Courses

Designed as an introductory survey, the course will discuss major phenomena and prosesses of the social, cultural, and intellectual history of America/the U.S.A. from the first English settlements to the Second World War. Based upon selected cases studies the course will problematize some of the controversies that have informed recent debates about the interpretation of American history.

Beginn: 27.4.06

Die Teilnahme an der Überblicksvorlesung (in engl. Sprache) ist verbunden mit der Mitarbeit an einem der zwei angebotenen Proseminare, in denen ausgewählte Texte diskutiert werden (Beteiligung an einem Kurzreferat). Die ausgewählten Texte werden in einem Reader zusammengestellt, soweit sie nicht in der Shorter Norton Anthology of American Literature (6/7tth edition) enthalten sind. Der Erwerb dieser Anthologie ist unverzichtbare Voraussetzung für ein Studium der amerikanischen Literatur.

Um eine möglichst gleichmäßige Aufteilung der Studierenden auf die fünf Begleitseminare zu gewährleisten, tragen Sie sich bitte vorher in eine der ab 21.3.06 am Info-Brett Amerikanistik (gegenüber R. 2010) aushängenden Listen ein und nehmen Sie dann den ersten Termin Ihrer Gruppe wahr.

This course aims to trace the paramount importance of the visual in an understanding of the culture(s) of the city of modernity and postmodernity. Zooming in on the figure of the flaneur as both an actual wanderer and as a metaphorization of urban modernity, we will talk about the visuality of the city, its central tropes, and its limitations as an ordered system of signs in our discussions of literary (from Poe to Auster), filmic and theoretical (Benjamin, Buck-Morss, Brand) texts.

The predominance of the visual is well symbolized by the figure of the flaneur who emerges in European and then American metropolises from the 17th century on and quickly becomes an icon of urban modernity. Emphasizing the flaneur's role as a detached, highly individualized, mobile spectator, this seminar aims to show how the perambulations of the flaneur can symbolize what is often thought of as the modern urban experience. Critically interrogating the scope of both concepts, however, - that of a singular modern urban experience and that of the flaneur as the paradigmatic figure of modernity -, the seminar also questions the concepts' generalizing claim. By looking for a female flaneur, we will try to reveal the premises inherent to the concept of the flaneur in respect to gender and race. This will lead to the seminar's third main focus: the discussion of the city's scopic regime and its deconstruction - via the figure of the flaneur - in contemporary postmodernist literature.

A detailed syllabus containing a reading list will be made available by March 30th. The seminar takes place at the following dates and times: 21.4., 12-14; 19.5./9.6./30.6./14.7., 12-18. Seminar assignments (papers, reading material) will be discussed in the first session.

Beginn: 21.4.06

Identity is an especially topical issue in the contemporary study of society and culture with many ramifications for the study of ethnicity, class, gender and race. Identity politics, on the other hand, has undermined prospects for a universalist agenda since the nineteenth century, voicing demands for self-government by various ethnic groups. Limiting the inquiry to the subject of human rights, this seminar measures firstly the shifts which have taken place within the body of this discourse in the last three centuries. Secondly, by focusing on certain crucial texts from the political history of the United States - like Common Sense, "Declaration of Independence", "The Four Freedoms", "American Declaration on Human Rights", "The Fourteen Points Address", etc. - the seminar examines historical coincidences as well as discursive and ideological interdependencies between human rights and the founding of American nation. Obligatory reading: The Human Rights Reader. Ed. Micheline R. Ishay. Routledge: New York, 1997.

Beginn: 24.4.06

Ever since the birth of the gothic novel, ghosts are steady companions in the construction of culture and history. This seminar will explore the reasons for the continuous interest in ghostly matters. However, instead of looking at the "American pantheon" (Cathy Davidson's designation for Irving, Poe, Hawthorne, Melville, James) we will explore how women writers have shaped the ghost story. In the late 1930s and 1940s, Hollywood produced a series of romantic ghost stories to contrast the contemporaneous film noir genre. In the context of WWII the ghost story provided a dearly needed fantasy forum. For their sentimentality these films, all adaptations of well-known novels, were referred to as "woman's film" (Tania Modleski). We will discuss some of the representative examples of this subgenre, such as A Letter from an Unknown Woman (1944) as well as examples of the recent reemergence of the same ghost story pattern in movies like The Others (2001). One of our main interests will be the social context of "sightings." Ghosts suggest the complex relationship between the constitution of subjectivity and the social collective. We will explore the usefulness of the ghost story for revisions of history from alternate perspectives. The specific ties between the construction of gender and the ghost story will be at the center of our attention. Emily Bronte's novel Wuthering Heights (1930), a gothic example of the genre, and William Wyler's 1939 adaptation of Bronte's will give us a comparative perspective on film and literature to start with (please read the novel and see the film prior to the semester). A theoretical framework will allow us to establish a language for discussing spiritual matters. The main part of this seminar will cover a discourse analysis of tormented ghosts and their equally tormented human counterparts. The rest will engage in spectral theory and philosophy. A reader for this seminar will be available at the Copy Shop. A presentation in class is required. The "Schein" can only be obtained by regular participation in class, presentation and essay writing.

