Difference between revisions of "S Living On the Waterfront: Regionalism and Liminality in Representations of East Anglia and the Fens"

From Angl-Am
Jump to: navigation, search
(242 intermediate revisions by one user not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:
!!!THIS COURSE IS CURRENTLY UNDER CONSTRUCTION!!!
 
 
 
'''COURSE OUTLINE'''
 
'''COURSE OUTLINE'''
  
Line 15: Line 13:
 
* [Room] online; '''until further notice''': weekly chat; video conferences for presentation groups (via "Meetings")
 
* [Room] online; '''until further notice''': weekly chat; video conferences for presentation groups (via "Meetings")
  
* [Description]  
+
* [Description] Reclaimed from the sea through drainage, the Fens, not unlike the Frisian region, mark a liminal space where the boundaries between the land and the sea, the earth and the sky are constantly blurred. Situated along England's largest bay, the Wash, and stretching into Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire, the Fen Country and its flat, coastal marshland have thus been prone to literary and cultural landscape constructions that highlight often uncanny notions of the in-between – where nothing is ever stable or permanent and where narratives have been fabricated to resist the constant flux of growth and decay, becoming and passing, even as they succumb to it. As a consequence, the Fens as well as other wetland regions of East Anglia have traditionally inspired three supposedly very different genre traditions: nature writing, the ghost story, and historiographic metafiction. The literary interaction between these genres, however, has shaped the idea of the Fens as a haunted country for a long time and moreover, it continues to produce ever new varieties of this regional literature, among them stories of the weird, the English eerie, new folk horror, or memoirs in which the identities of people and places are in fact inextricably intertwined.
  
 
* [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.
 
* [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'''
+
'''PRIMARY TEXTS (MANDATORY READING)'''
 +
 
 +
* James, M.R. ''Collected Ghost Stories''. 1931. Oxford: OUP, 2013. Print. [selected short stories]
  
* James, M.R. ''Collected Ghost Stories''. Oxford: OUP, 2013. Print. [selected short stories]
+
* Malden, R.H. ''Nine Ghosts''. London: Edward Arnold, 1943. n. pag. [selected short stories; available online, see below]
  
 
* Johnson, Daisy. ''Fen''. London: Vintage, 2016. Print. [selected short stories]
 
* Johnson, Daisy. ''Fen''. London: Vintage, 2016. Print. [selected short stories]
  
* McGregor, Jon. ''This Isn't the Sort of Thing That Happens to Soomeone Like You''. 2012. London: 4th Estate, 2017. Print. [selected short stories]
+
* McGregor, Jon. ''This Isn't the Sort of Thing That Happens to Someone Like You''. 2012. London: 4th Estate, 2017. Print. [selected short stories]
  
 
* Swift, Graham. ''Waterland''. 1983. London: Picador, 2010. Print.
 
* Swift, Graham. ''Waterland''. 1983. London: Picador, 2010. Print.
  
 
* Parnell, Edward. ''Ghostland: In Search of a Haunted Country''. London: William Collins, 2019. Print. [selected chapters; paperback edition available in October]
 
* Parnell, Edward. ''Ghostland: In Search of a Haunted Country''. London: William Collins, 2019. Print. [selected chapters; paperback edition available in October]
 +
 +
 +
'''FURTHER TEXTS (RECOMMENDED PRIMARY READING)'''
 +
 +
* Kingsley, Charles. ''Hereward the Wake.'' London and Cambridge: Macmillan, 1866. Print.
 +
 +
* Kingsnorth, Paul. ''The Wake.'' London: Unbound, 2014. Print.
 +
 +
* Laing, Olivia. ''To the River.'' 2011. Edinburgh: Canongate, 2017. Print.
 +
 +
* Sebald, W.G. ''Die Ringe des Saturn.'' Frankfurt a.M.: Eichborn, 1995. Print.
 +
 +
* Tillyard, Stella. ''The Great Level.'' London: Vintage, 2018. Print.
  
  
 
'''ASSIGNMENTS'''
 
'''ASSIGNMENTS'''
  
* [Prüfungsleistung] (Gruppen-)Referat (max. 2 Personen; 45-60 min.) mit Schriftlicher Ausarbeitung (10 Seiten) [oder in Ausnahmefällen: Hausarbeit (15 Seiten)]
+
* [Prüfungsleistung] asynchrones (Gruppen-)Referat (max. 4 Personen; 45-60 min.) mit Schriftlicher Ausarbeitung (10 Seiten) [oder in Ausnahmefällen: Hausarbeit (15 Seiten)]
  
 
* [Aktive Teilnahme] 4 Abstracts, jeweils inklusive Thema, Forschungsstand, These und Outline des Arguments (je 1 Seite insgesamt)
 
* [Aktive Teilnahme] 4 Abstracts, jeweils inklusive Thema, Forschungsstand, These und Outline des Arguments (je 1 Seite insgesamt)
Line 43: Line 56:
 
Please make sure to sign the "Erklärung zum 'Plagiat'" and to attach it to your research papers.
 
Please make sure to sign the "Erklärung zum 'Plagiat'" and to attach it to your research papers.
  
* [Abgabefrist] 15. März 2020.  
+
* [Abgabefrist] 15. März 2021.  
  
  
Line 52: Line 65:
 
__TOC__
 
__TOC__
  
==Introduction [Session One]==
+
==Session One, October 21, Introduction==
  
  
Line 58: Line 71:
  
 
* Assignments
 
* Assignments
Assignments are graded and mandatory. In order to obtain 6 credits (KP), you will have to give a (group) presentation (Referat, 45-60 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, 15). 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.
+
Assignments are graded and mandatory. In order to obtain 6 credits (KP), you will have to give a (group) presentation (Referat, 45-60 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 (March, 15). 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, 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 comments to the presentation, for example via open cast, 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.
+
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 the video conference for presentation groups (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/ weekly chat.
  
Requests regarding your choice of presentation topics can be send to me via e-mail, starting on Tuesday, March, 31. 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.
+
Requests regarding your choice of presentation topics can be send to me via e-mail, starting on Monday, October 12. 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. Tuesday 9-10 am. Please make sure that you attend the video conference the week ''before'' your presentation is due.
+
Video Conferences for presentations take place in the second part of the weekly sessions, i.e. Wednesday 1-2 pm. Please make sure that you attend the video conference the week ''before'' your presentation is due.
  
 
* Active Participation
 
* Active Participation
 
+
Active Participation is ungraded but mandatory. In order to fulfil the requirements, you will have to write four 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 four out of five 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 ''Ghost Stories'': November, 13; due date ''Fen'': November, 27; due date ''This Isn't the Sort of Thing That Happens to Someone Like You'': December, 11; due date ''Waterland'': January 15; due date ''Ghostland'': January 29.
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 Vampyre": May, 01; due date "Carmilla": May, 08; due date ''Dracula'': May, 29; due date ''Interview With a Vampire'': June 12; due date ''Ed Wood'': June 26; due date ''Twilight'': July, 10)
+
  
 
* Weekly Chat
 
* Weekly Chat
 
+
In order to discuss the presentations and related topics, I will be in the chatroom Weekly Chat ("Meetings" on our Stud.IP page) during the first part of each session, i.e. Wednesday 12-1 pm. Please make sure to read/ watch the presentations before you join the chat. The second part of each session, i.e. Wednesday 1-2 pm, is booked for the respective presentation groups (''see'' video conference for presentation groups)
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. Tuesday 8-9 am. Please make sure to read/ watch the presentations before you join the chat. The second part of each session, i.e. Tuesday 9-10 am, is booked for the respective presentation groups (''see'' video conference for presentation groups)
+
  
 
* Seminarapparat
 
* Seminarapparat
  
Relevant secondary material will be made available on Stud.IP. Please note that, additionally, the syllabus includes an extensive bibliography that maybe helpful with regard to your presentations and written assignments (abstracts; short/ long term papers).
+
Relevant secondary material will be made available on Stud.IP. Please note that, additionally, the syllabus includes an extensive bibliography that may be helpful with regard to your presentations and written assignments (abstracts; short/ long term papers).
  
