S CAMP!

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COURSE OUTLINE

3.02.971: S CAMP!

  • [Module] ang971,ang972, ang973 - Culture and Difference
  • [Credits] M.A. English Studies: 12 KP; M.Ed. Gym: 9 KP; M.Ed. WiPäd 6 KP
  • [Instructor] Dr. Christian Lassen
  • [Time] Monday, 10-11 am: weekly chat (via "Meetings" on our Stud.IP page); Monday, 11-12 am: video conference for presentation groups, designed to discuss the presentation scheduled for the following week
  • [Room] online; until further notice: video conferences for presentation groups; power point presentations; chat (via "Meetings")
  • [Description] Judy Garland singing Somewhere over the Rainbow in shiny red slippers, the look of Doris Day, a cheesy song by Liza Minnelli, the impersonations of Dame Edna, ABBA, the architecture of Gaudi, feather boas, the aphorisms of Oscar Wilde and Quentin Crisp, a Eurovision song performed with maximum verve, Julie Andrews yodelling on a mountaintop, psychedelic sci-fi flicks from the 1960s, the Austin Powers movies, a Tiffany lamp, glam rock, Batman and Robin, Bette Davis, Bette Midler, the arias of Florence Foster-Jenkins, rococo, Kiss, Ernie & Bert, water ballet revues, the Last Night of the Proms, Huit Femmes, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Hairspray and perhaps flamingos … If these things make you laugh for no particular reason, this may well be the right class for you. According to the late Susan Sontag then, camp is "a certain mode of aestheticism. It is one way of seeing the world as an aesthetic phenomenon." Seeing the world through camp lenses has its advantages, for camp, the notorious 'gay sensibility', also signifies a powerful deconstructivist practice. As such, its favourite tasks are to ridicule failed seriousness, to unmask false glamour, and to expose the unmarked and invisible workings that underlie a (hetero-)normative culture. However, there is another side to camp, for camp also loves the things it mocks and ridicules, loves it, that is, when it can assemble and confer "beauty" on a world that has lost its charms. Hence, camp needs to be regarded as a fundamentally ambivalent sensibility: political in the sense that its paranoid/deconstructivist practices aim at demystification and exposure, and thera-peutic in the sense that its aesthetic/reparative practices strive for comfort, uplift, and healing. This seminar tries to explore the workings of camp, analysing its distribution, its subterfuge, and its parodic reinscriptions.
  • [Office Hours] see Stud.IP; until further notice, office hours will be held via video conference. Please sign up for a time slot on my Stud.IP profile ("Sprechstunden") and you will receive a link to the virtual conference room.


PRIMARY TEXTS

  • Crisp, Quentin. The Naked Civil Servant. New York and London: HarperCollins, 2007. Print. [or any other edition]
  • Calamity Jane. Dir. David Butler. Perf. Doris Day and Howard Keel. 1953. Warner Home Video, 2003. DVD.
  • Orton, Joe. What the Butler Saw. London et al.: Bloomsbury, 1969. Print. [or any other edition]
  • The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Dir. Jim Sharman. Perf. Tim Curry, Susan Sarandon, and Barry Bostwick. 1975. Twentieth Century Fox, 2013. DVD.
  • Hairspray. Dir. John Waters. Perf. Ricki Lake, Divine, Debbie Harry, Sonny Bono, Jerry Stiller. 1988. New Line Cinema, 2007.
  • Velvet Goldmine. Dir. Todd Haynes. Dir. Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Ewan McGregor, Christian Bale, Toni Collette. 1998. Miramax, 2000.


ASSIGNMENTS

  • [Prüfungsleistung]

M.A. English Studies: asynchrones (Gruppen-)Referat (max. 2 Personen; ca. 45 min.) mit Schriftlicher Ausarbeitung (15 Seiten) [oder in Ausnahmefällen: Hausarbeit (20 Seiten)] (9 KP) + Project/ Essay (3 KP)

M.Ed. Gym.: asynchrones (Gruppen-)Referat (max. 2 Personen; ca. 45 min.) mit Schriftlicher Ausarbeitung (15 Seiten) [oder in Ausnahmefällen: Hausarbeit (20 Seiten)] (9 KP)

M.Ed. WiPäd: asynchrones (Gruppen-)Referat (max. 2 Personen; ca. 45 min.) mit Schriftlicher Ausarbeitung (10 Seiten) [oder in Ausnahmefällen: Hausarbeit (15 Seiten)] (9 KP)

  • [Aktive Teilnahme] 5 Abstracts, jeweils inklusive Thema, Forschungsstand, These und Outline des Arguments (je 1 Seite insgesamt)

Please note that written assignments (abstracts, short term papers, long term papers) need to be composed according to the style sheet ("Leitfaden") of the University of Oldenburg, which can be accessed via the 'Institutswiki'-page of the English department. The style sheet not only provides relevant information on how to write a correct bibliography but it may also help you to structure your work according to academic standards.

