Fachbereich 05: Sprache, Literatur, Kultur - Anglistik - Lehramtsstudiengang L 3

This introductory lecture aims to familiarize participants with the field of Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL). It addresses a wide variety of issues and questions, ranging from ‘what does it mean to ‘become’ a professional English language teacher?’ to ‘what competencies and skills will I have to acquire?’ In conjunction with the lecture, (mandatory) weekly tutorials will be made available.

Prerequisites:
None. This course is accompanied by the obligatory Tutorium ("Übung") TEFL I A2.

Required Reading:
A digital reader will be available at the beginning of the semester.

Credit:
Graded: Regular attendance, active participation in class, homework assignments and written exam (Klausur).

Exam period:
Written exam: tba

Registration: Flex-Now

Focusing on the grammar of the English verb phrase (tense and aspect, modality, non-finite constructions), this course is designed to help students solidify and extend their grasp of core areas of English grammar and make the transition from upper intermediate level to lower advanced level (B2 to C1). Making this transition not only involves getting a firm grip on the essentials (structures already covered at school but all too often either forgotten or never properly mastered in the first place), it also involves adding some of those finer points that need to be mastered on the steep and thorny way to advanced language competence.

.Focusing on the grammar of the English verb phrase (tense and aspect, modality, non-finite constructions), this course is designed to help students solidify and extend their grasp of core areas of English grammar and make the transition from upper intermediate level to lower advanced level (B2 to C1). Making this transition not only involves getting a firm grip on the essentials (structures already covered at school but all too often either forgotten or never properly mastered in the first place), it also involves adding some of those finer points that need to be mastered on the steep and thorny way to advanced language competence.

Focusing on the grammar of the English verb phrase (tense and aspect, modality, non-finite constructions), this course is designed to help students solidify and extend their grasp of core areas of English grammar and make the transition from upper intermediate level to lower advanced level (B2 to C1). Making this transition not only involves getting a firm grip on the essentials (structures already covered at school but all too often either forgotten or never properly mastered in the first place), it also involves adding some of those finer points that need to be mastered on the steep and thorny way to advanced language competence.

.Focusing on the grammar of the English verb phrase (tense and aspect, modality, non-finite constructions), this course is designed to help students solidify and extend their grasp of core areas of English grammar and make the transition from upper intermediate level to lower advanced level (B2 to C1). Making this transition not only involves getting a firm grip on the essentials (structures already covered at school but all too often either forgotten or never properly mastered in the first place), it also involves adding some of those finer points that need to be mastered on the steep and thorny way to advanced language competence.

This course focuses on the development of the students' general language skills. The aim is to work on language development and awareness with the focus on the four skills (Reading, Writing, Speaking, Listening), both in an integrated way but also separately. There will also be considerable work done and emphasis placed on the sub-skill of Vocabulary and also some work done on Grammar. With the ultimate goal of advanced communication, students will have to deal with different levels of texts and other media, through which various aspects of the language will be highlighted.

This course focuses on the development of the students' general language skills. The aim is to work on language development and awareness with the focus on the four skills (Reading, Writing, Speaking, Listening), both in an integrated way but also separately. There will also be considerable work done and emphasis placed on the sub-skill of Vocabulary and also some work done on Grammar. With the ultimate goal of advanced communication, students will have to deal with different levels of texts and other media, through which various aspects of the language will be highlighted.

This course focuses on the development of the students' general language skills. The aim is to work on language development and awareness with the focus on the four skills (Reading, Writing, Speaking, Listening), both in an integrated way but also separately. There will also be considerable work done and emphasis placed on the sub-skill of Vocabulary and also some work done on Grammar. With the ultimate goal of advanced communication, students will have to deal with different levels of texts and other media, through which various aspects of the language will be highlighted.

This course focuses on the development of the students' general language skills. The aim is to work on language development and awareness with the focus on the four skills (Reading, Writing, Speaking, Listening), both in an integrated way but also separately. There will also be considerable work done and emphasis placed on the sub-skill of Vocabulary and also some work done on Grammar. With the ultimate goal of advanced communication, students will have to deal with different levels of texts and other media, through which various aspects of the language will be highlighted.

This course focuses on the development of the students' general language skills. The aim is to work on language development and awareness with the focus on the four skills (Reading, Writing, Speaking, Listening), both in an integrated way but also separately. There will also be considerable work done and emphasis placed on the sub-skill of Vocabulary and also some work done on Grammar. With the ultimate goal of advanced communication, students will have to deal with different levels of texts and other media, through which various aspects of the language will be highlighted.

This course focuses on the development of the students' general language skills. The aim is to work on language development and awareness with the focus on the four skills (Reading, Writing, Speaking, Listening), both in an integrated way but also separately. There will also be considerable work done and emphasis placed on the sub-skill of Vocabulary and also some work done on Grammar. With the ultimate goal of advanced communication, students will have to deal with different levels of texts and other media, through which various aspects of the language will be highlighted.

This course focuses on the development of the students' general language skills. The aim is to work on language development and awareness with the focus on the four skills (Reading, Writing, Speaking, Listening), both in an integrated way but also separately. There will also be considerable work done and emphasis placed on the sub-skill of Vocabulary and also some work done on Grammar. With the ultimate goal of advanced communication, students will have to deal with different levels of texts and other media, through which various aspects of the language will be highlighted.

This course focuses on the development of the students' general language skills. The aim is to work on language development and awareness with the focus on the four skills (Reading, Writing, Speaking, Listening), both in an integrated way but also separately. There will also be considerable work done and emphasis placed on the sub-skill of Vocabulary and also some work done on Grammar. With the ultimate goal of advanced communication, students will have to deal with different levels of texts and other media, through which various aspects of the language will be highlighted.

This course focuses on the development of the students' general language skills. The aim is to work on language development and awareness with the focus on the four skills (Reading, Writing, Speaking, Listening), both in an integrated way but also separately. There will also be considerable work done and emphasis placed on the sub-skill of Vocabulary and also some work done on Grammar. With the ultimate goal of advanced communication, students will have to deal with different levels of texts and other media, through which various aspects of the language will be highlighted.

This course focuses on the development of the students' general language skills. The aim is to work on language development and awareness with the focus on the four skills (Reading, Writing, Speaking, Listening), both in an integrated way but also separately. There will also be considerable work done and emphasis placed on the sub-skill of Vocabulary and also some work done on Grammar. With the ultimate goal of advanced communication, students will have to deal with different levels of texts and other media, through which various aspects of the language will be highlighted.

This course is designed to introduce first-year students to the study of English and American literature and cultural studies by covering key concepts and theoretical approaches. Through close reading of texts, we will develop strategies of analyzing and interpreting poetry, drama, prose texts, and film as well as how to engage with (popular) cultural phenomena. Furthermore, this course also serves as an introduction to doing research, finding secondary literature, citing sources correctly, and compiling a bibliography.

Welcome! When Todorov coined the French term 'narratologie' in 1969, he used the word in analogy to disciplines such as biology and sociology to convey the idea of a science of narrative. This lecture begins by zooming in on the development of classical structuralist narratology, which was, for instance, influenced by Russian formalism. In a second step, we will then focus on recent debates within the field of postclassical narratology. Among other things, we will look at new developments in the area of ethical and postcolonial narratology (compared to the 'older' rhetorical theory of narrative); crucial differences between first- and second-generation cognitive narratologists; the role of cognitive parameters vis-à-vis unnatural narratives; new approaches in the areas of feminist, queer, and transmedial narratologies; recent work on oral storytelling, small stories, and online storytelling; the narrativity of music, paintings, and dance performances; as well as the role of empirical studies. We will also discuss the question of what to do with these approaches, i.e., how to apply the theoretical frameworks to literary texts.

The lecture provides an overview of the development of Gothic literature from the late eighteenth- to the early twenty-first century, focusing predominantly (though not exclusively) on the Gothic novel. It pursues three key objectives: firstly, to familiarize attendees with major forms and subgenres of Gothic literature; secondly, to introduce key periods of literary history (as refracted through a Gothic lens); and, thirdly, to read Gothic texts as responses to cultural contexts and social anxieties. Each lecture will first introduce salient contexts for the topic at hand, then move on to a close reading of a sample text, and conclude with a brief summary and perspectives for further research. While the lecture mainly charts the evolution of Gothic literature in England, it will touch upon US-American and include postcolonial contexts the further we proceed diachronically.

This course aims at familiarizing students with approaches to the study of human language in general and to the study of the English language in particular. Attention will be paid to important concepts and terminology from the core areas of theoretical linguistics (phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics) and to their relevance to the fields of applied linguistics, such as language acquisition, sociolinguistics and cognitive linguistics.

Exam / Modulabschlussprüfung (MAP): To be announced at the beginning of the semester

This course aims at familiarizing students with approaches to the study of human language in general and to the study of the English language in particular. Attention will be paid to important concepts and terminology from the core areas of theoretical linguistics (phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics) and to their relevance to the fields of applied linguistics, such as language acquisition, sociolinguistics and cognitive linguistics.

Exam / Modulabschlussprüfung (MAP): To be announced at the beginning of the semester

This course aims at familiarizing students with approaches to the study of human language in general and to English in particular. Attention will be paid to important concepts and terms of core areas of theoretical linguistics (phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics) and to their relevance to the fields of applied linguistics, such as language acquisition, sociolinguistics and computational linguistics.

Reading: Bernd Kortmann, English Linguistics: Essentials (Berlin: Cornelsen, 2020).
Registration: FlexNow
Graded credit: Regular attendance, active participation, a mini presentation and a pass in the Modulabschlussprüfung at the end of the lecture period.

This course aims at familiarizing students with approaches to the study of human language in general and to English in particular. Attention will be paid to important concepts and terms of core areas of theoretical linguistics (phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics) and to their relevance to the fields of applied linguistics, such as language acquisition, sociolinguistics and computational linguistics.

