Das Kolloquium ist eine außerhalb des Vorlesungsverzeichnisses laufende Veranstaltung mit interdisziplinärer Ausrichtung. Sie soll im Seminar - unter Oldenburgs AnglistInnen und AmerkanistInnen - fachorientierten Diskussionen Raum bieten. Der Austausch mit Gästen, ob Vortragende oder Zuhörende, steht dabei immer wieder im Vordergrund.

Die Veranstaltung findet meist Dienstags (im Seminarratsraum A6-2-212) statt. In der Regel steht ein Vortrag von 45 Minuten bis einer Stunde im Zentrum einer offenen Diskussion. Interessierte alle Fächer sind zu jeder dieser Veranstaltungen herzlich eingeladen. Ansprechpartner für Ideen und Organisation (wie etwa die Aufnahme in die Mailinglist) ist

Olaf Simons.

Winter 2008/09

Tue. Nov. 4, 2008: Kalí Tal, "Trauma Theory and the Candidacy of John McCain"

John McCain's war experiences and political career provide an excellent example for measuring the interaction between personal experience and national mythology. The psychological and personal reality of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder intersect with popular culture mythology about Vietnam war veterans and POWs. In McCain's career, this trajectory can be measured by his personal responses to difficult moments in his life and the way they match or contrast with changing U.S. opinions about Vietnam war veterans and about the POW-MIA controversy. Looked at through this lens, the current U.S. election can be seen as not only a political choice, but a narrative choice on the part of the American people.

Tue. Dec. 2, 2008: Isabel Karremann: "The Art of Forgetting in Literary and Cultural Studies"

When Umberto Eco raised the question whether there might be an art of forgetting, he dismissed the very possibility from the start: "An ars oblivionalis? Forget it!" (1988). His rejection was based on the strictly semiotic assumption that it is impossible to represent what has been forgotten because each use of signs makes the signified present, conscious and hence remembered/memorable. This model can only think forgetting as a negative power, as an absence, a destructive force of nature against which an inherently positive ars memorativa is pitched. However, the relation between memory and forgetting is more complicated than this dichotomous model of presence and absence, of compensation and loss, of culture and nature suggests. Today's talk will give a systematic survey of the cultural techniques and practices available for consigning a specific memory content to oblivion, as well as the hermeneutic tools available for studying forgetting.

Tue. Dec. 9, 2008: Angela Baier: "I feel, I feel the Deity within" - Georg Friedrich Händels Oratorien und der whiggistische Enthusiasmus

Was die Entstehung von Georg Friedrich Händels Oratorien in der ersten Hälfte des 18. Jahrhunderts angeht, hält sich in der Händelforschung hartnäckig die Meinung, Händel habe seine nun englischsprachigen und religiösen Werke für eine aufsteigende bürgerliche Mittelklasse komponiert, während die italienische Opera seria als typisch „aristokratische“ Kunstform zunehmend in Vergessenheit geriet. Das Oratorium wird also, quasi als „Handelian variation on Habermas“, zum einem der wichtigsten Instrumente bei der Verbürgerlichung der hohen Kunst und damit auch der Gesellschaft im Allgemeinen. Die Verbürgerlichungsthese gehört – trotz Originalklangbewegung – nach wie vor zu den Heiligtümern der Händelforschung, die anzugreifen dem Sakrileg gleichkommt. Sie ist zugegebenermaßen praktisch in der Handhabung und liefert eine simple Erklärung für den Aufstieg einer neuartigen Kunstform. Sie hat nur einen einzigen Fehler: mit der historischen Realität hat sie wenig zu tun.

Als theoretisches Konstrukt, das Ende des 19. Jahrhunderts in Deutschland entstand, kann die Verbürgerlichungsthese nicht weiterhelfen bei der Ermittlung des tatsächlichen Zielpublikums und der realen politischen und religiösen Aussagekraft der Werke. Mein Vortrag wird in einem interdisziplinären Ansatz versuchen, das englische Oratorium in ein ungewöhnliches, aber historisch akkurateres Licht zu rücken.

