Inhalt
Kurzkommentar |
Registration Period: 17.02.2020 - 01.03.2020 (WUSEL)
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Kommentar |
Using trees as an example, this seminar will explore the recently developing field of critical plant studies and its implications for contemporary conceptualizations of world, community, and human exceptionalism. We will take an interdisciplinary approach to these questions and consider recent scientific discoveries regarding tree communication and the question to what extent plants can be regarded as sentient beings, the standing of trees in western legal traditions, as well as the ways in which representations of trees (and, possibly, other plants) in American literature and other systems of cultural representation may help consolidate, foster, challenge, and/or deconstruct dominant as well as emergent lines of thought.
Only students who enjoy reading theoretical as well as literary texts and who are prepared to deal with a substantial reading load are advised to take this class.
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Literatur |
Please purchase
Richard Powers, The Overstory (2018) in the Norton & Company paperback edition (978-0393356687; 10,50 Euros).
All other texts will be either made available on Moodle or will be posted on this site by late March. E-texts are not an acceptable basis for discussing this or other texts in class. |
Bemerkung |
The seminar will encompass a field trip to Cologne with a guided tour on "urban trees" which will take place on June 24 from approximately 6 to 8 pm. Upon signing up, students will be asked to declare whether or not they will be part of this field trip at a reduced price of 15 Euros (the regular tour rate is 29 Euros). The 25 available spots will be assigned on a first-come, first-serve basis, but it will be possible for other interested students to sign up for the tour at a different date. Please note that my lecture course on "American Studies and the More-Than-Human Turn" is a possible, but not obligatory complement to this seminar.
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Leistungsnachweis |
Intensive Auseinandersetzung mit der von der Lehrperson benannten Primär- und Sekundärliteratur durch aktive und regelmäßige Mitarbeit (z.B. Arbeitsgruppen, Impulsreferate oder Präsentationen) in der Lehrveranstaltung oder durch von der Lehrperson festzulegende Ersatzleistungen wie z.B. Klausur oder mündliche Prüfung. |
Zielgruppe |
Kombi-BA
PO 2015:
ANG-F-C3A und C, ANG-G-C3A und C
Master
MEd (EN1; M-ENG2, M-ENG5, M-ENG8), MA: A/A (LIT 1, LIT 2), Kombi-MA (Z LIT, Z LIT 1a, Z Lit 1b), AVL |