Hauptseminar Cannibal Tales narrating transgressive consumption

This seminar invites students to engage with strategies of story-telling that grapple to narrate the unnarratable. Cannibals are placed beyond a crucial boundary. As figures or as cultural fantasies, they serve to mark, maintain or move the limits of the human. If foodways generally function as a way to perform social structures, the particular food practices that cannibals are famed for seem to break such structuring, hence threatening to break the very basis of society. And yet their hunger for us fellow-humans may also seem a powerful performance of intimacy by ingestion and reunion. This is why their presence is regarded and narrated both with horror and desire, disturbingly both figuring repulsion and erotic longing. Against this background, we shall read and discuss, in dialogue with relevant theoretical material, the following core texts (to be purchased and prepared BEFORE the start of the semester): D. Defoe, Robinson Crusoe; J. Conrad, Heart of Darkness; E.A. Poe, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym; Y. Martel, Life of Pi. – In the second half of the semester, participants will have occasion to present their own examples (i.e. novels, films and other case studies) in project groups. Please note that this seminar involves extensive reading as essential preparation. Participants are also advised to attend my lecture -Eating Culture: A Culinary History of English Literature” (Tuesday, 12-14h), which explores the broader background of our topic. The following four titles are OBLIGATORY reading (all available in paperback editions), to be purchased by all participants: These two texts must be read BEFORE the start of the semester : Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe (1719) Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness (1899) These two texts must be read by WEEK 4 of the semester : Edgar Allen Poe, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym (1838) Yann Martel, Life of Pi Anmeldung Prüfungsanmeldung (über LSF) : 7. - 16. Januar 2015 Downloads DateinameBeschreibunggültig vongültig bis 01a_Montaigne_Of Cannibals_15.10.14.pdf Montaigne 08.10.2014 31.03.2015 01b_The Tempest_Caliban_15.10.14.pdf Tempest 08.10.2014 31.03.2015 02_Arens_Man-eating Myth_29.10.14.pdf Arens 1979 08.10.2014 31.03.2015 03_Kilgour_From Communion to Cannibalism_05.11.14.pdf Kilgour 1990 08.10.2014 31.03.2015 04a_Arens_Rethinking Anthropophagy_12.11.14.pdf Arens 1998 08.10.2014 31.03.2015 04b_Kilgour_chapter_NEW.pdf Kilgour 1998_NEW 08.10.2014 31.03.2015 04b_Kilgour_notes_NEW.pdf Kilgour 1998_notes 08.10.2014 31.03.2015 05_Hulme_Introduction The Cannibal Scene_19.11.14.pdf Hulme 1998 08.10.2014 31.03.2015 06_Sanborn_The missed encounter_26.11.14.pdf Sanborn 2001 08.10.2014 31.03.2015 07_Poole_Kannibalische Pakte_03.12.14.pdf Poole 2005 08.10.2014 31.03.2015 08_Avramescu_Intellectual History of Cannibalism_10.12.14.pdf Avramescu 2009 08.10.2014 31.03.2015 Brown_Cannibalism in Literature and Film.pdf Brown 08.10.2014 31.03.2015 Dracula_07.01.2015.pdf Material on Dracula_07_Jan 08.10.2014 31.03.2015 21.1._fairytales_preparation.doc Preparation Fairy Tales_21_Jan 08.10.2014 31.03.2015 Zum Download müssen Sie angemeldet sein! Department III - Anglistik und Amerikanistik LMU München WiSe 1415 Prof.Dr. Döring Tobias