 
     Summary: Presentations
 
     Summary: Presentations
  
1. Pick a presentation topic and contact me via e-mail (starting March, 31). Check below for available places. Presentation groups may consist of a maximum of 3 people.
+
1. Pick a presentation topic and contact me via e-mail (starting October, 12). Check below for available places. Presentation groups may consist of a maximum of 4 people. (This number may change, depending on the number of participants.)
  
2. Contact the other members of your group and prepare your presentation, i.e. power-point presentation with audio commentary (e.g. with open cast).
+
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.
 
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 Tuesdays, 9-10 am.
+
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 Wednesday, 1-2 pm.
  
 
5. Upload your file on the Friday before your presentation is scheduled.
 
5. Upload your file on the Friday before your presentation is scheduled.
  
6. Join the chat and be ready to answer questions via chat on the day of your presentation. Chats take place on Tuesdays, 8-9 am.
+
6. Join the weekly chat and be ready to answer questions on the day of your presentation. Weekly chats take place on Wednesday, 12-1 pm.
  
==Session Two, April, 21: Theory Session==
 
  
'''Theory Texts'''
+
'''On East Anglia and the Fens: A Brief Introduction'''
* Carroll, Samantha J. "Putting the 'Neo' Back Into 'Neo-Victorian': The Neo-Victorian Novel as Postmodern Revisionist Fiction." ''Neo-Victorian Studies'' 3.2 (2010): 172-205.
+
* Llewellyn, Mark. "What Is Neo-Victorian Studies?" ''Neo-Victorian Studies'' 1.1 (2008): 164-85.
+
  
'''Guiding Questions'''
+
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkdqdWjAvz0 Ralph Vaughan Williams. ''In the Fen Country''. Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra.]
 +
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DeT3DkyXc8 Ralph Vaughan Williams. ''Norfolk Rhapsody No.1''. London Philharmonic Orchestra.]
 +
*[https://www.thehistorypress.co.uk/articles/a-short-history-of-the-fens/ Frank Meeres. "A Short History of the Fens." ''The History Press''.]
  
On the texts:
+
==Session Two, October 28: Theory Session - Regionalism==
* How is the relationship between Victorian and neo-Victorian texts conceptualised? What is 'Victorian' about Neo-Victorianism and what is 'neo' about Neo-Victorianism?
+
* What is the critical potiential of the postmodern 'neo' in 'neo-Victorian'? What difference does it make? Or doesn't it make any difference at all?
+
* Why is it simplistic to read neo-Victorian texts solely with regard to the Victorian tradition?
+
* If neo-Victorian texts revisit and revise Victorian texts, then: what do these revisions reveal about the past? And what do they reveal about the present?
+
* How can you relate these revisions to textual practices: who speaks? (narration); who sees? (focalisation); matters concerning perceptibility and reliability? And what are potential effects of shifts in narration and focalisation? Or in other words: Who gets to speak? Who gets to see? Who is telling the story? In a neo-Victorian text (as opposed to a Victorian text)?
+
  
Beyond the texts:
+
'''Theory Texts'''
* Thinking about Victorian ("Carmilla", ''Dracula'') or even pre-Victorian ("The Vampyre") representations of the vampire, what are some of the features and character traits that have been ascribed and attributed to this stock character?
+
* Boyce, James. ''Imperial Mud: The Fight for the Fens.'' London: Icon, 2020. Print. [Selected Chapters]
* Why would these representations count among the primary examples of Victorian Gothic fiction?
+
* [https://uol.de/f/3/inst/anglistik/download/Lehre/Lassen_Lehrmaterialien/AM_Fen_Country/Hart_regionalism_in_english_fiction_between_the_wars_gesichert.pdf Hart, Matthew. "Regionalism in English Fiction Between the Wars." ''The Cambridge Companion to the Twentieth-Century English Novel''. Ed. Robert L. Caserio. Cambridge: CUP, 2009. 89-101. Print. (especially 89-93)]
* What contemporary, i.e. Victorian, discourses can you discern in these texts? And which relevant contexts and issues could they be related to?
+
* [https://uol.de/f/3/inst/anglistik/download/Lehre/Lassen_Lehrmaterialien/AM_Fen_Country/Head_mapping_rural_and_regional_identities_gesichert.pdf Head, Dominic. "Mapping Rural and Regional Identities." ''The Cambridge Companion to British Fiction since 1945''. Ed. David James. Cambridge: CUP, 2015. 13-27. Print.]
* In view of postmodern/neo-Victorian (''Interview with a Vampire'', ''Twilight'') representations of the vampire, what differences in representation can you discern? And what are their potential effects?
+
* What do these differences revise about past, i.e. Victorian, representations? And what do they reveal about present, i.e. postmodern and neo-Victorian, representations?
+
* Do postmodern/neo-Victorian representations of the vampire attribute a different set of features and character traits to the stock character? Or are they 'variations' on the same themes?
+
* Hypothesis: If, in any given culture, the stock character of the vampire embodies qualities that are secretly desired, yet outwardly disavowed, demonised, and displaced onto the 'Other', then: what is it that these variations on the stock character of the vampire can reveal about these cultures?
+
  
'''Video Conference'''
 
* ''Video Conference Group'':
 
  
==Session Three, April, 28: Blood Brothers: Vampirism and Male Homoeroticism==
+
'''Guiding Questions'''
 +
* What does the term ''regional'' refer to and in what ways has the meaning of the term changed over the years?
 +
* How can a region be defined as a space? Is it independent, self-sufficient, a world in and by itself? Or is it interdependent and part of a whole? Is it 'natural' and 'authentic' or 'man-made' and 'construed' - both figuratively and literally?
 +
* What are the effects of the dichotomy regional/local/rural versus national/international/global/urban, etc.?
 +
* What are its specific effects with regard to conflicting narratives and histories? Local narratives and grand narratives? In the Fen Country, what role does 'draining' play in this context?
 +
* In what ways do specific regions shape the people who live in them, i.e. their identities? What do these people identify with? And what about disidentification? (Think about Scottish identites and their respective links to their 'own' space, to Britain, or Europe?)
 +
* According to the secondary texts, how is East Anglia/ how are the Fens construed in regional literature? In what ways does the geographical (and geological) specificity of this region also ascribe meaning - in a literary/cultural sense - to this place?
 +
* In view of next week's session, why would the term ''liminality'' lend itself to the cultural construction of the Fens, or indeed the East Anglian wetlands more generally?
  
'''Primary Material'''
+
==Session Three, November 4: Theory Session - Liminality==
* Polidori, John. "The Vampyre." 1819. ''The Vampyre and Other Tales of the Macabre''. Oxford: OUP, 2008. 1-24. Print.
+
  
'''Secondary Material'''
+
'''Theory Texts'''
* Auerbach, Nina. ''Our Vampires, Ourselves''. Chicago and London: The U of Chicago P, 1995. 11-38.
+
* [https://uol.de/f/3/inst/anglistik/download/Lehre/Lassen_Lehrmaterialien/AM_Fen_Country/Bergmann_LiminalityShortStory_gesichert.pdf Bergmann, Ina. "Nature, Liminality, and the Short Story: An Analytical Triad." ''ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment'' 24.3 (2017): 477–81. Print.]
* Skarda, Patricia L. "Vampirism and Plagiarism: Byron's Influence and Polidori's Practice." ''SiR: Studies in Romanticism'' 28 (Summer 1989): 249-69.
+
[For a more extensive account of this approach, see: Achilles, Jochen, and Ina Bergmann. "'Betwixt and Between': Boundary Crossings in American, Canadian, and British Writing." ''Liminality and the Short Story: Boundary Crossings in American, Canadian, and British Writing''. Eds. Jochen Achilles and Ina Bergmann. New York and London: Routledge, 2014. 3–31.]
 +
* Turner, Victor. "Betwixt and Between: The Liminal Period in ''Rites de Passage''." ''The Forest of Symbols: Aspects of Ndembu Ritual''. Ed. Victor Turner. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 1967. 93–111. Print.
 +
Reprinted in: [https://uol.de/f/3/inst/anglistik/download/Lehre/Lassen_Lehrmaterialien/AM_Fen_Country/Turner_Betwixt_and_Between_gesichert.pdf Turner, Victor. "Betwixt and Between: The Liminal Period in ''Rites de Passage''." ''Reader in Comparative Religion: An Anthropological Approach''. Eds. William A. Lessa and Evon Z. Vogt. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon, 1979. 234-43. Print.]
  
