Masterstudiengang für das Lehramt an Grundschulen (alle Studienordnungen)
Englisch - Vertiefungsfach (SPO ab WiSe 20/21)
0442b_m25-
Ausgewählte Themen der Englischdidaktik GS
0441bA1.1-
17475
Seminar
Ausgewählte Themen der Englischdidaktik: A Positive Approach to Language Teaching (GS) (Michaela Sambanis)
Zeit: Di 10:00-12:00 (Erster Termin: 14.10.2025)
Ort: K 31/102 Übungsraum (Habelschwerdter Allee 45)
Kommentar
This seminar introduces Positive Language Pedagogy, a strength-based approach to language teaching inspired by Positive Psychology and child-centered didactics. Participants will explore how concepts such as the PERMA model (Positive Emotions, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning, and Accomplishment), growth mindset, and appreciative classroom interaction can support young learners’ emotional well-being, motivation, and language development. The course focuses on playful, age-appropriate activities and routines that help create a warm, encouraging learning environment in the primary English classroom. In addition to supporting pupils, the seminar also highlights the importance of teacher well-being as a foundation for sustainable and joyful teaching. Through a mix of theory, hands-on practice, and reflection, students will develop ideas for implementing positive language education in everyday classroom life.
Reading recommendation:
Students are encouraged to read the Happy Learning resource book (Sambanis/Ludwig 2024, Hueber-Verlag) before or during the seminar. The book offers a practical introduction to key concepts of Positive Pedagogy and will be referenced regularly throughout the course. Reading it will support your understanding of the theoretical foundations and provide hands-on ideas for implementing positive practices in the English classroom. -
17479
Seminar
Ausgewählte Themen der Englischdidaktik: Education for Democracy: Supporting Language Learners’ Autonomy (GS/ISS/GYM) (Katja Heim)
Zeit: Do 12:00-14:00 (Erster Termin: 16.10.2025)
Ort: 2.2058 Seminarraum (Fabeckstr. 23/25)
Kommentar
What does it imply if we say that we want to support learners’ autonomy? A frequent association is a scene in which every learner works individually, without any help, any bonds and any obligations. That is not what is meant here. Supporting language learners’ autonomy is an aim formulated in the central European document on language learning, the Common European Framework of References for Languages. The concept of autonomy used here is not individualistic but considers learners as members of communities. The aim is thus to develop not only responsibility for learning at an individual level but also responsibility within groups of learners. This aims to enable learners to uphold a democratic Europe, in which citizens interact internationally and engage in peaceful discourse.
In this course, we will look at strategies for developing language learner autonomy within school-based English lessons and will consider important issues, such as the balance between structure and freedom, types of interactions in class, target language use, assessment, and inclusion.
Throughout the course, we will connect theory and practice, will analyse lesson sequences, and will develop small-scale action research projects in preparation for your term papers.
Parts of this course will be taught online. Dates for on-site and online sessions will be announced in class. The first two sessions will be on-site.
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17475
Seminar
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Fachdidaktik Englisch: Entwicklung, Forschung und Evaluation Variante 1 GS
0442bA2.1-
17480
Seminar
Entwicklung, Forschung und Evaluation. Variante 1: ohne Vorbereitung MA-Arbeit (GS/ISS/GYM) (Michaela Sambanis)
Zeit: Do 12:00-14:00 (Erster Termin: 16.10.2025)
Ort: JK 31/124 (Habelschwerdter Allee 45)
Kommentar
The focus of this seminar is the professional activity of teaching English as a foreign language (EFL), considered both theoretically (as an object of investigation) and practically (as it is realized in the classroom). From the perspective of Performative Didactics, the course covers selected issues in teaching English as a foreign language (the arts in language teaching, digital texts, multilingualism, creativity in the classroom, etc.). Performative Didactics is defined as an approach that emphasizes embodied learning and draws on techniques and processes from the performing arts, amongst others from theater. Students get the possibility to discover activities for the EFL classroom inspired by Performative Didactics as well as Positive Psychology (focusing on strengths & flourishing as well as on student & teacher wellbeing).