Reading: Bernd Kortmann, English Linguistics: Essentials (Berlin: Cornelsen, 2020).
Registration: FlexNow
Graded credit: Regular attendance, active participation, a mini presentation and a pass in the Modulabschlussprüfung at the end of the lecture period.

This course aims at familiarizing students with approaches to the study of human language in general and to English in particular. Attention will be paid to important concepts and terms of core areas of theoretical linguistics (phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics) and to their relevance to the fields of applied linguistics, such as language acquisition, sociolinguistics and computational linguistics.

Reading: Bernd Kortmann, English Linguistics: Essentials (Berlin: Cornelsen, 2020).
Registration: FlexNow
Graded credit: Regular attendance, active participation, a mini presentation and a pass in the Modulabschlussprüfung at the end of the lecture period.

This course is taught asynchronously. Please refer to the ILIAS screencasts linked via StudIP.
There will be 2 online meetings to supplement the asynchronous teaching material:
- Tuesday, 14 October 13-14
- Tuesday, 27 Janurary 13-14
The link to the online meeting is available in the [Ablaufplan].

This lecture course surveys the sounds of English, primarily those of American and British accents. The lecture focuses on the characteristic articulation of English sounds (esp. speech organs, sound classes, places and manners of articulation) as well as the systems used for the phonetic description of vowels and consonants. We will also have a look at phonemes and allophonic distribution, phonological processes and connected speech phenomena such as word stress and intonation. Attention is also paid to those areas of articulation that tend to be problematic for German speakers. Students will also learn to read and broadly transcribe English sounds using International Phonetic Association (IPA) transcription.

Course book:
Lorenz, Frank. 2013. Basics of phonetics and English phonology. With IPA transcription. 2nd. ed. Berlin: Logos Verlag. (available as e-book through universitay library)

Registration:
FlexNow.

Credit:
Graded: Final exam 100%

Final exam in the last lecture week or MAP on 9 February 2026

The study of the history of the English language offers highly relevant insights into how the language has changed over the course of the centuries and into how the English language is structured and functions all around the world today. Therefore, we will pay particular attention to the different periods in the history of the English language, i.e. Old English, Middle English, Early Modern English, Late Modern English and Present-day English, in order to follow the structural changes on the levels of phonology, lexis, syntax and semantics that have led to the English language as we use it today.

Exam/Modulabschlussprüfung (MAP): Will be announced at the beginning of the semester!

The study of the history of the English language offers highly relevant insights into how the language has changed over the course of the centuries and into how the English language is structured and functions all around the world today. Therefore, we will pay particular attention to the different periods in the history of the English language, i.e. Old English, Middle English, Early Modern English, Late Modern English and Present-day English, in order to follow the structural changes on the levels of phonology, lexis, syntax and semantics that have led to the English language as we use it today.

Exam/Modulabschlussprüfung (MAP): Will be announced at the beginning of the semester!

This class will cover key concepts and methods devoted to the study of morphology, i.e. the study of words and their internal structure. We will pursue fundamental questions concerning what counts as a word, how are words formed, how are words processed in terms of their structure, etc. We will also take a look a prominent studies that have contributed significantly to the field of morphology.

Exam Date: Feb. 11, 2026
or Term Paper: March 31, 2026

This seminar explores the pedagogical integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into English language teaching. Designed for future English teachers, it provides both a theoretical foundation and practical applications of AI-supported tools and strategies. Drawing upon the Hessian framework for media education, participants will critically engage with all six competence areas — from searching and collaborating to protecting and reflecting — within the context of AI.
Students will experience AI as a writing partner, content generator, analysis tool, and conversation facilitator. Through guided tool exploration, collaborative lesson planning, and critical media reflection, they will learn to navigate both the opportunities and challenges that AI brings to language education.

Prerequisites: Successful completion of module TEFL I

Required Reading: readings will be made available via StudIP

Credit: Regular attendance, active participation, submission of a term paper.

Exam Period: The term paper has to be handed in by March 15, 2026.

Registration: via Flex-now.

What do teachers want at the end of the day? To do their jobs and go back home with a little bit of their sanity intact. In this seminar we will try to explore ways to manage and create a classroom environment that is ideal, or, maybe, just allows for students and teachers to co- exist and work well with each other. We will be investigating topics such as language, behavior, discipline, challenging students, anger, rules and social forms and focus on providing solutions or just insight into some pressing classroom issues. Just be aware: there is no single magic solution. Establishing yourself as a teacher is something that comes with experience, self-reflection and developing a thicker skin. Students will be expected to actively participate, read the texts, reflect and share their thoughts and ideas. Throughout the seminar they will also be expected to work together to complete mini projects that would complement practically the deeper understanding of the different topics. The participants will have to use the knowledge acquired in the first sessions to create their own instruction processes and a manual to be used alongside these, for all the tasks and activities. Finally, to further benefit from that experience students would record their impressions and learning journey on a log that would be reviewed by the lecturer.

Prerequisites:
Successful completion of Module TEFL I.

Required Reading:
A comprehensive course bibliography will be made available on Stud.IP.

Credit:
Regular attendance, active participation in class; term paper

Expectations: Regular attendance, active participation, presentation/micro teaching unit and submission of a term paper.

Credit: The term paper has to be handed in by March 15, 2026.

Registration: via Flex-now.

Discover how to bring poetry vividly to life in your EFL classroom! This lecture offers a journey through a wide range of poetic forms - from nursery rhymes and tongue twisters designed for younger learners to sonnets and more experimental contemporary expressions for advanced pupils - across the Anglophone world. Together, we will explore how to convey to your pupils the power of words, the rhythm of language, and the imaginative potential of poetry to open up new horizons. By engaging with authentic lyrical texts, both classic and contemporary ones, the lecture aims to reveal poetry’s broad potential for language learning from linguistic-communicative, intercultural, and critical-interpretative perspectives. Particular emphasis will be placed on teaching methodologies that combine cognitive, personal, and creative approaches. We will explore practical strategies for classroom implementation, always guided by the belief that poetry should not only be read, but also experienced and lived.


Prerequisite: Successful completion of module TEFL I

Expectations: Regular attendance, active participation, presentation/micro teaching unit and submission of a term paper.

Credit: The term paper has to be handed in by March 15, 2026.

Registration: via Flex-now.

This seminar focuses on exploring working and teaching in inclusive settings. Both theoretical and practical examples of inclusive and differentiated material and practices will be investigated.
Students will be expected to actively participate, read the texts, reflect and share their thoughts and ideas. Throughout the seminar they will also be expected to work together to complete mini projects that would complement practically the deeper understanding of the different topics. The participants will have to use the knowledge acquired in the first sessions to create their own instruction processes and a manual to be used alongside these, for all the tasks and activities. Finally, to further benefit from that experience students would record their impressions and learning journey on a log that would be reviewed by the lecturer.

Prerequisite: Successful completion of module TEFL I

Expectations: Regular attendance, active participation, presentation/micro teaching unit and submission of a term paper.

Credit: The term paper has to be handed in by March 15, 2026.

Registration: via Flex-now.

Writing practices in language education are currently in turmoil due to the ongoing proliferation and refinement of generative AI tools. In this seminar students develop knowledge and strategies of fostering writing competencies in the EFL (English as a Foreign Language) classroom. Some basic approaches to writing are introduced, such as genre writing, process writing, and creative writing. We discuss possible adjustments to various learner groups and levels of proficiency. Written feedback in conjunction with teacher workload is another focus area. Crucially, all is viewed through the lens of the current AI revolution as we explore potential threats and benefits of the latest technological advancements.

Prerequisite: Successful completion of module TEFL I

Expectations: Regular attendance, active participation, presentation/micro teaching unit and submission of a term paper.

Credit: The term paper has to be handed in by March 15, 2026.

Registration: via Flex-now.

Technology is “material culture” (Don Ihde), i.e. the human-made objects, both tangible and virtual, which surround as and which accompany our everyday procedures. Language teachers and learners have always used various technologies, with the EFL textbook being but one prominent example. As technologies become increasingly digitalized and fleeting, the question is to what extent language learning and, more importantly for us, language teaching (!) can benefit from the latest technological advancements, whereas some of these tools look promising at first glance but provide very little in the way of enriching actual learning processes. In this seminar, we broach some of these overarching issues and discuss the intricate challenges in trying to extract pedagogical value from various technological applications.

Prerequisite: Successful completion of module TEFL I

Expectations: Regular attendance, active participation, presentation/micro teaching unit and submission of a term paper.

Credit: The term paper has to be handed in by March 15, 2026.

Registration: via Flex-now.

This seminar explores the pedagogical integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into English language teaching. Designed for future English teachers, it provides both a theoretical foundation and practical applications of AI-supported tools and strategies. Drawing upon the Hessian framework for media education, participants will critically engage with all six competence areas — from searching and collaborating to protecting and reflecting — within the context of AI.
Students will experience AI as a writing partner, content generator, analysis tool, and conversation facilitator. Through guided tool exploration, collaborative lesson planning, and critical media reflection, they will learn to navigate both the opportunities and challenges that AI brings to language education.

Prerequisites: Successful completion of module TEFL I

Required Reading: readings will be made available via StudIP

Credit: Regular attendance, active participation, submission of a term paper.

Exam Period: The term paper has to be handed in by March 15, 2026.

Registration: via Flex-now.

What do teachers want at the end of the day? To do their jobs and go back home with a little bit of their sanity intact. In this seminar we will try to explore ways to manage and create a classroom environment that is ideal, or, maybe, just allows for students and teachers to co- exist and work well with each other. We will be investigating topics such as language, behavior, discipline, challenging students, anger, rules and social forms and focus on providing solutions or just insight into some pressing classroom issues. Just be aware: there is no single magic solution. Establishing yourself as a teacher is something that comes with experience, self-reflection and developing a thicker skin. Students will be expected to actively participate, read the texts, reflect and share their thoughts and ideas. Throughout the seminar they will also be expected to work together to complete mini projects that would complement practically the deeper understanding of the different topics. The participants will have to use the knowledge acquired in the first sessions to create their own instruction processes and a manual to be used alongside these, for all the tasks and activities. Finally, to further benefit from that experience students would record their impressions and learning journey on a log that would be reviewed by the lecturer.