Beginn: 26.4.06

The Frontier, the Ghetto, the Suburb-all of these "American" settings can be read as sites of the construction of race, where racial identities are connected to specific places (the Frontier as the site of conflict between white settlers and Native Americans that separates 'civilization' from 'wilderness', the Ghetto and the Suburb as sites for African Americans and other minority groups, and -at least in its beginnings-for a European American middle class, respectively). "Inner City Youth," for instance, has become a euphemism for black and Latino teenagers that shows how readily specific places ("inner city") are identified as sites of ethnicity. Through this strategy, the concepts of both place and race are naturalized: their identities are understood as natural, whereby their social constructions are hidden.

In this seminar, we will critically look at the relationship of race and space and inquire how place is "racialized" and race is "spatialized." Through a selection of readings in theory, fiction, poetry, and film, we will look at places like the ones mentioned above, as well as at the Plantation and the Reservation, at the Midwest and at the Desert, at World Fairs (and their exhibitions of "Natives"), at Chinatown, at Latin American casitas in cities like New York, and at imagined places like the Africa onto which black and white Americans have projected their fantasies. We will analyze how the texts negotiate such aspects as the notions of purity vs. heterogeneity of space (and race); concepts of dislocation, migration, home and homelessness; as well as the fights about specific sites, and the symbolic and 'real' power of place.

Seminar format will consist of a combination of lecture, discussion of the reading material, student presentation and general discussion. Students are expected to develop a small research project. The details will be outlined in the first session.

Beginn: 19.4.06

The myth of the American Dream can be read as a journey, as an American Odyssey. Physically and mentally people are on the move and mobility is deeply rooted in the American Dream.

After a discussion about the theoretical assumptions the course will explore various cultural manifestations of the highway, of America's unique roadside culture and its function(s) as specific public and personal spaces.

We will analyse literary texts (J. Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath, 1939; J. Kerouac, On the Road, 1957), road movies (Easy Rider, 1969; Paris, Texas, 1984) billboards, architecture (motels, drive-in restaurants) and other objects constituting the highway landscape. As a special example we will have a closer look at the "Mother Road", the Route 66.

A reader will be available at the beginning of the summer term. (Copy-Haus)

Requirements: regular attendance, active class participation, one oral presentation related to a specific topic (project work).

Beginn: 27.4.06

The seminar examines the Western as a specifically American genre, particularly looking at transformations of generic conventions in film history. We will approach the topic in three steps. In the first part we will briefly introduce the history of Westward expansion and the frontier - that after all provide the historical background and theme of the Western. The second part will focus on the theory of genre and the particular characteristics of the American film Western; we will discuss the films of some of the mayor directors of the Western (e.g. John Ford and Sam Peckinpah). The third part will investigate this seemingly "masculine" genre from a gender perspective. We will discuss topics such as the representation of women and "racial" minorities in the movies (particularly Native Americans), possible "feminist appropriations," and the significance of masculinity and femininity in, and for, this apparently universally popular film genre.

A reader will be provided after the semester break. Screenings will take place either before the seminar starts, from 8.15 to 10.15, or Tuesdays from 20.15 to 22.15. Students who cannot participate (screenings) have to watch the movies individually. A fairly good knowledge of the following movies is required before the beginning of the seminar (brief exam in the third week). The films are available in Mediothek of HU ("Semesterapparat"), Dorotheenstr. (Mon-Thur 10-19, Fri 10-18):

