2024 SÜ Key Concepts in Cultural Studies

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Please note: The ang070/ang071 module consists of

  • a seminar (S/Ü "Introduction to the Critical and Scholarly Discussion of Literature", offered in the previous winter term),
  • a lecture (VL "Introduction to Literary History and Textual Analysis", offered in the previous winter term),
  • a seminar (S/Ü "Key Concepts in Cultural Studies", offered in this term), and
  • a lecture (VL "Historical Background and Critical Concepts", offered in this term).

On this page you will find detailed information on the lecture "Historical Backgrounds and Critical Concepts" and on the courses "Key Concepts in Cultural Studies".

Lecture: VL "Historical Backgrounds and Critical Concepts"

  • 3.02.040 - Michaela Keck, Anton Kirchhofer, Julia Wurr - Thu, 12:00-14:00, Room: A11 1-101

VL "Historical Background and Critical Concepts" Course Outline "Historical Backgrounds and Critical Concepts"

Courses: S/Ü "Key Concepts in Cultural Studies"

  • 3.02.041 - Alena Cicholewski - Fri, 10:00-12:00, Room: A14 1-113
  • 3.02.043 - Rebecca Käpernick - Fri, 10:00-12:00, Room: A01 0-005
  • 3.02.044 - Michaela Keck - Thu, 08:00-10:00, Room: A14 0-030
  • 3.02.045 - Michaela Keck - Thu, 10:00-12:00, Room: A14 0-030
  • 3.02.046 - Anna Auguscik - Fri, 12:00-14:00, Room: A14 0-031
  • 3.02.047 - Christian Lassen - Thu, 08:00-10:00, Room: A01 0-005
  • 3.02.048 - Christian Lassen - Fri, 08:00-10:00, Room: A01 0-005
  • 3.02.049 - Silke Stroh - Fri, 10:00-12:00, Room: A14 1-112
  • 3.02.050 - Silke Stroh - Fri, 08:00-10:00, Room: A01 0-010b

S/Ü "Key Concepts in Cultural Studies" Course Outline "S/Ü Key Concepts in Cultural Studies"

Revision: Ü "Revision Course"

Ü "Revision Course" Course Outline "Revision Course"

Tutorials: TUT "Key Concepts in Cultural Studies"

  • 3.02.056 - Tutor: Matthias Himstedt - Wed, 18:15-19:00, Room: A03 4-404
  • 3.02.057 - Tutor: Matthias Himstedt - Wed, 19:00-19:45, Room: A03 4-404
  • 3.02.058 - Tutorin: Tabea Hirsch - Tue, 18:15-19:00, Room: A01 0-010 b
  • 3.02.059 - Tutorin: Tabea Hirsch - Tue, 19:00-19:45, Room: A01 0-010 b
  • 3.02.060 - Tutorin: Lea Behrens - Thu, 18:15-19:00, Room: A03 4-404
  • 3.02.061 - Tutorin: Lea Behrens - Thu, 19:00-19:45, Room: A03 4-404

TUT "Key Concepts in Cultural Stuides" Course Outline "TUT Key Concepts in Cultural Studies"

Both the lecture (VL) and the courses (S/Ü) are part of the Basismodul ang070/ang071 and focus on key concepts in cultural studies and techniques of textual analysis in the context of discussing culture. The VL "Historical Backgrounds and Critical Concepts" consists of 14 lectures and the S/Ü "Key Concepts in Cultural Studies" of 14 courses/Übungen.

The S/Ü "Key Concepts in Cultural Studies" analyzes material and is relying on concepts and approaches complemented by the lectures. The analysis of the material from a cultural studies perspective is based on three guiding questions:

  • 1. What are the specific and medial characteristics of the material? (See Handouts: Conceptual Tools)
  • 2. How is the material situated and what institutions are responsible for its existence and discussion?
  • 3. What function and effect for identity formation can the material have?

Please make sure that you are registered for the lecture and ONE of the courses in Stud.IP.

The texts for our courses will come from a common pool, though each course may have a different choice.

The "analytical tools" will be presented by the lecturers (on a handout) in each meeting. The additional reading from which these 'tools' are taken is not obligatory, and it can be done either before or after each session. Mandatory texts and other materials will be made accessible to you electronically (cf. the links below). In addition, you will need to purchase the following works: 

   Jacobs, Harriet. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. 1861. Oxford: OUP, 2016. Print. [ISBN 13: 978-0198709879]

   Bechdel, Alison. Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic. London: Jonathan Cape, 2006. Print. [ISBN 13: 978-0224080514] OR, ALTERNATIVELY
   Bechdel, Alison. Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic. 2006. New York: Random House UK, 2022. Print [ISBN 13: 978-1-5291-1616-8]

   Apocalypse Now: Final Cut. Dir. Francis Ford Coppola. Perf. Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall, Martin Sheen, Frederic Forrest, and Dennis Hopper. 1979. Arthaus, 2019. DVD.

Course work: You will be asked to write three ungraded exercise assignments (max. 3 pages) and produce a Research Paper Outline 'Plus' (RPO+), consisting of a research paper outline and a problem-oriented sample analysis (due on August 15). The assignments and the RPO+ are to be formatted according to the style sheet. For the RPO+ you will need to find your own topic to work on, document the preliminary work (this includes finding an appropriate title, writing a paragraph on the state of the art of your problem and one that describes your problem and your goal, and presenting a tentative table of contents as well as a short bibliography) and write up a formal and genre-specific analysis of a passage that fits in with the research question and thesis statement put forward in your RPO.



Session One, April 13/14: Introduction

Welcome

Preliminaries and General Course Information.

