17324

SoSe 21: PS-Introduction to Cultural Studies: Hotels and Hotel Stories

Susanne Schmid

Comments

This seminar will focus on the institution of the hotel in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This period saw a massive increase in the rise of this type of accommodation: hotels were built for travellers and holidaymakers; various types of hotels began to spring up: small seaside hotels as well as the renowned Grand Hotels, which today elicit nostalgic reactions and on which this course will focus in particular.

We will read one novel, at least one short story, and extracts from further texts (from Corelli's novel, the period's travelogues, and theoretical texts).

Please obtain a copy of the following novel:

Arnold Bennett, Grand Babylon Hotel: A Fantasia on Modern Themes [1902], ed. Randi Saloman (Ontario: Broadview, 2016), or any other edition, e.g., by Penguin, Vintage Classics.

The following texts will be made available online:

Guy Boothby, "A Professor of Egyptology" [1904] excerpts from Marie Corelli, Ziska: The Problem of a Wicked Soul [1897] as well as shorter theoretical texts (e.g., by Henry James, Roland Barthes, Edward Said, Thorstein Veblen)

The seminar will be partly but not entirely conducted as an asynchronic course. There will be several initial sessions to introduce the topic of the hotel. Please prepare Boothby's text for the initial session.

In addition, you will be asked to prepare a short group presentation (including a Powerpoint presentation), which I will discuss with you in advance and which will be uploaded for the other students in the seminar. Besides, you will be given assignments (e.g. short written pieces reacting to the texts and the presentations) to complete on your own and at your own pace. I will be available online for meetings with individuals and with groups.