 
'''Guiding Questions'''
 
'''Guiding Questions'''
 +
* What characterises ''liminality'' and ''the liminal''? What concept(s) does it serve to describe? How can ''liminality'' be defined in a relational structure?
 +
* What is the difference between the terms ''liminal'' and ''liminoid''?
 +
* How can the analysis of the following aspects benefit from the concept of ''liminality'': identity; form/genre; setting; life/death distinction; human/animal distinction; gender; etc.? You may also come up with examples from our primary texts.
 +
* In what ways does the short story as a narrative form meet the conceptual demands of ''liminality''? Is the short story particularly apt to express liminal structures? And if so, why? Do your findings hold true for the ''liminoid'' as well? Or does it change the form of the short story?
 +
* Think about ways to correlate and/or connect ''regionalism'' and ''liminality''. How do regional observations (particularising representations like draining, coastal erosion, silt and siltation vs. universalising representations like global warming, rising sea levels, climate change) relate to concepts of ''liminality''?
  
On the origin of the text:
+
==Session Four, November 11: Regionalism and Liminality in Ghost Stories from East Anglia and the Fens==
* When and under what circumstances did this story come into being? What is the "myth" behind the story?
+
 
+
On formal matters:
+
* What do you find out about the narrator?
+
* What do you find out about the focaliser?
+
* How is Lord Ruthven characterised? Which of his character traits continue to define the stock character of the vampire in later works?
+
 
+
On context/theory:
+
* Gender/Sexuality: How is the homosocial/homoerotic bond between Lord Ruthven and Aubrey represented? What role do the female characters (Ianthe; Miss Aubrey; the Italian girl; etc.) play in the text? Can you discern 'love triangles' and if so, what is their function? Can you discern 'sibling substitution'?
+
* Settings/Space: How are the settings described? Do you find landscapes that are construed in a 'meaningful' way? What are the various stations of "the tour" (5) Aubrey and Ruthven are going on - Belgium, Italy, Greece, etc.? How do they relate to constructions of centre v. margin?
+
* Pathology/Disease: How is Aubrey's disease represented towards the end of the story?
+
* Genre: Do you find similarities between the relationship of Ruthven and Aubrey and that of other Gothic male 'couples', e.g. Victor Frankenstein/Creature (Mary Shelley's ''Frankenstein''); Caleb Williams/Falkland (William Godwin's ''Caleb Williams''); Jekyll/Hyde (Stevenson's ''Strange case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde''); Louis/Lestat (Neil Jordan's ''Interview with a Vampire'', etc.)
+
 
+
'''Video Conference'''
+
* ''Video Conference Group'': Michaela Tsankova, Anna Pleye, Janna Poppen
+
 
+
    May, 01: Abstract "The Vampyre" due
+
 
+
==Session Four, May, 05: The Blood Countess: Vampirism, Sexology, and Female Same-Sex Desire==
+
  
 
'''Primary Material'''
 
'''Primary Material'''
* Sheridan Le Fanu, J. "Carmilla." 1872. ''In a Glass Darkly''. Oxford: OUP, 2008. 243-319. Print.  
+
* James, M.R. "Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad." 1904. ''Collected Ghost Stories''. Oxford: OUP, 2013. 76-93. Print.
 +
* James, M.R. "A Warning to the Curious." 1925. ''Collected Ghost Stories''. Oxford: OUP, 2013. 334-57. Print.
 +
*[http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~pardos/ArchiveFenstanton.html James, M.R. "The Fenstanton Witch." Globalnet. Web. Retrieved September 17, 2020.]
 +
*[http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0605461h.html Malden, R.H. "Between Sunset and Moonrise." ''Nine Ghosts''. London: Edward Arnold & Co, 1943. Project Gutenberg Australia. Web. Retrieved September 17, 2020.]
  
 
'''Secondary Material'''
 
'''Secondary Material'''
* Antrim Major, Adrienne. "Other Love: Le Fanu's Carmilla as Lesbian Gothic." ''Horrifying Sex: Essays on Sexual Difference in Gothic Literature''. Ed. Ruth Bienstock Anolik. Jefferson, NC, and London: McFarland, 2007. 151-66.
+
*[https://uol.de/f/3/inst/anglistik/download/Lehre/Lassen_Lehrmaterialien/AM_Fen_Country/Armitt__Lucie_Ghost-AL_Erosion_doppelseitig_gesichert.pdf Armitt, Lucie. "Ghost-Al Erosion: Beaches and the Supernatural in Two Stories by M.R. James." ''Popular Fiction and Spatiality: Geocriticism and Spatial Literary Studies''. Ed. Lisa Fletcher. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016. 95-108. Print.]
* Palmer, Paulina. "The Lesbian Vampire: Transgressive Sexuality." ''Horrifying Sex: Essays on Sexual Difference in Gothic Literature''. Ed. Ruth Bienstock Anolik. Jefferson, NC, and London: McFarland, 2007. 203-32.
+
  
''' Further Reading'''
+
'''Further Material'''
* Auerbach, Nina. ''Our Vampires, Ourselves''. Chicago and London: The U of Chicago P, 1995. 38-60.
+
* [https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000nv75 BBC Radio Four. "Words and Music: This Haunted Land." ''BBC Radio Four'', October 25, 2020. Web.]
  
'''Presentation'''
+
'''Group Work'''
* A Case Study in Female Same-Sex Desire, or: "Carmilla"'s Narratological Design and the Lesbian Origins of Vampirism
+
* Group 01: James, M.R. "Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad."
 +
* Group 02: James, M.R. "A Warning to the Curious."
 +
* Group 03: James, M.R. "The Fenstanton Witch."
 +
* Group 04: Malden, R.H. "Between Sunset and Moonrise."
  
* ''Presentation Group'': Michaela Tsankova, Anna Pleye, Janna Poppen
+
* ''Presentation Group'':  
  
 
'''Video Conference'''
 
'''Video Conference'''
* ''Video Conference Group'': Menko Harken, Marlon Müller
+
* ''Video Conference Group'': Dana Kirikova, Kira Döding, Luise Jöllenbeck, Maria Kruse
  
     May, 08: Abstract "Carmilla" due
+
     November, 13: Abstract ''Ghost Story'' due
  
==Session Five, May, 12: Blood v. Soil: Vampirism and (Reversed) Colonization==
+
==Session Five, November 18: Exploring Genres - New Folk Horror and Other Experimental Genres in ''Fen''==
  
 
'''Primary Material'''
 
'''Primary Material'''
* Stoker, Bram. ''Dracula''. 1897. Eds. Nina Auerbach and David J. Skal. New York and London: Norton, 1997. Print.
+
* Johnson, Daisy. "Blood Rites." ''Fen''. London: Vintage, 2016. 15-26. Print.
 +
* Johnson, Daisy. "Language." ''Fen''. London: Vintage, 2016. 72-90. Print.
  
 
'''Secondary Material'''
 
'''Secondary Material'''
* Arata, Stephen D. "The Occidental Tourist: ''Dracula'' and the Anxiety of Reverse Colonization." ''Victorian Studies'' 33.4 (Summer 1990): 621-45.
+
* [https://uol.de/f/3/inst/anglistik/download/Lehre/Lassen_Lehrmaterialien/AM_Fen_Country/Cox_LiminalTerritoryInTheFenlandSt_gesichert.pdf Cox, Alisa. "Liminal Territory in the Fenland Stories of Jon McGregor and Daisy Johnson." ''Borders and Border Crossings in the Contemporary British Short Story''. Eds. Barbara Korte and Laura Ma Lojo-Rodríguez. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019. 225-43. Print. (esp. 233-43)]
* Viragh, Attila. "Can the Vampire Speak? ''Dracula'' as Discourse on Cultural Extinction." ''ELT'' 56.2 (2013): 231-45.
+
* [https://uol.de/f/3/inst/anglistik/download/Lehre/Lassen_Lehrmaterialien/AM_Fen_Country/Gearey2020_Chapter_WetlandsAsLiterarySpacesOffKil_gesichert.pdf Gearey, Mary, Andrew Church and Neil Ravenscroft. "Wetlands as Literary Spaces: Off Kilter, Off Grid, Off the Wall." ''English Wetlands: Spaces of Nature, Culture, Imagination''. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020. 91-118. Print.]
 +
 
 +
'''Further Material'''
 +
* [https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b0bbnrct BBC Radio Four. "Open Book: Daisy Johnson, the literary appeal of the Fens." ''BBC Radio Four'', July 26, 2018. Web.]
  
