552.286 (19S) Topics in American Cultural Studies: Imagining Surveillance through Literature and Film

Sommersemester 2019

Registration deadline has expired.

First course session
05.03.2019 14:00 - 16:00 N.0.43 On Campus
... no further dates known

Overview

Lecturer
LV Nummer Südostverbund ENM03001UL
Course title german Topics in American Cultural Studies: Imagining Surveillance through Literature and Film
Type Proseminar (continuous assessment course )
Hours per Week 2.0
ECTS credits 3.0
Registrations 27 (25 max.)
Organisational unit
Language of instruction English
possible language(s) of the assessment English
Course begins on 05.03.2019
eLearning Go to Moodle course
Seniorstudium Liberale Yes

Time and place

List of events is loading...

Course Information

Intended learning outcomes

Students will be introduced to basic concepts and terminology of the field of surveillance studies. Moreover, they will gain a basic understanding of the historically changing representations of surveillance; further advance their skills in critically analysing literature and films with special attention to issues of race, class, and gender; and acquire knowledge about genres that have been used to represent and negotiate ideas concerning surveillance.


Teaching methodology including the use of eLearning tools

In-class discussion of assigned primary and theoretical texts. Short input lectures will provide overviews that help historically contextualize primary literature and guide in-class discussion in smaller groups and the entire class; short midterm exam.


Course content

After Kellyanne Conway spoke of "alternative facts" following the debates about the crowd size at Donald Trump's inauguration, sales of George Orwell's dystopian surveillance classic Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) were soaring. This not only hints at a great general interest in thinking about social control and surveillance today, but also at the ways in which such thought has always been "in a loose conversation with artists, fictions, and their robust material” (Monahan 2011). The seminar aims to explore this “loose conversation” and the intimate long-standing links between surveillance and art, thereby introducing students to what Monahan calls an emerging “cultural studies of surveillance.” We will focus on historically changing theories and concepts of surveillance (e.g. Foucault; Lyon; Monahan) to make sense of its different forms and means (e.g. panopticism; CCTV; Big Data). This theoretical background will enhance our readings of a variety of primary texts ranging from E.A. Poe’s “The Man of the Crowd” (1840) to novels by Orwell (1949) and Atwood (1985), and the recent blockbuster movie The Circle (2017). Turning to questions of both the aesthetics and politics of surveillance through literature and film, which involves addressing issues like identity, individuality, public and private, power and knowledge, as well as race, class, and gender, will help explore artistic productions as important parts of North American conversations about surveillance.


Literature

Atwood, Margaret. The Handmaid’s Tale (1985). Any edition.
Orwell, George. Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949). Any edition.

All other texts will be made available by the instructor.


Examination information

Im Fall von online durchgeführten Prüfungen sind die Standards zu beachten, die die technischen Geräte der Studierenden erfüllen müssen, um an diesen Prüfungen teilnehmen zu können.

Grading scheme

Grade / Grade grading scheme

Position in the curriculum

  • Bachelor-Lehramtsstudium Bachelor Unterrichtsfach Englisch (SKZ: 407, Version: 17W.2)
    • Subject: Anglophone Cultural History and Theory (Compulsory subject)
      • ENM.003 Topics in American Cultural Studies ( 2.0h PS / 3.0 ECTS)
        • 552.286 Topics in American Cultural Studies: Imagining Surveillance through Literature and Film (2.0h PS / 3.0 ECTS)
          Absolvierung im 4., 5., 6. Semester empfohlen
  • Bachelor-Lehramtsstudium Bachelor Unterrichtsfach Englisch (SKZ: 407, Version: 15W.2)
    • Subject: Anglophone Cultural History and Theory (Compulsory subject)
      • ENM.003 Topics in American Cultural Studies ( 2.0h PS / 3.0 ECTS)
        • 552.286 Topics in American Cultural Studies: Imagining Surveillance through Literature and Film (2.0h PS / 3.0 ECTS)
          Absolvierung im 4., 5., 6. Semester empfohlen
  • Teacher training programme English (Secondary School Teacher Accreditation) (SKZ: 344, Version: 04W.7)
    • Stage one
      • Subject: Culture Studies (Compulsory subject)
        • Cultures in Close-Up ( 1.0h PS / 2.0 ECTS)
          • 552.286 Topics in American Cultural Studies: Imagining Surveillance through Literature and Film (2.0h PS / 4.0 ECTS)
  • Teacher training programme English (Secondary School Teacher Accreditation) (SKZ: 344, Version: 04W.7)
    • Stage one
      • Subject: Linguistic Basis (Compulsory subject)
        • Cultures in Close-Up ( 1.0h PS / 2.0 ECTS)
          • 552.286 Topics in American Cultural Studies: Imagining Surveillance through Literature and Film (2.0h PS / 4.0 ECTS)
  • Bachelor's degree programme English and American Studies (SKZ: 612, Version: 15W.3)
    • Subject: Fachliches Grundstudium Culture (Compulsory subject)
      • 6.2 Topics in American Cultural Studies ( 0.0h PS / 3.0 ECTS)
        • 552.286 Topics in American Cultural Studies: Imagining Surveillance through Literature and Film (2.0h PS / 3.0 ECTS)
          Absolvierung im 3. Semester empfohlen
  • Bachelor's degree programme English and American Studies (SKZ: 612, Version: 10W.3)
    • Subject: Fachliches Aufbaustudium (ab 11W) (Compulsory subject)
      • Module: Culture (ab 11W)
        • Topics in Culture ( 2.0h PS / 5.0 ECTS)
          • 552.286 Topics in American Cultural Studies: Imagining Surveillance through Literature and Film (2.0h PS / 5.0 ECTS)

Equivalent courses for counting the examination attempts

This course is not assigned to a sequence of equivalent courses