Course Schedule
Lehrveranstaltungen
Holocaust, Genocide, and Memory Studies (Seminar)
Dozent/in: Sabrina Völz
Termin:
wöchentlich | Dienstag | 12:15 - 13:45 | 12.10.2015 - 29.01.2016 | C 6.320 Seminarraum
Inhalt: In this seminar, students will engage with the transcultural concepts of the holocaust, genocide, and memory studies. We will learn about the the importance of history and the holocaust for the development of Jewish identity, examine the Kindertransport to the U.K., refuge in the United States as well as read Nobel Prize winner Elie Wiesel's "Night" and the highly acclaimed graphic novel "Maus" by Art Spiegelman. After an introduction to the modes of documentary film interpretation, we will discuss Selfhelp Home by Ethan Bensinger and meet the director. A further documentary will be critically studied in the second half of the seminar when discussing Native genocide in Canada and the legacy of residential schools by examining "Muffins for Granny" by Nadia McClaren. Moreover, we will discuss the concept of "writing back" while looking closer at "God and the Indian" by Drew Hayden Taylor. Finally, we will attempt to answer the question whether it is appropriate to compare the genocide with Native peoples and the Holocaust.
Ireland: Cultural Expressions of Nationalism (Seminar)
Dozent/in: Eoin Ryan
Termin:
wöchentlich | Donnerstag | 14:15 - 15:45 | 12.10.2015 - 12.11.2015 | C 5.124 Seminarraum
wöchentlich | Dienstag | 10:15 - 11:45 | 17.11.2015 - 29.01.2016 | C 5.019 Seminarraum
Inhalt: The syllabus? Ah sure, it’ll be grand. The goal of this course is to introduce aspects of Irish culture as a lived experience. What makes Irish people feel like they have a distinct culture, and what are day-to-day experiences of being Irish like? The background of the course is the complex relationship between culture, nationalism, and national identity. Theoretical topics might include the relation of Ireland’s Celtic Revival to 19th century European Romantic/Medievalist cultural revivals, post-colonial theory and Ireland, or globalization and Ireland, a small country in the EU, and an English-speaking country closely linked to dominant cultures in Britain and the USA? But the real focus of the course will be on “ordinary” expressions of culture.The course is designed to be student-led, and we will try to explore as many different aspects of Irish culture as possible. Potential topics include literature and history (both inevitable in Ireland – especially as 2016 is the centenary of the Easter Rising), theatre and film (your choice: elegant, poetic expression, or torrents of bad language and cursing), liquids (rain, tea, milk, red lemonade, whiskey, and porter – or is it stout? – holy wells, water charges, and sea swimming), sport (hurling, Gaelic football, rugby, golf, boxing, horses and dogs), the English and the Americans (na Sasenaigh and the Yanks), comedy, religion (from terrorism to moving statues and the Angelus on the radio), language (What is Hiberno-English? Is Ulster Scots a language or a political construction? And…why are Irish people so bad at speaking Irish?), music (surviving Bono, surviving [and pronouncing] the uileann pipes and the bodhrán, knowing nothing about Reamonn; Plus: Why did Ireland enter a puppet turkey in the Eurovision? – maybe because he had already run for president?),… And whatever topics seem attractive! (One of these might be, what does the word “grand” mean in Irish discourse?)