230486 Gender and Neoliberalism in Twenty-First-Century Popular Culture and Literature (BS) (WiSe 2020/2021)

Far more than an economic policy that promotes the deregulation of (financial) capitalist markets and the erosion of welfare states, neoliberalism has since the 1980s emerged as an ideology of social life that celebrates notions of unhampered individualism, the choice biography, competition and, more recently, self-care and ‘diversity’. In its (post)millennial guise as a cultural and social force of progress and emancipation, neoliberalism has become aligned with a contemporary feminism that hails exceptional female leadership and advancement (e.g. Sheryl Sandberg, Michelle Obama, Kamala Khan) yet often fails to address ongoing or even exacerbated forms of gendered disadvantage under the precarious post-crisis conditions since 2008. Gender studies scholars are faced with a puzzling situation of the resurgence of popular feminism/s, a similarly spectacular resurgence of violent misogyny, persisting gender inequality and, on top of that, a curious research gap on masculinities in neoliberal contexts.

This seminar tries to disentangle these gendered knots by introducing some key critical concepts such as neoliberalism and postfeminism to make sense of a variety of 21st-century cultural and (popular) literary – both British and US American – representations of femininities and masculinities.

Requirements for participation, required level

Empfohlene Vorkenntnisse:

23-ANG-AngBm2-Basismodul 2 Introduction to Literary and Cultural Studies
23-ANG-AngBm3-Basismodul 3 Linguistics/Language Acquisition

Bibliography

Primary texts will be announced in due time before the introductory session, whereas criteria to obtain the Studienleistung will be discussed in the introductory session.

Please note: You cannot complete a Modulprüfung in this seminar.