Please make sure to sign the "Erklärung zum 'Plagiat'" and to attach it to your research papers.

  • [Abgabefrist] September 15th, 2021.




Session 01, April 12, Introduction

Organisational Matters

  • Assignments

Assignments are graded and mandatory.

M.A. English Studies: In order to obtain 12 credits (KP), you will have to give a (group) presentation (Referat, 45 min.) on one of the presentation topics specified in the syllabus. In addition to that, you will have to hand in a short term paper (Ausarbeitung, 10 Seiten) by the end of term (September, 15th). In exceptional cases, you may hand in a long term paper (Hausarbeit, 15 Seiten) instead of the above. However, an exception is only granted upon consultation. As M.A. students, you will have to hand in an extra project/essay, the topic and design of which we will discuss during an individual consultation.

M.Ed. Gym: In order to obtain 9 credits (KP), you will have to give a (group) presentation (Referat, 45 min.) on one of the presentation topics specified in the syllabus. In addition to that, you will have to hand in a short term paper (Ausarbeitung, 15 Seiten) by the end of term (September, 15th). In exceptional cases, you may hand in a long term paper (Hausarbeit, 20 Seiten) instead of the above. However, an exception is only granted upon consultation.

M.Ed. WiPäd: In order to obtain 6 credits (KP), you will have to give a (group) presentation (Referat, 45 min.) on one of the presentation topics specified in the syllabus. In addition to that, you will have to hand in a short term paper (Ausarbeitung, 10 Seiten) by the end of term (September, 15th). In exceptional cases, you may hand in a long term paper (Hausarbeit, 15 Seiten) instead of the above. However, an exception is only granted upon consultation.

  • Presentation Topics, Presentation Groups, Video Conferences for Presentation Groups

Presentation Topics are specified on your syllabus. In order to prepare your presentations, please pick a topic, get together in groups (see below) and write up a power-point presentation. Add your audio commentary to the presentation, save the file and send it on to me so that we can discuss your presentation in a video conference (see below). After that, you make your file available on Stud.IP on the Friday before your presentation so that all participants can read/ watch the presentation in time, i.e. before the session/ chat.

Requests regarding your choice of presentation topics can be send to me via e-mail, starting on Monday, April, 05. I will sign you in in the order of the requests' arrival. Please check this page regularly to see if your requests have been met.

Video Conferences for presentations take place in the second part of the weekly sessions, i.e. Monday 11-12 am. Please make sure that you attend the video conference the week before your presentation is due.

  • Active Participation

Active Participation is ungraded but mandatory. In order to fulfil the requirements, you will have to write five abstracts, each including a topic, a state of research, a thesis statement, and a brief outline of your argument (approx. 1 page), in the course of the seminar. You can choose your own topic; however: all abstracts have to address different primary texts. In other words, your abstracts will have to cover five out of six primary materials. They are due by the end of the week (i.e. Friday) that marks the ending of the respective sections, i.e. due date The Naked Civil Servant: May, ??; due date Calamity Jane: May, ??; due date What the Butler Saw: June, ??; due date The Rocky Horror Picture Show: June ??; due date Hairspray: July, ??; due date Velvet Goldmine: July, ??)

  • Weekly Chat

In order to discuss the presentations and related topics, I will be in the chatroom ("Meetings" on our Stud.IP page) during the first part of each session, i.e. Monday 10-11 am. Please make sure to read/ watch the presentations before you join the chat. The second part of each session, i.e. Monday 11-12 am, is booked for the respective presentation groups (see video conference for presentation groups)


   Summary: Presentations

1. Pick a presentation topic and contact me via e-mail (starting April, 05). Check below for available places. Presentation groups may consist of a maximum of 2 people.