 
'''Presentation'''
 
'''Presentation'''
* The Empire Bites Back, or: Cultural Resistances to Colonization in ''Dracula''
+
*Uncanny Incorporations, or: the Language of Horror and the Horror of Language in ''Fen''
  
* ''Presentation Group'': Menko Harken, Marlon Müller
+
* ''Presentation Group'': Dana Kirikova, Kira Döding, Luise Jöllenbeck, Maria Kruse
  
 
'''Video Conference'''
 
'''Video Conference'''
* ''Video Conference Group'': Wiebke Tepe, Timo Hackstedt, Mayra Ege
+
* ''Video Conference Group'': Jana Hagemann, Svea Schneider-Pungs, Christina Peters, Julia Tirrel, Anna Hinrichs
  
==Session Six, May, 19: Blood Samples: Vampirism, Addiction and Substance Abuse==
+
==Session Six, November 25: Exploring Gender - Re-writing the Female in ''Fen''==
  
 
'''Primary Material'''
 
'''Primary Material'''
* Stoker, Bram. ''Dracula''. 1897. Eds. Nina Auerbach and David J. Skal. New York and London: Norton, 1997. Print.
+
* Johnson, Daisy. "Starver." ''Fen''. London: Vintage, 2016. 3-14. Print.
 +
* Johnson, Daisy. "A Heavy Devotion." ''Fen''. London: Vintage, 2016. 105-17. Print.
 +
* Johnson, Daisy. "Birthing Stones." ''Fen''. London: Vintage, 2016. 155-66. Print.
 +
* Johnson, Daisy. "The Lighthouse Keeper" ''Fen''. London: Vintage, 2016. 177-92. Print. [optional]
  
 
'''Secondary Material'''
 
'''Secondary Material'''
* Aikens, Kristina. "Battling Addictions in ''Dracula''." ''Gothic Studies'' 11.2 (2009): 41-51.
+
*[https://uol.de/f/3/inst/anglistik/download/Lehre/Lassen_Lehrmaterialien/AM_Fen_Country/Packham_GothicCoastFen_gesichert.pdf Packham, Jimmy. "The gothic coast: Boundaries, belonging, and coastal community in contemporary British fiction." ''Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction'' 60.2 (2019): 205-221. Print.]
* Harrison, Debbie. "Doctors, Drugs, and Addiction: Professional Integrity in Peril at the Fin de Siècle." ''Gothic Studies'' 11.2 (2009): 52-62.
+
* [https://uol.de/f/3/inst/anglistik/download/Lehre/Lassen_Lehrmaterialien/AM_Fen_Country/Gearey2020_Chapter_WetlandsAsLiterarySpacesOffKil_gesichert.pdf Gearey, Mary, Andrew Church and Neil Ravenscroft. "Wetlands as Literary Spaces: Off Kilter, Off Grid, Off the Wall." ''English Wetlands: Spaces of Nature, Culture, Imagination''. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020. 91-118. Print.]
 +
 
 +
'''Further Material'''
 +
* [https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b0bbnrct BBC Radio Four. "Open Book: Daisy Johnson, the literary appeal of the Fens." ''BBC Radio Four'', July 26, 2018. Web.]
  
 
'''Presentation'''
 
'''Presentation'''
*Addiction and Substance Abuse, or: Doctors, Drugs, and 'Degeneracy' in ''Dracula''
+
* Becoming Eel and Birthing Stones, or: Deterritorialization, Posthumanism and Anthropomorphism/Zoomorphism in ''Fen''
  
* ''Presentation Group'': Wiebke Tepe, Timo Hackstedt, Mayra Ege
+
* ''Presentation Group'': Jana Hagemann, Svea Schneider-Pungs, Christina Peters, Julia Tirrel, Anna Hinrichs
  
 
'''Video Conference'''
 
'''Video Conference'''
* ''Video Conference Group'': Lea Behrens, Carlotta Rabeler, Anna Gödecke
+
* ''Video Conference Group'': Jill-Dean Rose, Sebastian Bobe, Richard Ott, Finnja Klatt, Lukas Voigt
  
==Session Seven, May, 26: Blood Circulation: Vampirism, Male Homosociality and Homosexual Panic==
+
    November, 27: Abstract ''Fen'' due
 +
 
 +
==Session Seven, December 02: Exploring Form - Genre, Hybridity, and (Meta-)Poetics in ''This Isn't the Sort of Thing''==
  
 
'''Primary Material'''
 
'''Primary Material'''
* Stoker, Bram. ''Dracula''. 1897. Eds. Nina Auerbach and David J. Skal. New York and London: Norton, 1997. Print.
+
* McGregor, Jon. "In Winter the Sky." ''This Isn't the Sort of Thing That Happens to Someone Like You''. 2012. London: 4th Estate, 2017. 5-35. Print.
 +
* McGregor, Jon. "New York." ''This Isn't the Sort of Thing That Happens to Someone Like You''. 2012. London: 4th Estate, 2017. 107-12. Print.
 +
* McGregor, Jon. "Wires." ''This Isn't the Sort of Thing That Happens to Someone Like You''. 2012. London: 4th Estate, 2017. 160-75. Print.
  
 
'''Secondary Material'''
 
'''Secondary Material'''
* Craft, Christopher. ''Another Kind of Love: Male Homosexual Desire in English Discourse, 1850-1920''. Berkeley et al.: U of California P, 1994. 71-105.
+
* [https://uol.de/f/3/inst/anglistik/download/Lehre/Lassen_Lehrmaterialien/AM_Fen_Country/Cox_LiminalTerritoryInTheFenlandSt_gesichert.pdf Cox, Alisa. "Liminal Territory in the Fenland Stories of Jon McGregor and Daisy Johnson." ''Borders and Border Crossings in the Contemporary British Short Story''. Eds. Barbara Korte and Laura Ma Lojo-Rodríguez. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019. 225-43. Print. (esp. 226-33)]
* Clark, Damion. "Preying on the Pervert: The Uses of Homosexual Panic in Bram Stoker's ''Dracula''." ''Horrifying Sex: Essays on Sexual Difference in Gothic Literature''. Ed. Ruth Bienstock Anolik. Jefferson, NC, and London: McFarland, 2007. 167-76.
+
 
+
'''Further Reading'''
+
* Schaffer, Talia. "'A Wilde Desire Took Me': The Homoerotic History of ''Dracula''." ''ELH'' 61.2 (Summer 1994): 381-425.
+
  
 
'''Presentation'''
 
'''Presentation'''
* What You Get Is What You Give, or: Blood Donation, Male Homoeroticism, and Male Homosexual Panic
+
* Hybrid Aesthetics, or: The Function of Genres, Maps, and Poetics in ''This Isn't the Sort of Thing That Happens to Someone Like You''
  
* ''Presentation Group'': Lea Behrens, Carlotta Rabeler, Anna Gödecke
+
* ''Presentation Group'': Jill-Dean Rose, Sebastian Bobe, Richard Ott, Finnja Klatt, Lukas Voigt
  
 
'''Video Conference'''
 
'''Video Conference'''
* ''Video Conference Group'': Svea Schneider-Pungs, Antonia Schepers, Leonie Ostendorp
+
* ''Video Conference Group'': Florian Macke, Anna Luisa Clasen, Maximilian Müller, Lisa Baisch
 
+
    May, 29: Abstract ''Dracula'' due
+
  
==Session Eight, June, 02: Blood Relations: Vampirism and the Queer Family==
+
==Session Eight, December 09: Exploring Landscapes - Speculative Fiction and the Construction of Space in ''This Isn't the Sort of Thing''==
  
 
'''Primary Material'''
 
'''Primary Material'''
* ''Interview with a Vampire''. 1994. Dir. Neil Jordan. Perf. Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, and Kirsten Dunst. Warner Bros., 2003. DVD.
+
* McGregor, Jon. "If It Keeps On Raining." ''This Isn't the Sort of Thing That Happens to Someone Like You''. 2012. London: 4th Estate, 2017. 57-74. Print.
 +
* McGregor, Jon. "Supplementary Notes to the Testimony of Appellants B & E." ''This Isn't the Sort of Thing That Happens to Someone Like You''. 2012. London: 4th Estate, 2017. 147-56. Print.
 +
* McGregor, Jon. "I Remember There Was a Hill" ''This Isn't the Sort of Thing That Happens to Someone Like You''. 2012. London: 4th Estate, 2017. 215-7. Print.
  
