Prof. Dr. Jennifer S. Henke

Comics and graphic novels have at long last reached credibility; today, they are regarded as popular art forms in their own right. In this seminar, we will first discuss the history of the comic, its classification as sequential art as well as further formal and functional specificities based on Scott McCloud’s pivotal book Understanding Comics. Second, we will turn to an analysis of selected texts. The body of work is focused on, but by no means limited to, adaptations of literary classics. The aim of this seminar is to acknowledge the analytical potential of graphic literature as it equally contributes to the literary canon.

Primary Texts (please buy and read):*
#1: McCloud, Scott [1994]: Understanding Comics. New York: HarperPerennial/William Morrow, 2001. ISBN-10: ‎006097625X
#2: Shakespeare, William/Appignanesi, Richard/Li, Nana: Manga Shakespeare – Twelfth Night. London: SelfMadeHero, 2009. ISBN-10: 0810997185
#3: [tba in session 1 at the very latest, please be patient]
*Note: Exact editions, please. Feel free to obtain second-hand versions. There are plenty of affordable editions out there (I have checked), please do your own research. Emails asking about specific other editions or e-books cannot be answered.

Secondary Texts:
Further texts will be provided throughout the teaching period. As a first inspiration for your presentation topics, feel free to leaf through the following publications (all open access/downloadable, I recommend starting with the most recent volume): https://www.closure.uni-kiel.de/ausgaben

In this seminar, we will explore literary and cinematic dystopias, beginning with a careful consideration of what constitutes a dystopian narrative, its historical development, and its transformations over time. Together, we will establish the genre’s key themes, formal characteristics, and broader societal functions. We will start with George Orwell's Animal Farm (1945), a canonical dystopian novella that also draws on satire and the beast fable, before turning to contemporary literary examples, which students will select collectively in class. Finally, we will examine dystopian films in order to assess how dystopian tropes translate across media.

Primary Texts (please buy and read):*
Orwell, George [1945]: Animal Farm. Oxford World Classics. Oxford: OUP, 2024. ISBN-10: ‎0198813732 [ca. 140 pages; do your future you a favour and read it asap to avoid heavy backlog during the semester]
#2: [tba in session 1 at the very latest, please be patient]
*Note: Exact editions, please. Feel free to obtain second-hand versions. There are plenty of affordable editions out there (I have checked), please do your own research. Emails asking about specific other editions or e-books cannot be answered.

Secondary Texts:
Will be provided throughout the teaching period.

This seminar explores the interconnections between social constructions such as gender, race and class by the example of science fiction, both literary and cinematic. Among other things, we will discuss the genre, its history and potential to blur boundaries between seemingly stable categories. Since my classes always include theory, we will spend a significant amount of time revisiting, rereading, expanding and practicing how to apply literary and cultural theories that will aid you with your main assignment (‚Prüfungsleistung‘). Further, everyone is required to conduct a (group) presentation as a ‘test run’ to receive timely feedback on your learning progress from me and the group. To avoid heavy backlog during the semester, I recommend buying – and reading – the primary text(s) as soon as possible!

Primary Texts (please buy and read):*
#1: Wells, H.G. [1895]: The Time Machine. Norton: 2009. ISBN 978-0-393-92794-8 (read the main text only, approx. 70 pages; the second text, however, will be significantly longer, so read this one asap and do your future you a favour)
#2: [tba in session 1 at the very latest, please be patient]
*Note: Exact editions, please. Feel free to obtain second-hand versions. There are plenty of affordable Norton editions out there (I have checked), please do your own research. Emails asking about specific other editions or e-books cannot be answered.

Secondary Texts:
Will be provided throughout the teaching period.

What happens when a Shakespeare play is transferred into a different medium? What distinguishes the Elizabethan drama from contemporary forms of art like film? How can we describe and analyse the characteristics of both Shakespeare’s plays and their adaptations? This block seminar deals with the phenomenon of adapting Shakespeare and asks about the genre-specificities of each production while also considering their sociohistorical context. We will begin by looking at excerpts of selected Shakespeare plays and then move on to three primary film ‘texts’ that significantly contributed to the emergence of the cinematic Shakespeare renaissance in the 1990s: Branagh's Much Ado About Nothing (1993), Luhrmann's William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet (1996), and Loncraine's Richard III (1995). All three films are also particularly suitable for a discussion of gender, which will serve as a leitmotif in this seminar. Having read all three Shakespeare plays before the sessions in class is not mandatory but highly recommended (any edition will do, I recommend the Norton, Arden or Oxford editions). Two of the films must have been watched before the sessions (see below).

Primary Sources (to be watched by session 2 at the very latest):
Much Ado About Nothing. Dir. Kenneth Branagh. BBC Films. The Samuel Goldwyn Company. USA/GB: 1993. DVD. (buy the DVD or check your streaming services)
William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet. Dir. Baz Luhrmann. Bazmark Productions. 20th Century Fox. USA/GB: 1993. DVD. (buy the DVD or check your streaming services)
Richard III. Dir. Richard Loncraine. Bayly/Paré Productions British Screen. United Artists Pictures. GB: 1995. DVD. (optional, as we will discuss selected scenes in class)

Additional primary and secondary sources will be provided over the course of the teaching period.

Recommended Further Reading/Secondary Texts (optional):
Diana E. Henderson: A Concise Companion to Shakespeare on Screen. Malden, Mass.: Wiley-Blackwell, 2008.
Linda Hutcheon: A Theory of Adaptation. London: Routledge, 2012.