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This course/examination is part of the module(s) listed below. Please check the relevant examination regulations to determine whether a module is classed as a compulsory, elective compulsory, or elective module in your degree program. The learning objectives are given in the module description, which can be viewed by clicking on the module number.

Module number (link to module description)	Module title	Module coordinator	ECTS credits for module
82-008-L-ANG04-V-H-0512	Literary and Cultural History II	Nate, Richard	5

Course no.: Exam no.:	82-008-L-ANG04-V-S-SE2-0512.20192.002
Course title: Exam title:	Literary and Cultural History II: Toni Morrison's Fiction in Context
Kategorie:	Seminar
Language of lesson:	Englisch
Date:	10/24/2019 - 2/7/2020
Organizer:	Sprach- und Literaturwissenschaftliche Fakultät
Lecturer: Examiner:	Schneider, Nicole
Exam type:
Exam mode:
Max. number of participants:	25 unlimited
Type of studies:
Learning objectives:
Content/topics:	Author and journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates describes Toni Morrison in his introduction to the book -The Origin of Others- (2016) as “one of the finest writers and thinkers [America] has ever produced” (xvii). Rooted in history, her work is both beautiful and meaningful for an understanding of American culture, mediating, among other themes, the social rifts that have been reappearing throughout the last half decade. Renegotiating the terms of normalcy, memory, and racism, Morrison presents African American lives from a uniquely personal and compassionate perspective. Thus, she questions, e.g., beauty standards and the tropes of suburban lifestyles through the eyes of a child (-The Bluest Eye-, 1970), narrates the hopes and feelings of black urban inhabitants through the character of a city (-Jazz-, 1993), and leads her readers into the minds of former slaves, revealing their traumata, predicaments, and aspirations (-Beloved-, 1987). Trauma and violence are the common companions of her characters. Yet she manages to carefully expose the circumstances leading to violence, thus humanizing the persons otherwise seen as monstrous or subjected. Not asking to understand or endorse, Morrisons novels demand to witness and see how individual fates are entangled in larger structures of power and history. The genres covered in her writing range from oral folk tales to gothic fiction or magical realism, as well as essays and speeches. In all of these, Morrison examines what it means (to her) to be American and how the American past figures directly into present and future. In this course, we are going to discuss Morrison’s texts and the themes they cover and bring them into relation with current events, protest, and conceptions of Americanness. We will analyze both their style and rhetoric and discuss the takes on important topics addressed, such as racism, violence, justice, and the relevance of different perspectives. Additionally, we will have a look at African American history and culture to read Morrison’s texts in historical context.
Recommended prerequisites:
E-learning offer (URL):
Literature:	Works to be discussed include (but are not limited to) the short story “Recitatif” (1983), and the novels -The Bluest Eye- (1970), -Beloved- (1987), and -Jazz- (1993), as well as selected essays by and about Toni Morrison. A complete list of readings will be provided in the first session of class.
Teaching and learning formats/course types:
Registration from… to:	9/24/2019 -
Last possible date of deregistration:

Status:

Closed

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Room:

Scheduled event/examination dates

Date / Time	Room	Lecturer
Thu 24.10.2019 10:00 - 12:00 PM	KGA-206	Schneider, Nicole
Thu 31.10.2019 10:00 - 12:00 PM	KGA-206	Schneider, Nicole
Thu 07.11.2019 10:00 - 12:00 PM	KGA-206	Schneider, Nicole
Thu 14.11.2019 10:00 - 12:00 PM	KGA-206	Schneider, Nicole
Thu 21.11.2019 10:00 - 12:00 PM	KGA-206	Schneider, Nicole
Thu 28.11.2019 10:00 - 12:00 PM	KGA-206	Schneider, Nicole
Thu 05.12.2019 10:00 - 12:00 PM	KGA-206	Schneider, Nicole
Thu 12.12.2019 10:00 - 12:00 PM	KGA-206	Schneider, Nicole
Thu 19.12.2019 10:00 - 12:00 PM	KGA-206	Schneider, Nicole
Thu 09.01.2020 10:00 - 12:00 PM	KGA-206	Schneider, Nicole
Thu 16.01.2020 10:00 - 12:00 PM	KGA-206	Schneider, Nicole
Thu 23.01.2020 10:00 - 12:00 PM	KGA-206	Schneider, Nicole
Thu 30.01.2020 10:00 - 12:00 PM	KGA-206	Schneider, Nicole
Thu 06.02.2020 10:00 - 12:00 PM	KGA-206	Schneider, Nicole