Prerequisites:
Successful completion of Module TEFL I.

Required Reading:
A comprehensive course bibliography will be made available on Stud.IP.

Credit:
Regular attendance, active participation in class; term paper

Expectations: Regular attendance, active participation, presentation/micro teaching unit and submission of a term paper.

Credit: The term paper has to be handed in by March 15, 2026.

Registration: via Flex-now.

Discover how to bring poetry vividly to life in your EFL classroom! This lecture offers a journey through a wide range of poetic forms - from nursery rhymes and tongue twisters designed for younger learners to sonnets and more experimental contemporary expressions for advanced pupils - across the Anglophone world. Together, we will explore how to convey to your pupils the power of words, the rhythm of language, and the imaginative potential of poetry to open up new horizons. By engaging with authentic lyrical texts, both classic and contemporary ones, the lecture aims to reveal poetry’s broad potential for language learning from linguistic-communicative, intercultural, and critical-interpretative perspectives. Particular emphasis will be placed on teaching methodologies that combine cognitive, personal, and creative approaches. We will explore practical strategies for classroom implementation, always guided by the belief that poetry should not only be read, but also experienced and lived.


Prerequisite: Successful completion of module TEFL I

Expectations: Regular attendance, active participation, presentation/micro teaching unit and submission of a term paper.

Credit: The term paper has to be handed in by March 15, 2026.

Registration: via Flex-now.

This seminar focuses on exploring working and teaching in inclusive settings. Both theoretical and practical examples of inclusive and differentiated material and practices will be investigated.
Students will be expected to actively participate, read the texts, reflect and share their thoughts and ideas. Throughout the seminar they will also be expected to work together to complete mini projects that would complement practically the deeper understanding of the different topics. The participants will have to use the knowledge acquired in the first sessions to create their own instruction processes and a manual to be used alongside these, for all the tasks and activities. Finally, to further benefit from that experience students would record their impressions and learning journey on a log that would be reviewed by the lecturer.

Prerequisite: Successful completion of module TEFL I

Expectations: Regular attendance, active participation, presentation/micro teaching unit and submission of a term paper.

Credit: The term paper has to be handed in by March 15, 2026.

Registration: via Flex-now.

Writing practices in language education are currently in turmoil due to the ongoing proliferation and refinement of generative AI tools. In this seminar students develop knowledge and strategies of fostering writing competencies in the EFL (English as a Foreign Language) classroom. Some basic approaches to writing are introduced, such as genre writing, process writing, and creative writing. We discuss possible adjustments to various learner groups and levels of proficiency. Written feedback in conjunction with teacher workload is another focus area. Crucially, all is viewed through the lens of the current AI revolution as we explore potential threats and benefits of the latest technological advancements.

Prerequisite: Successful completion of module TEFL I

Expectations: Regular attendance, active participation, presentation/micro teaching unit and submission of a term paper.

Credit: The term paper has to be handed in by March 15, 2026.

Registration: via Flex-now.

Technology is “material culture” (Don Ihde), i.e. the human-made objects, both tangible and virtual, which surround as and which accompany our everyday procedures. Language teachers and learners have always used various technologies, with the EFL textbook being but one prominent example. As technologies become increasingly digitalized and fleeting, the question is to what extent language learning and, more importantly for us, language teaching (!) can benefit from the latest technological advancements, whereas some of these tools look promising at first glance but provide very little in the way of enriching actual learning processes. In this seminar, we broach some of these overarching issues and discuss the intricate challenges in trying to extract pedagogical value from various technological applications.

Prerequisite: Successful completion of module TEFL I

Expectations: Regular attendance, active participation, presentation/micro teaching unit and submission of a term paper.

Credit: The term paper has to be handed in by March 15, 2026.

Registration: via Flex-now.

This seminar focuses on teaching grammar in a communicative EFL classroom environment. The following aspects will be given special attention: linguistic approaches to grammar (overview), the history of teaching grammar in German EFL classrooms, the role of grammar today, concepts of grammar learning/acquisition in secondary schools (e.g. implicit/explicit, conscious/subconscious, monolingual/bilingual), teaching strategies, techniques, procedures, materials as well as error treatment, assessment and testing. Course languages are English (predominantly) and German (where appropriate and necessary; e.g. when bilingual methodological options are discussed).

Prerequisites:
Teacher Education Programme: Successful completion of Moduls TEFL I and TEFL II.
Anglophone Studies MA Programme: BA

Required Reading:
A comprehensive course bibliography will be made available on Stud.IP.

Credit:
Ungraded: regular attendance, active participation in class, knowledge of recommended literature
Graded: in addition to the above, a written exam

Exam Period: February 9, 2026

Registration: Flex-Now

The architecture of oral interaction in the classroom – i.e. the way classroom discourse is organized and conducted in everyday practice - is of vital importance to learning English as a foreign language in institutional environments. This corpus-based and video-supported seminar aims to provide a deeper understanding of what successful, effective and efficient classroom interaction is all about in the age of communicative language teaching (CLT). Course languages are English (predominantly) and German (where necessary and appropriate; e.g. when bilingual methodological teaching and learning options are discussed).

Prerequisites:
Teacher Education Programme: Successful completion of Moduls TEFL I and TEFL II.
Anglophone Studies MA Programme: BA

Required Reading:
A comprehensive course bibliography will be made available on Stud.IP.

Credit:
Ungraded: regular attendance, active participation in class, knowledge of recommended literature
Graded: in addition to the above, a written exam
Exam Period: February 9, 2026

Registration: Flex-Now

Imagination, creativity, and flexibility are of great importance in today’s knowledge age and economy. Thus, it is crucial to develop and strengthen these capacities in schools. Current education reforms, however, place primary emphasis on the ability to perform to fine-graded standards of competency and skill. Imagination, creativity, and flexibility are chiefly viewed from this perspective. Moreover, creativity is typically conceived of as an individual process or product, not as a collaborative or collective endeavor. Little attention is given to improvisation (spontaneous creativity in performance) and to the spontaneous und functional use of accumulated competencies and skills in everyday social interaction (so-called ‘little-c’ creativity).
This course is based on international research indicating that implementing more adventurous, explorative, and creative forms of interaction in the EFL classroom is indispensable to enhancing learners’ target language proficiency. Participants will acquire the theoretical knowledge and practical skills necessary to foster mental agility, communicative flexibility and resourceful spontaneity in attractive communicative contexts.

Prerequisites:
Teacher Education Programme: Successful completion of Moduls TEFL I and TEFL II.
Anglophone Studies MA Programme: BA

Required Reading:
A comprehensive course bibliography will be made available on Stud.IP.

Credit:
Ungraded: regular attendance, active participation in class, knowledge of recommended literature
Graded: in addition to the above, a written exam
Exam Period: February 10, 2026

Registration: Flex-Now

The representation of culture and the cultural multiplicity of the anglophone world is a key element in teaching and learning English as a foreign language. Focusing on Ireland‘s diverse culture and multifarious cultural agents, the seminar is designed to introduce models of culture as well as inter- and transcultural learning and their implications for the EFLC. A mandatory excursion to the Irish consulate in Frankfurt/Main is scheduled for Thursday, 23 October.

Prerequisites:
Teacher Education Programme: Successful completion of Moduls TEFL I and TEFL II.
Anglophone Studies MA Programme: BA

Required Reading:
A comprehensive course bibliography will be made available on Stud.IP.

Credit:
Ungraded: Regular attendance, active participation in class
Graded: Regular attendance, active participation in class; written exam

Exam period: written exam on February 12, 2026

Registration: Flex-Now

Course Description:
The aim of the project seminar is to gain insights into English lessons at school and to reflect on these in a theory-based way. To this end, we will accompany the English lessons of a learning group at the Gesamtschule Gießen Ost comprehensive school for the entire semester. In addition to observing and evaluating lessons, the focus is on the competence-orientated planning of sequences and support measures as well as the implementation of micro-teaching.


Prerequisites:
Teacher Education Programme: Successful completion of Modules TEFL I and TEFL II.

Required Reading:
A digital reader will be available at the beginning of the semester.

Credit:
Ungraded: Regular attendance, active participation, a short teaching proposal
Graded: Regular attendance, active participation, a short teaching proposal, written exam

Exam period: tba

Registration: FlexNow

Mobile software applications for smartphones and tablets have the potential to transform the way languages are learned. This course focuses on commercial and non-commercial as well as textbook-related and textbook-independent mobile apps and their potential value for teaching and learning English as a Foreign Language [EFL) in the classroom and beyond. In terms of approach to pre-service EFL teacher education, the seminar focuses on reflecting upon participants’ knowledge about and experience with mobile apps and mobile-assisted language learning (MALL) and current international research in this area. Special emphasis is given to exploring, evaluating, and comparing a few exemplary apps in systematic ways.
Please note that this course will be conducted in an asynchronous, computer-mediated virtual format predominantly. Since asynchronous online courses are not conducted live and in-person, participants are not required to be logged in at the same time as everyone else, for instance, to attend virtual lectures or participate in video conferences and chat sessions. Instead, the instructor will distribute coursework through a virtual learning management system (i.e. StudIP, usually at the beginning of each week). Participants can complete the provided writing assignments and tasks at their own paces, adhering to the deadlines requested by the instructor (usually at the end of each week). This means that they can log on whenever they want, completing the coursework as they would like during each weekly block of learning.
This is a TEFLhybrid Course: http://www.uni-giessen.de/faculties/f05/engl/tefl/teflhybrid


Prerequisites:
Teacher Education Programme: Successful completion of Moduls TEFL I and TEFL II.
Anglophone Studies MA Programme: BA

Required Reading:
A comprehensive course bibliography will be made available on Stud.IP.

