Video-Blog: Archive for the ‘Doktoranden-RVL Anglistik SoSe 09’ Category

Wolfgang Hallet: Close Reading and Wide Reading: The Contextualization of Literary Texts in Literary Theory and the Literary Classroom

The cultural dimension of literary texts is often treated as an extra-textual phenomenon and reduced to factual information provided in historical descriptions of what is called ‘the context’ or in annotations. As against this practice, and with reference to new historicist, interdiscursive and intertextual approaches, it is suggested that literary texts be embedded in a textual network of contextualizing texts. While co-reading them (’wide reading’), readers are able to understand and interpret a literary text (’close reading’) by discovering parallels and correspondences, allusions and recurring themes, notions and motifs as well as references to the cultural situation or issues. This lecture will give examples of what ‘wide reading’ means in literary studies and in the literary classroom.

Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Hallet is Professor for Teaching English as a Foreign Language at JLU. For further information, please see his website.

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Jelena Kovacevic-Löckner: Postcolonial Shakespeare Studies: Re-readings, Re-Writings and Appropriations of The Tempest and Othello

The reception of Shakespeare’s works in postcolonial theory and literature since the 1980s has triggered a turn in Shakespeare studies, both contesting and re-constituting the bard’s ‘universality’.
This lecture will trace the critical and productive reception of two paradigmatic Shakespearean plays – The Tempest and Othello – in postcolonial theory and literature. After an introduction to the re-readings of Shakespeare’s texts through postcolonial literary theory, the focus will be on two major strategies of dealing with Shakespeare’s texts on the part of postcolonial authors: appropriation and re-writing. Examples will be taken amongst others from the works of Marina Warner (Indigo) and George Lamming (Water with Berries).

This lecture will try to account for the ways in which postcolonial engagement with Shakespeare’s works has not only decisively changed our view of Shakespeare today, but has also contributed important critical impulses for the study of literature as a study of culture.

Jelena Kovacevic-Löckner is a scholarship holder at the International Graduate Centre for the Study of Culture (GCSC) and is currently preparing a doctoral thesis on Shakespearean intertexts in Magic Realism. In the academic year of 2007/08 she was an associate member and research assistant at the International PhD Programme (IPP). She studied Comparative Literature, English Philology, Cultural Studies and Musicology at the University of Münster, and joined a DAAD exchange progamme in Cultural Studies at the Willy-Brandt-Centre, Wroclaw, Poland. She has extensive work experience both on and off stage.

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Mirjam Horn: Authorship as a Key Issue in Contemporary Theory. Concepts and Reconceptualization

When it comes to interpreting literary materials, the person who wrote a text quickly attracts and receives the most of attention – “Who is the author?” “What does s/he want to tell us?” Yet why should meaning only be construed by this individual writer who presumably holds the only authority over interpretation?
This lecture’s goal is to provide students with essential theories and terminology concerning the notion of authorship and its “obvious” agent, the author. Starting with the basic communication model of sender/author – message/text – receiver/reader, we will investigate the concept’s role and development in literary history from the poeta vates to collaborative digital fiction. In a second step, we will have a look at key theoretical texts and according terms by Roland Barthes, Julia Kristeva et al. who, in their poststructuralist claims, dethroned the author as the single valuable source for text interpretation and took into account the message itself and, consequently, the reader.

Mirjam Horn studied English and American Literature, Intercultural German Studies, and Media Studies at the Universities of Bayreuth and Glasgow, Scotland, and is currently working on her dissertation on plagiarism in literature with the International PhD Programme (IPP) at JLU Gießen. Since October 2008, she holds a part-time post as research assistant in the English department including teaching assignments on authorship and the overall context of literary production.

