Guest Lectures

On April 23 and 24, Prof. Graham Loud (University of Leeds, UK) will give two guest lectures: 

1. "The History of the Tyrants of Sicily by 'Hugo Falcandus': a Twelfth-century Renaissance Mystery": Tuesday, April 23: 4 to 6 pm, Kr12.01.05 (=H105)

2. "The German Crusade of 1197": Wednesday, April 24, 7 to 9 pm, Oberseminar Mittelalterliche und Neuere Geschichte, H 016

Prof. Dr. Christoph Houswitschka
Prof. Dr. Klaus van Eickels

Daytrip to the Gurdwara Sagar Gobing (Würzburg)

On January 13, participants of the seminar "Writing India and the Indian Diaspora" visited the Gurdwara Sagar Gobing, the Sikh community centre in Würzburg, to take part in the Sunday ceremony.

The first indication that we are standing in front of the Sikh community centre is a small sign on an otherwise rather unremarkable building, right above a painting of the ‘Khanda’, the symbol of the Sikh faith. The emblem shows a double-edged sword framed by two other swords, symbols for the doctrines of Sikhism. Encouraged by this symbol, we enter the building.

We are a group of nine students who attend the seminar on Indian literature and the Indian Diaspora, and the trip to the Sikh community centre (called ‘Gurdwara’) in Würzburg was organised by our instructor, Susan Brähler, to offer us a real glimpse inside one of the cultures/religions that we discuss in class.

Inside, we are greeted very friendly and politely asked to take off our shoes and socks to put them on a shelf. We wash our hands before we enter the Gurdwara, and cover our hair (most of us have brought scarves, but we could have also taken one of the bright orange cloths out of a large box available to all visitors). We bow in front of the altar and then move to sit down on the fluffy carpet – men on the right side, women on the left.

For a while, we listen to a Sikh reading in Punjabi from the ‘Guru Granth Sahib’ (the holy scripture of the Sikhs, which contains the doctrines of the ten gurus who shaped the Sikh faith) until we are asked to have breakfast. We line up on a mat in the corridor and are served tea with milk and spices, fried vegetables and toast. Children of different ages bring the food, and they take their task very seriously, like only children can. Other women sit down next to us, chatting and telling us about their children.

After we have finished our meal, we return to the prayer room. Little by little, the room fills with people, most of them wearing one of the orange head scarves. The women wear colourful and beautifully embroidered saris and dresses, and the children run back and forth between their mothers and fathers.

When the teacher has finished his reading, one of the elders of the community steps up in front of us, and (just for us guests), explains the principles of the Sikh faith. He tells us about the gurus, about the basic doctrines of their religion and that the word “Sikh” means “student.” He talks about how Sikhism relates to other religions, and is glad to answer our questions.

Next, the children sing songs in Punjabi and play instruments, and the community joins in, clapping along with the children. The singing is followed by more prayers and a joint lunch, but because we have to catch our train, we quietly sneak out of the Gurdwara. When we sit down in the bus headed for the train station, we still have the scent of exotic spices and flavours in our noses.

Lisa Kalkowski

Hot Fudge: Theaterworkshop präsentiert seine Ergebnisse

Day trip to the 'Dark Romanticism' exhibition at the Städel Museum

On January 19, we took 25 students sharing our fascination with the gloomy, the secretive and the evil on a day trip to the "Dark Romanticism" exhibition at the Städel Museum in Frankfurt am Main.

Highly praised in German feuilletons, the art exhibition was the first one to exclusively focus on the dark aspect of Romanticism in the visual arts and its legacy. It comprised over 200 paintings, sculptures, graphic works, photographs and films, but negotiates the influence of (Gothic) literature on these visual art works, too.

"Writing War:" Seminar and Creative Writing Workshop

From Jan 10 to 12, 2013, the British playwright, theatre director and university docent, Dr. Julia Pascal taught a seminar and creative writing workshop on the topic of “Writing War”.

Julia Pascal discussed scenes from her play The Dybbuk and Theresa, working with both the DVDs and with the texts and talked about her work from Holocaust history.  

Her stage plays include Theresa, based on the true story of a Jewish woman on Guernsey during the German occupation in the Second World War and A Dead Woman on Holiday, which is set in the Nuremberg Trials. The Dybbuk premiered in London at the New End Theatre, Hampstead in 1992. Published in "The Holocaust Trilogy", The Dybbuk had its New York premiere in August 2010. "The Wedding Party" (known as "Bloody Wedding") was premiered at The Ohrid Festival 2012, Macedonia.