Bucking Broadway (J. Ford, 1917), The Iron Horse (J. Ford, 1924), Drums Along the Mohawk (J. Ford, 1939), Stagecoach (J. Ford, 1939), Unconquered (Cecil B. DeMille, 1947), Red River (H. Hawks, 1948), Fort Apache (J. Ford, 1948), Winchester '73 (A. Mann, 1950), Rio Grande (J. Ford, 1950), Devil's Doorway (A. Mann, 1950), The Big Sky (H. Hawks, 1952), High Noon, (F. Zinnemann, 1952), The Naked Spur (A. Mann, 1953), Apache (R. Aldrich, 1954), The Tin Star (A. Mann, 1957), Rio Bravo (H. Hawks, 1959), The Unforgiven (J. Huston, 1960), A Fistful of Dollars (S. Leone, 1964), For a Few Dollars More (S. Leone, 1965), The Wild Bunch (S. Peckinpah, 1968), Dances with Wolves (K. Costner, 1990)

Beginn: 25.4.06

The seminar offers a survey of possibilities for employment in the media industry and gives an introduction to the kind of qualifications that jobs in the fields of translations, publishing houses, online editing, journalism, public relations, radio and television, film-making, exhibition planning, and management of cultural institutions demand.

To this end we will read introductory texts, listen to and debate with invited guests who have "made it" in the media, and work on selected sample projects. You will learn about such tasks as calculating a new book, writing a screenplay, composing a film critique, financing and making a documentary film, or planning an exhibition.

The seminar is also to provide orientation for those who have not yet made up their mind about what to do after their studies.

The course material will be made available in a reader at the beginning of the semester. Requirements: regular attendance, active class participation, delivery of a written text (e.g. a book or film review, an interview with a media representative, a proposal for a film project), final exam (according to module regulations). Most presentations and all written tasks will be in English.

Beginn: 28.4.06

Weitere Angebote siehe: Constanze Richter, Sprungbrett · Studium und Beruf

Die Teilnahme an der Überblicksvorlesung (in engl. Sprache) ist verbunden mit der Mitarbeit an einem der zwei angebotenen Proseminare, in denen ausgewählte Texte diskutiert werden (Beteiligung an einem Kurzreferat). Die ausgewählten Texte werden in einem Reader zusammengestellt, soweit sie nicht in der Shorter Norton Anthology of American Literature (6/7tth edition) enthalten sind. Der Erwerb dieser Anthologie ist unverzichtbare Voraussetzung für ein Studium der amerikanischen Literatur.

Um eine möglichst gleichmäßige Aufteilung der Studierenden auf die fünf Begleitseminare zu gewährleisten, tragen Sie sich bitte vorher in eine der ab 21.3.06 am Info-Brett Amerikanistik (gegenüber R. 2010) aushängenden Listen ein und nehmen Sie dann den ersten Termin Ihrer Gruppe wahr.

Designed as an introductory survey, the course will discuss major phenomena and prosesses of the social, cultural, and intellectual history of America/the U.S.A. from the first English settlements to the Second World War. Based upon selected cases studies the course will problematize some of the controversies that have informed recent debates about the interpretation of American history.

Beginn: 27.4.06

This course builds coherence around the "craft of reading" (Robert Scholes) primarily 19th century American cultural texts and contexts in an interdisciplinary approach. Primary literary texts will be by authors such as Herman Melville, Rebecca Harding Davis, Stephen Crane, John Rollin Ridge, and Mark Twain.

All these works are what we might call "social fictions", fictions about social issues. That is, these texts lend themselves to being read in a documentary way about their historical period (between 1850 and the turn of the century). But in a sense they are also narratives about social fictions, in that they reveal (on many levels) the ways that cultures imagine and represent themselves to themselves.

Our emphasis will be on situating these literary texts among contemporaneous cultural artifacts and influences, drawing on other literature, documentary narrative (such as journalism), as well as art, film, photography, and other non-literary cultural sources. By looking closely at the relationship between literary texts and cultural contexts, we will explore questions about what it means to read the second half of the 19th century through literature and other cultural documents.

Requirements for this course include regular attendance, participation in class and online discussion (blog postings), and a final paper. In addition, each student (in pairs or small groups) will be responsible for one seminar session. Leading the seminar includes preparing an outline and materials, and writing a short reflection paper on some dimension of the seminar, due one week later.

More detailed information on the syllabus will be available on the American Studies homepage by the end of March.