 

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Katharina Luh: Literatur und Intersektionalität als neues Paradigma der Gender Studies: Ansätze einer intersektionalen Erzähltheorie am Beispiel des zeitgenössischen neuseeländischen Romans

Die Intersektionalitätstheorie, die Ende der 1980er Jahre von Kimberlé Crenshaw ursprünglich im Kontext rechtwissenschaftlicher Theorie und Praxis entworfen wurde, hat in Deutschland besonders in den letzten Jahren vermehrt Anklang gefunden. V.a. in den deutschen Geistes- und Sozialwissenschaften blickt sie auf eine mittlerweile beachtliche Tradition zurück, die sich auch in unterschiedlichsten Publikationen und der Durchführung unterschiedlichster Konferenzen manifestiert hat. In den Literaturwissenschaften hat dieses „neue Paradigma der Gender Studies“ zumindest explizit bislang aber eher wenig Beachtung gefunden. Es stellt jedoch einen durchaus fruchtbaren Ansatz dar, der mit erzähltheoretischen Annahmen verknüpft, innovative und komplexe Einblicke in Textstrukturen und Inhalte zu gewähren vermag.
Besonders die Kultur Aotearoa/Neuseelands bietet sich zur Analyse unterschiedlichster Identitätsparameter unter intersektionalen Gesichtspunkten an, werden doch down under seit Ende der 1960er Jahre unterschiedlichste kollektive Identitäten stetig ausgehandelt und diskutiert. V.a. Identitätsbausteine wie Geschlecht, Rasse, Ethnizität oder Nationalität haben dabei einen prominenten Platz in der öffentlichen Diskussion, aber ebenfalls in den Künsten und auch der Literatur eingenommen.
Inwiefern sich solche bisweilen differenz- und kongruenzerzeugenden Identitätskategorien im neuseeländischen Roman seit 1970 manifestiert haben, wie sie formal und inhaltlich umgesetzt wurden und welche potentiellen Funktionen sie dabei erfüllen können, soll daher Thema der Vorlesung sein.

Ganz genau geht es um:

1. Eine Einführung in den Begriff der Intersektionalität, dessen Entwicklungsgeschichte und theoretische Grundannahmen
2. Die theoretische und methodische Anwendbarkeit des Konzepts in den Literatur- und Kulturwissenschaften, ebenso wie seine möglichen short comings
3. Eine kurze Einführung in die neuseeländische Literatur- und Kulturgeschichte
4. sowie die praktische Illustration des Mehrwertes einer intersektionalen erzähltheoretischen Analyse anhand ausgewählter neuseeländischer Romane der Gegenwart

Being a German Phd-Student of English Literary Studies affiliated to the International Graduate Centre for the Study of Culture (GCSC) and International Phd-Programme (IPP) at Justus-Liebig-University Giessen since 2007 I am at present working on my thesis titled “Gendering ethnicity and ethnicising gender – Forms and functions of culturally specific manifestations of femininity and ethnicity in the New Zealand novel from 1970 to the present”. In 2006 I successfully completed my course of studies of Applied Modern Languages (English, Spanish and Portuguese) and Business Studies at Justus-Liebig-University Giessen and the University of Stirling, Scotland. Over the last 4 years I have worked as a freelance journalist, photographer and cultural events manager within various institutions and companies such as dpa-AFX financial news Frankfurt, Giramondi Giessen or Goethe-Institute Salvador da Bahia. At the GCSC I am speaker of IPP VI, the Cultural Management Consortium as well as section 2 “Literary and Cultural Theory”. In the recent past I have completed two research stays – the first being in New Zealand and the second at the Centre for New Zealand Studies in London.

 

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Dr. Sonja Altnöder: Urban Poetry: History, Intertextuality and Current Trends in London Writing

“When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.”

British poet Samuel Johnson’s famous dictum dates from the 18th century and describes his lasting fascination with the city. Indeed, London has inspired many writers from Shakespeare to the present day, who have taken the city as setting and subject for numerous works of poetry. This lecture presents an introductory overview over the diverse genre of urban poetry by focusing on three main issues: its historical development from Romanticism to Postmodernism, intertextual relationships of texts across and within these historical periods and, finally, current trends in postmodern urban poetry like black British writing and performance poetry.

Sonja Altnöder read English and German literature as well as Gender Studies at Konstanz and Pretoria, South Africa. In 2005, she became associate fellow in the doctoral programme “Cultural Hermeneutics: Reflections on Difference and Transdifference” at FAU, Erlangen. Having completed her dissertation on South African women’s writing in 2007, she was awarded a post-doctoral fellowship with the International Graduate Centre for the Study of Culture (GCSC) in the same year. Since June 2008, she has been coordinator of the International PhD Programme (IPP) “Literary and Cultural Studies”. Her research interests include urban studies and cultural geography, gender studies, postcolonial studies and ethics.

