489661-HS2024-0-Antisemitism and/in American Literature (FM and FS BA Seminar: Literature and Other Media)





Root number 489661
Semester HS2024
Type of course Seminar
Allocation to subject English Languages and Literatures
Type of exam not defined
Title Antisemitism and/in American Literature (FM and FS BA Seminar: Literature and Other Media)
Description The current resurgence of antisemitism necessitates a reflection on its origins and manifestations in order to expose its pervasiveness and to safeguard democratic and cultural values. In this seminar, we will analyze American literary texts and films which either engage thematically with antisemitism or are (sometimes oblique) articulations of antisemitic sentiments. Approaching the subject from a historical perspective, we will seek to scrutinize literary and cinematic texts from the latter half of the nineteenth century to the first decade of the new millennium which, more or less openly, participate in different discursive configurations of antisemitism.

Required Reading: thorough seminar preparation of all texts is mandatory.
Hobson and Roth are compulsory reading for all students; in acknowledgement of the overall reading load, students must additionally choose to read any one of Wallace, Donnelly, and Norris, but they need to confer with the course convenor which of these they will read and prepare for discussion during the seminar so that all three texts are sufficiently covered. If students wish to read two or all of the latter, they are of course welcome to do so.
Literary texts:
Lewis Wallace, Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1880; PDF provided).
Edmund Boisgilbert (i.e., Ignatius Donnelly), Caesar’s Column: A Story of the Twentieth Century (1890; PDF provided).
Frank Norris, McTeague: A Story of San Francisco (1899; PDF provided).
Laura Z. Hobson, Gentleman’s Agreement (1947; PDF provided).
Philip Roth, The Plot against America (2004).

Films:
Erich von Stroheim (dir.), Greed (1924; silent film adaptation of McTeague; on ILIAS).
Fred Niblo (dir.), Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1925; on ILIAS).
Elia Kazan (dir.), Gentleman’s Agreement (1947).
William Wyler (dir.), Ben-Hur (1959).
ILIAS-Link (Learning resource for course) Registrations are transmitted from CTS to (no admission in ILIAS possible). ILIAS
Link to another web site
Lecturers Prof. Dr. Axel StählerInstitute of English Languages and Literatures 
ECTS 4
Recognition as optional course possible No
Grading passed/failed
 
Dates Monday 14:15-16:00 Weekly
 
Rooms Seminarraum F -122, Hörraumgebäude Unitobler
 
Students please consult the detailed view for complete information on dates, rooms and planned podcasts.