Kommentiertes Vorlesungsverzeichnis Sommersemester 2013

human misery. We will discuss which aspects of social life are addressed through the depiction of alternative societies
and in which way this can be done. In order to understand the complexity of the criticism included, we will also
consider the socio-political background of these works.
Texts to be obtained by students:
George Orwell. Animal Farm
Aldous Huxley. Brave New World
E. M. Forster. The Machine Stops
Anthony Burgess. A Clockwork Orange
41108 Oscar Wilde and the Victorians
Friedrich
BA TG 1.2, A4, A7; MAIAS elective; Lehramt
PS 2st., Do 12-14,
Enfant terrible, man-about-town, literary genius: Oscar Wilde’s public reputation has different facets. By reading and
discussing a variety of his works ranging from his only novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, to plays (e.g. A Woman of
No Importance), poems (e.g.“Panthea”), letters (e.g. “De Profundis”) and essays (e.g. “Pen, Pencil and Poison”), we
will get an insight into why Wilde is considered a flamboyant personality of fin de siècle Great Britain. To be able to
evaluate Wilde’s special status, we will also have a closer look at the social conventions, traditions and convictions
that governed the life of the Victorians.
Texts to be obtained by students:
Oscar Wilde. The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde: Stories, Plays, Poems & Essays
41136 Walking Down Lyrics Alley: Writing the Horn of Africa
(2 SWS)
BA, LA, MA (electives); BA Afrikanische Sprachen, Literaturen und
Kunst (B6)), BA KuGeA, MA KuGeA)
PS 2st., Mi 12-14,
Matzke
In this seminar we will study recent English-language novels which imaginatively remap a region of the world often
reduced to famine and war. Situated at the physical and cultural fault-lines of the Middle East, North Africa, Sub-
Saharan Africa and the Indian Ocean, of Muslim, Christian and other religious cultures, and of numerous languages
and communities, the Horn of Africa is located at the juncture of various political, socio-economic and historical
dynamics which provide a rich environment for the fascinating stories played out in these texts. Among others we
will look at novels of transition, romance fiction and alternative forms of historiography.
Assessment will be by short class presentations, two reviews or an end-of-term essay (graded). Each student will
also have to compile a bibliography on a topic of their choice.
The following novels will be considered:
Sulaiman Addonia The Consequences of Love (2008)
Leila Aboulela, Lyrics Alley (2010)
Nadifa Mohamed, Black Mamba Boy (2010)
Maaza Mengiste, Beneath the Lion’s Gaze (2010)
Gebreyesus Hailu, The Conscript (2012)
41109 Introduction to British Poetry I:
Seventeenth Century to the Romantic Period
BA TG 1.2, LA, MA electives
PS, 2st, Mi 14-16,
Matzke
Introduction to Poetry (Billy Collins)
I ask them to take a poem
and hold it up to the light
like a color slide
or press an ear against its hive.
I say drop a mouse into a poem
and watch him probe his way out,
or walk inside the poem's room
and feel the walls for a light switch.
I want them to waterski
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author's name on the shore.
But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.
They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.
from The Apple that Astonished Paris, 1988, 1996
This seminar provides an introduction to selected British poetry of the Seventeenth Century to the Romantic Period.
We will engage in close readings of these texts and look at their historical and cultural contexts. In other words, we
will ‘hold’ these poems ‘up to the light’, ‘drop’ questions (and ‘mice’) into them, ‘walk inside their rooms and feel the
walls for a light switch’, perform them and read them aloud, and we will think about what reading poetry means to us
today. Assessment will be by short class presentations, a written exam or an end-of-term essay (graded). Each
student will also have to compile a bibliography on an author or poem of their choice.
This is part one of a two-semester introduction to British poetry. Each course can also be taken separately.
A reader with material will be made available at the beginning of the semester. Professed lovers of poetry may obtain
the Norton Anthology of Poetry, 4th or 5th edition.
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