 
'''Secondary Material'''
 
'''Secondary Material'''
* Benefiel, Candace R. "Blood Relations: The Gothic Perversion of the Nuclear Family in Anne Rice's ''Interview with the Vampire''." ''The Journal of Popular Culture'' 38.2 (2004): 261-73.
+
* [https://uol.de/f/3/inst/anglistik/download/Lehre/Lassen_Lehrmaterialien/AM_Fen_Country/Cox_LiminalTerritoryInTheFenlandSt_gesichert.pdf Cox, Alisa. "Liminal Territory in the Fenland Stories of Jon McGregor and Daisy Johnson." ''Borders and Border Crossings in the Contemporary British Short Story''. Eds. Barbara Korte and Laura Ma Lojo-Rodríguez. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019. 225-43. Print. (esp. 226-33)]
* Bruhm, Steven. "Gothic Sexualities." ''Teaching the Gothic''Eds. Anna Powell and Andrew Smith. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006. 93-106.
+
  
 
'''Presentation'''
 
'''Presentation'''
* Feeding on Family Values, or: Ambivalent Representations of the Queer Family in ''Interview with the Vampire''  
+
* Dystopian Landscapes, or: Representing Environmental Issues in ''This Isn't the Sort of Thing That Happens to Someone Like You''
  
* ''Presentation Group'': Svea Schneider-Pungs, Antonia Schepers, Leonie Ostendorp
+
* ''Presentation Group'': Florian Macke, Anna Luisa Clasen, Maximilian Müller, Lisa Baisch
  
 
'''Video Conference'''
 
'''Video Conference'''
* ''Video Conference Group'': Franca Zeisler, Aaron Bremer, Tabea Hirsch, Sophie Rosa Castro Colle Marques Schulz
+
* ''Video Conference Group'': Matthias Himstedt, Arne Höppner, Thorben Höppner, Esther Gödecke
  
==Session Nine, June, 09: Blood Disease: Vampirism and AIDS==
+
    December, 11: Abstract ''This Isn't the Sort of Thing That Happens to Someone Like You'' due
 +
 
 +
==Session Nine, December 16: Exploring History - ''Waterland'' as Historiographic Metafiction==
  
 
'''Primary Material'''
 
'''Primary Material'''
* ''Interview with a Vampire''. 1994. Dir. Neil Jordan. Perf. Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, and Kirsten Dunst. Warner Bros., 2003. DVD.
+
* Swift, Graham. ''Waterland''. 1983. London: Picador, 2010. Print.
  
 
'''Secondary Material'''''
 
'''Secondary Material'''''
* Haggerty, George E. "Anne Rice and the Queering of Culture." ''Novel: A Forum on Fiction'' 32.1 (Autumn 1998): 5-18.
+
* [https://uol.de/f/3/inst/anglistik/download/Lehre/Lassen_Lehrmaterialien/AM_Fen_Country/Cooper_ImperialTopographiesHistoryWaterland_gesichert.pdf Cooper, Pamela. "Imperial Topographies: The Spaces of History in ''Waterland''." ''MFS: Modern Fiction Studies'' 42.2 (1996): 371-96. Print.]
* Auerbach, Nina. ''Our Vampires, Ourselves''. Chicago and London: The U of Chicago P, 1995. 163-92.
+
* [https://uol.de/f/3/inst/anglistik/download/Lehre/Lassen_Lehrmaterialien/AM_Fen_Country/Landow_HistoryHisStoryStoriesWaterland_gesichert.pdf Landow, George P. "History, His Story, and Stories in Graham Swift’s ''Waterland''". ''Studies in the Literary Imagination'' 23.2 (1990): 197-211. Print.]
  
 
'''Presentation'''
 
'''Presentation'''
* Dieting or Dying, or: AIDS, Abstinence, and Anti-Gay Policies of Blame
+
* (Re-)Writing the Past, or: Historiographic Metafiction and the Desintegration of History and Its "Grand Narratives"
  
* ''Presentation Group'': Franca Zeisler, Aaron Bremer, Tabea Hirsch, Sophie Rosa Castro Colle Marques Schulz
+
* ''Presentation Group'': Matthias Himstedt, Arne Höppner, Thorben Höppner, Esther Gödecke
 +
 
 +
'''Group Work'''
 +
* Group 01: Tom's Narrative and Personal History
 +
* Group 02: The Cricks, the Atkinsons, and Regional History
 +
* Group 03: World History and Its "Grand Narratives"
  
 
'''Video Conference'''
 
'''Video Conference'''
* ''Video Conference Group'': Kea Michelle Maul, Laura Nietzold
+
* ''Video Conference Group'': Alexandra Bock, Susann Huischen, Vivian Grimme, Vivian Fili, Janna Poppen
  
    June, 12: Abstract ''Interview With a Vampire'' due
+
==Session Ten, January 06: Exploring Guilt - ''Waterland'' as Confession and Trauma Narrative==
 
+
==Session Ten, June, 16: Stage Blood: Vampirism and Gender Performativity==
+
  
 
'''Primary Material'''
 
'''Primary Material'''
* ''Ed Wood''. 1994. Dir. Tim Burton. Perf. Johnny Depp, Martin Landau, and Bill Murray. Buena Vista Pictures, 2003. DVD.
+
* Swift, Graham. ''Waterland''. 1983. London: Picador, 2010. Print.
  
 
'''Secondary Material'''
 
'''Secondary Material'''
* O'Brien, Harvey. "'Really? Worst Film You Ever Saw. Well, My Next One Will Be Better': Edward D. Wood Jr., Tim Burton and the Apotheosis of the Forsaken." ''Trash Culture: Objects and Obsolescence in Cultural Perspective''. Ed. Gillian Pye. Oxford et al.: Peter Lang, 2010. 221-238.
+
* [https://uol.de/f/3/inst/anglistik/download/Lehre/Lassen_Lehrmaterialien/AM_Fen_Country/Acheson_HistoryGuiltWaterland_gesichert.pdf Acheson, James. "''Historia'' and Guilt: Graham Swift’s ''Waterland''." ''Critique'' 47.1 (2005): 90-100. Print.]
* Latham, Rob. "Tim Burton's Trash Cinema Roots: Ed Wood and Mars Attacks!" ''The Works of Tim Burton: Margins to Mainstream''. Ed. Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013. 133-49.
+
* [https://uol.de/f/3/inst/anglistik/download/Lehre/Lassen_Lehrmaterialien/AM_Fen_Country/Russell_HistoryConfessionTraumaWaterland_gesichert.pdf Russell, Richard Rankin. "Embod(y)ments of History and Delayed Confessions: Graham Swift's ''Waterland'' as Trauma Fiction." ''PLL: Papers on Language and Literature'' 45.2 (2009): 115–49. Print.]
  
