Tu, Jiann-Chyng

By way of a transnational and multi-perspective approach, this reading and discussion-based blockseminar surveys representations of Berlin in American literature published in the 20th and 21st centuries. Through the close reading of selected texts, this course seeks to map out and contextualize the “meaning” of Berlin within the U.S. American literary imagination, highlighting the narration of an “American Berlin” at the intersections of gender, history, nation, race, and sexuality.

PGF 2022

WiSe 21/22, PS American Literature I (Gruppe 2), Jiann-Chyng Tu,

Gruppe 2: Di 10-12, ZH6

The course examines selected examples of American literature from pre-Columbian Native American documents through nineteenth-century literary writing. Taught in seminar format and based on reading, discussion, and active participation, the course places literary texts in their historical and cultural contexts. Readings include early exploration narratives and selected texts from colonial America, samples of nineteenth-century short fiction, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, and selected poems by prominent authors, such as Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson. Students are expected to read and actively prepare the assigned texts.

WS 21/22

Discussing exemplary texts, the course reviews American literary and cultural history from colonial times through the immediate present. Participants are expected to have acquired a solid and broad knowledge of American literary and cultural history and theory in the course of their studies by attending both mandatory and additional courses. The review course builds in particular on the two Proseminare in American literature and the lecture course American Literary History.
 

WiSe 21/22, PS American Literature I (Gruppe 1), Jiann-Chyng Tu,

Gruppe 1: Mo 16-18, ZH6

The course examines selected examples of American literature from pre-Columbian Native American documents through nineteenth-century literary writing. Taught in seminar format and based on reading, discussion, and active participation, the course places literary texts in their historical and cultural contexts. Readings include early exploration narratives and selected texts from colonial America, samples of nineteenth-century short fiction, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, and selected poems by prominent authors, such as Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson. Students are expected to read and actively prepare the assigned texts.

The course provides fundamental knowledge and skills necessary for the study of American literature. It introduces critical concepts such as ‘literature,’ ‘culture,’ and ‘text’; influential theoretical approaches and critical methods; problems of literary history, canonization, and periodization. The course covers a variety of literary texts, including representative examples of all major literary forms, and guides students in applying technical terms and concepts to the analysis of these texts. It also addresses strategies of research and writing. In the Lehramt programs, the course qualifies students for seminars in both British and American literature. Further course materials, mandatory readings and course requirements will be announced in the first session.

This hybrid and online proseminar will investigate the evolutions, interpretations, and origins of U.S. American political institutions through the close examination of America’s founding documents, such as the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States, the Bill of Rights and later constitutional amendments, and selected supreme court decisions. Additionally, we will closely look at the intricate inner-workings, separation of powers, and checks and balances of the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of American government, as well as the separation of powers between the federal government and the states.

The course explores representative 20th- and 21st-century American fiction, poems, and plays. Taught in a blended seminar format based on self-study, online group and individual work, and weekly short assessments, the course places key literary texts in their historical and cultural contexts.  Exploring movements and concepts such as realism, modernism, postmodernism, and cultural pluralism and reformatory impulses, the course deepens students’ knowledge and research skills with regard to American literary history, cultural and literary concepts.  Students are expected to read and actively prepare the assigned texts through a blended online-learning format (active Zoom/GRIPS participation), keep a reading journal, submit two short (1-2 pgs.) reflection papers, as well as bi-weekly reading quizzes. 

Dozent: Jiann-Chyng Tu, M.A.

Required Texts: 

Baym, Nina. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Norton 7th or 8th Edition, volume C, D, and E

Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. Penguin, 2000. 

The course examines selected examples of American literature from pre-Columbian Native American documents through nineteenth-century literary writing. Taught in a blended seminar format based on self-study, online group and individual work, and weekly short assessments, the course places key literary texts in their historical and cultural contexts. Readings include exemplary American literary texts, ranging from early exploration narratives and selected texts from colonial America, early African American prose and poetry, samples of nineteenth-century short fiction, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, to selected poems by prominent authors, such as Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson. Students are expected to read and actively prepare the assigned texts through a blended online-learning format (active Zoom/GRIPS participation), keep a reading journal, submit two short (1-2 pgs.) reflection papers, as well as bi-weekly reading quizzes. 

Dozent: Jiann-Chyng Tu, M.A.

Required Texts:

Baym, Nina. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Norton 7th or 8th Edition, volume A, B, and C.

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter. Oxford UP, 2008.