After the creative writing workshop, Julia asked our students to write down their experiences:

Weekend Seminar at Burg Feuerstein (Franconian Switzerland): Researching “Shakespeare in Recent Film Adaptations”

On the weekend from the 24^th to the 25^th of November, a group of Joint Degree and MA students went on an intellectually stimulating hike in order to find out more about Shakespeare’s Richard II, Macbeth and the plays’ recent film adaptations under the tutelage of Prof. Dr. Christoph Houswitschka, Johannes Weber and Susan Brähler.

Our trip started on a Saturday and took us into the very heart of the Franconian Switzerland: the rural and idyllic town of Ebermannstadt. From the train station we hiked uphill, through the strikingly beautiful and, more important, hilly landscape, to Castle Flintstone.

After having enjoyed the nice weather and the fresh air, we finally reached the surprisingly modern castle, which dates back to the year 1941. The estate was indeed a great location for our weekend seminar on Shakespeare. Once at the youth hostel, we had some time to get settled in our cute rooms that reminded one of weekend courses at school.

During our various seminar sessions we won some insights into the realization of important key passages in recent film adaptations of Shakespeare’s works, such as Richard II and Macbeth. Presentation topics included, for example, the relationship of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, or the supernatural elements in Shakespeare, or rather, the witches’ prophecies. Especially the dramatic representation of the banquet scene in Patrick Stewart’s 2010 film adaptation of Macbeth provided material for discussion. Here, our Joint Degree students from Russia offered an interesting translation of the Russian song during the movie’s banquet scene. Hence, thanks to the many different languages of our Joint Degree students, we were even able to find out about the strong accent in this Russian song.

We also had some free time between the different presentations, discussions and film screenings to enjoy the delicious food at this very special youth hostel. The food and coffee breaks offered an opportunity to process and discuss our observations, as well.

All in all, this weekend offered a great chance to get to know the MA students from the MA Anglistik/Amerikanistik and the newly arrived students in the European Joint Master’s Degree programme a little better and to learn about each other’s cultural background. Moreover, the results of the seminar sessions allow for a deeper understanding of diverse film adaptations and interpretations of Shakespeare’s works.

Svenja Zwack

Daytrip to the Dada-Decade in Weimar: A Celebration of the Absurd

On  7^th May a group of students from the Virginia Woolf and the Banned Books seminars went on a daytrip to Weimar to witness and participate in the Dada-Decade to get a feeling for surrealist art under the tutelage of Susan Brähler.

       Dada is all well on paper, but if you get the chance, you should experience it. With the recent Dada-Decade event in Weimar, "Konzertierte Aktion", such an experience was possible. As we arrived, Weimar seemed innocently unaware of what was about to happen on its market square. One pub, the Galerie Markt 21, was the stronghold of the Dadaists, so to speak. A room was turned into an exhibition space which was only to be entered by one person at a time. The several layers of its meaning, however, only revealed themselves when an outside spectator was present: from a window to the staircase, one could watch the visitor to the exhibition room who thus became part of the exhibition him- or herself.

       We had a snack surrounded by some of the dada performers. At eight pm, the event started with a surreal choir conducted by Michael von Hintzenstern, one of the organizers, who mounted a podium in the middle of the square. Soon other groups of Dadaists arrived, carrying all sorts of instruments: we saw brass and woodwind instruments, a drumming quartet and many homemade “noise-fabricating bric-a-brac” acoustic instruments (including a wire mesh strainer with forks and spoons lolling about). Folks on bicycles ringing their bells and dragging empty cans on strings and a group of old middle-class ladies meandered around the square: they stuck out because of their Stepford-wife-zombie-like gait and manners, representing the very philistinism against which the music was directed. The musicians made an at parts very surreal, at other times rather melodic noise, playing more at than with each other. All the sounds were recorded by a sound engineer and refed to the crowd in increasingly complex loops. Von Hintzenstern, the conductor on the podium, successfully encouraged the growing crowd of spectators who finally filled the whole square to participate in a very rhythmic polyphonic chant. The performance was interrupted by a speech of said conductor and the reading of the Dada Manifesto by Richard Huelsenbeck, which was repeatedly and purposefully interrupted by the performers.