 

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Anneka Esch-van Kan: Dramen- und Aufführungsanalyse. Zum Verhältnis von Text und Theater im amerikanischen Gegenwartstheater

Wie verhält sich eine literarische Textvorlage zu einer konkreten Theateraufführung? Wie wurde dieses Verhältnis historisch konzeptualisiert? Worin liegen die Spannungen zwischen literatur- und theaterwissenschaftlichen Betrachtungen? Die Vorlesung wird sich der komplexen Beziehung zwischen Text und Theater widmen und auf Basis einer kulturwissenschaftlichen Neuorientierung der Geisteswissenschaften für eine Erweiterung des literaturwissenschaftlichen Methodenschatzes um die theaterwissenschaftlichen Methoden der Inszenierungs- und Aufführungsanalyse argumentieren. Nachdem die Begrifflichkeiten von Textsorten und Methoden wie Dramenanalyse, Aufführungsanalyse, Inszenierungsanalyse, Rezension und Theaterkritik auseinanderdividiert wurden, sollen verschiedene Ansätze der Aufführungsanalyse eingeführt werden. Während einflussreiche semiotische Modelle (Fischer-Lichte, Hiß) in groben Zügen skizziert werden, wird der Schwerpunkt auf Performance-orientierten Modellen liegen (Lehmann, Fischer-Lichte).
In einem zweiten Teil der Vorlesung werden einzelne Szenen zeitgenössischer amerikanischer Theaterstücke analysiert. Neben der praktischen Anwendbarkeit der vorgestellten Methoden soll hier gezeigt werden, dass Performance-orientierte Modelle dem amerikanistischen Untersuchungsgegenstand besonders gerecht werden können und gleichzeitig soll ein Einblick in das experimentelle Gegenwartstheater der USA geliefert werden.

Anneka Esch-van Kan (geb. van Kan) studierte Theaterwissenschaft in Frankfurt, Gießen und Stony Brook (New York) und schloß 2006 mit einem Master of Arts (USA) ihr Studium ab. Sie promoviert in der Anglistik zum politischen Theater in den USA seit 2001 und ist Mitglied am International Graduate Centre for the Study of Culture (GCSC) sowie am International PhD Programme (IPP) „Literatur- und Kulturwissenschaft“. Neben Vorträgen in u.a. Graz, London, München und Berlin sind erste Aufsätze in Sammelbänden erschienen.

Jutta Weingarten: Der zeitgenössische britische Roman: Genres und Entwicklungstendenzen am Beispiel von Fictions of Migration

Bei der Vielfalt der literarischen Strömungen und Tendenzen der zeitgenössischen britischen Literatur, die sich gerade durch ihre ständige Weiterentwicklung kennzeichnet, kann es oft schwierig erscheinen, geeignete Autoren und Werke für das Literaturstudium auszuwählen. Darum soll in dieser Vorlesung zum einen ein Überblick über das reiche Angebot der zeitgenössischen britischen Literatur gegeben werden. Zum anderen wird eine besonders interessante Ausprägung des zeitgenössischen britischen Romans vorgestellt, nämlich die so genannten Fictions of Migration. Interkulturelle Romane wie Anita & Me von Meera Syal oder White Teeth von Zadie Smith sind sowohl bei Literaturkritikern als auch bei Literaturstudent/innen beliebt.
Ziel der Vorlesung ist es, an Beispielen verschiedene Formen der Fictions of Migration darzustellen, die wichtigsten Autoren vorzustellen, wiederkehrende Themen zu besprechen und die narrative Inszenierung von Migrationserfahrungen zu untersuchen. Dadurch soll nicht nur das Genre der Fictions of Migration als Prüfungsgebiet der anglistischen Literaturwissenschaft vorgestellt, sondern auch als interessante und anspruchsvolle Lektüre außerhalb der Universität schmackhaft gemacht werden.