Beginn: 26.4.06

The seminar examines the Western as a specifically American genre, particularly looking at transformations of generic conventions in film history. We will approach the topic in three steps. In the first part we will briefly introduce the history of Westward expansion and the frontier - that after all provide the historical background and theme of the Western. The second part will focus on the theory of genre and the particular characteristics of the American film Western; we will discuss the films of some of the mayor directors of the Western (e.g. John Ford and Sam Peckinpah). The third part will investigate this seemingly "masculine" genre from a gender perspective. We will discuss topics such as the representation of women and "racial" minorities in the movies (particularly Native Americans), possible "feminist appropriations," and the significance of masculinity and femininity in, and for, this apparently universally popular film genre.

A reader will be provided after the semester break. Screenings will take place either before the seminar starts, from 8.15 to 10.15, or Tuesdays from 20.15 to 22.15. Students who cannot participate (screenings) have to watch the movies individually. A fairly good knowledge of the following movies is required before the beginning of the seminar (brief exam in the third week). The films are available in Mediothek of HU ("Semesterapparat"), Dorotheenstr. (Mon-Thur 10-19, Fri 10-18):

Bucking Broadway (J. Ford, 1917), The Iron Horse (J. Ford, 1924), Drums Along the Mohawk (J. Ford, 1939), Stagecoach (J. Ford, 1939), Unconquered (Cecil B. DeMille, 1947), Red River (H. Hawks, 1948), Fort Apache (J. Ford, 1948), Winchester '73 (A. Mann, 1950), Rio Grande (J. Ford, 1950), Devil's Doorway (A. Mann, 1950), The Big Sky (H. Hawks, 1952), High Noon, (F. Zinnemann, 1952), The Naked Spur (A. Mann, 1953), Apache (R. Aldrich, 1954), The Tin Star (A. Mann, 1957), Rio Bravo (H. Hawks, 1959), The Unforgiven (J. Huston, 1960), A Fistful of Dollars (S. Leone, 1964), For a Few Dollars More (S. Leone, 1965), The Wild Bunch (S. Peckinpah, 1968), Dances with Wolves (K. Costner, 1990)

Beginn: 25.4.06

The seminar offers a survey of possibilities for employment in the media industry and gives an introduction to the kind of qualifications that jobs in the fields of translations, publishing houses, online editing, journalism, public relations, radio and television, film-making, exhibition planning, and management of cultural institutions demand.

To this end we will read introductory texts, listen to and debate with invited guests who have "made it" in the media, and work on selected sample projects. You will learn about such tasks as calculating a new book, writing a screenplay, composing a film critique, financing and making a documentary film, or planning an exhibition.

The seminar is also to provide orientation for those who have not yet made up their mind about what to do after their studies.

The course material will be made available in a reader at the beginning of the semester. Requirements: regular attendance, active class participation, delivery of a written text (e.g. a book or film review, an interview with a media representative, a proposal for a film project), final exam (according to module regulations). Most presentations and all written tasks will be in English.

Beginn: 28.4.06

Weitere Angebote siehe: Constanze Richter, Sprungbrett · Studium und Beruf

This course builds coherence around the "craft of reading" (Robert Scholes) primarily 19th century American cultural texts and contexts in an interdisciplinary approach. Primary literary texts will be by authors such as Herman Melville, Rebecca Harding Davis, Stephen Crane, John Rollin Ridge, and Mark Twain.

All these works are what we might call "social fictions", fictions about social issues. That is, these texts lend themselves to being read in a documentary way about their historical period (between 1850 and the turn of the century). But in a sense they are also narratives about social fictions, in that they reveal (on many levels) the ways that cultures imagine and represent themselves to themselves.

Our emphasis will be on situating these literary texts among contemporaneous cultural artifacts and influences, drawing on other literature, documentary narrative (such as journalism), as well as art, film, photography, and other non-literary cultural sources. By looking closely at the relationship between literary texts and cultural contexts, we will explore questions about what it means to read the second half of the 19th century through literature and other cultural documents.

Requirements for this course include regular attendance, participation in class and online discussion (blog postings), and a final paper. In addition, each student (in pairs or small groups) will be responsible for one seminar session. Leading the seminar includes preparing an outline and materials, and writing a short reflection paper on some dimension of the seminar, due one week later.

More detailed information on the syllabus will be available on the American Studies homepage by the end of March.

Beginn: 26.4.06

This course aims to trace the paramount importance of the visual in an understanding of the culture(s) of the city of modernity and postmodernity. Zooming in on the figure of the flaneur as both an actual wanderer and as a metaphorization of urban modernity, we will talk about the visuality of the city, its central tropes, and its limitations as an ordered system of signs in our discussions of literary (from Poe to Auster), filmic and theoretical (Benjamin, Buck-Morss, Brand) texts.

