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Lehrende: Dr. phil. Esther Schomacher
Veranstaltungsart:
Seminar
Orga-Einheit: Communication & Cultural Management
Anzeige im Stundenplan:
Language & Culture
Semesterwochenstunden:
3
Credits:
6,0
Hinweis: In Ihrer Prüfungsordnung können abweichende Credits festgelegt sein.
Standort:
Campus der Zeppelin Universität
Unterrichtssprache:
Englisch
Min. | Max. Teilnehmerzahl:
10 | 24
Prioritätsschema: Standard-Priorisierung
Inhalte:
Stories of Power – the Power of Stories. Early Modernity to Today.
At a time when our own understanding of political power seems to go through a whole series of challenges – when democratic decision making is sidelined in order to deal with health and welfare emergencies, and when the president of a democratic country refutes the outcome of an election he lost – this seminar will investigate the long and complicated relationship of fiction (literature and film) to political power: How do fictional narratives represent ‘power’ and ‘powerful’ characters in different cultural contexts? How do they reflect a culture’s understanding of the tasks, virtues and/or shortcoming of male or female rulers? What do they see as their most important skills? How do they picture the effects of power on their personalities?
And, last but not least, how does fiction perceive its own ‘role’ with regard to politics – where does it see its own ‘power’? Do fictional narratives give advice to, dismantle, criticize, or mock those who are in power? Do they teach, analyze, or simply picture the mechanisms of power? And if so – to what effect?
These and many more questions will be discussed with regard to texts and films from Early Modernity until our time. In this way, we will develop an understanding of cultural changes of the understanding of political power – as well as the role of narratives in and for those changes. Who knows – maybe at the end we will even understand the change within our own understanding of political power a little better?
Lernziele:
Students will gain an understanding of the cultural and discursive shifts in the concept of political rule and power, as well as of the changing relationship of fiction and power in various cultural-historical contexts.
Students will acquire the knowledge and skill to analyze literary and film narratives using appropriate literary-theoretical and narratological concepts.
Weitere Informationen zu den Prüfungsleistungen:
The examn will consist of one presentation in class and one written paper (end of term). Both parts will be marked; the marks each make up 50% of the final mark.
Literatur:
Suggested fictional texts
Baldassare Castiglione: The Book of the Courtier
William Shakespeare: Henriad (Henry IV (Part I and II), Henry V, Henry VI (Parts I, II, III), Coriolanus,
Calderon de la Barca: Life is a Dream
Friedrich Schiller: Don Carlos, The Robbers
Heinrich Mann: The Loyal Subject
J.R.R. Tolkien: The Lord of the Rings
Suggested films:
Charlie Chaplin: The Great Dictator
George Lucas: Star Wars (VI-IX)
Ronald D. Morre/ David Eick: Battlestar Galactica
B. Willimon: House of Cards
D. Guggenheim: Designated Survivor
D. Benioff / D.B. Weiss (George R.R.Martin): Game of Thrones
Further Reading:
Niccolò Machiavelli: The Prince (1513/1532)
Marc Bloch: The Royal Touch: Monarchy and Miracles in France and England (1973)
Ernst Kantorowicz: The King's Two Bodies: A Study in Medieval Political Theology (1957)
Giorgio Agamben: State of Exception (2003/2005)
Regina Schulte: The Body of the Queen. Gender and Rule in the Courtly World, 1500-2000. (2006)
Stephen Greenblatt: Tyrant. Shakespeare on Power (2018)
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