The course gives insight into relevant studies (didactic & neuroscientific findings), and other scholarly publications. These will be critically discussed by the participants together with the lecturer, and linked to theoretical foundations, to the current body of knowledge, and to practical considerations/teaching ideas.
Students are expected to attend class regularly and to participate actively, which includes a presentation ("Referat (ca. 10 Minuten) mit Ausarbeitung (ca. 5 Seiten)").
Focus areas: Performative Didactics, research from didactics, neuroscience and other sister disciplines, Positive Psychology, teaching ideas.
Recommended readings:- Sambanis, M. & Ludwig, C. (2024): Happy Learning – Glücklich und erfolgreich Sprachen lernen. München: Hueber.
- Sambanis, M. & Walter, M. (2022): Make it work! Interaktive Impulse zum Sprachenlernen. Von neuesten Befunden der Neurowissenschaft zu konkreten Unterrichtsimpulsen. Berlin: Cornelsen (Reihe Neurowissenschaftliche Impulse).
Course structure: Lectures, seminars, teaching activities, group work, performative components, presentations plus feedback, and discussions.
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17481
Seminar
Abgesagt
Entwicklung, Forschung und Evaluation. Variante 1: ohne Vorbereitung MA-Arbeit (GS/ISS/GYM) (Katja Heim)
Zeit: Termine siehe LV-Details (Erster Termin: 23.02.2026)
Ort: JK 31/124 (Habelschwerdter Allee 45)
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17480
Seminar
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Fachdidaktik Englisch: Entwicklung, Forschung und Evaluation Variante 2 GS
0442bA2.2-
17482
Seminar
Entwicklung, Forschung und Evaluation. Variante 2: mit Vorbereitung MA-Arbeit (GS/ISS/GYM) (Katja Heim)
Zeit: Do 14:00-16:00 (Erster Termin: 16.10.2025)
Ort: K 23/11 Digilab (Habelschwerdter Allee 45)
Hinweise für Studierende
Die Lehrveranstaltung findet in Teilen in K 23/11 (Digilab) und K 31/102 statt. Bitte schauen Sie in den jeweiligen Terminen nach der Raumangabe.
Der Name Digilab bezieht sich auf die Ausstattung des Raumes und bestimmt nicht die primäre thematische Ausrichtung des Seminars.Kommentar
In this course, we highlight potential thematic foci as well as potential methods for Master’s theses. The choice of topics discussed over the course of the semester, cover different areas within the field of English didactics, such as catering for diversity and basic psychological needs, social justice, tasks, and a focus on interaction in the foreign language classroom. During the course, you will engage with current research papers, will work in groups and will prepare short sessions for the rest of the class. We will also pinpoint important features of methods that are frequently used in the field of English didactics, including theoretical as well as empirical research.
The exam (Modulprüfung) consists of a 10-minute presentation (Referat) as well as a written elaboration of the presentation (5 pages). All reading will be provided via Blackboard during the semester.
Parts of this course will be taught online. Dates for on-site and online sessions will be announced in class. The first two sessions will be on-site.
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17482
Seminar
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Vertiefungsmodul D2 Literary Studies: Periods - Genres - Concepts
0546aA1.9-
16199
Seminar
Textanalyse mit R für die Geisteswissenschaften (Lisa Poggel)
Zeit: Termine siehe LV-Details (Erster Termin: 14.10.2025)
Ort: JK 26/101 (Habelschwerdter Allee 45)
Kommentar
Dieses Seminar vermittelt grundlegende praktische Kenntnisse der Textanalyse mit der Programmiersprache R. Der Fokus liegt auf der Verarbeitung und Analyse geisteswissenschaftlicher Daten. Das Seminar richtet sich insbesondere an Studierende ohne Programmiererfahrung und vermittelt neben Verfahren der Textanalyse und des Text Mining auch Grundlagen der Programmierung mit R. R kommt als besonders einstiegsfreundliche Programmiersprache vermehrt auch in geisteswissenschaftlichen Forschungsprojekten zur Anwendung, beispielsweise bei der quantitativen Textanalyse, in der digitalen Stilometrie, bei der Autorschaftserkennung oder zur Analyse und Visualisierung historischer Korrespondenznetzwerke. Das Seminar setzt keine Programmiererfahrung voraus. Es richtet sich explizit an Studierende aller Institute des Fachbereichs ›Philosophie und Geisteswissenschaften‹.
