Lehrende/r: Dr. Wolfgang Funk
Veranstaltungsart: Seminar
Anzeige im Stundenplan: 05.874.410
Semesterwochenstunden: 2
Unterrichtssprache: Englisch
Min. | Max. Teilnehmerzahl: - | 30
Anmeldegruppe: ELC 410
Prioritätsschema: Senatsrichtlinie Zulassung gemäß Richtlinie über den Zugang zu teilnahmebeschränkten Lehrveranstaltungen vom 07. März 2007. Nähere Informationen hierzu entnehmen Sie bitte www.info.jogustine.uni-mainz.de/senatsrichtlinie
Voraussetzungen / Organisatorisches: In this course, we will be looking at a variety of (proto-)feminist rewritings and adaptations of mythological characters and texts from classical antiquity (Xanthippe, Medusa, Iliad and Odyssey). The guiding question in this will be to inquire whether, and in how far, such rewritings have the potential to update these (very often male-centred and patriarchal) myths for the 21st century and as such what they can tell us about our contemporary conception of gender. In the first part of the seminar, we will acquaint ourselves with the necessary theoretical framework for talking about gender, myth, feminism and adaptation, with Hélène Cixous’ “The Laugh of the Medusa” (1975) featuring as the principle point of departure. After that, we will look at a variety of literary texts from various genres and ranging from the late 19th century (Amy Levy’s “Xanthippe”) to our own day and age, by which we will try to retrace both the gendered ideals and models of the ‘original texts’ as well as their later reconfigurations. Required Reading: Penelope Atwood, The Penelopiad (2005) Pat Barker, The Silence of the Girls (2018) Nathalie Haynes, Stone Blind (2022) + potentially one other text which will be announced in due course [it would be great if you could have read at least one of the texts before the seminar starts.] Recommended Background Reading: Armstrong, Karen. A Short History of Myth. Edinburgh: Canongate, 2005. Beard, Mary. Women and Power: A Manifesto. London: Profile Books, 2017. Butler, Judith. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. 1990. New York & London: Routledge, 2006. Doherty, Lillian. Gender and the Interpretation of Classical Myth. London: Bloomsbury, 2001. Fiske, Shanyn. Heretical Hellenism: Women Writers, Ancient Greece, and the Victorian Popular Imagination. Athens: Ohio UP, 2008. Additional texts (including Cixous’ text and Levy’s poem) as well as a preliminary semester plan, background texts and other helpful material (hopefully including an electronic Semesterapparat) will be made available via LMS either in advance or in the course of the semester. Expect the LMS page for the course to be up and running by early October.