The predominance of the visual is well symbolized by the figure of the flaneur who emerges in European and then American metropolises from the 17th century on and quickly becomes an icon of urban modernity. Emphasizing the flaneur's role as a detached, highly individualized, mobile spectator, this seminar aims to show how the perambulations of the flaneur can symbolize what is often thought of as the modern urban experience. Critically interrogating the scope of both concepts, however, - that of a singular modern urban experience and that of the flaneur as the paradigmatic figure of modernity -, the seminar also questions the concepts' generalizing claim. By looking for a female flaneur, we will try to reveal the premises inherent to the concept of the flaneur in respect to gender and race. This will lead to the seminar's third main focus: the discussion of the city's scopic regime and its deconstruction - via the figure of the flaneur - in contemporary postmodernist literature.

A detailed syllabus containing a reading list will be made available by March 30th. The seminar takes place at the following dates and times: 21.4., 12-14; 19.5./9.6./30.6./14.7., 12-18. Seminar assignments (papers, reading material) will be discussed in the first session.

Beginn: 21.4.06

Ever since the birth of the gothic novel, ghosts are steady companions in the construction of culture and history. This seminar will explore the reasons for the continuous interest in ghostly matters. However, instead of looking at the "American pantheon" (Cathy Davidson's designation for Irving, Poe, Hawthorne, Melville, James) we will explore how women writers have shaped the ghost story. In the late 1930s and 1940s, Hollywood produced a series of romantic ghost stories to contrast the contemporaneous film noir genre. In the context of WWII the ghost story provided a dearly needed fantasy forum. For their sentimentality these films, all adaptations of well-known novels, were referred to as "woman's film" (Tania Modleski). We will discuss some of the representative examples of this subgenre, such as A Letter from an Unknown Woman (1944) as well as examples of the recent reemergence of the same ghost story pattern in movies like The Others (2001). One of our main interests will be the social context of "sightings." Ghosts suggest the complex relationship between the constitution of subjectivity and the social collective. We will explore the usefulness of the ghost story for revisions of history from alternate perspectives. The specific ties between the construction of gender and the ghost story will be at the center of our attention. Emily Bronte's novel Wuthering Heights (1930), a gothic example of the genre, and William Wyler's 1939 adaptation of Bronte's will give us a comparative perspective on film and literature to start with (please read the novel and see the film prior to the semester). A theoretical framework will allow us to establish a language for discussing spiritual matters. The main part of this seminar will cover a discourse analysis of tormented ghosts and their equally tormented human counterparts. The rest will engage in spectral theory and philosophy. A reader for this seminar will be available at the Copy Shop. A presentation in class is required. The "Schein" can only be obtained by regular participation in class, presentation and essay writing.

Beginn: 26.4.06

The myth of the American Dream can be read as a journey, as an American Odyssey. Physically and mentally people are on the move and mobility is deeply rooted in the American Dream.

After a discussion about the theoretical assumptions the course will explore various cultural manifestations of the highway, of America's unique roadside culture and its function(s) as specific public and personal spaces.

We will analyse literary texts (J. Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath, 1939; J. Kerouac, On the Road, 1957), road movies (Easy Rider, 1969; Paris, Texas, 1984) billboards, architecture (motels, drive-in restaurants) and other objects constituting the highway landscape. As a special example we will have a closer look at the "Mother Road", the Route 66.

A reader will be available at the beginning of the summer term. (Copy-Haus)

Requirements: regular attendance, active class participation, one oral presentation related to a specific topic (project work).

Beginn: 27.4.06

This course aims to trace the paramount importance of the visual in an understanding of the culture(s) of the city of modernity and postmodernity. Zooming in on the figure of the flaneur as both an actual wanderer and as a metaphorization of urban modernity, we will talk about the visuality of the city, its central tropes, and its limitations as an ordered system of signs in our discussions of literary (from Poe to Auster), filmic and theoretical (Benjamin, Buck-Morss, Brand) texts.

The predominance of the visual is well symbolized by the figure of the flaneur who emerges in European and then American metropolises from the 17th century on and quickly becomes an icon of urban modernity. Emphasizing the flaneur's role as a detached, highly individualized, mobile spectator, this seminar aims to show how the perambulations of the flaneur can symbolize what is often thought of as the modern urban experience. Critically interrogating the scope of both concepts, however, - that of a singular modern urban experience and that of the flaneur as the paradigmatic figure of modernity -, the seminar also questions the concepts' generalizing claim. By looking for a female flaneur, we will try to reveal the premises inherent to the concept of the flaneur in respect to gender and race. This will lead to the seminar's third main focus: the discussion of the city's scopic regime and its deconstruction - via the figure of the flaneur - in contemporary postmodernist literature.