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16199
Seminar
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Colonial and Postcolonial Literatures
0546bA1.10-
17360
Vertiefungsseminar
VS-Colonial and Postcolonial Literatures: Writing Abolition (Jennifer Wawrzinek)
Zeit: Di 14:00-16:00 (Erster Termin: 14.10.2025)
Ort: KL 29/208 Übungsraum (Habelschwerdter Allee 45)
Kommentar
Students are expected to acquire the following texts:
- Equiano, Olaudah. The Interesting Narrative and Other Writings. Any edition.
- Prince, Mary. The History of Mary Prince. Any edition.
A course reader will be made available on Blackboard at the beginning of semester.
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17361
Vertiefungsseminar
VS-Colonial and Postcolonial Literatures: Narrating India (Stephan Laqué)
Zeit: Do 16:00-18:00 (Erster Termin: 16.10.2025)
Ort: JK 27/106 (Habelschwerdter Allee 45)
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17362
Vertiefungsseminar
VS-Colonial and Postcolonial Literatures: Empire and the Globalising Gothic around 1800 (Caroline Kögler)
Zeit: Di 12:00-14:00 (Erster Termin: 14.10.2025)
Ort: J 27/14 (Habelschwerdter Allee 45)
Kommentar
This course examines the Gothic as a literary mode emerging in tandem with the rapid expansion of European imperial power in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Far from being confined to the haunted castles of a fictionalised Europe, the Gothic became a globalising form, absorbing and refracting anxieties about colonial encounters, the Atlantic slave trade, revolution, and shifting ideas of race, gender, and national identity. We will explore how Gothic fiction negotiated the “otherness” of distant geographies, the fear and fascination of the exotic, and the violent realities of imperialism—often transforming imperial peripheries into the haunted landscapes of the imagination.
Our intersectional readings will pair canonical Gothic works with novels and narratives shaped by the circulation of people, goods, and ideas across, primarily, the Atlantic and Mediterranean. We will investigate how this globalising Gothic contributed to, and at times critiqued, the cultural logics of empire, drawing on postcolonial theory, transnational literary history, and critical race studies.
Primary texts include:- Anne Radcliffe, The Sicilian Romance (1790)
- Matthew Lewis, The Monk (1796)
- Leonora Sansay, Secret History; or, The Horrors of St. Domingo (1808)
- Jane Austen, Mansfield Park (1814)
- Mary Shelley, Frankenstein (1818)
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17360
Vertiefungsseminar
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Culture - Gender - Media
0546bA1.11-
17367
Vertiefungsseminar
VS-Culture - Gender - Media: Enlightenment Cosmopolitans (Jennifer Wawrzinek)
Zeit: Mo 16:00-18:00 (Erster Termin: 13.10.2025)
Ort: J 32/102 (Habelschwerdter Allee 45)
Kommentar
A course reader will be made available on Blackboard prior to the beginning of semester.
Students are expected to acquire the following texts:
- Montagu, Lady Mary Wortley. The Turkish Embassy Letters. Any Edition.
- Hamilton, Elizabeth. Translation of the Letters of a Hindoo Rajah. Any Edition.
- Mahomet, Dean. The Travels of Dean Mahomet. Any Edition.
- Sancho, Ignatius. Letters of the Late Ignatius Sancho, an African. Any Edition.
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17368
Vertiefungsseminar
VS-Culture - Gender - Media: Shakespeare's Othello: Text, Stage, Screen (Sabine Schülting)
Zeit: Di 10:00-12:00 (Erster Termin: 14.10.2025)
Ort: J 27/14 (Habelschwerdter Allee 45)
Kommentar
The course will be concerned with Othello, one of Shakespeare’s most controversial tragedies. It is a play about love and jealousy, but also racism and misogyny. The course will start with a close-reading of the play, its contextualization in early modern debates about gender and race, and an overview of important critical responses to the play. We will then have a look at the stage history of Othello and different approaches to performing Blackness. This will include a consideration of more recent stage productions and film versions. Our discussions of these contemporary interpretations and adaptations of Othello will consider the ways in which the tragedy has been used to address current debates about cultural and racial differences as well as the intersections of gender and race.