2. Contact the other members of your group and prepare your presentation, i.e. power-point presentation with audio commentary.

3. Send me your presentation 8 days before your presentation is scheduled.

4. Discuss your presentation with me in a video conference 7 days, i.e week, before your presentation is scheduled. Video conferences take place on Monday, 11-12 am.

5. Upload your file on the Friday before your presentation is scheduled.

6. Join the chat and be ready to answer questions on the day of your presentation. Chats take place on Monday, 10-11 am.

Session Two, April 19: Theory Session - Paranoid Readings

Theory Texts

  • Judith Butler. "From Interiority to Gender Performatives." Camp: Queer Aesthetics and the Performing Subject: A Reader. Ed. Fabio Cleto. Ann Arbor: U of Michigan P, 2002. 361-8. Print.
  • Jonathan Dollimore. "Postmodern: On the Gay Sensibility, or the Pervert's Revenge on Authenticity – Wilde, Genet, Orton, and Others." Sexual Dissidence: Augustine to Wilde, Freud to Foucault. Oxford: Clarendon, 1996. 307-25. Print.

Guiding Questions

On Butler:

On Dollimore:

Session Three, April 26: Theory Session: Reparative Readings

Theory Texts

  • Susan Sontag. "Notes on Camp." Against Interpretation and Other Essays. London: Eyre & Spottiswood, 1967. 275-92. Print.
  • Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick. "Paranoid Reading and Reparative Reading. Or, You're So Paranoid, You Probably Think this Essay Is about You." Touching Feeling. Affect, Pedagogy, Performativity. Durham: Duke UP, 2003. 123-51. Print.

Guiding Questions

On Sontag:

On Sedgwick:

Video Conference

  • Video Conference Group:

Session Four, May, 06, Romanticising Opium: Recreational Drug Use Between Creativity and Addiction

Primary Material

  • De Quincey, Thomas. Confessions of an English Opium-Eater and Other Writings. 1821. Oxford: OUP, 2008. Print.

Secondary Material

  • Catani, Damian. "The 'Spleen' and 'Idéal' of Opium: Baudelaire and Thomas de Quincey." Dix-Neuf 17.3 (2013): 237-50.
  • Morrison, Robert. "Introduction." Confessions of an English Opium-Eater and Other Writings. By Thomas De Quincey. 1821. Oxford: OUP, 2008. ix-xl. Print.

Presentation

  • Writing 'Under the Influence,' or, The Romantics and Their Ambivalent Opium Narratives: Thomas De Quincey, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Charles Baudelaire
  • Presentation Group: Jana Wessels, Nico Groenewold

Video Conference

  • Video Conference Group: Shirin Müller, Catharina Siemann, Anna-Lena Müller

Session Five, May, 13, Dealing with Opium: British Imperialism and the Historical Context of 19th-Century Opium Trade

Primary Material

  • De Quincey, Thomas. Confessions of an English Opium-Eater and Other Writings. 1821. Oxford: OUP, 2008. Print.

Secondary Material

  • Krishnan, Sanjay. "Opium and Empire: The Transports of Thomas De Quincey." Boundary 2 33.2 (2006): 203-34.
  • Sitter, Zak. "The Native Performant: Linguistic Authority in the Text of Romantic Orientalism." Differences 21.2 (2010): 109-141.

Further Reading

  • Said, Edward W. Orientalism: Western Concepts of the Orient. London: Penguin, 1995. (Excerpts, esp. "Introduction")

Presentation

  • Enter the Malay: Orientalism, the Opium Wars, and Representations of the Other in Confessions of an English Opium-Eater
  • Presentation Group: Shirin Müller, Catharina Siemann, Anna-Lena Müller

Video Conference

  • Video Conference Group: Selcuk Ordul, Rebecca Krumbein
   May, 15: Abstract Confessions of an English Opium-Eater due

Session Six, May, 20, Enter the Scientist: Experimenting with the Substance

Primary Material

  • Stevenson, Robert Louis. Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. 1886. Ed. Katherine Linehan. New York and London: Norton, 2003. Print.

Secondary Material

  • Harrison, Debbie. "Doctors, Drugs, and Addiction: Professional Integrity in Peril at the Fin de Siècle." Gothic Studies 11.2 (2009): 52-62. Print.
  • Wright, Daniel L. "'The Prisonhouse of My Disposition': A Study of the Psychology of Addiction in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." Studies in the Novel 26.3 (1994): 254-67. Print.

