230552 “We Made It Through That Water”—Documenting, Narrating, Performing Hurricane Katrina and Its Aftermath (S) (WiSe 2016/2017)

"Natural disasters have been characterised [...] as non-hierarchical, egalitarian, or equal opportunity phenomena, affecting alike all communities in their path regardless of class, race, or any other social attributes" (Adeola and Picou). In short, it is the common claim that "natural hazards do not discriminate"(ibid.).
When, on August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina struck Louisiana and Mississippi, she left paths of devastating destruction about 100 miles from the eye of the storm (Adeola and Picou). The resultant catastrophic flooding of New Orleans, in particular, due to the failure and inadequate maintenance of the system of engineered levees and floodwalls, as well as the subsequent delayed and inefficient response and recovery efforts witnessed after Hurricane Katrina, were responsible for its subsequent characterisation as an 'unnatural' disaster (ibid.). The often dubbed 'man-made' disaster and its (immediate) aftermath has clearly shown that, in fact, "all communities are not created equal when it comes to disaster vulnerability, impacts, response, recovery, and resiliency" (ibid.).

In this seminar, we will watch, listen to, and read a variety of cultural negotiations that deal with Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath, e.g. the HBO original series Treme (2010-2013), Spike Lee's documentary film When the Levees Broke (2006), Josh Neufeld's graphic novel A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge (2009), and a collection of life stories entitled Voices From the Storm (2006). We will, then, among other things, discuss if and, if so, how these different 'life narratives' serve as counter-narratives to the dominant media images which flooded (pun intended) the news in 2005. Our investigation will be based in a discussion of different forms of media as well as critical texts from a variety of disciplines, including cultural studies, sociology, geography, economics, literature, as well as film(making).

3 LP - a Studienleistung (and/or) grade - can be obtained by active participation and fulfillment of other activities which will be specified in the first session of the seminar.

A Lernraum will be made available.

Sources of commentary:
Adeola, Francis O. and J. Steven Picou. Hurricane Katrina-linked environmental injustice: race, class, and place differentials in attitude. Disasters. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2016. Web.