Texts: Students should purchase a scholarly edition of Othello (preferably the Arden, Cambridge or Oxford edition) and have read the play by the beginning of the semester.
Assessment will be on the basis of regular attendance, active participation in class activities (such as short presentations, group work, short written assignments etc.) and the submission of an essay (of c. 4000 words). Exchange students with a background in English and/or Cultural Studies are welcome; your proficiency in English should be at least B2. Exchange students can get up to 10 ECTS for this course. -
17369
Vertiefungsseminar
VS-Culture - Gender - Media: The British Empire in Film and Fiction (Lukas Lammers)
Zeit: Fr 10:00-12:00 (Erster Termin: 17.10.2025)
Ort: KL 29/208 Übungsraum (Habelschwerdter Allee 45)
Kommentar
In this seminar we will study a range of recent films and fiction that represent different phases and aspects of the British Empire. The first few sessions are intended to provide an introduction to three key contexts: empire, memory and media. We will then turn to six fictional representations (three novels and three films) as well as some shorter texts. The materials that we will be discussing span a considerable temporal, geographical, and thematic range. Temporally, they will take us from the heyday of Empire to its decline and beyond; geographically, there will be spotlights on Australia, Botswana, Britain, the Caribbean, India, and Singapore.
TEXTS
Novels: Matthew Kneale, English Passengers (2000), Amitav Ghosh, The Glass Palace (2000), Jane Gardam, Old Filth (2004).
Shorter texts will be made available on Blackboard.
Films: A United Kingdom (2016, dir. Amma Asante), Victoria and Abdul (2017, dir. Stephen Frears), Small Island (2009, BBC Television, dir. John Alexander)
ASSESSMENT
Assessment will be based on short writing assignments, very short presentations in class (‘aktive Teilnahme’), and a final essay of 4.000 words to be submitted after the end of class. Exchange students with a background in English and/or Cultural Studies are welcome; your proficiency in English should be at least B2.
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17367
Vertiefungsseminar
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Sociolinguistics and Varieties of English
0546bA1.12-
17371
Vertiefungsseminar
VS-Socioling. and Varieties of English: Language and Tourism (Antje Wilton)
Zeit: Di 10:00-12:00 (Erster Termin: 14.10.2025)
Ort: JK 31/125 (Habelschwerdter Allee 45)
Kommentar
In this seminar, we will explore the relationship between (public) language use and the field of tourism. Tourism is a global societal domain in which language serves distinct purposes and manifests itself in a variety of genres and media. We will investigate, for instance, how language is used in transient linguistically and culturally mixed groups of people, how written interpretive infrastructure shapes the linguistic landscape of tourism sites, how language and visual semiotic elements structure gastronomic and medial promotion of touristic offers and how local languages are commodified as an economic resource in tourism. Students will engage more deeply with a topic of their choice in group student sessions, which they will plan and conduct themselves.
One highlight of the course will be a short joint COIL project on historic tourism sites with students and their lecturer from the German department of the University of Minnesota, Duluth. More information about this specific form of virtual cooperation can be found here: https://becoil.de/.
Please note that some knowledge of German is required for this course.
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17371
Vertiefungsseminar
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Structure of Englisch
0546bA1.13-
17373
Vertiefungsseminar
VS-Structure of English: Corpus-Assisted Discourse Studies (Anatol Stefanowitsch)
Zeit: Mo 10:00-12:00 (Erster Termin: 13.10.2025)
Ort: JK 31/125 (Habelschwerdter Allee 45)
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17373
Vertiefungsseminar
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Semantics and Pragmatics
0546bA1.14-
17376
Vertiefungsseminar
VS-Semantics and Pragmatics: Meaning and Context (Ferdinand von Mengden)
Zeit: Mo 16:00-18:00 (Erster Termin: 13.10.2025)
Ort: J 27/14 (Habelschwerdter Allee 45)
Kommentar
That linguistic expressions (words, utterances) have a meaning seems to be a very natural thing to assume. How else would it be possible to communicate successfully by means of linguistic expressions? But what exactly is meaning? What does it mean for an expression to ‘have’ a meaning? And how do expressions actually acquire their meaning?
