SoSe 13: S-Introduction to Cultural Studies II: Space in/and Cultural Theory
Jens Elze
Kommentar
Ever since Michel Foucault's remark about a lack of attention awarded to issues of space in the face of a proclaimed hegemony of the categories of time and history, space has become an important area of enquiry in cultural and literary theory. Even though, the so-called spatial turn and the gesture of replacement it connoted are today increasingly dismissed as academic fashion, space does remain a central category for engaging with literary texts as well as with a social and ecological reality that is global in its repercussions.
This seminar will provide guided reading of some of the 20th century's most eminent theoreticians of space, including Michel Foucault, Henri Lefebvre or Edward Soja. We will look at how spatial imaginations have shaped the perception and conception of colonial, metropolitan and neo-imperial land- and cityscapes as well as imaginations of the globe and the evaluation cultural alterity. Our reflections shall also include the topological representation of non-spatial structures (Lotman) as well the relation of spatiality to metaphor, allegory and narration, including the indispensability of spatial deictics to our reading and engaging with literary texts.
Reading will be provided via Blackboard.
Language of Instruction: English C1.
Schließen13 Termine
Regelmäßige Termine der Lehrveranstaltung