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19935-01 - Seminar: The Function of Games in English and American Culture (3 CP)
| Semester | spring semester 2008 |
| Course frequency | Once only |
| Lecturers | Werner Brönnimann (werner.broennimann@unibas.ch, Assessor) |
| Content | "Women, wine, and dice, will bring a man to lice": thus a proverbial English warning against the dangers of excessive playfulness. Despite such warnings, this course will offer a serious introduction to representations of playful activities in English and American literature and culture. While playfulness (or the ludic) arguably informs the very processes of creation and innovation, including writing and reading, it will be one of the critical goals of the seminar to determine, when exactly the game is over, i.e. when its practice becomes risky and insidious and turns against its very own practitioners. Despite its title, the course will mean hard work, since it will compare materials from several periods, from different genres and from both English and American traditions. Notions of 'play' to be studied will include wordplay, language games, the representation of popular games and their impact on individuals and communities. Concrete examples will include chess, poker, bingo and video games. Given the pervasiveness of games in ancient and modern cultures, some weight will also be given to classic theoretical treatments, in particular Johan Huizinga's famous Homo Ludens and Roger Callois's categorisation of ludic activities. Students will be asked to sustain frequent and unexpected switches from analytical rigour to more playful approaches to the material at hand, thus implementing or performing playful activities suggested by the texts under discussion; they will learn to experiment with ludic modes of problem solving, thus expanding their ability to cope with the need for quick decision making, for innovative uses of persuasive wordings and for unorthodox marketing methods. |
| Learning objectives | Understanding the aims and methods of an interdisciplinary cultural studies project. Expanding students' knowledge of English and American literature on the basis of a thematic focus. Training hermeneutic abilities. Enhancing awareness of critical approaches. |
| Bibliography | Paul Auster, "The Music of Chance". Further texts will be made available electronically (EVA). |
| Admission requirements | Open to students who have successfully attended all literature courses on the introductory level and a 2nd Year Course in literature. |
| Course application | Please register for this course by sending an email to Werner.Broennimann@unibas.ch. You will receive a provisional programme and the reading material for the first session in the last week of the break. |
| Language of instruction | English |
| Use of digital media | No specific media used |
| Interval | Weekday | Time | Room |
|---|
No dates available. Please contact the lecturer.
| Modules |
Modul English & American Literature (Master's degree subject: English) Modul Extending the View (Literary and Cultural Studies) (Bachelor's degree subject: Englisch) Modul Focusing on the Discipline (Literary and Cultural Studies) (Bachelor's degree subject: Englisch) |
| Assessment format | continuous assessment |
| Assessment details | One oral presentation; active participation; regular attendance (i.e. no more than three missed meetings). Optional Seminararbeit. |
| Assessment registration/deregistration | Reg.: course registration; dereg.: not required |
| Repeat examination | no repeat examination |
| Scale | Pass / Fail |
| Repeated registration | no repetition |
| Responsible faculty | Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, studadmin-philhist@unibas.ch |
| Offered by | Englisches Seminar |