Tue Dec. 16, 2008: Christina Meyer, "Trauma Frames"

Ever since he published his book Maus (1991), Art Spiegelman has established himself as a well-known author all over the continents, and has become a challenge (not only) for literary scholars. In Maus Spiegelman chooses the medium “comix” as a mode of inquiry and as a means to convey the events of the past. In his recent publication on the terror attacks of September 11, 2001 with the stirring title In the Shadow of No Towers, Spiegelman has once again picked up the pen to narrate/draw the events of that day. Whereas he created a monochromatic montage full of silhouettes, black lines and shadings in Maus, he now produces a collage of color images flickering on the paper-screen in front of the reader’s eye.

The attacks on the WTC in the morning hours of September 11, 2001 are probably the most well documented events (be that in photographic images, in VHS-video images, official TV reportage, or any kind of digitalized pictures). All over the world, people would/could watch what was shown on TV (and on the Internet). In years to come, everybody will have a personal story at hand to tell where s/he was and what s/he did on that particular day.

Spiegelman’s graphic text is his personal response to immense shock, disbelief, disorientation and incomprehension – feelings he shares with so many other people. The syntax of his text is built of framed images that capture all kinds of sensations (in words and images), only to be subverted in the next instance. Frames no longer hold the picture. Buildings and figures become elastic, they transgress borders. The only border then is the limited space available on a given page of the book. Content and form of Spiegelman’s In the Shadow of No Towers (and their interdependency) will be the center of attention in my talk. His work represents an aesthetic challenge in the frame of postmodern strategies so widely discussed these days.

Tue Jan. 13, 2009: Holger Limberg, "Teacher-Student Interaction at University: The Discourse of Academic Office Hours"

Gleich et al. (1982: 44) have described academic office hours “as an institutionalized form of ‘taking time’ for the student”. While both sides involved in this interaction generally agree on the importance of these encounters, the participants seldom reflect on the possibilities and difficulties that these interactions entail (especially for students). Ethnographic studies have pointed out the necessity for an improvement of teacher – student contact outside of class (e.g. Gleich et al. 1982; Boettcher and Meer 2000). In the research field of academic discourse analysis, very little is known about how teachers and students mutually construct these consultations and how they design their verbal actions to achieve a (successful) outcome. The features of this academic talk (i.e. face-to-face, interactive, student-driven, non-evaluated, institutionally-bound, task-oriented, asymmetrical, etc.) make it a multifaceted and interesting form of interaction for discourse analysis.

This study includes both an ethnographic account of academic interactions between teachers and students within the culturally-situated context of a German university as well as a more detailed analysis of the interactional organization of this speech event. Drawing on naturally-occurring data from two German universities, the overall structural organization of these interactions is investigated using a micro, CA-type analysis of participants’ actions. The analytical focus is put on the sequential activities teachers and students engage in during the different phases of the consultation. This includes, e.g., how participants open office hour talk, how they establish an agenda, how they manage advice-giving, and, finally, how they close the consultation. Implications are drawn regarding the interactional effectiveness as well as the socio-academic importance of this talk. Furthermore, suggestions are made as to how these findings might be implemented in an academic setting.

Tue Jan. 20, 2009: Megan Macdonald, "Liturgical Lens: Performance Art and Christianity"

Megan Macdonald at the Department of Drama, Queen Mary, University of London

What influence do western spiritual practices have on how we understand religion and spirituality? Through examples from contemporary performance practices and a comparison between academic analyses of Marina Abramović's The House With the Ocean View this talk will open up questions surrounding how we use language to discuss and write about the spiritual.

Summer 2009

Date under consideration: Maike Engelhardt: "Qualitative Forschung"

Details folgen.

Archive and Planning

• Kolloquium/Archive
• Planning see: Talk:Kolloquium