Presentation

  • A Case Study in Addiction: Strange Case's Narratological Design and Its Ambivalent Representation of Dr Jekyll as a Medical Doctor and a (Mad) Scientist
  • Presentation Group: Selcuk Ordul, Rebecca Krumbein

Video Conference

  • Video Conference Group: Patricia Schlump, Lina Wenke, Kristin Greite

Session Seven, May, 27, Exploring the Self: Unleashing Queer Doubles in Victorian Gothic Fiction

Primary Material

  • Stevenson, Robert Louis. Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. 1886. Ed. Katherine Linehan. New York and London: Norton, 2003. Print.

Secondary Material

  • Showalter, Elaine. "Dr Jekyll's Closet." The Haunted Mind: The Supernatural in Victorian Literature. Eds. Elton S. Smith and Robert Haas. Lanham, MD, and London: Scarecrow, 1999. 67-88. Print.
  • Halberstam, Judith. Skin Shows: Gothic Horror and the Technology of Monsters. Durham, NC, and London: Duke UP, 1995. 53-85. Print.

Presentation

  • Through the Backdoor, or, Inside Doctor/House: Metonymies (and Topographies) of Same-Sex Desire
  • Presentation Group: Patricia Schlump, Lina Wenke, Kristin Greite

Video Conference

  • Video Conference Group: Maximilian Rugen, Leonard Engelbart
   May, 29: Abstract Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde due

Session Eight, June, 03, Enter the Genius: Ennobling Substance Abuse in Late-Victorian Crime Fiction

Primary Material

  • Conan Doyle, Arthur. The Sign of Four. 1890. London Penguin, 2001. Print. (excerpts)

Secondary Material

  • Small, Douglas. "Sherlock Holmes and Cocaine: A 7% Solution for Modern Professionalism." ELT 58.3 (2015): 341-60. Print.
  • O'Dell, Benjamin D. "Performing the Imperial Abject: The Ethics of Cocaine in Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Sign of Four." The Journal of Popular Culture 45.5 (2012): 979-99. Print.

Presentation

  • The Detective v. the Doctor, or: Late 19th- century Discourses on Cocaine, Representations of Cocaine Addiction and Their Effects on the Master Detective
  • Presentation Group: Maximilian Rugen, Leonard Engelbart
   June, 05: Abstract The Sign of Four due

Session Nine, June, 10, Theory Session: Neuroenhancers in Twenty-First-Century Films

Theory Texts

  • Hildt, Elisabeth. "Cognitive Enhancement – A Critical Look at the Recent Debate." Cognitive Enhancement: An Interdisciplinary Perspective. Eds. Elisabeth Hildt and Andreas G. Franke. Springer: Dordrecht, 2013. 1-14. Print. (Excerpts)
  • Wagner, Greta. "Leveling [sic] the Playing Field: Fairness in the Cognitive Enhancement Debate." Cognitive Enhancement: An Interdisciplinary Perspective. Eds. Elisabeth Hildt and Andreas G. Franke. Springer: Dordrecht, 2013. 217-31. Print.
  • Roxburgh, Natalie. "The Rise of Psychopharmacological Fiction." Representations of Science in Twenty-First-Century Fiction. Eds. Nina Engelhardt and Julia Hoydis. London: Palgrave. 19-35. Print.

Guiding Questions

Video Conference

  • Video Conference Group: Volha Silkina, Jelto Witt

Session Ten, June, 17, Constructing the Self: Pop-Cultural Representations of Self-Empowerment

Primary Material

  • Limitless. Dir. Neil Burger. Perf. Bradley Cooper, Abbie Cornish, and Robert De Niro. 2011. Concorde, 2011. DVD.

Secondary Material

  • Zwart, Hub. "Limitless as a Neuropharmaceutical Experiment and as a Daseinsanalyse: On the Use of Fiction in Preparatory Debates on Cognitive Enhancement." Medicine, Health Care, and Philosophy: A European Journal 17.1 (2014): 29-38. Print.
  • Heuner, Ulf. "100% Gehirn plus/minus 100% Moral: Neuroenhancement in Limitless." Zocker, Drogenfreaks & Trunkenbolde: Rausch, Ekstase und Sucht in Film und Serie. Eds. Martin Poltrum, Bernd Rieken and Thomas Ballhausen. Berlin: Springer. 2019. 437-52. Print.

