Vorlesungsverzeichnis

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Start > Lehren und Lernen (B.A.) -> Unterrichtsfach Englisch -> English Literature

Lehrveranstaltungen

Children's literature (Seminar)

Termin:
wöchentlich | Mittwoch | 08:15 - 09:45 | 06.04.2020 - 10.07.2020 | C 5.310 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.

Downton Abbey, Titanic & Co. The Edwardian Era in 21st century British literature and film (Seminar)

Dozent/in: Emer O'Sullivan

Termin:
wöchentlich | Dienstag | 08:15 - 09:45 | 06.04.2020 - 10.07.2020 | C 5.310 Seminarraum

Inhalt: Why is the tv series Downton Abbey so popular? Where does the current Titanic fever come from? The Edwardian Era is enjoying unprecedented popularity in contemporary Britain. The Edwardian era, named after the British King Edward VII who reigned from 1901-1910, is usually extended to include the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, sometimes up to the signing of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919. It was a time when the British class system was very rigid, but when social and political change started to emerge. It experienced exceptional technological change as a result of modern industrialisation, and during this time one-third of the world’s population were subjects of the British Empire. The Edwardian era is sometimes imagined as a romantic golden age of long summer afternoons and garden parties, basking in a sun that never set on the British Empire. This nostalgia about the era first came to being as early as the 1920s, and today, too, we find a fascination for the Edwardian era in British culture. This is partly, but not entirely, explained by the current centenaries – the sinking of the Titanic in 1912, the grand ocean liner which embodied human progress, opulence, and the excesses of the time, that of the outbreak of the First World War in 1914. In this seminar we will examine some contemporary British cultural products which engage with the era, some nostalgic, others more discerning. They will include films and literature about the Titanic, the television series "Downton Abbey" (Julian Fellowes/ITV 2010) and the novel about Edwardian childhood, "The Children’s Book" by A. S. Byatt (2009), amongst others. By examining the ways in which Britain engages with and interprets this particular period of its history today, we will try to identify where the fascination with the era lies. Is it in the in the class distinction of upstairs/downstairs? In the traditional and rigid social structures? In seemingly endless childhoods? In the innocence of the pre-War era? Underpinning these reflections will be a theoretical engagement with cultural memory studies.