 
'''Presentation'''
 
'''Presentation'''
* Drag-cula, or: Gender, Performance, and Performativity in ''Ed Wood''
+
* Narrating the Self, or: Trauma and the Struggle for a Coherent Self-Narrative
  
* ''Presentation Group'': Kea Michelle Maul, Laura Nietzold
+
* ''Presentation Group'': Alexandra Bock, Susann Huischen, Vivian Grimme, Vivian Fili, Janna Poppen
  
 
'''Video Conference'''
 
'''Video Conference'''
* ''Video Conference Group'': Tristan Pargmann, Malte Stolle, Julia Tiemann, Michel Lutzke
+
* ''Video Conference Group'': Paula Priewe, Lukas Fischer, Fiona Koren, Bennet Tierock, Hauke Wollek
  
==Session Eleven, June, 23: Blood Poisoning: Vampirism, Substance Abuse, Addiction, and Aging==
+
==Session Eleven, January 13: Exploring Nature - Ecocriticism and the Representation of the Environment in ''Waterland''==
  
 
'''Primary Material'''
 
'''Primary Material'''
* ''Ed Wood''. 1994. Dir. Tim Burton. Perf. Johnny Depp, Martin Landau, and Bill Murray. Buena Vista Pictures, 2003. DVD.
+
* Swift, Graham. ''Waterland''. 1983. London: Picador, 2010. Print.
  
 
'''Secondary Material'''
 
'''Secondary Material'''
* Lennard, Dominic. "'This is my art, and it is dangerous!': Tim Burton's Artist Heroes." ''The Works of Tim Burton: Margins to Mainstream''. Ed. Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013. 217-30.
+
* [https://uol.de/f/3/inst/anglistik/download/Lehre/Lassen_Lehrmaterialien/AM_Fen_Country/Bracke_WaterlandEcocriticismNarratology_gesichert.pdf Bracke, Astrid. "'Man is the Story-Telling Animal': Graham Swift's ''Waterland'', Ecocriticism and Narratology." ''ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment'' 25.2 (2018): 220–37. Print.]
* Page, Edwin. ''Gothic Fantasy: The Films of Tim Burton''. London and New York: Marion Boyars, 2007. 128-42.
+
* [https://uol.de/f/3/inst/anglistik/download/Lehre/Lassen_Lehrmaterialien/AM_Fen_Country/McKinney_GreeningPostmodernismWaterland_gesichert.pdf McKinney, Ronald H. "The Greening of Postmodernism in Graham Swift's ''Waterland''." ''New Literary History'' 28.4 (1997): 821–32. Print.]
  
 
'''Presentation'''
 
'''Presentation'''
* Drug-cula , or: Dying Divas (aka Whatever Happened to Bela Lugosi?)
+
* Against Nature, or: Rising Sea Levels, Liminality and the Futility of Human 'Achievements'
  
* ''Presentation Group'': Tristan Pargmann, Malte Stolle, Julia Tiemann, Michel Lutzke
+
* ''Presentation Group'': Paula Priewe, Lukas Fischer, Fiona Koren, Bennet Tierock, Hauke Wollek
  
 
'''Video Conference'''
 
'''Video Conference'''
* ''Video Conference Group'': Sarah von der Brelje, Vivien Grimme, Marian Donkor, Tabea Bleßmann
+
* ''Video Conference Group'': Lisa Meinlschmidt, Nils Reese, Marvin Hinrichs, Lea Bihlmeyer, Lisa Marie Lindrum
  
     June, 26: Abstract ''Ed Wood'' due
+
     January, 15: Abstract ''Waterland'' due
  
==Session Twelve, June, 30: Bloody Racists: Vampirism and White Supremacy==
+
==Session Twelve, January 20: Exploring Culture - Space, Literature and and the Processes of Meaning-Making==
  
 
'''Primary Material'''
 
'''Primary Material'''
* ''Twilight''. 2008. Dir. Catherine Hardwicke. Perf. Kristen Steward and Robert Pattinson. Summit Entertainment, 2010. DVD.
+
* Parnell, Edward. ''Ghostland: In Search of a Haunted Country''. London: William Collins, 2019. Print.  
 +
[selected chapters: "Prologue", "1. Lost Heart", "2. Dark Water", "8. Lonlier than Ruin", "9. Who Is this Who Is Coming?", "10. Not Really Now Not Any More", "12. Ancient Sorceries"]
  
 
'''Secondary Material'''
 
'''Secondary Material'''
* Borgia, Danielle N. "''Twilight'': The Glamorization of Abuse, Codependency, and White Privilege." ''The Journal of Popular Culture'' 37.1 (2014): 152-73.
+
* Varia
* Jensen, Kristian. "Noble Werewolves or Native Shape-Shifters." ''The Twilight Mystique: Critical Essays on the Novels and Films''. Eds. Amy M. Clarke and Marijane Osborn. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2010. 92-105.
+
  
 
'''Presentation'''
 
'''Presentation'''
* Of Vampires and Werewolves, or: Racist Representations of Caucasian and Native American Stereotypes in ''Twilight''
+
* Construing Literary Landscapes, or: Intertextuality, Referentiality, and Visual Culture as Meaning-Making Devices
  
* ''Presentation Group'': Sarah von der Brelje, Vivien Grimme, Marian Donkor, Tabea Bleßmann
+
* ''Presentation Group'': Lisa Meinlschmidt, Nils Reese, Marvin Hinrichs, Lea Bihlmeyer, Lisa Marie Lindrum
  
 
'''Video Conference'''
 
'''Video Conference'''
* ''Video Conference Group'': Sarah Kaltofen, Janina Gomez, Johanna Bode, Lennart Flegel
+
* ''Video Conference Group'': Lenara Antonia Bias, Timo Willmann, Kristin Weber
  
==Session Thirteen, July, 07: Bloody Misogynists: Vampirism and Anti-Feminism==
+
==Session Thirteen, January 27: Exploring Healing - Memoirs, (Anti-)Pastoral Elegies and the Comfort of Ghosts==
  
 
'''Primary Material'''
 
'''Primary Material'''
* ''Twilight''. 2008. Dir. Catherine Hardwicke. Perf. Kristen Steward and Robert Pattinson. Summit Entertainment, 2010. DVD.
+
* Parnell, Edward. ''Ghostland: In Search of a Haunted Country''. London: William Collins, 2019. Print.  
 +
[selected chapters: "Prologue", "1. Lost Heart", "2. Dark Water", "8. Lonlier than Ruin", "9. Who Is this Who Is Coming?", "10. Not Really Now Not Any More", "12. Ancient Sorceries"]
  
 
'''Secondary Material'''
 
'''Secondary Material'''
* Jarvis, Christine. "The Twilight of Feminism? Stephanie Meyer's Saga and the Contradictions of Contemporary Girlhood." ''Children's Literature in Education'' 45 (2014): 101-15.
+
* Varia
* Bliss, Ann V. "Abstinence, American Style." ''The Twilight Mystique: Critical Essays on the Novels and Films''. Eds. Amy M. Clarke and Marijane Osborn. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2010. 107-20.
+
  
 
'''Presentation'''
 
'''Presentation'''
* No Sex Before Marriage, or: Anti-Feminism and the Will to Sexual Submission in ''Twilight''
+
* The Haunted Self, or: Reclaiming and Reinventing Literary Spaces and Genres of Loss
 +
 
 +
* ''Presentation Group'': Lenara Antonia Bias, Timo Willmann, Kristin Weber
 +
 
 +
    January, 29: Abstract ''Ghostland'' due
  
* ''Presentation Group'': Sarah Kaltofen, Janina Gomez, Johanna Bode, Lennart Flegel
+
==Session Fourteen, February 03: Work-in-Progress Session==
  
    July, 10: Abstract ''Twilight'' due
+
'''Guidelines for finding your topic:'''
  
==Session Fourteen, July, 14: RPO Session==
+
Your topic needs to be related to at least one of the primary texts
  
'''Guidelines for finding your RPO topic:'''
+
    March, 15: Term Paper due
  
Your RPO topic needs to be related to at least one of the primary texts
+
Please upload your paper to the folder "Ausarbeitungen und Hausarbeiten" on our Stud.IP page.
  
    September, 15: Term Paper due
+
Bitte stellen Sie Ihre Prüfungsleistung in den Ordner "Ausarbeitungen und Hausarbeiten" auf unserer Stud.IP-Seite ein.

