Course Schedule

Veranstaltungen von Prof. Dr. Emer O'Sullivan


Lehrveranstaltungen

Children's literature (Seminar)

Dozent/in: Emer O'Sullivan

Termin:
 wöchentlich | Dienstag | 08:15 - 09:45 | 03.04.2023 - 07.07.2023 | C 5.311 Seminarraum

Inhalt: Children's literature has, since its beginnings in the 18th century, been a source both of entertainment and instruction for child readers as well as a product which reflects adults' perceptions of children and the choices that they make regarding what literature is suitable for the young. It is addressed to a wide range of readers from pre-literate toddlers to young adults and encompasses an equally wide range of genres including picturebooks, traditional folk and fairy tales, novels, poetry, and informational books. In this seminar, you will become familiar with a selection of literature in the English-speaking cultures across time, and learn to appreciate this branch of literature through close reading and work with different critical approaches. You will examine the distinctive qualities of children’s literature, explore the relation of didacticism and entertainment in texts for children at different historical periods, and consider the changing concepts of the child and its influence on the production of children's literature.

The Great Gatsby: novel, films, translations (Seminar)

Dozent/in: Emer O'Sullivan

Termin:
 wöchentlich | Dienstag | 16:15 - 17:45 | 03.04.2023 - 07.07.2023 | C 5.325 Seminarraum

Inhalt: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, published in 1925 at the height of the ‘Roaring Twenties’, is a story about one man’s version of the American Dream. In 1999, in an end-of-the-millennium list compiled by the Modern Library, a committee of editors, writers, and scholars voted The Great Gatsby the best American novel of the 20th century, and in 2002 Book magazine’s panel of literary experts picked Jay Gatsby himself as the best fictional character since 1900. In Germany, no fewer than five new translations of the novel were issued in 2011 and 2012, and in May 2013 the film version directed by Buz Luhrmann and starring Leonardo di Caprio was released. The seminar, consisting of three parts, will address, and try to explain, the contemporary fascination with Fitzgerald’s novel and protagonist across language and media. We will approach the novel and the films from a range of disciplines: literary studies, translation studies, film studies and adaptation studies, also history, cultural studies, music, the visual arts, popular culture, race and gender studies. In the first part we will read "The Great Gatsby" closely, paying special attention to Fitzgerald’s narrative strategies and exploring the novel’s connections to a wide range of American historical and cultural issues of its time, such as rags to riches success stories, sports, gangsters and Prohibition, the culture of celebrity, consumer society, and changes in gender roles in the USA of the 1920s. In the second (shortest) part, we will look at the reception of "The Great Gatsby" in Germany. Starting with the first translation by Maria Lazar in 1928, through its successors of 1953, 2006, 2011 and the most recent one - the eighth - by Hans Christian Oeser (2012), we will trace the traditions of German translation and the different strategies used by translators over time and influenced both by their predecessors and the time in which the translations were undertaken. The third part of the seminar will be devoted to film adaptations of "The Great Gatsby" - especially to the 2013 Buz Luhrmann version but we will also engage with the 1974 version directed by Jack Clayton (screenplay Francis Ford Coppola, starring Robert Redford and Mia Farrow) and other earlier versions.

Promotionskolloquium Englische Literaturwissenschaft (Kolloquium)

Dozent/in: Emer O'Sullivan

Termin:
 Einzeltermin | Sa, 06.05.2023, 10:00 - Sa, 06.05.2023, 18:00 | C 5.111 Seminarraum

Inhalt: A one day colloquium for doctoral and post-doctoral candidates writing their theses in the area of English or Comparative Literature to discuss research design and methodology questions, engage in theoretical debates, and present and critique their projects. The colloquium also offers a forum to discuss conference presentations and articles before submission.

Promotionskolloquium PLG (Kolloquium)

Dozent/in: Steffi Hobuß, Sven Kramer, Roberto Nigro, Emer O'Sullivan

Termin:
 Einzeltermin | Fr, 23.06.2023, 13:00 - Fr, 23.06.2023, 18:00 | C 40.530 Seminarraum

Inhalt: Promovierende des Forschungskollegs für Philosophie, Literatur und Geschichte präsentieren ihre Projekte und erläutern sie in der folgenden Diskussion mit den Teilnehmenden des Kollegs. Darüber hinaus diskutiert das Kolleg relevante Forschungsliteratur und richtet Workshops mit geladenen Gästen aus.

Picturing Alice in Wonderland: illustrations and movies (FSL) (Seminar)

Dozent/in: Emer O'Sullivan

Termin:
 wöchentlich | Mittwoch | 08:15 - 09:45 | 03.04.2023 - 07.07.2023 | C 5.325 Seminarraum

Inhalt: Lewis Carroll famously wrote in the opening pages of "Alice in Wonderland": "'and what is the use of a book,' thought Alice, 'without pictures or conversations!"'. Since then countless illustrators from John Tenniel through Salvador Dalí to Rebecca Dautremer have created their own pictorial interpretation of the novel in their illustrations, and numerous film-makers, one of the most recent being Tim Burton, have created their version as moving pictures on the screen. This seminar - after engaging with Carroll's novel itself - will examine prominent examples of both forms of interpretation and adaptation to see what principles of interpretation and production can be identified.