Credit:
Ungraded: weekly assignments and learning logs, active participation (online forum), knowledge of recommended literature
Graded: in addition to the above, a written exam

Exam Period: tbd

Registration: Flex-Now

In the twenty-first century, British theatre remains an artistic force to be reckoned with. Not only do new productions continue to be performed on national and international stages. The theatre also provides other creative industries with stage-trained actors, and some of the most celebrated screenwriters of our time (from Martin McDonagh and Lucy Prebble to Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Richard Gadd) have been socialized in the cultural environment of British theatre.

The seminar surveys some of the key forms, themes, and developments that have shaped British theatrical culture since the 1990s. Beginning with the impact of ‘in-yer-face theatre’, we are going to explore negotiations of mental health on the stage, responses to #metoo in legal drama, and the legacy of theatrical storytelling in recent TV series.

Participants are kindly asked to buy two plays: Martin McDonagh's The Beauty Queen of Leenane (1996) and Suzie Miller's Prima Facie (2019). All other course material is available on Stud.IP.

Please note that contemporary theatre often confronts audiences with highly uncomfortable and traumatic experiences, and that this applies – in different ways – to all of the productions we are going to discuss. It is paramount that we practice a form of communication which is attuned to the subject matter and mindful of the diversity of experiences assembled in our group.

This course examines the cultural significance of dinosaurs from their scientific discovery to their portrayal in modern media. Students will explore how dinosaurs have been depicted in literature, film, art, and popular culture, and how these depictions reflect and influence societal attitudes towards science, nature, and the past.

This course explores the intersection of fashion and storytelling, examining how fashion communicates narratives, shapes identities, and influences culture.

T. S. Eliot and Virginia Woolf were almost exact contemporaries and are today seen as two leading figures of literary modernism. Even though Woolf critically observed in her diary „how sharp, narrow, & much of a stick Eliot has come to be, since he took to disliking me", they were also close friends and both readers and critics of each other's work. This seminar will trace correspondences and differences in their respective writings, looking at Eliot’s poetry, specifically the Four Quartets, and his critical work, the essays and autobiographical writings of Virginia Woolf and her novel To the Lighthouse (any edition is fine).

Welcome!
This course introduces first-year students to the multicultural dimensions of Elizabethan drama. We will explore how playwrights such as William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe, and George Peele reflected the era’s expanding global awareness, often influenced by travel writings. Through literary analysis and close reading, we will examine how drama engaged with cultural encounters and exchanges, and why these works continue to be meaningful today.

This course offers an introduction to the critical theory of Posthumanism and it uses it as a lens to analyze the representation of migration in contemporary literature. The course’s objective is to equip students with posthumanist critical tools to understand the phenomenon of migration through cultural practices. The Blockseminar will follow a trajectory that begins with the most pressing theoretical and conceptual concerns and ends with an opening onto the most creative and affirmative ways of thinking about migration through posthumanism. Each class focuses on a specific thematic thread. The first class will introduce migration and posthumanism. The final four intensive classes will be each focuses on the following topics:
1) Technology and Migration
2) Mastery (Dehumanism) and Migration
3) Nonhuman Migration
4) Other Forms of Migration
The course is heavily focused on critical theory and close reading exercises. We will study the primary texts closely with narratological rigor and paying specific attention to the formal aspects of the text.
By the end of the course, the students should be able to employ posthumanist thinking in their understanding of migration phenomena. More information is provided in the Syllabus document.

Since the mid-1990s, a peculiar trend has taken hold of US cinema. Films began telling stories in looping, reversible, fragmented, or parallel times, introduced impossible worlds that coexist, followed an opaque logic – or simply make it difficult to make sense of them. Collectively known as puzzle films, these productions introduce variations to classical storytelling, challenge Hollywood conventions, and pose questions that confuse viewers. In this course, we take a closer look at the phenomenon of puzzle films, how they work, what their effects are on viewers, and why they continue to be popular. The course requires students to watch one film per week, including key examples such as Christopher Nolan’s Memento and Inception, and more recent representatives such as Charlie Kaufman’s I’m Thinking of Ending Things. We will also consider the trend beyond Hollywood to look at its origins in European art cinema, such as in Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane and Alain Resnais’ L’Année Dernière à Marienbad, as well as its spillover into television, as seen in Noah Hawley's Legion or Sam Esmail's Mr. Robot. By the end of the course, participants will be able to identify different forms of narrative complexity and film-specific strategies that challenge viewers’ understanding, possible reasons for the trend and its appeal, and how we can cope with these films, both while watching and when analyzing them.

In this seminar, we will focus on phonological variation in English. We will study methods of accent analysis and apply this knowledge in a practical approach: you will conduct your own research and get the opportunity to work with authentic data. In the course of the semester, you will learn to prepare, conduct, and record a sociolinguistic interview and to transcribe, code and analyze spoken language. The project work will be closely supervized and each step will be carefully guided in class.

Examination: Exam on February 12, 2026 or a project report due on March 31, 2026

Just like any other living language, English is neither geographically nor socially homogeneous. More often than not there are many ways of saying the "same thing". For instance, in English there are different possibilities of forming negative interrogatives with do-support: "Did you not know that?", "Didn't you know that?" and some speakers would even accept "Did not you know that?" Thus, variation is one of the fundamental characteristics of human language. Sociolinguistics, the study of language in society, investigates how social groups vary in their use of a language (for example, it is imaginable that "Did not you know that?" is used more by older speakers or more by women than by men) in different situations ("Didn't you know that?" is used much more in informal spoken than in formal written language), etc.
After reviewing basic principles and assumptions of synchronic sociolinguistics, this course will focus on historical sociolinguistics, i.e. the reconstruction and analysis of the sociolinguistic variation in earlier stages of English. We will familiarize ourselves with important databases and methods in historical sociolinguistics and look at some seminal studies. A substantial part of this course will be devoted to the practical analysis of historical English texts and text collections (corpora) from a historical sociolinguistic perspective.

Credit: Graded: Regular attendance, active participation in discussions and in-class tasks, in-class presentation and a final exam or term paper (tba). Ungraded: Regular attendance, active participation in discussions and in-class tasks, in-class presentation.
Final exam: 10.02.2026
Term paper submission according to the department-wide deadline: 31.03.2026

“Corpus linguistics is a research approach that facilitates empirical investigations of language variation and use, resulting in research findings that have much greater generalizability and validity than would otherwise be feasible.”
(Biber & Reppen 2015: 1)

Corpus linguistics as a tool can be used in many areas of linguistics, such as variation studies, contrastive and comparative linguistics, translation studies, and it can also play an important role in applied linguistics, for instance in language teaching.

In this seminar, students will (i) learn about the field of corpus linguistics, (ii) get to know a number of important (English) corpora, (iii) learn about tools and programs that facilitate the use of corpora and the analysis of corpus data (AntConc, Excel, R Studio), and (iv) start working on their own empirical corpus study (either in pairs/small groups or individually). This research project will be the basis for the term paper.

In order to analyze variation in English, for instance based on different foreign language learners of English, by comparing different varieties of English, genres or modes, students should have an understanding of the relevant terms and concepts of the different fields of linguistics (i.e., morphology, syntax, semantics, …). Furthermore, this is a learning-by-doing course introducing statistical methods based on topical linguistic problems. Ideally, students should have an interest in quantitative data analysis (and statistics). Prior knowledge is an asset but not a pre-requisite to successfully complete this course.

Reading: Reading material will be made available for download via Stud.IP [students receive access code during the first seminar session].

Registration: Please register with FlexNow.

Ungraded credit: Regular attendance, active participation in class, completion of weekly reading and/or exercise assignments, project presentation.

Graded credit: In addition to the above, a final exam or a term paper.

Exam period: Final exam on 10 February 2026; deadline for term paper submission on 15 March 2026.

This course is devoted to the exploration of the relationship between politics and language. We will critically discuss current political discourse in the Anglophone world surrounding topics such as the electoral politics, policies concerning immigration, health care, etc. In doing so, we will pay special attention to linguistic approaches to political discourse analysis, with an emphasis on those approaches closely aligned to Cognitive Linguistics (e.g., Conceptual Metaphor Theory, Moral Politics, Critical Discourse Analysis). We will also make use of corpus-based methodologies to analyze political speeches, (social) media-based discourse and political satire.

Exam: Feb. 12, 2026
or Term Paper: March 31, 2026

Building on the overview of the internal (linguistic) and external (socio-political and cultural) history of the English language dealt with in the introductory lectures, this course will introduce you to Late Modern English. This period, spanning the 18th and 19th centuries, is the forerunner of Present Day English. It was characterised by drastic social changes due to the Industrial Revolution, increased social and geographical mobility, urbanisation, continuing British overseas expansion and colonisation, growing literacy, the rise of new genres like the novel and the newspaper, to name but a few. Nevertheless, Late Modern English has been called the “Cinderella of historical linguistics” because the common assumption was that by 1700 English had essentially already reached the present-day stage. This is why historical linguists for a long time concentrated on earlier periods. While it is true that Late Modern English is more accessible to us than, say, Early Modern English (just compare the language of Jane Austen or Charles Dickens to that of Shakespeare), the structure of Late Modern English has seen quite a few, and in some cases sweeping, changes. Some of these are still ongoing today. In this course we will examine these changes in front of the backdrop of social changes outlined above.

Credit: Graded: Regular attendance, active participation in discussions and in-class tasks, in-class presentation and a final exam or term paper (tba). Ungraded: Regular attendance, active participation in discussions and in-class tasks, in-class presentation.
Final exam: 09.02.2026
Term paper submission according to the department-wide deadline: 31.03.2026

This class focuses on the field of pragmatics, i.e. the study of meaning in context. After review of the basic concepts and key terms, which you will be familiar with from your introductory course, we will dive deeper into various pragmatic phenomena, including implicature, reference, speech acts, etc. We will also consider broader social and cultural aspects that go into the study of pragmatics.