Revision as of 15:26, 1 September 2021

COURSE OUTLINE

3.02.130: S Living On the Waterfront: Regionalism and Liminality in Representations of East Anglia and the Fens

  • [Module] ang613 - Regional Literatures and Cultures
  • [Credits] 6 KP
  • [Instructor] Dr. Christian Lassen
  • [Time] Wednesday, 12-1 pm: weekly chat (via "Meetings" on our Stud.IP page); Wednesday, 1-2 pm: video conference for presentation groups, designed to discuss the presentation scheduled for the following week
  • [Room] online; until further notice: weekly chat; video conferences for presentation groups (via "Meetings")
  • [Description] Reclaimed from the sea through drainage, the Fens, not unlike the Frisian region, mark a liminal space where the boundaries between the land and the sea, the earth and the sky are constantly blurred. Situated along England's largest bay, the Wash, and stretching into Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire, the Fen Country and its flat, coastal marshland have thus been prone to literary and cultural landscape constructions that highlight often uncanny notions of the in-between – where nothing is ever stable or permanent and where narratives have been fabricated to resist the constant flux of growth and decay, becoming and passing, even as they succumb to it. As a consequence, the Fens as well as other wetland regions of East Anglia have traditionally inspired three supposedly very different genre traditions: nature writing, the ghost story, and historiographic metafiction. The literary interaction between these genres, however, has shaped the idea of the Fens as a haunted country for a long time and moreover, it continues to produce ever new varieties of this regional literature, among them stories of the weird, the English eerie, new folk horror, or memoirs in which the identities of people and places are in fact inextricably intertwined.
  • [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 (MANDATORY READING)

  • James, M.R. Collected Ghost Stories. 1931. Oxford: OUP, 2013. Print. [selected short stories]
  • Malden, R.H. Nine Ghosts. London: Edward Arnold, 1943. n. pag. [selected short stories; available online, see below]
  • Johnson, Daisy. Fen. London: Vintage, 2016. Print. [selected short stories]
  • McGregor, Jon. This Isn't the Sort of Thing That Happens to Someone Like You. 2012. London: 4th Estate, 2017. Print. [selected short stories]
  • Swift, Graham. Waterland. 1983. London: Picador, 2010. Print.
  • Parnell, Edward. Ghostland: In Search of a Haunted Country. London: William Collins, 2019. Print. [selected chapters; paperback edition available in October]


FURTHER TEXTS (RECOMMENDED PRIMARY READING)

  • Kingsley, Charles. Hereward the Wake. London and Cambridge: Macmillan, 1866. Print.
  • Kingsnorth, Paul. The Wake. London: Unbound, 2014. Print.
  • Laing, Olivia. To the River. 2011. Edinburgh: Canongate, 2017. Print.
  • Sebald, W.G. Die Ringe des Saturn. Frankfurt a.M.: Eichborn, 1995. Print.
  • Tillyard, Stella. The Great Level. London: Vintage, 2018. Print.


ASSIGNMENTS

  • [Prüfungsleistung] asynchrones (Gruppen-)Referat (max. 4 Personen; 45-60 min.) mit Schriftlicher Ausarbeitung (10 Seiten) [oder in Ausnahmefällen: Hausarbeit (15 Seiten)]
  • [Aktive Teilnahme] 4 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] 15. März 2021.




Session One, October 21, Introduction

Organisational Matters

  • Assignments

Assignments are graded and mandatory. In order to obtain 6 credits (KP), you will have to give a (group) presentation (Referat, 45-60 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 (March, 15). 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 the video conference for presentation groups (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/ weekly chat.

Requests regarding your choice of presentation topics can be send to me via e-mail, starting on Monday, October 12. 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. Wednesday 1-2 pm. 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 four 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 four out of five 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 Ghost Stories: November, 13; due date Fen: November, 27; due date This Isn't the Sort of Thing That Happens to Someone Like You: December, 11; due date Waterland: January 15; due date Ghostland: January 29.

  • Weekly Chat

In order to discuss the presentations and related topics, I will be in the chatroom Weekly Chat ("Meetings" on our Stud.IP page) during the first part of each session, i.e. Wednesday 12-1 pm. Please make sure to read/ watch the presentations before you join the chat. The second part of each session, i.e. Wednesday 1-2 pm, is booked for the respective presentation groups (see video conference for presentation groups)

  • Seminarapparat

Relevant secondary material will be made available on Stud.IP. Please note that, additionally, the syllabus includes an extensive bibliography that may be helpful with regard to your presentations and written assignments (abstracts; short/ long term papers).

   Summary: Presentations

1. Pick a presentation topic and contact me via e-mail (starting October, 12). Check below for available places. Presentation groups may consist of a maximum of 4 people. (This number may change, depending on the number of participants.)

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 Wednesday, 1-2 pm.

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

6. Join the weekly chat and be ready to answer questions on the day of your presentation. Weekly chats take place on Wednesday, 12-1 pm.


On East Anglia and the Fens: A Brief Introduction

Session Two, October 28: Theory Session - Regionalism

Theory Texts


Guiding Questions

  • What does the term regional refer to and in what ways has the meaning of the term changed over the years?
  • How can a region be defined as a space? Is it independent, self-sufficient, a world in and by itself? Or is it interdependent and part of a whole? Is it 'natural' and 'authentic' or 'man-made' and 'construed' - both figuratively and literally?
  • What are the effects of the dichotomy regional/local/rural versus national/international/global/urban, etc.?
  • What are its specific effects with regard to conflicting narratives and histories? Local narratives and grand narratives? In the Fen Country, what role does 'draining' play in this context?
  • In what ways do specific regions shape the people who live in them, i.e. their identities? What do these people identify with? And what about disidentification? (Think about Scottish identites and their respective links to their 'own' space, to Britain, or Europe?)
  • According to the secondary texts, how is East Anglia/ how are the Fens construed in regional literature? In what ways does the geographical (and geological) specificity of this region also ascribe meaning - in a literary/cultural sense - to this place?
  • In view of next week's session, why would the term liminality lend itself to the cultural construction of the Fens, or indeed the East Anglian wetlands more generally?

Session Three, November 4: Theory Session - Liminality

Theory Texts

[For a more extensive account of this approach, see: Achilles, Jochen, and Ina Bergmann. "'Betwixt and Between': Boundary Crossings in American, Canadian, and British Writing." Liminality and the Short Story: Boundary Crossings in American, Canadian, and British Writing. Eds. Jochen Achilles and Ina Bergmann. New York and London: Routledge, 2014. 3–31.]

  • Turner, Victor. "Betwixt and Between: The Liminal Period in Rites de Passage." The Forest of Symbols: Aspects of Ndembu Ritual. Ed. Victor Turner. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 1967. 93–111. Print.

Reprinted in: Turner, Victor. "Betwixt and Between: The Liminal Period in Rites de Passage." Reader in Comparative Religion: An Anthropological Approach. Eds. William A. Lessa and Evon Z. Vogt. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon, 1979. 234-43. Print.

Guiding Questions

  • What characterises liminality and the liminal? What concept(s) does it serve to describe? How can liminality be defined in a relational structure?
  • What is the difference between the terms liminal and liminoid?
  • How can the analysis of the following aspects benefit from the concept of liminality: identity; form/genre; setting; life/death distinction; human/animal distinction; gender; etc.? You may also come up with examples from our primary texts.
  • In what ways does the short story as a narrative form meet the conceptual demands of liminality? Is the short story particularly apt to express liminal structures? And if so, why? Do your findings hold true for the liminoid as well? Or does it change the form of the short story?
  • Think about ways to correlate and/or connect regionalism and liminality. How do regional observations (particularising representations like draining, coastal erosion, silt and siltation vs. universalising representations like global warming, rising sea levels, climate change) relate to concepts of liminality?