Presentation

  • "I Was Blind but now I See": Representing Enhancement Enthusiasm Visually and Cinematographically
  • Presentation Group: Volha Silkina, Jelto Witt

Video Conference

  • Video Conference Group: Jonas Rother, Jonas Menzel, Adrian Englisch

Session Eleven, June, 24, "What Dreams May Come?": A Society Between Self-Enhancement and Self-Annihilation

Primary Material

  • Limitless. Dir. Neil Burger. Perf. Bradley Cooper, Abbie Cornish, and Robert De Niro. 2011. Concorde, 2011. DVD.

Secondary Material

  • Zwart, Hub. "Limitless as a Neuropharmaceutical Experiment and as a Daseinsanalyse: On the Use of Fiction in Preparatory Debates on Cognitive Enhancement." Medicine, Health Care, and Philosophy: A European Journal 17.1 (2014): 29-38. Print.
  • Heuner, Ulf. "100% Gehirn plus/minus 100% Moral: Neuroenhancement in Limitless." Zocker, Drogenfreaks & Trunkenbolde: Rausch, Ekstase und Sucht in Film und Serie. Eds. Martin Poltrum, Bernd Rieken and Thomas Ballhausen. Berlin: Springer. 2019. 437-52. Print.

Presentation

  • "What Dreams May Come?": Limitless as a Cautionary Tale
  • Presentation Group: Jonas Rother, Jonas Menzel, Adrian Englisch

Video Conference

  • Video Conference Group: Maik Harms, Susanne Scholl
   June, 26: Abstract Limitless due

Session Twelve, July, 01, Enter the Yuppie: Neo-Liberal Identity Performances

Primary Material

  • The Wolf of Wall Street. Dir. Martin Scorsese. Perf. Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Hill, and Margot Robbie. 2013. Universal, 2014. DVD.

Secondary Material

  • Roxburgh, Natalie. "Entertainment, Optimization, and Self-Medication in The Wolf of Wall Street." Business-Fiktionen und Management Inszenierungen. Eds. Christine Künzel et al. Berlin: Peter Lang, 2018. 289-302. Print.
  • Kogan, Ilany. "Master of the Universe: Scorsese's The Wolf of Wall Street Through a Psychoanalytic Lens." The American Journal of Psychoanalysis 78 (2018): 267-86. Print.

Presentation

  • "And I Choose Rich Every Fucking Time": Neo-Liberalism, Biopolitical Societies, and Self-Optimisation in The Woolf of Wall Street
  • Presentation Group: Maik Harms, Susanne Scholl

Video Conference

  • Video Conference Group: Kimberly Dawn Labonte, Clara Sophie Schenck

Session Thirteen, July, 08, Enter Popeye: Parodying Self-Optimisation and Self-Enhancement

Primary Material

  • The Wolf of Wall Street. Dir. Martin Scorsese. Perf. Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Hill, and Margot Robbie. 2013. Universal, 2014. DVD.

Secondary Material

  • Raile, Paolo. "Aufstieg und Fall des Jordan Belfort." Zocker, Drogenfreaks & Trunkenbolde: Rausch, Ekstase und Sucht in Film und Serie. Eds. Martin Poltrum, Bernd Rieken and Thomas Ballhausen. Berlin: Springer. 2019. 175-90. Print.
  • Ferriss, Suzanne. "Refashioning the Modern American Dream: The Great Gatsby, The Wolf of Wall Street, and American Hustle." The Journal of American Culture 41.2 (2018): 153-75. Print.

Presentation

  • Spinach Overdose: Parodying Self-Enhancement Through Popeye, Miami Vice, and Other Intertextual References in The Wolf of Wall Street
  • Presentation Group: Kimberly Dawn Labonte, Clara Sophie Schenck
   July, 10: Abstract The Wolf of Wall Street due

Session Fourteen, July, 15, RPO Session

Guidelines for finding your RPO topic:

Your RPO topic needs to be related to at least one of the primary texts

   September, 15: Term Paper due

Please upload your paper to the folder "Ausarbeitungen und Hausarbeiten" on our Stud.IP page.

Bitte stellen Sie Ihre Prüfungsleistung in den Ordner "Ausarbeitungen und Hausarbeiten" auf unserer Stud.IP-Seite ein.