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| Semester | spring semester 2018 |
| Course frequency | Irregular |
| Lecturers | Philipp Schweighauser (ph.schweighauser@unibas.ch, Assessor) |
| Content | This course invites MA students, PhD candidates, and post-docs to engage with current research concerning the intersections between literature, literary studies, and cultural anthropology. We will be particularly concerned with the question of what difference it makes whether cultural others are represented in ethnographic prose or literary language. At the same time, we will ask ourselves to what extent ethnographic work by three of the pre-eminent anthropologists of the first half of the twentieth century (Margaret Mead, Ruth Benedict, and Edward Sapir) is shaped by contemporaneous literary, cultural, and artistic discourses (e.g. modernism and primitivism). This is an especially pertinent question with these anthropologists since, together, they have published over 900 poems, some of which we will also consider in the course of the term. This course is related to the SNSF-funded research project "Of Cultural, Poetic, and Medial Alterity: The Scholarship, Poetry, Photographs, and Films of Edward Sapir, Ruth Fulton Benedict, and Margaret Mead" (see https://sbm.unibas.ch/). |
| Learning objectives | Participants learn to bring three modes of representation and fields of knowledge together: literature, literary studies, and cultural anthropology. |
| Bibliography | The following two texts need to be read before the beginning of the term: 1) Ruth Benedict, "An Anthropologist at Work: Writings of Ruth Benedict." Ed. Margaret Mead. (Westport: Greenwood P, 1977) 2) Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson, "Balinese Character: A Photographic Analysis" (New York: New York Academy of Sciences, 1942). Note: "Balinese Character" is available here: http://monoskop.org/images/8/8d/Bateson_Gregory_Mead_Margaret_Balinese_Character_A_Photographic_Analysis.pdf. Additional texts are made available on ADAM. |
| Weblink | ADAM |
| Admission requirements | This MA course is a research seminar for MA students, PhD candidates, and post-docs. |
| Language of instruction | English |
| Use of digital media | Online, mandatory |
| Interval | Weekday | Time | Room |
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No dates available. Please contact the lecturer.
| Modules |
Modul Anglophone Literary and Cultural Studies (Master's degree subject: English) Modul English & American Literature (Master's degree subject: English (Start of studies before 01.08.2013)) Modul Literatur- und kulturwissenschaftliche Forschung (Master's degree program: Literary Studies) Modul Literaturtheorie (Master's degree program: Literary Studies) Modul Research in Anglophone Literary and Cultural Studies (Master's degree subject: English) |
| Assessment format | continuous assessment |
| Assessment details | no more than two absences, weekly readings, active participation |
| Assessment registration/deregistration | Reg.: course registration; dereg.: not required |
| Repeat examination | no repeat examination |
| Scale | Pass / Fail |
| Repeated registration | as often as necessary |
| Responsible faculty | Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, studadmin-philhist@unibas.ch |
| Offered by | Fachbereich Englische Sprach- und Literaturwissenschaft |