A detailed syllabus containing a reading list will be made available by March 30th. The seminar takes place at the following dates and times: 21.4., 12-14; 19.5./9.6./30.6./14.7., 12-18. Seminar assignments (papers, reading material) will be discussed in the first session.

Beginn: 21.4.06

Ever since the birth of the gothic novel, ghosts are steady companions in the construction of culture and history. This seminar will explore the reasons for the continuous interest in ghostly matters. However, instead of looking at the "American pantheon" (Cathy Davidson's designation for Irving, Poe, Hawthorne, Melville, James) we will explore how women writers have shaped the ghost story. In the late 1930s and 1940s, Hollywood produced a series of romantic ghost stories to contrast the contemporaneous film noir genre. In the context of WWII the ghost story provided a dearly needed fantasy forum. For their sentimentality these films, all adaptations of well-known novels, were referred to as "woman's film" (Tania Modleski). We will discuss some of the representative examples of this subgenre, such as A Letter from an Unknown Woman (1944) as well as examples of the recent reemergence of the same ghost story pattern in movies like The Others (2001). One of our main interests will be the social context of "sightings." Ghosts suggest the complex relationship between the constitution of subjectivity and the social collective. We will explore the usefulness of the ghost story for revisions of history from alternate perspectives. The specific ties between the construction of gender and the ghost story will be at the center of our attention. Emily Bronte's novel Wuthering Heights (1930), a gothic example of the genre, and William Wyler's 1939 adaptation of Bronte's will give us a comparative perspective on film and literature to start with (please read the novel and see the film prior to the semester). A theoretical framework will allow us to establish a language for discussing spiritual matters. The main part of this seminar will cover a discourse analysis of tormented ghosts and their equally tormented human counterparts. The rest will engage in spectral theory and philosophy. A reader for this seminar will be available at the Copy Shop. A presentation in class is required. The "Schein" can only be obtained by regular participation in class, presentation and essay writing.

Beginn: 26.4.06

The course examines the literary representations of adolescence in young adult fiction in relation to the transformations in cultural concepts of adolescence in the postmodern American and Canadian societies at the end of the 20th century. While the discussion will focus on the aesthetic concepts and the specific nature of fictionalizing adolescence in the genre of young adult literature (in contradistinction to the so-called adult literature) it will explore at the same time major similarities and dissimilarities with regard to themes and narrative models employed in the construction of postmodern adolescence in selected American and Canadian texts.

Course requirements include regular attendance, active participation in the discussion as well as an oral presentation and a final paper. More detailed information about the syllabus will be available at the American Studies homepage by the beginning of April.

Beginn: 27.4.06

The pivotal role of intercultural marriages in U.S.-American constructions of 'race' has frequently been noted in recent research. Anti-miscegenation legislation, first passed in the seventeenth century, was not fully abolished until the Supreme Court decision in Loving vs. Virginia in 1967. Since such laws reflected a desire to protect white privileges, as well as essentialist notions of 'race' or ethnicity, writers frequently seized on the motif of interracial or intercultural love relationships to denounce racial discrimination and to deconstruct binary concepts of ethnicity. At the same time, literary constructions of such couples also interrogated contemporary notions of gender. A particularly intensive form of intercultural communication, partnerships between members of different cultural groups encourage reflections on contrasting gender systems, frequently offering women greater opportunities for self-definition. In many cases, authors explicitly designed their narratives with a view towards intervening in contemporary debates on 'race' and gender.

Texts to be discussed include Lydia Maria Childs Hobomok, Hum-Ishu-ma's Cogewea, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper's Iola Leroy, Alice Walker's Meridian, and Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club.

Beginn: 20.4.06

This course will address the far-reaching social and cultural changes of the 1960s with a particular focus on the emergence of the civil rights, women's, and gay and lesbian movements and the resulting reconfigurations of 'race', gender, and sexuality. In addition to reading literary works by Allen Ginsberg, Amiri Baraka/LeRoi Jones, Lorraine Hansberry, Sylvia Plath, Toni Morrison and Thomas Pynchon, we will discuss the Vietnam War, the role of television, the cultural significance of music, sartorial and hairstyles, and the university as a locus of political protest.

