L.008.32110 "There are heroes in evil as well as in good." - Representations of Evil in Contemporary Popular Culture

Lehrende: Christina Flotmann

Veranstaltungsart: Proseminar

Orga-Einheit: Anglistik/Amerikanistik

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Semesterwochenstunden: 2

Unterrichtssprache: Englisch

Min. | Max. Teilnehmerzahl: - | 50

Voraussetzungen und Empfehlungen:
Introduction to Cultural Studies

Literatur:
Students are asked to buy the following edition of Suzanne Collins’s novel The Hunger Games, part 1: Suzanne Collins. The Hunger Games, part 1. Scholastic US, 2009 (approximately 5-7 Euros). Further material will be made available in a Reader which can be purchased at the tdm copyshop from mid-March.

Kommentar:
What is evil? What makes a character evil? And can we really finally answer questions about the nature and workings of evil? In the seminar we will try to approach these questions by discussing what theorists such as Terry Eagleton have to say about the topic. Furthermore, we will analyse the depiction of evil and evil characters in contemporary (popular) novels, films and TV series, for instance Suzanne Collins’s The Hunger Games, part one, the film version of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, parts 1 and 2 (David Yates) and Dexter (Sara Colleton). The participants of the seminar are invited to suggest and choose two further ‘texts’ for discussion. We will examine the role(s) evil plays in (popular) culture and assess the ideologies revolving around it. This might include a discussion of the few areas of life that seem largely devoid of evil, such as advertising, and an evaluation of their ideological function.