Exam Date: Feb. 11, 2026
or Term Paper: March 31, 2026

Sociolinguistics is the study of the relationship between language use and society. By examining how different people use language in different social settings, sociolinguists can learn about how language works, how social relationships work in a community, and how social identities can be conveyed and constructed through language use. In this seminar, students will learn about the factors that determine the different forms of a language by focusing on regional, social, and functional variation of English. They will also take a closer look at the role of social factors in speech perception.

Reading: Reading material will be made available for download via Stud.IP (students receive access code during the first seminar session).

Registration: Please register with FlexNow.

Ungraded credit: Regular attendance, active participation in class, completion of weekly reading and/or exercises, assignment, oral presentation.

Graded credit: In addition to the above, a final exam.

Exam period: Final exam on the 9th February 2026.

The study of text linguistics involves going beyond the level of the sentence, which we have previously viewed as the largest linguistic structure. Text linguistic study not only considers the structural aspects of texts, i.e. spoken and written texts, but also dives into the overriding social contexts, in which these texts are constructed. In this vein, this class also will focus on discourse analysis and its methodologies.

Exam Date: Feb. 12, 2026
or Term Paper: March 31, 2026

“English is a highly diversified language that appears in a multitude of varieties across the globe. These varieties may differ extensively in their structural properties.”
(Siemund 2013, back cover)

The term ‘World Englishes’ typically refers to non-native or second language varieties of English (also called ‘New Englishes’) part of what Kachru (1985) classified as ‘outer circle’ varieties of English; yet it could also encompass the ‘expanding circle’ varieties or even the ‘inner circle’ varieties (Filppula et al. 2017; Meshrie & Bhatt 2008; Wolf & Polzenhagen 2009). Typically, the plural form ‘Englishes’ is used to highlight the (systematic) diversity found in the uses of this language across the world (Meshrie & Bhatti 2008: 3). The two most prominent inner circle Englishes are British and American English. However, these are not the varieties we will focus on in this course. Instead, we will investigate outer circle (such as Indian or Nigerian English) or expanding circle varieties (for example English spoken in Korea or Japan). Advances in corpus linguistics as well as the availability of corpora including samples of naturally occurring language use other than of native Englishes allow for substantial investigations of world Englishes.

The aim of this course is to acquire an understanding of (i) the central models describing the evolution of varieties of English and (ii) patterns of development of selected World Englishes, and (iii) to empirically investigate structures/patterns/grammatical features with the help of corpora.

In order to successfully follow and complete the course it is necessary that you have taken and passed the course Introduction to English Linguistics.

Reading: Reading material will be made available for download via Stud.IP [students receive access code during the first seminar session].

Registration: Please register with FlexNow.

Ungraded credit: Regular attendance, active participation in class, completion of weekly reading and/or exercise assignments, project presentation.

Graded credit: In addition to the above, a final exam or a term paper.

Exam period: Final exam on 10 February 2026; deadline for term paper submission on 15 March 2026.

Epicentres in World Englishes are regional varieties of English that exhibit structural influences on neighbouring Englishes, i.e. it has – for instance – repeatedly been shown that Indian English can be regarded as influencing other varieties in South Asia such as Sri Lankan or Pakistani English. Epicentral configurations can consequently be found in South Asia, but also in Southeast Asia as well as in Australia and potentially in other parts of the world. The regional focus of this class is thus on Australasia and the notion of linguistic epicentres provides the framework against which the regional varieties are going to be presented.

In the course of this class, we will introduce central models describing the evolution of postcolonial/non-native varieties of English (e.g. Moag 1982; Kachru 1985; Schneider 2003, 2007) and discuss the notion of a linguistic epicentre in the World Englishes paradigm. Against this background and on the basis of structural and sociohistorical evidence, we will discuss the development and present-day structure-related as well as sociolinguistic profile of a selection of varieties in Australasia. Methodologically, we will explore different ways of a) empirically studying the structures and usage patterns that profile each of these Australasian Englishes in a unique way and b) trying to delineate epicentral configurations.

Prerequisites: Successful completion of the ‘Introduction to English Linguistics’ course.

Reading: Reading material will be provided on closed reserve in the department library or will be made available for download via Stud.IP.

Registration: Please register with FlexNow.

Ungraded credit: Regular attendance, completion of reading and homework assignments, active participation in class and an oral presentation, which may involve group activities and class discussions, or a written report.
Graded credit: In addition to the above, a final exam or a term paper.

Exam period: Final exam on 11 February 2026; deadline for term paper submission: 15 March 2026.

This seminar will explore British poetry from the mid-20th century to the present day, focusing on the works of Ted Hughes, Seamus Heaney, George Mackay Brown, Simon Armitage, Liz Berry, Alice Oswald and others. Through close readings, critical analysis, and contextual studies, students will engage with the thematic, stylistic, and historical developments that have shaped British poetry over the past six decades. The course will emphasize the interplay between poetry and society, the relationship of poetry to the natural world, the role of the poet in contemporary society, and the evolution of poetic forms and techniques.

In the twenty-first century, British theatre remains an artistic force to be reckoned with. Not only do new productions continue to be performed on national and international stages. The theatre also provides other creative industries with stage-trained actors, and some of the most celebrated screenwriters of our time (from Martin McDonagh and Lucy Prebble to Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Richard Gadd) have been socialized in the cultural environment of British theatre.

The seminar surveys some of the key forms, themes, and developments that have shaped British theatrical culture since the 1990s. Beginning with the impact of ‘in-yer-face theatre’, we are going to explore negotiations of mental health on the stage, responses to #metoo in legal drama, and the legacy of theatrical storytelling in recent TV series.

Participants are kindly asked to buy two plays: Martin McDonagh's The Beauty Queen of Leenane (1996) and Suzie Miller's Prima Facie (2019). All other course material is available on Stud.IP.

Please note that contemporary theatre often confronts audiences with highly uncomfortable and traumatic experiences, and that this applies – in different ways – to all of the productions we are going to discuss. It is paramount that we practice a form of communication which is attuned to the subject matter and mindful of the diversity of experiences assembled in our group.

This course explores the intersection of fashion and storytelling, examining how fashion communicates narratives, shapes identities, and influences culture.

This course explores the various adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe's seminal short story "The Fall of the House of Usher". We will analyze how different mediums, cultures, and time periods have interpreted and reimagined Poe's classic tale, examining the themes of decay, madness, and the supernatural that permeate the story.

This course provides an introduction to Asian American literature from the mid-twentieth century to the present, exploring how writers engage with themes of immigration, race, gender, sexuality, and the construction of Asian American identities. In addition to introducing key concepts in Asian American literary studies, the course engages with some other contemporary directions in the field, including literature on trauma and healing, human relationships with the environment, and science fiction.

Students are required to acquire two books: "M. Butterfly" by David Henry Hwang and "The Best We Could Do" by Thi Bui. Additional readings will be provided on Stud.IP.

The detailed syllabus will be available on Stud.IP from 15.09.2025.

T. S. Eliot and Virginia Woolf were almost exact contemporaries and are today seen as two leading figures of literary modernism. Even though Woolf critically observed in her diary „how sharp, narrow, & much of a stick Eliot has come to be, since he took to disliking me", they were also close friends and both readers and critics of each other's work. This seminar will trace correspondences and differences in their respective writings, looking at Eliot’s poetry, specifically the Four Quartets, and his critical work, the essays and autobiographical writings of Virginia Woolf and her novel To the Lighthouse (any edition is fine).

Welcome!
This course introduces first-year students to the multicultural dimensions of Elizabethan drama. We will explore how playwrights such as William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe, and George Peele reflected the era’s expanding global awareness, often influenced by travel writings. Through literary analysis and close reading, we will examine how drama engaged with cultural encounters and exchanges, and why these works continue to be meaningful today.

This seminar aims to explore the multifaceted role of poetry as a form of socio-political participation and cultural critique across different communities and historical contexts. In this context, we will explore African American Voices from Slavery to the 21st Century, Native American Poetry from the U.S. Expansion to Contemporary Expressions of Indigenous Culture, as well as Feminist and Queer Writing from the Suffrage to Same-Sex Marriage.

Our discussions will engage with poets such as Phillis Wheatley, Langston Hughes, Jacqueline Woodson, Jane Johnston Schoolcraft, Joy Harjo, Simon Ortiz, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, and Audre Lorde. In approaching these texts, we will employ a range of critical perspectives, including postcolonial, cultural, and religious frameworks as well as theories of gender and sexuality.

Relevant primary and secondary literature will be uploaded to Stud.IP at the beginning of the semester. Participants are expected to engage actively with the readings, contribute to seminar discussions, and complete assignments.

Exam for Of History and Hope - Poetry as Means of Socio-Political Participation and Cultural Critique: Monday, 09 February 2026.

The seminar offers an introduction to the literature and theory of postmodernism – a historical mindset that exerted significant influence at the end of the twentieth and the beginning of the twenty-first century. By studying both literary and theoretical texts, we are going to attain a better understanding of the postmodernist critique of concepts such as authorship, authenticity, history, reality, and knowledge. As a ‘critical’ and ‘historical’ introduction, the seminar is particularly interested in exploring postmodernism’s complicated legacy in contemporary culture. It suggests that, if you want to understand current phenomena such as post-truth, Trumpism, ‘anti-wokism’, and conspiracy thinking, you are well-advised to know something about postmodernism. In this vein, we are going to study both postmodernism’s original concerns and how several of its ideas have been misunderstood and misappropriated, especially by reactionary political agendas.

Participants are kindly asked to buy Ian McEwan's novel Enduring Love (1997). All other course material is available on Stud.IP.

