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123041 PS Literary Studies / Proseminar Literature (2019S)

African-American Im/Mobilities in American Culture through the Centuries

5.00 ECTS (2.00 SWS), SPL 12 - Anglistik
Continuous assessment of course work
Moodle

Registration/Deregistration

Note: The time of your registration within the registration period has no effect on the allocation of places (no first come, first served).

Details

max. 25 participants
Language: English

Lecturers

Classes (iCal) - next class is marked with N

ATTN: This proseminar starts at 2:30 and ends at 4:00!!!

  • Wednesday 13.03. 14:00 - 16:00 Raum 2 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-09
  • Wednesday 20.03. 14:00 - 16:00 Raum 2 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-09
  • Wednesday 27.03. 14:00 - 16:00 Raum 2 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-09
  • Wednesday 03.04. 14:00 - 16:00 Raum 2 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-09
  • Wednesday 10.04. 14:00 - 16:00 Raum 2 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-09
  • Wednesday 08.05. 14:00 - 16:00 Raum 2 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-09
  • Wednesday 15.05. 14:00 - 16:00 Raum 2 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-09
  • Wednesday 22.05. 14:00 - 16:00 Raum 2 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-09
  • Wednesday 29.05. 14:00 - 16:00 Raum 2 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-09
  • Wednesday 05.06. 14:00 - 16:00 Raum 2 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-09
  • Wednesday 12.06. 14:00 - 16:00 Raum 2 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-09
  • Wednesday 19.06. 14:00 - 16:00 Raum 2 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-09
  • Wednesday 26.06. 14:00 - 16:00 Raum 2 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-09

Information

Aims, contents and method of the course

This course will introduce students to the field of mobility studies as well as to classic and recent work in African American literature and culture through the lens of how these texts represent the cruel displacement from Africa (the Middle Passage), refugees from slavery to the North and Canada, Afro-Caribbean diasporic mobilities, and contemporary violent entrapments (e.g. police violence, imprisonment). We will examine prose fiction (novels and short stories), drama, poetry, and film (e.g. by Phyllis Wheatley, Olaudah Equiano, Sojourner Truth, Claude McKay, Langston Hughes, Lorraine Hansberry, Ishmael Reed, Colson Whitehead; films: Get Out) as examples of how the immobilization of African Americans is a pervasive theme in American cultural history from the colonial era to today. We will ask how African Americans resisted these immobilizations by creating their own (underground) mobilities in their cultural productions.

AIMS:
- providing you with tools for analyzing different genres (poetry, drama, prose) in their specific contexts
- making you fit to give an oral research-based presentation, including the use of a presentation software
- making you fit for researching, developing, and writing your proseminar paper, including a research bibliography
- being able to analyze the function and "cultural work" of these texts

METHODS: pair work, group work, walk-and-talk, class discussions, presentations; input phases

Assessment and permitted materials

- short oral presentations
- final proseminar paper, ca. 3,500 words
- written assignments: weekly questions (Moodle forum); 1 critical essay, 1 response paper

Minimum requirements and assessment criteria

50% Proseminar Paper
30% active participation, incl. written assignments
20% oral presentation

Examination topics

proseminar paper, oral presentation, written assignments, all readings!

Reading list

Olaudah Equiano, Interesting Narrative: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/15399/15399-h/15399-h.htm
Sojourner Truth, Narrative: https://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/truth/1850/1850.html

NOVELS (please buy - available at Facultas, student discounts!
Claude McKay, Home to Harlem
Ishmael Reed, Flight to Canada
Colson Whitehead, Underground Railroad

shorter texts will be provided via the Moodle platform

Association in the course directory

Studium: UF 344, BA 612; BEd 046 / 407
Code/Modul: UF 3.3.3-304, BA10.1; BEd 08a.1, BEd 08b.2
Lehrinhalt: 12-3041

Last modified: Mo 07.09.2020 15:33