L.008.32525 Total Institutions in the British Literary and Cultural Imagination

Lehrende: Cornelia Wächter

Veranstaltungsart: Proseminar

Orga-Einheit: Anglistik/Amerikanistik

Anzeige im Stundenplan:

Semesterwochenstunden: 2

Unterrichtssprache: Englisch

Min. | Max. Teilnehmerzahl: - | 50

Voraussetzungen und Empfehlungen:
Introduction to Cultural Studies

Literatur:
Theoretical texts and shorter literary texts will be made available on PAUL. Please purchase copies of Colin Thubron’sA Cruel Madness and Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go.

Kommentar:
Total institutions in Erving Goffman’s terms are those in which the inmates’ entire range of different spheres of life (work, rest, etc.) is restricted to that one institution. Boundaries to the outside world are often rigidly policed. Michel Foucault describes such institutions as heterotopias, to which those individuals who do not correspond to societal norms, i.e. social deviants, are relegated. Focussing on present-day Britain, we are going to discuss several examples of representations of total institutions in television, film and literature, especially with regard to their narrative negotiations of ‘normality’ and ‘social deviancy’.

Wichtige Hinweise:
3 LP/TN:Active participation, reading tests, a five-minute presentation per group member, providing a critical analysis of a narrative representation of a total institution, and written documentation of your presentation (ca. 1200 words).
6 LP/TN:See above plus final paper (ca. 6000 words).