230500 Some Books; or What You Will (S) (WiSe 2024/2025)

This focus semester on democracy is making me question my own role and function in this academic setting. It has been argued that
"aus einer systemisch-machtkritischen Perspektive [sind] wir als Lehrende strukturell eine Hürde für Studierende, weil die Hochschule uns eine Funktion als Kontrolleur*innen, Gatekeeper, Bewerter*innen und Aussortierer*innen einschreibt. Die starken Hierarchien sind einfach schädlich für das Lernen von Studierenden. Solange dieses System besteht, brauchen wir Lehrende, die machtsensibel mit ihrer Rolle umgehen und die die Beziehungen zu ihren Studierenden dehierarchisieren und gleichwürdiger gestalten. Das ist letztlich gut für uns alle – Lehrende und Lernende –, weil wir uns stärker verbünden können gegen systemischen Druck, der unsere gemeinsame Arbeit erschwert" (Katharina Pietsch, Unconditional Teaching, 5 June 2023: https://www.unconditional-teaching.com/index.php?pg=uff-talk-ressource-anstatt-huerde).
So in this class I am inviting you -- from my position as facilitator -- to an exercise in democratic equality: We will decide together which texts we will discuss, how the seminar is to run, and what kinds of Studienleistungen make sense. Everyone is encouraged to suggest material for discussion: ANYTHING GOES!
(N. B. We are of course bound by the FsB and module descriptions, and I would remind you that some people are doing this class for PM2 British Studies, so British/Irish texts should probably dominate the list - unless the majority decide that that is not important).

Requirements for participation, required level

Note that people in the new BA (since SuSe 2023) have to have passed the LPT, written and oral parts, to earn credit points in this class.

Bibliography

Whatever the majority agrees to read or watch, we all read or watch. That is what democracy means.
(I will say straight away that my own hope for this class is that I will get more insight into what YOU actually enjoy reading and that I will learn how YOU would like to approach texts in literary and cultural studies. You may have been waiting for a seminar on [author] or [genre] or [medium] because you feel they would be very interesting to discuss, but in this department nobody feels competent to teach it: anime/manga is an example. The idea in this class is that you teach each other (and me)!