Interdisciplinary AR - 2. Studienabschnitt - Tue 15-16
Pictures above by Valie Export ©
REQUIREMENTS
(coming up soon...)
"Postmodernism" - online text for class Oct 23
Lecture Notes - Class October 23 and 29
Lecture Notes on Freud and Poststructuralism
!!! NEW !!!
Article on Sylvia Plath's Bell Jar
(dealt with on Dec 11)
QUESTIONS FOR PRESENTERS AND DISCUSSIONS IN CLASS
John Osborne Look Back in Anger - Questions for discussion Oct 29
Questions for Presenters on Fight Club (Nov 6)
Questions for Presenters on Fight Club (Nov 13)
Pink Floyd's The Wall :
Links for Lyrics, Scenes, Analysis & Questions for Nov 27
!!! NEW !!!
General Required Reading:
John Osbourne. Look Back In Anger . (1956) .... Included in the Reader !!
Chuck Palahniuk. Fight Club . (1996) .... to be purchased at Kuppitsch am Campus
Sylvia Plath. The Bell Jar . (1963) .... to be purchased at Kuppitsch am Campus
Sarah Kane. 4.48 Psychosis . (1999) ....... Included in the Reader !!
Film-Screenings & After-Discussion (Dates):
23.10. Screening: "Look Back In Anger" (Time: 19.00) (Place: Anglistik, SE-Room 5)
13.11. Screening: "Fight Club" (Time: 19.00) (Place: Anglistik, Unterrichtsraum)
20.11. Screening: "The Wall" (Time: 19.00)
08.01. Screening: "Girl, Interrupted" (Time: 19.00) (Place: Anglistik, SE-Room 5)
Course-Description:
In this workshop we will discuss plays, novels, and films which all deal with a young male or female protagonist rebelling aggressively against conservative social (bourgoise) structures and thereby voicing a deep alienation of self. Interestingly, several ideological and textual parallels emerge between the 50s, 70s, 90s and it will be a major task to analyse the cultural context (e.g. socio-political changes, development of consumerism, gender & education) to explain for similarities and differences.
While looking for parallels between Osbourne's rebellion against society and theatrical convention and Kane's “in-yer-face”- theater of the 90s, Palahniuk's schizophrenic hero connects us both to Plath's and Kane's protagonists. We will also employ a gender-comparative approach and analyse whether the aggressive struggle constitutes itself for the female protagonists in different terms than for the male protagonists, rioting in traumatic loss of the fathers (Osbourne, Palahniuk). Generally, the focus is directed on an analysis of the ways this struggle is carried out in the protagonist's split mind, a war-like struggle with society, a battling relation between patient and doctor, and in heterosexual love-and-hate relationships. Theoretical parameters of the master-slave dialectics will be used to explain for
(self-)destructive aggression (against society, the sexual same or other, the self) in terms of a sign of failure of communication and a bleak desiret to make oneself understood.
In additional evening movie-sessions (dates will be announced), we will watch recordings of theatre performances and film-adaptations of the texts and trace the topic in Pink Floyd's The Wall (1979) and James Mangold's Girl, Interrupted (2000).