128110 VO Cultural Studies - MA M01 (2016W)

This lecture course in cultural studies brings together scholars from 6 countries and disciplines as varied as cultural studies, literary studies, history, linguistics, anthropology, and Oriental studies. Together, we will examine theoretizations and representations of outlaws, rebels, and misfits in Anglophone literature and culture. One focus will be the Caribbean and a hemispheric American Studies approach that links hispanophone and anglophone regions.
Students will learn about pirates, runaway slaves, western heroes, Native American detectives, superheroes from comics, and Fight Clubbers.
The term "Outlaw" and/or "Rebel" and/or "Misfit" will be broadly interpreted, but also specifically defined in each lecture, e.g. with regard to its relation to "traditionally“ oppressed and marginalized social/ethnic/religious groups and their agency in terms of resistance (both politically and economically). The main question to be debated during the entire lecture cycle is the usefulness of these terms and possible definitions on the one hand, and the connection between stigmatization and the cultural construction of Otherness (e.g. xenophobia, anti-judaism, anti-islamic discourse, racism, (hetero)sexism, demonization, criminalization) on the other - and how cultural texts, media and society deal with so-called Outlaws.

Hence, the course is multi- and interdisciplinarily oriented and spans epochs from the early modern era to the contemporary period, with one focus on colonial and postcolonial contexts. Based on individual case studies, regional comparisons will be enabled.