Session Four, November 11: Regionalism and Liminality in Ghost Stories from East Anglia and the Fens

Primary Material

Secondary Material

Further Material

Group Work

  • Group 01: James, M.R. "Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad."
  • Group 02: James, M.R. "A Warning to the Curious."
  • Group 03: James, M.R. "The Fenstanton Witch."
  • Group 04: Malden, R.H. "Between Sunset and Moonrise."
  • Presentation Group:

Video Conference

  • Video Conference Group: Dana Kirikova, Kira Döding, Luise Jöllenbeck, Maria Kruse
   November, 13: Abstract Ghost Story due

Session Five, November 18: Exploring Genres - New Folk Horror and Other Experimental Genres in Fen

Primary Material

  • Johnson, Daisy. "Blood Rites." Fen. London: Vintage, 2016. 15-26. Print.
  • Johnson, Daisy. "Language." Fen. London: Vintage, 2016. 72-90. Print.

Secondary Material

Further Material

Presentation

  • Uncanny Incorporations, or: the Language of Horror and the Horror of Language in Fen
  • Presentation Group: Dana Kirikova, Kira Döding, Luise Jöllenbeck, Maria Kruse

Video Conference

  • Video Conference Group: Jana Hagemann, Svea Schneider-Pungs, Christina Peters, Julia Tirrel, Anna Hinrichs

Session Six, November 25: Exploring Gender - Re-writing the Female in Fen

Primary Material

  • Johnson, Daisy. "Starver." Fen. London: Vintage, 2016. 3-14. Print.
  • Johnson, Daisy. "A Heavy Devotion." Fen. London: Vintage, 2016. 105-17. Print.
  • Johnson, Daisy. "Birthing Stones." Fen. London: Vintage, 2016. 155-66. Print.
  • Johnson, Daisy. "The Lighthouse Keeper" Fen. London: Vintage, 2016. 177-92. Print. [optional]

Secondary Material

Further Material

Presentation

  • Becoming Eel and Birthing Stones, or: Deterritorialization, Posthumanism and Anthropomorphism/Zoomorphism in Fen
  • Presentation Group: Jana Hagemann, Svea Schneider-Pungs, Christina Peters, Julia Tirrel, Anna Hinrichs

Video Conference

  • Video Conference Group: Jill-Dean Rose, Sebastian Bobe, Richard Ott, Finnja Klatt, Lukas Voigt
   November, 27: Abstract Fen due

Session Seven, December 02: Exploring Form - Genre, Hybridity, and (Meta-)Poetics in This Isn't the Sort of Thing

Primary Material

  • McGregor, Jon. "In Winter the Sky." This Isn't the Sort of Thing That Happens to Someone Like You. 2012. London: 4th Estate, 2017. 5-35. Print.
  • McGregor, Jon. "New York." This Isn't the Sort of Thing That Happens to Someone Like You. 2012. London: 4th Estate, 2017. 107-12. Print.
  • McGregor, Jon. "Wires." This Isn't the Sort of Thing That Happens to Someone Like You. 2012. London: 4th Estate, 2017. 160-75. Print.

Secondary Material

Presentation

  • Hybrid Aesthetics, or: The Function of Genres, Maps, and Poetics in This Isn't the Sort of Thing That Happens to Someone Like You
  • Presentation Group: Jill-Dean Rose, Sebastian Bobe, Richard Ott, Finnja Klatt, Lukas Voigt

Video Conference

  • Video Conference Group: Florian Macke, Anna Luisa Clasen, Maximilian Müller, Lisa Baisch

Session Eight, December 09: Exploring Landscapes - Speculative Fiction and the Construction of Space in This Isn't the Sort of Thing

Primary Material

  • McGregor, Jon. "If It Keeps On Raining." This Isn't the Sort of Thing That Happens to Someone Like You. 2012. London: 4th Estate, 2017. 57-74. Print.
  • McGregor, Jon. "Supplementary Notes to the Testimony of Appellants B & E." This Isn't the Sort of Thing That Happens to Someone Like You. 2012. London: 4th Estate, 2017. 147-56. Print.
  • McGregor, Jon. "I Remember There Was a Hill" This Isn't the Sort of Thing That Happens to Someone Like You. 2012. London: 4th Estate, 2017. 215-7. Print.

Secondary Material

Presentation

  • Dystopian Landscapes, or: Representing Environmental Issues in This Isn't the Sort of Thing That Happens to Someone Like You
  • Presentation Group: Florian Macke, Anna Luisa Clasen, Maximilian Müller, Lisa Baisch

Video Conference

  • Video Conference Group: Matthias Himstedt, Arne Höppner, Thorben Höppner, Esther Gödecke
   December, 11: Abstract This Isn't the Sort of Thing That Happens to Someone Like You due

Session Nine, December 16: Exploring History - Waterland as Historiographic Metafiction

Primary Material

  • Swift, Graham. Waterland. 1983. London: Picador, 2010. Print.

Secondary Material

Presentation

  • (Re-)Writing the Past, or: Historiographic Metafiction and the Desintegration of History and Its "Grand Narratives"
  • Presentation Group: Matthias Himstedt, Arne Höppner, Thorben Höppner, Esther Gödecke

Group Work

  • Group 01: Tom's Narrative and Personal History
  • Group 02: The Cricks, the Atkinsons, and Regional History
  • Group 03: World History and Its "Grand Narratives"

Video Conference

  • Video Conference Group: Alexandra Bock, Susann Huischen, Vivian Grimme, Vivian Fili, Janna Poppen

Session Ten, January 06: Exploring Guilt - Waterland as Confession and Trauma Narrative

Primary Material

  • Swift, Graham. Waterland. 1983. London: Picador, 2010. Print.

Secondary Material

Presentation

  • Narrating the Self, or: Trauma and the Struggle for a Coherent Self-Narrative
  • Presentation Group: Alexandra Bock, Susann Huischen, Vivian Grimme, Vivian Fili, Janna Poppen

Video Conference

  • Video Conference Group: Paula Priewe, Lukas Fischer, Fiona Koren, Bennet Tierock, Hauke Wollek

Session Eleven, January 13: Exploring Nature - Ecocriticism and the Representation of the Environment in Waterland

Primary Material

  • Swift, Graham. Waterland. 1983. London: Picador, 2010. Print.

Secondary Material

Presentation

  • Against Nature, or: Rising Sea Levels, Liminality and the Futility of Human 'Achievements'
  • Presentation Group: Paula Priewe, Lukas Fischer, Fiona Koren, Bennet Tierock, Hauke Wollek

Video Conference

  • Video Conference Group: Lisa Meinlschmidt, Nils Reese, Marvin Hinrichs, Lea Bihlmeyer, Lisa Marie Lindrum
   January, 15: Abstract Waterland due

Session Twelve, January 20: Exploring Culture - Space, Literature and and the Processes of Meaning-Making

Primary Material

  • Parnell, Edward. Ghostland: In Search of a Haunted Country. London: William Collins, 2019. Print.

[selected chapters: "Prologue", "1. Lost Heart", "2. Dark Water", "8. Lonlier than Ruin", "9. Who Is this Who Is Coming?", "10. Not Really Now Not Any More", "12. Ancient Sorceries"]

Secondary Material

  • Varia

Presentation

  • Construing Literary Landscapes, or: Intertextuality, Referentiality, and Visual Culture as Meaning-Making Devices
  • Presentation Group: Lisa Meinlschmidt, Nils Reese, Marvin Hinrichs, Lea Bihlmeyer, Lisa Marie Lindrum

Video Conference

  • Video Conference Group: Lenara Antonia Bias, Timo Willmann, Kristin Weber

Session Thirteen, January 27: Exploring Healing - Memoirs, (Anti-)Pastoral Elegies and the Comfort of Ghosts

Primary Material

  • Parnell, Edward. Ghostland: In Search of a Haunted Country. London: William Collins, 2019. Print.

[selected chapters: "Prologue", "1. Lost Heart", "2. Dark Water", "8. Lonlier than Ruin", "9. Who Is this Who Is Coming?", "10. Not Really Now Not Any More", "12. Ancient Sorceries"]

Secondary Material

  • Varia

Presentation

  • The Haunted Self, or: Reclaiming and Reinventing Literary Spaces and Genres of Loss
  • Presentation Group: Lenara Antonia Bias, Timo Willmann, Kristin Weber
   January, 29: Abstract Ghostland due

Session Fourteen, February 03: Work-in-Progress Session

Guidelines for finding your topic:

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

   March, 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.