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Instructors: apl. Prof. Dr. Sabina Matter-Seibel
Event type:
Seminar
Displayed in timetable as:
06.008.0036
Hours per week:
2
Credits:
6,0
Language of instruction:
Englisch
Min. | Max. participants:
- | 30
Priority scheme: Senatsrichtlinie zzgl. Bevorzugung höherer Fachsemester
Requirements / organisational issues:
This is a seminar for advanced B.A. students (old B.A.) and students doing the English only B.A. (KW 2) and for students having chosen the Wahlpflichtmodul Kulturwissenschaftliche Kompetenz. It is recommended for semester 4 to 6.
Your work in this seminar will encompass these assignments:
• participation in class discussions (25% of grade)
• presentation in class including a handout summarizing the most important points (25% of the grade)
• a written paper on your individual topic to be submitted, at the latest, on August 15, 2015 (50% of the grade)
Contents:
This course will consider representations of the American Civil War in nineteenth- and twentieth-century U.S. fiction and film.
We will first analyze the significance of the Civil War and the slavery issue for American history and cultural studies, including the construction of gender and racial identities in particular historical and political contexts.
We will then continue to look at selected narratives of the war effort written during the war, during the period of reconstruction and in the twentieth century, including male and female, white and black, northern and southern perspectives. A screening of the movies made on the basis of some of these works in the twentieth and early twenty-first century will complete our survey.
By signing up for the seminar you agree to read the three novels listed below and the excerpts (mostly of autobiographies and letters) that you will receive in class:
Stephen Crane, Red Badge of Courage
Margaret Walker, Jubilee
Charles Frazier, Cold Mountain
Used copies of these books are available at low prices from various internet bookstores. Please, read these books during the vacation period as you will not have enough time for extended reading later.
Towards the end of the seminar we will watch two movies which entails coming together for two evening movie sessions. If you are not able or not willing to join the class on two evenings, please do not sign up for the seminar.
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