In light of global warming and other large-scale crises and catastrophes, ‘resilience’ and ‘sustainability’ have become part and parcel of the standard vocabulary of our time. But what do they actually mean? And how are their meanings entangled with other cultural assumptions as well as political and economic paradigms such as growth, liberty, security, justice, and the good life, among many others?
The seminar has four main goals: 1) to introduce and discuss the main concepts and interdisciplinary theories of resilience and sustainability; 2) to probe the heuristic potential of these concepts and theories for the analysis of literary and cultural perspectives on resilience and sustainability; 3) to acquaint students with some selected literary narratives of resilience and sustainability (in the wider sense that also includes, e.g, films and TV series); 4) to explore the potential of narrative fiction as counter-narratives to political, technological, and economic notions of resilience and sustainability. We will draw especially on recent work in ecocriticism and environmental humanities to investigate the eco-ethical dimensions of literature manifesting in the ways in which the relationship between literature and survival is envisioned in the selected works.

Welcome! This class provides an overview of Romantic literature, which was written between the end of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth century. In a first step, we will analyze poems by William Blake, William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, John Keats, Percy B. Shelley, George Gordon (Lord Byron), but also consider female Romantic poets (such as Mary Robinson and Felicia Hemans). In a second step, we will move on to the horror- or terror-inducing genre of the Gothic novel. We will discuss representative examples (namely The Castle of Otranto [1764] by Horace Walpole and The Monk [1796] by Matthew Lewis). We will discuss different approaches to the Gothic novel, we will list important features of Gothic novels, and we will address their functions.

This seminar will concentrate on the work of Thomas Hardy. We will explore Hardy's thematic concerns, literary techniques, and examine the engagement with social issues inherent in his real-and-imagined worldmaking of "Wessex". A reader with all texts will be available through StudIP from the beginning of term, students will be asked to buy one of his novels.

This seminar will explore British poetry from the mid-20th century to the present day, focusing on the works of Ted Hughes, Seamus Heaney, George Mackay Brown, Simon Armitage, Liz Berry, Alice Oswald and others. Through close readings, critical analysis, and contextual studies, students will engage with the thematic, stylistic, and historical developments that have shaped British poetry over the past six decades. The course will emphasize the interplay between poetry and society, the relationship of poetry to the natural world, the role of the poet in contemporary society, and the evolution of poetic forms and techniques.

In the twenty-first century, British theatre remains an artistic force to be reckoned with. Not only do new productions continue to be performed on national and international stages. The theatre also provides other creative industries with stage-trained actors, and some of the most celebrated screenwriters of our time (from Martin McDonagh and Lucy Prebble to Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Richard Gadd) have been socialized in the cultural environment of British theatre.

The seminar surveys some of the key forms, themes, and developments that have shaped British theatrical culture since the 1990s. Beginning with the impact of ‘in-yer-face theatre’, we are going to explore negotiations of mental health on the stage, responses to #metoo in legal drama, and the legacy of theatrical storytelling in recent TV series.

Participants are kindly asked to buy two plays: Martin McDonagh's The Beauty Queen of Leenane (1996) and Suzie Miller's Prima Facie (2019). All other course material is available on Stud.IP.

Please note that contemporary theatre often confronts audiences with highly uncomfortable and traumatic experiences, and that this applies – in different ways – to all of the productions we are going to discuss. It is paramount that we practice a form of communication which is attuned to the subject matter and mindful of the diversity of experiences assembled in our group.

This course explores the intersection of fashion and storytelling, examining how fashion communicates narratives, shapes identities, and influences culture.

This course explores the various adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe's seminal short story "The Fall of the House of Usher". We will analyze how different mediums, cultures, and time periods have interpreted and reimagined Poe's classic tale, examining the themes of decay, madness, and the supernatural that permeate the story.

This course provides an introduction to Asian American literature from the mid-twentieth century to the present, exploring how writers engage with themes of immigration, race, gender, sexuality, and the construction of Asian American identities. In addition to introducing key concepts in Asian American literary studies, the course engages with some other contemporary directions in the field, including literature on trauma and healing, human relationships with the environment, and science fiction.

Students are required to acquire two books: "M. Butterfly" by David Henry Hwang and "The Best We Could Do" by Thi Bui. Additional readings will be provided on Stud.IP.

The detailed syllabus will be available on Stud.IP from 15.09.2025.

T. S. Eliot and Virginia Woolf were almost exact contemporaries and are today seen as two leading figures of literary modernism. Even though Woolf critically observed in her diary „how sharp, narrow, & much of a stick Eliot has come to be, since he took to disliking me", they were also close friends and both readers and critics of each other's work. This seminar will trace correspondences and differences in their respective writings, looking at Eliot’s poetry, specifically the Four Quartets, and his critical work, the essays and autobiographical writings of Virginia Woolf and her novel To the Lighthouse (any edition is fine).

Welcome!
This course introduces first-year students to the multicultural dimensions of Elizabethan drama. We will explore how playwrights such as William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe, and George Peele reflected the era’s expanding global awareness, often influenced by travel writings. Through literary analysis and close reading, we will examine how drama engaged with cultural encounters and exchanges, and why these works continue to be meaningful today.

This seminar aims to explore the multifaceted role of poetry as a form of socio-political participation and cultural critique across different communities and historical contexts. In this context, we will explore African American Voices from Slavery to the 21st Century, Native American Poetry from the U.S. Expansion to Contemporary Expressions of Indigenous Culture, as well as Feminist and Queer Writing from the Suffrage to Same-Sex Marriage.

Our discussions will engage with poets such as Phillis Wheatley, Langston Hughes, Jacqueline Woodson, Jane Johnston Schoolcraft, Joy Harjo, Simon Ortiz, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, and Audre Lorde. In approaching these texts, we will employ a range of critical perspectives, including postcolonial, cultural, and religious frameworks as well as theories of gender and sexuality.

Relevant primary and secondary literature will be uploaded to Stud.IP at the beginning of the semester. Participants are expected to engage actively with the readings, contribute to seminar discussions, and complete assignments.

Exam for Of History and Hope - Poetry as Means of Socio-Political Participation and Cultural Critique: Monday, 09 February 2026.

The seminar offers an introduction to the literature and theory of postmodernism – a historical mindset that exerted significant influence at the end of the twentieth and the beginning of the twenty-first century. By studying both literary and theoretical texts, we are going to attain a better understanding of the postmodernist critique of concepts such as authorship, authenticity, history, reality, and knowledge. As a ‘critical’ and ‘historical’ introduction, the seminar is particularly interested in exploring postmodernism’s complicated legacy in contemporary culture. It suggests that, if you want to understand current phenomena such as post-truth, Trumpism, ‘anti-wokism’, and conspiracy thinking, you are well-advised to know something about postmodernism. In this vein, we are going to study both postmodernism’s original concerns and how several of its ideas have been misunderstood and misappropriated, especially by reactionary political agendas.

Participants are kindly asked to buy Ian McEwan's novel Enduring Love (1997). All other course material is available on Stud.IP.

In light of global warming and other large-scale crises and catastrophes, ‘resilience’ and ‘sustainability’ have become part and parcel of the standard vocabulary of our time. But what do they actually mean? And how are their meanings entangled with other cultural assumptions as well as political and economic paradigms such as growth, liberty, security, justice, and the good life, among many others?
The seminar has four main goals: 1) to introduce and discuss the main concepts and interdisciplinary theories of resilience and sustainability; 2) to probe the heuristic potential of these concepts and theories for the analysis of literary and cultural perspectives on resilience and sustainability; 3) to acquaint students with some selected literary narratives of resilience and sustainability (in the wider sense that also includes, e.g, films and TV series); 4) to explore the potential of narrative fiction as counter-narratives to political, technological, and economic notions of resilience and sustainability. We will draw especially on recent work in ecocriticism and environmental humanities to investigate the eco-ethical dimensions of literature manifesting in the ways in which the relationship between literature and survival is envisioned in the selected works.

Welcome! This class provides an overview of Romantic literature, which was written between the end of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth century. In a first step, we will analyze poems by William Blake, William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, John Keats, Percy B. Shelley, George Gordon (Lord Byron), but also consider female Romantic poets (such as Mary Robinson and Felicia Hemans). In a second step, we will move on to the horror- or terror-inducing genre of the Gothic novel. We will discuss representative examples (namely The Castle of Otranto [1764] by Horace Walpole and The Monk [1796] by Matthew Lewis). We will discuss different approaches to the Gothic novel, we will list important features of Gothic novels, and we will address their functions.

This seminar will concentrate on the work of Thomas Hardy. We will explore Hardy's thematic concerns, literary techniques, and examine the engagement with social issues inherent in his real-and-imagined worldmaking of "Wessex". A reader with all texts will be available through StudIP from the beginning of term, students will be asked to buy one of his novels.

Welcome! When Todorov coined the French term 'narratologie' in 1969, he used the word in analogy to disciplines such as biology and sociology to convey the idea of a science of narrative. This lecture begins by zooming in on the development of classical structuralist narratology, which was, for instance, influenced by Russian formalism. In a second step, we will then focus on recent debates within the field of postclassical narratology. Among other things, we will look at new developments in the area of ethical and postcolonial narratology (compared to the 'older' rhetorical theory of narrative); crucial differences between first- and second-generation cognitive narratologists; the role of cognitive parameters vis-à-vis unnatural narratives; new approaches in the areas of feminist, queer, and transmedial narratologies; recent work on oral storytelling, small stories, and online storytelling; the narrativity of music, paintings, and dance performances; as well as the role of empirical studies. We will also discuss the question of what to do with these approaches, i.e., how to apply the theoretical frameworks to literary texts.

