20-page

research paper.

35843 Blackness, Multiculturalism and the American Screen Pospíšil


EAS-M31.1/4(10), ENGYM-M32A.3(7), AMS-M32.3(8), AMS-M33.2 / 3(8), AMST-M23.w(5),

AMST-M32.2(5), EAS-M33.1/2/3(8), EAS-M34.1/2/3(8), EAS-M31.3/4(8), ENGS-M22.w(5),

ENGYM-M23.w(5), ENGYM-M32A.2(5), ENHS-M22.w(5), ENRS-M22.w(5)

Hauptseminar/Cultural Studies Advanced Seminar, SWS: 2, Max. Teilnehmer: 15


Mo Einzel 16 20 c.t. 24.6.13 24.6.13 Künstler-

garderobe Pospíšil



Fr Einzel 14 20 c.t. 28.6.13 28.6.13 PT 1.0.2 Pospíšil

Mo Einzel 16 20 c.t. 1.7.13 1.7.13 Künstler-

garderobe Pospíšil

Do Einzel 16 20 c.t. 4.7.13 4.7.13 ZH 6 Pospíšil

Fr Einzel 14 20 c.t. 5.7.13 5.7.13 PT 1.0.2 Pospíšil

Since their introduction into American culture, movies have become not only a dominant

form of public entertainment; they have also functioned as an important source of

information. The film viewers – many of them recent immigrants – drew from them lessons

about the nature and operation of American institutions, the geography and history of the

country, and about the lifestyle and principal characteristics of its inhabitants. Such

representations were anything but objective windows into American reality. Heavily

mediated and embedded in the dominant discourse, mainstream films frequently

misinformed rather than informed their viewers, particularly when the representation of the

privileged groups was at stake. Using the screen construction of African Americans as its

principal example, the course attempts to map the evolution of the cinematic image of

“the other” at various stages in the development of American society, from negative

stereotyping to the deployment of its more subtle forms; from malevolent racial caricatures

to complex representations granting minority characters a much merited complexity and

humanity; from the omnipresence of whiteness on the screen to the embracing of the

nation’s ethnic and racial plurality. The course is structured chronologically around

selected case studies illustrating the various stages in the evolution of the Black screen

image. While initially we will focus on historical developments, in the second half of the

course we will assess in what manner images of blackness have been employed in this

millennium (by Hollywood, by independent filmmakers as well as by cable networks). While

doing so, attention will be paid not only to the problem of representation and mediation,

but also to questions concerning production, consumption, and reception of the selected

films. In this way students will become acquainted with basic approaches toward film as a

cultural document (and social practice). Moreover they will gain an intimate knowledge

of the representation of an important piece of the American multicultural mosaic and

about its transformations over time. Requirements: Regular attendance and active

participation; independent viewing of the selected films; reading from the reading

package; presentation of a film in class; research paper (for CS Adv: 8 to 10 pages; for HS:

15 pages).

Oberseminare

35844 Recent Research in American Studies Balestrini

Module: AMS-M35.1(6), EAS-M36.1(6)



Do wöch. 12 14 c.t. ZH 6 Balestrini

The course provides a forum for scholarly exchange in the field of American Studies.

Students who are currently working on their doctoral dissertations and master’s theses will

present their projects and invite critical responses from the audience. American Studies

research projects currently pursued or in the planning stage at the University of

Regensburg will be presented for critical examination. Special guest lectures and round

tables with international scholars visiting Regensburg American Studies and the

Regensburg European American Forum (REAF) will also be part of the course program and

give course participants the opportunity to share their ideas with experts in their respective





fields. M.A. students who wish to take the course for credit in AMS-M35 (M.A. program

American Studies) or EAS-M36 (M.A. program European American Studies) are expected

to submit the (tentative) title of the master’s thesis by 25 March 2013 and an abstract of

their thesis project (some 400 words) two weeks before the respective date of their

presentation (both by mail to [email protected]). The schedule will be available by

early April 2013 (and be mailed to participants and M.A. students registered for the

course).

Reviews

35846 Reading course for VL “Home is where the heart is” Zehelein

Module: BRST-M23.w(2), BRST-M32.w(2), ENGYM-M32B.w(2)

Seminar, SWS: 1


Mi wöch. 9 10 c.t. R 009 N.N.

35847 Review American Literature Balestrini

Module: AMST-M22.w(1), BRST-M22.w(1), ENGS-M22.w , ENGYM-M23.w , ENHS-M22.w , ENRS-M22.3(1)



Mi wöch. 12 12:45 s.t. PT 2.0.5 Balestrini

The course reviews American literary history from colonial times through the immediate

present. It addresses students at the end of their B.A. studies and students in the Lehramt

programs preparing for their final exams. Participants are expected to have acquired a

solid and broad knowledge of American literary and cultural history in the course of their

studies by attending both mandatory and additional courses. The review course builds in

particular on the two proseminars in American literature. In view of the regulations and

requirements of the new LPO I and the new format for the written tests in the state exam,

the review and practice of interpretive skills will be given special attention. Course text: Baym, Nina et al., eds. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. 8th ed. New York: Norton, 2012.

35848 Seminar für Examenskandidaten Depkat



Do 14-tägig 18 20 c.t. PT 2.0.3A Depkat

Writing an “akademische Abschlussarbeit” is a challenging task that is prone to make you

lonely. Presenting one’s project to others, and having it discussed by fellow students helps

a lot to clarify things and overcome loneliness. With this seminar, I want to offer students

who are either in the process of writing their Abschlussarbeit or about to begin with it the

opportunity to present their projects to an interested audience.

35957 Presentation B.A. Balestrini

Module: AMST-M31.1(3), BRST-M31.1(3), ENGS-M21.w(3), ENGYM-M31.w(3), ENHS-M21.w(3), ENLI-

M31.1(3), ENRS-M21.w(3)



Fr wöch. 12 14 c.t. ZH 5 Balestrini

This course will familiarize participants with advanced techniques and strategies of

academic presentation. Students will give lectures on potential B.A. thesis projects at

different stages in the research and writing process. Participation is limited to students

writing their B.A. theses in American Studies, British Studies, or English Linguistics.

Übungen

35852 Video Hour Amerikanistik Balestrini

Übung, SWS: 2


Mo wöch. 18 21 c.t. ZH 5 Balestrini s. Aushang

Kurse anderer Lehrstühle u. Institute in den MA-Programmen MAS und

MEAS:

Englische Sprachwissenschaft

35700 African American English in its Linguistic and Cultural Context Schneider

Module: AMS-M33.2/3(8), EAS-M32.1/2/3(8), ELG-M32.2(8), ELG-M33.2/3(8), ENGS-M22.w(4), ENGYM-

M22.w(4), ENGYM-M32C.1(4), ENHS-M22.w(4), ENLI-M23.2(4), ENLI-M25.2/3(4), ENLI-M32.1(4),

ENRS-M 22.w(4)

Vorlesung, SWS: 2


Mi wöch. 8:30 10 c.t. H 8 Schneider

Weiteres siehe “Englische Sprachwissenschaft: Thematische Vorlesungen”

Politikwissenschaft

33324a Washington Summer Symposium on U.S. Foreign Policy under

President Obama Maier

Module: EAS-M31.1/4(10), EAS-M34.1/2/3(10)



Block 28.7.13 8.8.13 Maier

Weiteres siehe Vorlesungsverzeichnis des Instituts für Politikwissenschaft