We can argue that linguistic expressions must have some meaning prior to us speakers using them – otherwise, how could we use them reasonably if we didn’t know what a word can be used for? But this approach doesn’t explain where a word meaning comes from in the first place. We could also argue that we create the meaning of an expression the moment we use it. But how exactly does this work and how do we know which expressions we can or cannot use in a given situation?
The main aim of this seminar will be to resolve this paradox. A crucial factor in determining the meaning of an expression will be the clues which the context provides in each specific communication. The class therefore focuses on the act of generating meaning during the interaction of people who communicate with each other. How do the speakers’ intentions, their assumptions, and the environment shape the semantic patterns? And how do these spread across a larger community of speakers?
Students who wish to participate in the class but cannot come in the first week, are kindly asked to notify me via email before the start of the lecture period.
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17376
Vertiefungsseminar
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Language Change
0546bA1.15-
17381
Vertiefungsseminar
VS-Language Change: Emergent Grammar (Ferdinand von Mengden)
Zeit: Fr 10:00-12:00 (Erster Termin: 17.10.2025)
Ort: JK 31/124 (Habelschwerdter Allee 45)
Kommentar
There have been various approaches for explaining how linguistic structures come about – how and why they vary and change. This class will approach this question from the perspective of system theory. The notion 'Emergent Grammar’ is derived from the idea that systems of any kind can be dynamic, fluid as well as open and adaptive. ‘Dynamic’ and ‘fluid’ means that they are never stable at any point and yet retain their functionality. ‘Open’ and ‘adaptive’ means that the system is in exchange with its environment, i.e. with factors and impulses that are themselves not part of the system.
What exactly does this mean when we want to study and understand how human language functions? How do expressions, their meaning and the grammar behind them come into being, vary, disappear, and yet obviously show enough resilience for enabling communication across generations of people? Rather than looking at cognitive processes of individual speakers in isolation, this seminar will focus on social systems as models for understanding the dynamic systematicity of human language. What are the complex and subtle ways in which social conventions interact with individual needs in communication? How does the complex feedback loop work between individual behavior, social conventions and the environment in which we communicate with each other?
Those who wish to participate but cannot come to the first class are kindly asked to notify me via email before the beginning of the lecture period.
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17381
Vertiefungsseminar
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Modernity and Alterity in the Literatures of Medieval Britain
0546bA1.8-
17351
Vertiefungsseminar
VS-Literatures of Medieval Britain: Abandoned Women (Wolfram Keller)
Zeit: Di 08:00-10:00 (Erster Termin: 14.10.2025)
Ort: KL 29/208 Übungsraum (Habelschwerdter Allee 45)
Kommentar
Coursework will ensue in three stages. At the beginning of the semester, we will discuss Ovid’s Heroides (in translation), before we shall move on to Chaucer’s Legend of Good Women to see how a medieval English writer engaged with female abandonment. Towards the end of the semester, we will study a few (shorter) poems about abandoned women in Romantic, Victorian and contemporary literatures in English to assess the differences and similarities in the depiction of abandonment across the period divide between ‘the medieval’ and ‘the modern.’
Student should be familiar with Ovid’s Heroides by the beginning of the semester:
- A. S. Kline’s translation of the Heroides is available online at https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Latin/Heroideshome.php
- Alternatively, students could consult the translation by Paul Murgatroyd, Bridget Reeves, and Sarah Parker [Routledge, 2017], which includes commentary and additional materials)
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17352
Vertiefungsseminar
VS-Literatures of Medieval Britain: Appropriating the Medieval Past: The Political Middle Ages in Literary and Cultural Discourse (Peter Löffelbein)
Zeit: Mi 16:00-18:00 (Erster Termin: 15.10.2025)
Ort: KL 32/202 Übungsraum (Habelschwerdter Allee 45)
Kommentar
The Middle Ages keep playing an important role in the cultural imagination of the modern (Western) world. Literary and cultural productions – from video games to TV series and fantasy literature – continue to return to the Middle Ages as modernity’s Other, alternately casting them as a ‘Dark Age’ of cruelty, ignorance and superstition, or as an idealized era of authenticity and social cohesion.