The lecture provides an overview of the development of Gothic literature from the late eighteenth- to the early twenty-first century, focusing predominantly (though not exclusively) on the Gothic novel. It pursues three key objectives: firstly, to familiarize attendees with major forms and subgenres of Gothic literature; secondly, to introduce key periods of literary history (as refracted through a Gothic lens); and, thirdly, to read Gothic texts as responses to cultural contexts and social anxieties. Each lecture will first introduce salient contexts for the topic at hand, then move on to a close reading of a sample text, and conclude with a brief summary and perspectives for further research. While the lecture mainly charts the evolution of Gothic literature in England, it will touch upon US-American and include postcolonial contexts the further we proceed diachronically.

This seminar will explore British poetry from the mid-20th century to the present day, focusing on the works of Ted Hughes, Seamus Heaney, George Mackay Brown, Simon Armitage, Liz Berry, Alice Oswald and others. Through close readings, critical analysis, and contextual studies, students will engage with the thematic, stylistic, and historical developments that have shaped British poetry over the past six decades. The course will emphasize the interplay between poetry and society, the relationship of poetry to the natural world, the role of the poet in contemporary society, and the evolution of poetic forms and techniques.

In the twenty-first century, British theatre remains an artistic force to be reckoned with. Not only do new productions continue to be performed on national and international stages. The theatre also provides other creative industries with stage-trained actors, and some of the most celebrated screenwriters of our time (from Martin McDonagh and Lucy Prebble to Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Richard Gadd) have been socialized in the cultural environment of British theatre.

The seminar surveys some of the key forms, themes, and developments that have shaped British theatrical culture since the 1990s. Beginning with the impact of ‘in-yer-face theatre’, we are going to explore negotiations of mental health on the stage, responses to #metoo in legal drama, and the legacy of theatrical storytelling in recent TV series.

Participants are kindly asked to buy two plays: Martin McDonagh's The Beauty Queen of Leenane (1996) and Suzie Miller's Prima Facie (2019). All other course material is available on Stud.IP.

Please note that contemporary theatre often confronts audiences with highly uncomfortable and traumatic experiences, and that this applies – in different ways – to all of the productions we are going to discuss. It is paramount that we practice a form of communication which is attuned to the subject matter and mindful of the diversity of experiences assembled in our group.

This course explores the various adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe's seminal short story "The Fall of the House of Usher". We will analyze how different mediums, cultures, and time periods have interpreted and reimagined Poe's classic tale, examining the themes of decay, madness, and the supernatural that permeate the story.

This course provides an introduction to Asian American literature from the mid-twentieth century to the present, exploring how writers engage with themes of immigration, race, gender, sexuality, and the construction of Asian American identities. In addition to introducing key concepts in Asian American literary studies, the course engages with some other contemporary directions in the field, including literature on trauma and healing, human relationships with the environment, and science fiction.

Students are required to acquire two books: "M. Butterfly" by David Henry Hwang and "The Best We Could Do" by Thi Bui. Additional readings will be provided on Stud.IP.

The detailed syllabus will be available on Stud.IP from 15.09.2025.

T. S. Eliot and Virginia Woolf were almost exact contemporaries and are today seen as two leading figures of literary modernism. Even though Woolf critically observed in her diary „how sharp, narrow, & much of a stick Eliot has come to be, since he took to disliking me", they were also close friends and both readers and critics of each other's work. This seminar will trace correspondences and differences in their respective writings, looking at Eliot’s poetry, specifically the Four Quartets, and his critical work, the essays and autobiographical writings of Virginia Woolf and her novel To the Lighthouse (any edition is fine).

Welcome!
This course introduces first-year students to the multicultural dimensions of Elizabethan drama. We will explore how playwrights such as William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe, and George Peele reflected the era’s expanding global awareness, often influenced by travel writings. Through literary analysis and close reading, we will examine how drama engaged with cultural encounters and exchanges, and why these works continue to be meaningful today.

The seminar offers an introduction to the literature and theory of postmodernism – a historical mindset that exerted significant influence at the end of the twentieth and the beginning of the twenty-first century. By studying both literary and theoretical texts, we are going to attain a better understanding of the postmodernist critique of concepts such as authorship, authenticity, history, reality, and knowledge. As a ‘critical’ and ‘historical’ introduction, the seminar is particularly interested in exploring postmodernism’s complicated legacy in contemporary culture. It suggests that, if you want to understand current phenomena such as post-truth, Trumpism, ‘anti-wokism’, and conspiracy thinking, you are well-advised to know something about postmodernism. In this vein, we are going to study both postmodernism’s original concerns and how several of its ideas have been misunderstood and misappropriated, especially by reactionary political agendas.

Participants are kindly asked to buy Ian McEwan's novel Enduring Love (1997). All other course material is available on Stud.IP.

In light of global warming and other large-scale crises and catastrophes, ‘resilience’ and ‘sustainability’ have become part and parcel of the standard vocabulary of our time. But what do they actually mean? And how are their meanings entangled with other cultural assumptions as well as political and economic paradigms such as growth, liberty, security, justice, and the good life, among many others?
The seminar has four main goals: 1) to introduce and discuss the main concepts and interdisciplinary theories of resilience and sustainability; 2) to probe the heuristic potential of these concepts and theories for the analysis of literary and cultural perspectives on resilience and sustainability; 3) to acquaint students with some selected literary narratives of resilience and sustainability (in the wider sense that also includes, e.g, films and TV series); 4) to explore the potential of narrative fiction as counter-narratives to political, technological, and economic notions of resilience and sustainability. We will draw especially on recent work in ecocriticism and environmental humanities to investigate the eco-ethical dimensions of literature manifesting in the ways in which the relationship between literature and survival is envisioned in the selected works.

Welcome! This class provides an overview of Romantic literature, which was written between the end of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth century. In a first step, we will analyze poems by William Blake, William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, John Keats, Percy B. Shelley, George Gordon (Lord Byron), but also consider female Romantic poets (such as Mary Robinson and Felicia Hemans). In a second step, we will move on to the horror- or terror-inducing genre of the Gothic novel. We will discuss representative examples (namely The Castle of Otranto [1764] by Horace Walpole and The Monk [1796] by Matthew Lewis). We will discuss different approaches to the Gothic novel, we will list important features of Gothic novels, and we will address their functions.

This seminar will concentrate on the work of Thomas Hardy. We will explore Hardy's thematic concerns, literary techniques, and examine the engagement with social issues inherent in his real-and-imagined worldmaking of "Wessex". A reader with all texts will be available through StudIP from the beginning of term, students will be asked to buy one of his novels.

This seminar will explore British poetry from the mid-20th century to the present day, focusing on the works of Ted Hughes, Seamus Heaney, George Mackay Brown, Simon Armitage, Liz Berry, Alice Oswald and others. Through close readings, critical analysis, and contextual studies, students will engage with the thematic, stylistic, and historical developments that have shaped British poetry over the past six decades. The course will emphasize the interplay between poetry and society, the relationship of poetry to the natural world, the role of the poet in contemporary society, and the evolution of poetic forms and techniques.

In the twenty-first century, British theatre remains an artistic force to be reckoned with. Not only do new productions continue to be performed on national and international stages. The theatre also provides other creative industries with stage-trained actors, and some of the most celebrated screenwriters of our time (from Martin McDonagh and Lucy Prebble to Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Richard Gadd) have been socialized in the cultural environment of British theatre.

The seminar surveys some of the key forms, themes, and developments that have shaped British theatrical culture since the 1990s. Beginning with the impact of ‘in-yer-face theatre’, we are going to explore negotiations of mental health on the stage, responses to #metoo in legal drama, and the legacy of theatrical storytelling in recent TV series.

Participants are kindly asked to buy two plays: Martin McDonagh's The Beauty Queen of Leenane (1996) and Suzie Miller's Prima Facie (2019). All other course material is available on Stud.IP.

Please note that contemporary theatre often confronts audiences with highly uncomfortable and traumatic experiences, and that this applies – in different ways – to all of the productions we are going to discuss. It is paramount that we practice a form of communication which is attuned to the subject matter and mindful of the diversity of experiences assembled in our group.

This course explores the various adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe's seminal short story "The Fall of the House of Usher". We will analyze how different mediums, cultures, and time periods have interpreted and reimagined Poe's classic tale, examining the themes of decay, madness, and the supernatural that permeate the story.

This course provides an introduction to Asian American literature from the mid-twentieth century to the present, exploring how writers engage with themes of immigration, race, gender, sexuality, and the construction of Asian American identities. In addition to introducing key concepts in Asian American literary studies, the course engages with some other contemporary directions in the field, including literature on trauma and healing, human relationships with the environment, and science fiction.

Students are required to acquire two books: "M. Butterfly" by David Henry Hwang and "The Best We Could Do" by Thi Bui. Additional readings will be provided on Stud.IP.

The detailed syllabus will be available on Stud.IP from 15.09.2025.

T. S. Eliot and Virginia Woolf were almost exact contemporaries and are today seen as two leading figures of literary modernism. Even though Woolf critically observed in her diary „how sharp, narrow, & much of a stick Eliot has come to be, since he took to disliking me", they were also close friends and both readers and critics of each other's work. This seminar will trace correspondences and differences in their respective writings, looking at Eliot’s poetry, specifically the Four Quartets, and his critical work, the essays and autobiographical writings of Virginia Woolf and her novel To the Lighthouse (any edition is fine).

Welcome!
This course introduces first-year students to the multicultural dimensions of Elizabethan drama. We will explore how playwrights such as William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe, and George Peele reflected the era’s expanding global awareness, often influenced by travel writings. Through literary analysis and close reading, we will examine how drama engaged with cultural encounters and exchanges, and why these works continue to be meaningful today.

