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Lehrende/r: Dr. Christian Knöppler
Veranstaltungsart:
Seminar
Anzeige im Stundenplan:
00.Q+.120
Credits:
3,0
Unterrichtssprache:
Englisch
Min. | Max. Teilnehmerzahl:
- | 15
Voraussetzungen / Organisatorisches:
Blockseminar am 10.11.23; 17.11.23; 25.11.23
Teilnahmevoraussetzungen
Good English skills - all readings and class discussions will be in English.
Anforderungen
Group exercises: in-class exercises to be completed in groups
Class Presentation: a short 5 to 10 minutes presentation on topics provided that will be delivered in the last class
Inhalt:
What does it mean to be a citizen? What activities or identities should constitute citizenship? Through a focus on literary, artistic, and visual works this course explores some of the potential answers to these questions. Students will engage with the various controversies, confusions, and ambiguities that naturally attend such a diverse concept as "citizenship." In the process, students will also confront the importance that artistic and cultural works have for our understanding of citizenship. Despite its legal dimensions, citizenship is inextricably tied to activities that are not strictly bounded by the law. Artistic and cultural works are key sites where citizenship is negotiated, represented, and distributed, and though they cannot resolve some of the central legal questions that surround citizenship, they can nonetheless contour our understanding of what is at stake in its performance. In this way, artistic and cultural works can texture and deepen our appreciation of citizenship in a way that bureaucratic and legal documents cannot. Through a mix of reading and discussion, this course will offer students a chance to engage with their own notions of citizenship and gain a fuller understanding of how citizenship has changed over time. Part of this task will involve looking at the margins of belonging to unearth what it means to be part of a country, state, or nation, as well as comparing different examples of citizenship from different regions and time periods.
Class 1: Origins of Citizenship (Friday, Nov 10, 2023)
Ancient Greek polis and the role of the individual
Enlightenment ideals, revolution, and democracy
First Half: Sophocles, Antigone
Second Half: Robespierre, "On the Trial of the King" (1792)
Class 2: Citizenship and Immigration (Friday, Nov 17, 2023)
Centrality of immigration for citizenship and belonging
Citizenship as concerned with movement rather than rootedness
First Half: Linda Bosniak, Chapter 1 - "Divided Citizenships," The Citizen and the Alien (2006)
Second Half: Warsan Shire, "Conversations about Home (at the Deportation Center)" (2011)
Class 3: Citizenship, Imperialism, and Globalization (Saturday, Nov 25, 2023
Legacies of imperialism on notions of citizenship
Impact of globalization
First Half: Jamaica Kincaid, A Small Place (1988)
Second Half: Class Presentations
Zusätzliche Informationen:
Mitchell Gauvin is a Canadian postdoctoral researcher and visiting scholar in the Obama Institute for Transnational American Studies at Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz. His research focuses on the intersection between citizenship and literature, with particular focus on the role of slavery, immigration, imperialism, and globalization in our imagining and practice of citizenship. He holds a PhD in English Literature from York University, Toronto and has previously taught at York and Toronto Metropolitan University.
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