Modes of Memory in Literature and Culture

This course is designed to introduce students to different modes of memory, that is, individual and collective forms of remembering and how they are mediated and presented in literature, film, on TV and in radio productions. By looking at memory in different medial forms we will analyse the specific modes of representation and how they relate to the aspects of remembering that are being addressed. Thus, the course offers an overview of the memory discourse as well as an introduction to analyzing different types of media on the level of content and form. We will read two novels over the course of the semester, John Irving’s Hotel New Hampshire (ISBN: 034540047X) and Julian Barnes' The Sense of an Ending (ISBN: 0099570335). Please purchase the novels and start reading before the beginning of the summer term. Moreover, we will take a look at episodes from TV shows such BBC’s Sherlock (season 3, 2014) and Showtime’s The Affair (2014). One session will be devoted to watching and analyzing the 2004 film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. We will also tune in to Serial (2014), a Chicago Public Radio podcast investigating an intriguing murder case. Topics that will be addressed with regard to memory are: individual memory, autobiographical memory, identity and self-fashioning, collective memory, family memory, communicative memory, false memory, and forgetting. Seminar für Anglistik Beachten Sie, dass Sie diesen Kurs nach den Prüfungsordnungen ab 2011 nicht besuchen dürfen, wenn Sie die für dieses Modulelement laut Fachspezifischen Bestimmungen und Modulhandbuch notwendigen Voraussetzungen noch nicht erfüllen. Universität Siegen SoSe 2015 M.A. Sahm Rebekka M.A