Analytical Tools: Culture and Representation, Discourse, Media, Identity

Session Two, April 20/21: Working with Key Concepts in Cultural Studies

Analytical Tools: Culture and Representation, Discourse, Media, Identity

Further Reading

Session Three, April 27/28: Analyzing Print Media: Slave Narrative I

Primary Material

  • Jacobs, Harriet. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. 1861. Oxford: OUP, 2016. Print.

Secondary Material

Analytical Tools

Session Four, May 04/05: Analyzing Print Media: Slave Narrative II

Primary Material

  • Jacobs, Harriet. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. 1861. Oxford: OUP, 2016. Print.

Secondary Material

Analytical Tools

Session Five, May 11/12: Analyzing Print Media: Slave Narrative III

Primary Material

  • Jacobs, Harriet. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. 1861. Oxford: OUP, 2016. Print.

Secondary Material

Analytical Tools 

    WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT "Non-Fiction" published

    WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT "Non-Fiction": Sample solution

    REGISTRATION PERIOD BEGINS

May 18: No Session

May 19: Reading Week

Session Six, May 25/26: Analyzing Visual Media: Graphic Novel I

Primary Material

  • Bechdel, Alison. Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic. London: Jonathan Cape, 2006. Print.

Analytical Tools 

    [WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT "Non-Fiction" due]

Session Seven, June 01/02: Analyzing Visual Media: Graphic Novel II

Primary Material

  • Bechdel, Alison. Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic. London: Jonathan Cape, 2006. Print.

Secondary Material

Analytical Tools

Guiding Questions

  • At the very beginning of her text, Butler points out that she feels uneasy when it comes to identifying with specific identity categories as these "tend to be instruments of regulatory regimes, whether as the normalizing [emphasis added] categories of oppressive structures or as the rallying points for a liberatory contestation of that very oppression" (13-4). How does the quote relate to the ambivalent processes of identitiy formation that may lead to oppression (through pathologisation, criminalisation) but also to emancipation (through political articulation)?
  • How could identity categories/ labels be made useful in a reverse discourse/ counter discourse? What may be the uses of Spivak's notion of "strategic essentialism"?
  • And yet, which space or means of resistance does Butler open up by refusing fixed identity categories and by insisting on the instability of labels? If Spivak's "strategic essentialism" consolidates a political identity/sameness as a means of resistance, i.e. a political "we" opposing the status quo, then how can Butler's oppostion to essentialist identity categories be conceptualised as a means of resistance as well? May it in fact undo essentialist positions altogether?
  • What subversive effect can be achieved by the deliberate refusal/irritation/disruption of identity categories? How can imitation, and the deliberately flawed imitation of (normative) gender (stereotypes) in particular, become a means of gender insubordination? What does it mean if gender is thus shown to be an effect of imitation and repetition rather than a natural given? How do these practices of imitation and repetition expose the performativity of identity and identity categories?
  • How can drag serve as an instrument and a deconstructivist tool in this context? How may drag, as a gender performance that deliberately irritates gender norms through imitation, in the act of performing gender undo it?
  • What does drag reveal about the allegedly natural relationship between gender and biological sex? How does it deconstruct the binaries male/masculine and female/feminine?
  • If drag illustrates that all gender is performative, something produced rather than given, then how does this insight lead us to rethink/reconceptualise notions of an allegedly natural/proper/real/original gender?

Session Eight, June 08/09: Analyzing Visual Media: Graphic Novel III

Primary Material

  • Bechdel, Alison. Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic. London: Jonathan Cape, 2006. Print.

Secondary Material

Analytical Tools 

    WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT "Graphic Novel" published

    WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT "Graphic Novel": sample solution

Session Nine, June 15/16: Analyzing Audiovisual Media: Film I

Primary Material

  • Apocalypse Now: Final Cut. Dir. Francis Ford Coppola. Perf. Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall, Martin Sheen, Frederic Forrest, and Dennis Hopper. 1979. Arthaus, 2019. DVD.

Secondary Material

Analytical Tools 

    [WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT "Graphic Novel" due]

    REGISTRATION PERIOD ENDS

Session Ten, June 22/23: Analyzing Audiovisual Media: Film II

Primary Material

  • Apocalypse Now: Final Cut. Dir. Francis Ford Coppola. Perf. Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall, Martin Sheen, Frederic Forrest, and Dennis Hopper. 1979. Arthaus, 2019. DVD.

Secondary Material

Analytical Tools

Session Eleven, June 29/30: Analyzing Audiovisual Media: Film III

Primary Material

  • Apocalypse Now: Final Cut. Dir. Francis Ford Coppola. Perf. Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall, Martin Sheen, Frederic Forrest, and Dennis Hopper. 1979. Arthaus, 2019. DVD.

Secondary Material

Analytical Tools 

    WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT "Film" published

    WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT "Film": sample solution

Session Twelve, July 06/07: RPOplus I: Textual Analysis and Problem Orientation

Skills and Activities

Assignments "Non-Fiction", "Graphic Novel", "Film" 

    [WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT "Film" due]

Session Thirteen, July 13/14: RPOplus II: Brief Report on 'Work in Progress'

Skills and Activities

Brief Report on 'Work in Progress': Your Term Paper Projects 

    [WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT "RPOplus" due August 15]

Guidelines for finding your RPO topic:

1. Your RPO+ topic needs to be related to at least one of the key concepts: identity, media, discourse, culture and representation
2. As the material basis for your analysis you will need to pick material from the 'Übungen' (Incidents, Fun Home, Apocalypse Now).

You have access to the scholarly discourse on the material from the Übung through the MLA database.

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