News
Whitman Week in Chicago, June 24-29, 2013
Students are invited to apply for the 6th Whitman Week in Chicago - a complete credit-bearing seminar on one of America's most innovative and influential poets, taught by international specialists.
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American Guest Professor in Bamberg
In April 2013, American scholar and writer Tom Whalen will join our institute as international guest professor. He will teach 4 seminars (PS/ HS) on American literature and culture that are open to all students in our BA, MA and Lehramt programs.
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One Week in Paris: American Modernism in the French Capital
During a 5-day exursion, students explored the many connections between American Literature and Modernist Art in Paris during the 'Roaring Twenties.'
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Exploring Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau
Schloss Neuschwanstein and Canada - for the participants of the seminar “Germans in Canadian Literature and Culture” this connection became perfectly clear when they went on a field trip to Southern Bavaria to explore two castles of ‘mad’ king Ludwig II.
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Antrittsvorlesung Prof. Dr. Christine Gerhardt
Am 22.10.2012 hielt Christine Gerhardt, Inhaberin der Professur für Amerikanistik, ihre Antrittsvorlesung an der Universität Bamberg. Zum Vortrag "Disequilibrium Poetics: Migration und Ökologie in der amerikanischen Gegenwartsliteratur" und zum anschließenden Empfang erschienen zahlreiche Studierende und Kolleg/innen.
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Bibliothekstutorien im SoSe 2013
Informationen zu Inhalten, Terminen und Anmeldemodalitäten der verpflichtenden Bibliothekstutorien zu den "Introductions to English and American Literature" sowie zu den Seminaren im Aufbaumodul
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Erste Staatsprüfung (mündlich) an öffentlichen Schulen
Informationen für Studierende, die ihre erste Staatsprüfung ablegen wollen.
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News
Claire Scott (Dartmouth College): "Coming Face to Face with the Past: A Personal History of Civil War Reenacting in the United States"
14.05.2012, 12:15 Uhr, U2/01.30
Student Review by Anna Froch
On May 14th 2012, American Fulbright scholarship holder Claire Scott gave a lecture at the University of Bamberg about her personal experience as a Living History re-enactor. Speaking to students and visitors of the seminar “Germans in the Civil War”, Ms. Scott at first explained the difference between Living History, which portrays people’s everyday experiences and is used for public education, and battle-reenactment, which is the recreation of a specific day or historical event.
In the main part, Scott talked about Civil War Reenactment in the US. Basically, Civil War Reenactment had begun even before the Civil War was officially over. The first post-war reenactment took place in 1913, the year of the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg. Since then, Civil War Reenactments have become increasingly popular and in 1998, there was the largest non-veteran reenactment in the history of Civil War Reenactment, involving circa 30,000 participants.
The next part of the presentation was dedicated to Scott’s own experiences as a re-enactor in ‘Quiet Valley - Living Historical Farm’, a non-profit organization which was opened for the public in 1963. Claire Scott made clear that the work of a Living History re-enactor requires all sorts of different skills and equipment, and that re-enactors have to do diligent research about the people and period they are representing.
Moreover, clothing is very important in order to convey a realistic image of the past. Apart from showing pictures of Quiet Valley, Scott actually wore one of her re-enactment dresses, which provided the audience with a really vivid impression of what re-enactment is like.
Finally, re-enactors also try to make their speech similar to the one used by the people they represent. Since the family who originally lived in Quiet Valley was of German origin, Scott tries to ‘germanize’ her speech – a fairly complex task given that her words need to be understood by the visitors and still sound historically accurate. Therefore, Scott also explained some of the educational goals of Quiet Valley: to make people familiar with the challenges faced by early immigrants, including agricultural work.
Claire Scott’s talk was followed by a vivid discussion about issues such as whether reenactments romanticize historical ways of life, and about how to realistically represent slavery or historical gender relation. Given this fact, the question arose whether reenactment can be used as an appropriate tool for education. The answer to this question might be why not? People can still read history books that provide them with many details about different historical events – why not enrich this rather theoretical reading with an insight into people’s everyday lives?