Inevitably, these conceptions carry ideological implications concerning social identities, societal dynamics, and the body politic. Conversely, political discourse has long been using and abusing the Middle Ages and their representation in literature and culture: the most telling cases include the 19th-century formation of national identities, the Chartist movement for social reform, fascist ideologies, and contemporary debates surrounding neo-feudalism and techno-feudalism.
In this seminar, we will examine the political dimensions of the Middle Ages in literary and cultural discourse, including the appropriation of ‘the medieval’ in political discussions past and present. By discussing literary texts, select other forms of cultural production, and political analyses, students shall become familiar with historical and contemporary manifestations of medievalism and learn to analyse its incidental and strategic uses in various discursive fields.
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17351
Vertiefungsseminar
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Literary Studies: Periods - Genres - Concepts
0546bA1.9-
17354
Vertiefungsseminar
VS-Periods - Genres - Concepts: Shakespeare's Histories (Stephan Laqué)
Zeit: Mi 12:00-14:00 (Erster Termin: 15.10.2025)
Ort: J 27/14 (Habelschwerdter Allee 45)
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17355
Vertiefungsseminar
VS-Periods - Genres - Concepts: Odysseys (Wolfram Keller)
Zeit: Mo 10:00-12:00 (Erster Termin: 13.10.2025)
Ort: KL 29/208 Übungsraum (Habelschwerdter Allee 45)
Kommentar
While the western European classics may not generally seem to be important reference points for contemporary writers, the Odyssey—either in its entirety or by way of individual episodes—has become an important intertext for recent novels and films. In this seminar, we shall investigate how different recent adaptations engage with the classical nostos epic. During the semester, we will discuss the following reworkings of Homer’s Odyssey: Ethan Coen and Joel Coen’s film O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000), Bernardine Evaristo’s The Emperor’s Babe (2001), Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad (2005), and Amor Towles’s The Lincoln Highway (2021). Students should be familiar with Homer’s Odyssey by the beginning of the semester; I recommend Emily Wilson’s recent (paperback) verse translation (Norton, 2018), but there are countless other translations available, some of them online.
This seminar is very reading-intensive! -
17356
Vertiefungsseminar
VS-Periods - Genres - Concepts: Literature and Ecology in the Early Modern World (Katrina Spadaro)
Zeit: Do 14:00-16:00 (Erster Termin: 16.10.2025)
Ort: KL 29/207 Übungsraum (Habelschwerdter Allee 45)
Kommentar
While forests and pastures once served as the bedrock of an early modern “green” criticism, recent scholarship focuses on a much vaster colour spectrum - including blue waterways, frosty arctic landscapes, ominous grey skies and the sedimented hues of stone. This course gives you an overview of how such diverse ecosystems, natural features, and meteorological events fuelled a powerful, and often anxious, early modern imaginary. Over the course of the semester, we will contextualise familiar early modern texts within an intellectual climate that was highly attuned to contemporary ecological changes and pressures (including coal pollution, deforestation, rapid urban development, and the “Mini Ice Age”) and which associated different modes and genres of writing with a rich variety of natural environments.
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17354
Vertiefungsseminar
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Vertiefungsmodul D3 Colonial and Postcolonial Literatures 0546aA1.10
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Vertiefungsmodul D4 Culture - Gender - Media 0546aA1.11
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Vertiefungsmodul D5 Sociolinguistics and Varieties of English 0546aA1.12
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Vertiefungsmodul D6 Structure of Englisch 0546aA1.13
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Vertiefungsmodul D7 Semantics and Pragmatics 0546aA1.14
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Vertiefungsmodul D8 Language Change 0546aA1.15
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Vertiefungsmodul D1 Modernity and Alterity in the Literatures of Medieval Britain 0546aA1.8
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