       The event ended at a rather undadaesque nine sharp, and soon the town was its own quiet self again – maybe the most surreal aspect of the whole thing. In how far the event was proper Dadaism or just a modern staging of a past cultural and historical movement is debatable, but it was undoubtedly a successful celebration of the absurd.

Ricarda Edelthalhammer & Jason Cooke

International Conference "Interrogating Cosmopolitan Conviviality"

From May 24 to 25, the Department of English Literature hosted the international conference "Interrogating Cosmopolitan Conviviality: New Dimensions of the European in Literature."

Speakers from China, the United States and Europe discussed issues of cosmopolitanism and identity in a wide range of national and trans-national European literatures.

For two days, the conference, organised by Christoph Houswitschka and Federico Fabris, offered the unprecedented opportunity of a comparative analysis of "conviviality" in European literature(s).

Partly having made a very long journey to Bamberg, conference participants entered into a lively discussion on the concept of "conviviality" itself, as well as its various literary representations - particularly of cosmopolitan environs. 

As part of the conference, the two internationally-renowned authors Bernardine Evaristo and Gino Carmine Chiellino gave readings; in their respective works of fiction and poetry, both explore issues of intercultural communication, translation and representation across the whole of Europe.

The conference topic was a distinctively interdisciplinary one inviting speakers from English, German, Italian Literary and Postcolonial Studies. Concepts such as “multiculturalism”, “globalisation”, “migration”, “Black literature” and “cosmopolitanism” have contributed to raise questions about the future of Postcolonial Studies – opening up to issues of “canon expansion” and “rerouting”, among others. From a somewhat counter-perspective, attempts at turning Europe itself into a highly problematic region of postcolonial analysis have also been made.

The conference set out to blur borders between distinct national discourses on so-called minority literatures in Europe. In fact, while a considerable number of studies has been published over the last fifteen years which testify to a renewed historical interest in Europe’s shameful colonial past, wider literary approaches to the same subject matter are still a rare sight.

Opening up to contributions from the fields of Literary, Cultural, Artand Media studies, conference participants 1) had a stimulating dialogue across distinct colonial and migration histories in Europe, as well as 2) charted new routes out of the impasse which has been holding sway over postcolonial studies since the emergence of notions of “multiculturalism” and "globalisation".

Click here for the conference programme.

The Conference in Pictures

Study Trip to Edinburgh

From February 29 to March 5, 2012 a group of 30 students and professors flew to Edinburgh, the capital city of Scotland for a study visit.

Historical Edinburgh: Of Kings, Queens & Thinkers

Theatre trip to Glasgow

Edinburgh - Where Scotland’s Past Meets Its Future

Einsichtnahme in korrigierte Hausarbeiten und Klausuren; DVD-Ausleihe

Im Sommersemester 2012 können Studierende zu folgenden Zeiten in U9/204 Einsicht in korrigierte Klausuren und Haus­arbeiten nehmen:

Dienstags, 16 bis 17 Uhr

Mittwochs, 17 bis 18 Uhr

In dieser Zeit besteht auch die Möglichkeit, DVDs und Video­kassetten zu entleihen. Das Angebot umfasst neben Literatur­verfilmungen und zahl­reichen Shakespeare-Adaptionen Autoren­filme, World Cinema und Dokumentationen. Die Leihfrist beträgt zwei Wochen. 

In der vorlesungsfreien Zeit sind Einsichtnahmen und DVD-Aus­leihen in der Ferien­sprechstunde von Johannes Weber möglich.

Fifth anniversary of the cooperation agreement with Xi’an Jiaotong University

This year marks the 5th anniversary of the cooperation between the University of Bamberg and Xi’an Jiaotong University, China.

Since 2006, Xi’an Jiaotong has sent five students each year to study at our university.

Additionally, we have had the chance to welcome two colleagues from Xi'an. The next year will for the first time see a colleague from our partner university visiting Bamberg for a longer period of time: in the upcoming winter term, a scholar from Xi’an will join our Fachdidaktik team.   

Prof. Houswitschka has been generously invited to Jiaotong University as a guest professor on several occassions since 2005. He has always enjoyed working wih colleagues and students at Jiaotong University.

The current exchange students from Xi’an and members of staff celebrated the occassion with an advent dinner, at which the students shared their thoughts on studying in Bamberg.