Requirements for a Leistungsschein include an oral presentation, a written term paper, and participation in class discussions.

Beginn: 18.4.06

The course examines the literary representations of adolescence in young adult fiction in relation to the transformations in cultural concepts of adolescence in the postmodern American and Canadian societies at the end of the 20th century. While the discussion will focus on the aesthetic concepts and the specific nature of fictionalizing adolescence in the genre of young adult literature (in contradistinction to the so-called adult literature) it will explore at the same time major similarities and dissimilarities with regard to themes and narrative models employed in the construction of postmodern adolescence in selected American and Canadian texts.

Course requirements include regular attendance, active participation in the discussion as well as an oral presentation and a final paper. More detailed information about the syllabus will be available at the American Studies homepage by the beginning of April.

Beginn: 27.4.06

While the American Civil War has always been a relevant topic in the public and academic discourse in the USA after 1865, there has been a significantly increased interest in this war in the 20th century. The 1980s and 1990s in particular saw a remarkable increase of academic publications as well as fictional and non-fictional representations of this conflict. At the backdrop of this renewed interest in an event that ended more than 140 years ago the course will "revisit" the Civil War by discussing selected texts written by those who directly and indirectly fought it. The readings will include letters, reports and accounts produced by protagonists of both sides of the war since the 19th century. In unfolding the causes, the emergence of this conflict and its impact on individual biographies as well as on American society at large the discussion will explore various perspectives and perceptions of the war and their function in conceptualizing both contemporary and present self-definitions of American culture and society in an effort to understand "A war that never goes away" (James McPherson) and investigate the strategies employed for the reconstruction of a usable past.

Course requirements include regular attendance, active participation in the discussion as well as an oral presentation and a final paper. More detailed information about the syllabus will be available at the American Studies homepage by the beginning of April.

Beginn: 25.4.06

This course explores Native American identity and culture in the context processes of globalization by comparing the particular histories and struggles as well as the old and new linkages between diverse indigenous groups in the Americas. Based upon an examination of the supposedly characteristic or enduring features of Native cultures vis a vis academic paradigms of indigeneity, the discussion will focus on the impact of global forces on current definitions of Native American cultural identity as well as on the political and social practices of Native American groups to strengthen their cultural autonomy against local, national, transnational or global interests. In this context the discussion will include an examination of notions and processes of modernization, democracy and religion as they continue to be relevant for Native American identity formation.

Course requirements include regular attendance, active participation in the discussion as well as an oral presentation and a final paper. More detailed information about the syllabus will be available at the American Studies homepage by the beginning of April.

Beginn: 25.4.06

The concept of 'culture' plays an essential role in literary and cultural studies. This colloquium explores the crisis of the concept of 'culture' which has emerged in recent decades as a result of the institutional, empirical and theoretical challenges that have been launched against the too-simple link between culture and geographic space. This course will focus on two particular areas of research that have emerged as distinct (if related) attempts to map the future of culture: (a) the varied, interdisciplinary discourses of 'cosmopolitanism,' and (b) the development of new forms of comparative, trans- or post-national, world literary studies.

The course will combine theoretical and critical readings with selected novels or films. A more detailed program of the course will be available at the beginning of April on our Homepage. A reader of the theoretical and critical readings will be deposited in our library (Seminarordner) and can be bought at Copy-Haus, Georgenstrasse/corner Universitätsstrasse.

Requirements: Regular attendance, mandatory in-class presentation, and short paper or Thesenblatt. Optional: research paper of 20 to 25 pages in English (Hauptseminarschein).

If you are interested in participating in this course, please send an e-mail message to guenter.lenz@rz.hu-berlin.de or szeman@mcmaster.ca or come to our office hours before the beginning of the course.

Beginn: 27.4.06

Das Kolloquium richtet sich an Studierende, die an ihrer Magisterarbeit oder ihrer Dissertation arbeiten und daran interessiert sind, Entwürfe für ihre Arbeiten oder auch einzelne Kapitel in der Gruppe zu besprechen. Auch theoretische Texte, die für einzelne Arbeiten zentral sind, können gemeinsam gelesen und diskutiert werden.