Jutta Weingarten studierte Anglistik (1. Hauptfach) und Soziologie (2. Hauptfach) an der Universität Trier und der University of Stirling, Schottland, und schloss im Februar 2007 das Studium ab (Abschluss: Magister Artium). Seit Oktober 2007 promoviert sie an der JLU im Rahmen des Internationalen Promotionsprogramms „Literatur- und Kulturwissenschaft“. Im Wintersemester 2007/2008 war sie als wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin am Lehrstuhl für Nordamerikanische Literatur und Kultur an der Universität des Saarlandes angestellt und ist seit dem Sommersemester 2008 als Mitarbeiterin im Institut für Anglistik an der JLU beschäftigt.

 

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The use of corpora for the study of language has gained a key role in linguistics in recent years as an empirical approach to ‘real-life’ language which makes use of large electronic collections of texts with the help of computer software. Corpus evidence has not only revolutionized the study of language, but has also served as an empirical basis for applications as diverse as critical linguistics or the study of ideology and culture, literary stylistics and foreign language teaching.
The aim of this lecture is twofold: on the one hand, to familiarize students with the major uses of corpora for the study of language, ideology and culture, and on the other, to introduce the indirect and direct applications of corpora in the foreign language classroom. Finally, I will try to show how students interested in corpus research can carry out their own corpus-based projects as part of their final theses.

Svetla Rogatcheva is a research assistant at the Department of English Language and Linguistics, JLU Gießen, where she is pursuing her PhD on the topic of tense and aspect in learner writing. She studied at the University of Sofia, Bulgaria and at Roehampton University of Surrey, UK, where she received a BA degree in English and American Studies. She holds an MA degree in Intercultural Anglophone Studies from the University of Bayreuth, Germany. In 2008 she joined the International Graduate Centre for the Study of Culture (GCSC).

 

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Vera Stadelmann: Interactional Sociolinguistics, Discourse Analysis and Humour Studies. Approaches, Methods, Applications

Despite the undoubtedly important role that humour and laughter play in our everyday lives, most of us know little about the secrets behind humour: Why do we find some things funnier than others? Why can an insult sometimes be a sign of friendship? And what does our “sense of humour” reveal about ourselves?
In this lecture, we will employ one branch of linguistics, Interactional Sociolinguistics, to shed light on these questions. First, we will investigate the theoretical foundations by discussing the work of John Gumperz to show how sociocultural and linguistic knowledge interact in the interpretation of meaning. We will then apply Discourse Analysis, one of the fundamental tools of linguistics, to determine how humour contributes to our performance(s) of identity and how we communicate cultural assumptions and beliefs in humorous remarks. We will thus see how language and culture interrelate and impact on our interpretation of meaning.

Vera Stadelmann studied English and History at the Universities of Innsbruck, New Orleans and New Mexico and was awarded her MA in 2004. She then went on to work as a Junior Lecturer at Innsbruck’s English Department, before joining the University of Sheffield (UK) as a Lector in German in 2005. She returned to the continent in 2008 where she embarked on a PhD in English Linguistics at Giessen’s International Graduate Centre for the Study of Culture (GCSC) with a project on British verbal humour.

 

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Thorsten Brato: Urban Voices. The Interplay of Scots and English in Glasgow and Aberdeen

Since Labov’s groundbreaking work on social variation in New York English, the study of urban accents and dialects has developed into one of the major branches of sociolinguistics.
In this lecture I will introduce students to the field of urban dialectology by looking at the sociolinguistic situation in Glasgow and Aberdeen. The language in urban Scotland is coined by the interplay of Scots and English with speakers from all social backgrounds drawing on both according to the situational context.
After a brief outline of the historical developments of Scots and English in Scotland I will turn to the detailed discussion of the sociophonetics of the two cities before the backdrop of current research on language variation and change in urban Britain. I will illustrate my lecture with a range of material ranging from sociolinguistic studies, popular TV programmes, stage performances and rock music.

Thorsten Brato studied English and pedagogy at the University of Duisburg-Essen. For his state exam dissertation he carried out a sociolinguistic study on teenage speech in Glasgow. He came to Giessen in December 2005 and works as a research assistant at the chair of English Linguistics and the History of English. He joined the GCSC in 2007. For his PhD project he chose to thematically stay in Scotland. He works on accent variation and change in Aberdonian English.

 

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