230058 Dolls and Demons: Representations of Children in Contemporary British Literature (S) (WiSe 2017/2018)

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Please note: This seminar does NOT deal with Children's Literature; and it is aimed at students of Fachwissenschaft as well as students of Lehramt.

We all know what a child is, right? We’ve all been children ourselves after all. But to what extent is our adult memory of what it means to be a child, to have been a child, shaped by normative cultural conceptions of what it should mean to be a child?

In this seminar, you will be introduced to the basics of sociological childhood studies, which works on the premise that there is no natural way of being a child, but that the manifold meanings attached to the word ‘child’ are the product of social construction. These meanings are highly diverse when we look at different historical and/or cultural contexts, and they go hand in hand with specific ideological interests (of adults). For example, childhood can be framed as

  • a biological and psychological phase of development (which children can pass through ‘normally’ or not according to adult diagnostics),
  • a state of moral innocence and untampered naivety (which is in danger of corruption and needs adult protection),
  • a state of imperfection and immaturity (which needs adult guidance and schooling),
  • a state of unruliness or even monstrosity (which needs to be checked or exorcised),
  • a political site where the reproduction of human capital and cultural values is at stake,
  • and so on.

None of these conceptions is ‘natural’, all of them are culturally mediated, all of them serve rhetorical purposes, and all of them can be questioned critically.

We will use this critical theoretical lens to study a selection of contemporary British novels with regard to how they conceptualise and represent children, what narrative strategies, tropes, and stereotypes they use in their constructions of childhoods, and how these constructions are embedded in the specific context of British culture and history. You will practice techniques of literary scholarship like close reading, thematic and narratological analysis, argumentative interpretation, and engaging with secondary sources both in a classroom setting with open discussion and in regular individual writing tasks (usually assigned as homework) throughout the semester.

In the last quarter of the seminar, you will do your own research on a British cultural phenomenon of your choice that relates to issues of childhood representation, be it from the area of literature, film, drama, games, advertisement, journalism, politics, etc.

Please buy the following novels (if you buy an eBook, make sure you have the means to bring it to class):

  • Doris Lessing: The Fifth Child (we’ll start discussing this book, so read it before classes begin)
  • Toby Litt: deadkidsongs
  • Ian McEwan: The Child in Time

Requirements for participation, required level

Students from the BA Anglistik are required to have completed the courses of both modules BM1 and BM2 before taking this seminar (not necessarily the module exams).

Teaching staff

Dates ( Calendar view )

Frequency Weekday Time Format / Place Period  
weekly Mo 10-12 Q0-101 09.10.2017-02.02.2018
not on: 12/25/17 / 1/1/18

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Subject assignments

Module Course Requirements  
23-ANG-AngPM2 Profilmodul 2: British Studies 2.3 British Literature and Media Study requirement
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23-ANG-AngPM2.1 Profilmodul 2.1: British Studies 2.1.3 British Literature and Media Study requirement
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- Graded examination Student information
23-ANG-AngPM2.1_a Profilmodul 2.1: British Studies 2.1.3 Literature and Culture Study requirement
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- Graded examination Student information
23-ANG-AngPM2_a Profilmodul 2: British Studies 2.3 Literature and Culture Study requirement
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- Graded examination Student information
23-LIT-LitP8 Englischsprachige Literaturen Englischsprachige Literaturen in exemplarischen Lektüren 1 Study requirement
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Englischsprachige Literaturen in exemplarischen Lektüren 2 Study requirement
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Englischsprachige Literaturen: Traditionen, Gattungen, Motive Study requirement
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Seminar mit Lektüreschwerpunkt Study requirement
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- Graded examination Student information

The binding module descriptions contain further information, including specifications on the "types of assignments" students need to complete. In cases where a module description mentions more than one kind of assignment, the respective member of the teaching staff will decide which task(s) they assign the students.


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Last update basic details/teaching staff:
Monday, May 8, 2017 
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Wednesday, July 26, 2017 
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Wednesday, July 26, 2017 
Type(s) / SWS (hours per week per semester)
seminar (S) / 2
Language
This lecture is taught in english
Department
Faculty of Linguistics and Literary Studies
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