Beginn: 28.4.06

Visual Culture Studies als ‚Kulturwissenschaft' steht in einem Spannungsverhältnis mit Kunstgeschichte als ‚Bildwissenschaft'. Das transdisziplinär ausgerichtete Seminar untersucht mit Lektüren und der Analyse an Hand von konkreten Beispielen aus Kunst und Populärkultur Theorien, Positionen und Praktiken visueller Konstruktion und Repräsentation im umkämpften Feld zwischen ‚kulturellen', ‚ethnischen', gender- und sexuellen Positionierungen. Programmatiken und Artefakte werden im Feld zwischen Identität, Hybridität und "Borderlands" aufgesucht. Begrenzte Teilnahme, Anmeldung mit Angabe von Fächerkombination erforderlich bei gabriele.dietze@rz.hu-berlin.de

Studierende der Gender Studies, Kulturwissenschaft und anderer Fächer sind bei der Abfassung ihrer Abschlussarbeiten in besonderer Weise durch methodische und theoretische Fragen herausgefordert. Dies hängt mit dem hybriden Status dieser Fächer zusammen. In dem Kolloquium wollen wir die Gelegenheit bieten, diese Fragen an geplanten oder schon begonnenen Arbeiten zu diskutieren, um damit den Schreibprozess zu unterstützen. Die Transdisziplinarität wird auch auf Seiten der Dozentinnen durch die unterschiedlichen disziplinären Perspektiven gewährleistet. Da die Zahl der teilnehmenden Personen begrenzt ist, wird um Anmeldung bei einer der Dozentinnen gebeten.

Hinweise zur Veranstaltung: Begrenzte Teilnahme, Anmeldung erforderlich bei gabriele.dietze@rz.hu-berlin.de, Teamteaching.

Das Kolloquium "Toolbox: Theories and Methods For Your Final Paper" orientiert sich an den Bedürfnissen von Studierenden in der Examensphase: Es verbindet eine systematische Wiederholung theoretischer literatur- und kulturwissenschaftlicher Kenntnisse mit dem Training zentraler Fähigkeiten und Fertigkeiten für das Verfassen einer längeren wissenschaftlichen Arbeit sowie mit der Vermittlung von Strategien zur Selbstorganisation und Motivation während des Forschungs- und Schreibprozesses. Es bietet Studierenden, die in der Abschlussphase ihres Studiums vielfach unter Isolation und Mangel an Zusammenarbeit leiden, die Möglichkeit des wissenschaftlichen und persönlichen Austausch mit KommilitonInnen, bzw. ermöglicht angehenden DoktorandInnen, frühzeitig fachbereichsinterne und interdisziplinäre Netzwerke zu bilden. Weiterhin werden Präsentations- und Kommentartechniken vermittelt und erprobt, mittels derer sich die Studierenden auf die Teilnahme an Konferenzen und Symposien vorbereiten können.

For many indigenous people, historical pressures and the advancement of Western thinking, norms and culture have made it increasingly more difficult to maintain an identity that is unique and yet compatible to the world around them. Many Native groups in the United States, Canada and elsewhere continue to struggle with the effects of modernization, capitalism, and colonization, as well as the accompanying social, cultural, governmental, spiritual, economic, technological and legal ramifications thereof.

Modern media has multiplied the amount of contact Native people have with the rest of the world, with a visible effect on language, lifestyle, oral history and ceremonial knowledge. However, while MTV and CNN might bring the good, the bad and the ugly of culture and society of the U.S. in to many Native homes, it does not bring the long-needed physical, social, and financial infrastructure that is needed to blend the historically-strong ways and means of Native people with modern society. And while the potential positive effects of outside cultures are at times kept at bay, it has often been the case that the social and cultural resources of the indigenous group are taken away in the process. As indigenous cultures moved through critical moments in their history, such as conflicts with invading nations or epidemics of imported disease, scientists began to study the native cultures and export indigenous objects, traditions and ceremonial knowledge away from their original context. Through the years, these exported ideas and material goods have taken on a life of their own. At the same time, the very same philosophies or objects, their application and their meaning, have evolved within the originating culture.

Ideas of economy, governance, family structure, attitudes regarding health and emotional wellness and the general values of a community are all subject to change over time, with or without the influence of a conquering power. And with no fewer than 600 different Native communities and tribes, each with a slightly (or greatly) different approach to history, change, culture and relations with the government, it is a complicated fabric of relationships and development. There is not one solution to each difficult issue that might arise, but there are steps that continue to be taken to address the future of Native communities in a positive way. This series of speakers will address just some of the topics that continue to play a role in the every day lives of Native people, their governments, their society and their future.

The conference focuses on American Indians in the United States, Canada and Mexico and features talks from both experts on the topic and university students, art presentations and surrounding events.

For more information and the conference program, see the conference web site.