The seminar offers an introduction to the literature and theory of postmodernism – a historical mindset that exerted significant influence at the end of the twentieth and the beginning of the twenty-first century. By studying both literary and theoretical texts, we are going to attain a better understanding of the postmodernist critique of concepts such as authorship, authenticity, history, reality, and knowledge. As a ‘critical’ and ‘historical’ introduction, the seminar is particularly interested in exploring postmodernism’s complicated legacy in contemporary culture. It suggests that, if you want to understand current phenomena such as post-truth, Trumpism, ‘anti-wokism’, and conspiracy thinking, you are well-advised to know something about postmodernism. In this vein, we are going to study both postmodernism’s original concerns and how several of its ideas have been misunderstood and misappropriated, especially by reactionary political agendas.

Participants are kindly asked to buy Ian McEwan's novel Enduring Love (1997). All other course material is available on Stud.IP.

In light of global warming and other large-scale crises and catastrophes, ‘resilience’ and ‘sustainability’ have become part and parcel of the standard vocabulary of our time. But what do they actually mean? And how are their meanings entangled with other cultural assumptions as well as political and economic paradigms such as growth, liberty, security, justice, and the good life, among many others?
The seminar has four main goals: 1) to introduce and discuss the main concepts and interdisciplinary theories of resilience and sustainability; 2) to probe the heuristic potential of these concepts and theories for the analysis of literary and cultural perspectives on resilience and sustainability; 3) to acquaint students with some selected literary narratives of resilience and sustainability (in the wider sense that also includes, e.g, films and TV series); 4) to explore the potential of narrative fiction as counter-narratives to political, technological, and economic notions of resilience and sustainability. We will draw especially on recent work in ecocriticism and environmental humanities to investigate the eco-ethical dimensions of literature manifesting in the ways in which the relationship between literature and survival is envisioned in the selected works.

Welcome! This class provides an overview of Romantic literature, which was written between the end of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth century. In a first step, we will analyze poems by William Blake, William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, John Keats, Percy B. Shelley, George Gordon (Lord Byron), but also consider female Romantic poets (such as Mary Robinson and Felicia Hemans). In a second step, we will move on to the horror- or terror-inducing genre of the Gothic novel. We will discuss representative examples (namely The Castle of Otranto [1764] by Horace Walpole and The Monk [1796] by Matthew Lewis). We will discuss different approaches to the Gothic novel, we will list important features of Gothic novels, and we will address their functions.

This seminar will concentrate on the work of Thomas Hardy. We will explore Hardy's thematic concerns, literary techniques, and examine the engagement with social issues inherent in his real-and-imagined worldmaking of "Wessex". A reader with all texts will be available through StudIP from the beginning of term, students will be asked to buy one of his novels.

Welcome! When Todorov coined the French term 'narratologie' in 1969, he used the word in analogy to disciplines such as biology and sociology to convey the idea of a science of narrative. This lecture begins by zooming in on the development of classical structuralist narratology, which was, for instance, influenced by Russian formalism. In a second step, we will then focus on recent debates within the field of postclassical narratology. Among other things, we will look at new developments in the area of ethical and postcolonial narratology (compared to the 'older' rhetorical theory of narrative); crucial differences between first- and second-generation cognitive narratologists; the role of cognitive parameters vis-à-vis unnatural narratives; new approaches in the areas of feminist, queer, and transmedial narratologies; recent work on oral storytelling, small stories, and online storytelling; the narrativity of music, paintings, and dance performances; as well as the role of empirical studies. We will also discuss the question of what to do with these approaches, i.e., how to apply the theoretical frameworks to literary texts.

The lecture provides an overview of the development of Gothic literature from the late eighteenth- to the early twenty-first century, focusing predominantly (though not exclusively) on the Gothic novel. It pursues three key objectives: firstly, to familiarize attendees with major forms and subgenres of Gothic literature; secondly, to introduce key periods of literary history (as refracted through a Gothic lens); and, thirdly, to read Gothic texts as responses to cultural contexts and social anxieties. Each lecture will first introduce salient contexts for the topic at hand, then move on to a close reading of a sample text, and conclude with a brief summary and perspectives for further research. While the lecture mainly charts the evolution of Gothic literature in England, it will touch upon US-American and include postcolonial contexts the further we proceed diachronically.

This seminar will explore British poetry from the mid-20th century to the present day, focusing on the works of Ted Hughes, Seamus Heaney, George Mackay Brown, Simon Armitage, Liz Berry, Alice Oswald and others. Through close readings, critical analysis, and contextual studies, students will engage with the thematic, stylistic, and historical developments that have shaped British poetry over the past six decades. The course will emphasize the interplay between poetry and society, the relationship of poetry to the natural world, the role of the poet in contemporary society, and the evolution of poetic forms and techniques.

In the twenty-first century, British theatre remains an artistic force to be reckoned with. Not only do new productions continue to be performed on national and international stages. The theatre also provides other creative industries with stage-trained actors, and some of the most celebrated screenwriters of our time (from Martin McDonagh and Lucy Prebble to Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Richard Gadd) have been socialized in the cultural environment of British theatre.

The seminar surveys some of the key forms, themes, and developments that have shaped British theatrical culture since the 1990s. Beginning with the impact of ‘in-yer-face theatre’, we are going to explore negotiations of mental health on the stage, responses to #metoo in legal drama, and the legacy of theatrical storytelling in recent TV series.

Participants are kindly asked to buy two plays: Martin McDonagh's The Beauty Queen of Leenane (1996) and Suzie Miller's Prima Facie (2019). All other course material is available on Stud.IP.

Please note that contemporary theatre often confronts audiences with highly uncomfortable and traumatic experiences, and that this applies – in different ways – to all of the productions we are going to discuss. It is paramount that we practice a form of communication which is attuned to the subject matter and mindful of the diversity of experiences assembled in our group.

When we hear fictionality, we tend to think of novels, feature films, comic books, and TV series; when we hear non-fictionality, we tend to think of politics, journalism, documentary films, and scientific communication. Recent research, especially in the field of rhetorical theory, has troubled the clarity of these distinctions, inviting us to consider fictionality and non-fictionality as modes of communication that cut across discourses, genre, and media. Moreover, this work asks us to understand both fictionality and non-fictionality as resources whose functions vary depending on context-specific use and historical circumstances. In the seminar, we are going to explore uses and combinations of fictionality and non-fictionality in a range of texts and contexts including the early novel, contemporary fiction, the documentary film, and non-literary discourses.

Participants are kindly asked to buy two novels: Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey (1818) and Ben Lerner's Leaving the Atocha Station (2011). All other course material is available on Stud.IP.

Welcome! This class seeks to familiarize students with the state of literary theory in the twenty-first century. We will read and discuss theoretical texts that concern cognitive narratology, postcolonial criticism, feminism, gender / queer theory, masculinity studies, critical race theory, whiteness studies, new formalism, postcriticism, and surface readings. We will also deal with the question of what we need theories for, and we will demonstrate what these approaches can do (and what they cannot do) by applying the theoretical frameworks to a set of literary texts.

T. S. Eliot and Virginia Woolf were almost exact contemporaries and are today seen as two leading figures of literary modernism. Even though Woolf critically observed in her diary „how sharp, narrow, & much of a stick Eliot has come to be, since he took to disliking me", they were also close friends and both readers and critics of each other's work. This seminar will trace correspondences and differences in their respective writings, looking at Eliot’s poetry, specifically the Four Quartets, and his critical work, the essays and autobiographical writings of Virginia Woolf and her novel To the Lighthouse (any edition is fine).

This seminar aims to explore the multifaceted role of poetry as a form of socio-political participation and cultural critique across different communities and historical contexts. In this context, we will explore African American Voices from Slavery to the 21st Century, Native American Poetry from the U.S. Expansion to Contemporary Expressions of Indigenous Culture, as well as Feminist and Queer Writing from the Suffrage to Same-Sex Marriage.

Our discussions will engage with poets such as Phillis Wheatley, Langston Hughes, Jacqueline Woodson, Jane Johnston Schoolcraft, Joy Harjo, Simon Ortiz, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, and Audre Lorde. In approaching these texts, we will employ a range of critical perspectives, including postcolonial, cultural, and religious frameworks as well as theories of gender and sexuality.

Relevant primary and secondary literature will be uploaded to Stud.IP at the beginning of the semester. Participants are expected to engage actively with the readings, contribute to seminar discussions, and complete assignments.

Exam for Of History and Hope - Poetry as Means of Socio-Political Participation and Cultural Critique: Monday, 09 February 2026.

This course offers an introduction to the critical theory of Posthumanism and it uses it as a lens to analyze the representation of migration in contemporary literature. The course’s objective is to equip students with posthumanist critical tools to understand the phenomenon of migration through cultural practices. The Blockseminar will follow a trajectory that begins with the most pressing theoretical and conceptual concerns and ends with an opening onto the most creative and affirmative ways of thinking about migration through posthumanism. Each class focuses on a specific thematic thread. The first class will introduce migration and posthumanism. The final four intensive classes will be each focuses on the following topics:
1) Technology and Migration
2) Mastery (Dehumanism) and Migration
3) Nonhuman Migration
4) Other Forms of Migration
The course is heavily focused on critical theory and close reading exercises. We will study the primary texts closely with narratological rigor and paying specific attention to the formal aspects of the text.
By the end of the course, the students should be able to employ posthumanist thinking in their understanding of migration phenomena. More information is provided in the Syllabus document.

Since the mid-1990s, a peculiar trend has taken hold of US cinema. Films began telling stories in looping, reversible, fragmented, or parallel times, introduced impossible worlds that coexist, followed an opaque logic – or simply make it difficult to make sense of them. Collectively known as puzzle films, these productions introduce variations to classical storytelling, challenge Hollywood conventions, and pose questions that confuse viewers. In this course, we take a closer look at the phenomenon of puzzle films, how they work, what their effects are on viewers, and why they continue to be popular. The course requires students to watch one film per week, including key examples such as Christopher Nolan’s Memento and Inception, and more recent representatives such as Charlie Kaufman’s I’m Thinking of Ending Things. We will also consider the trend beyond Hollywood to look at its origins in European art cinema, such as in Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane and Alain Resnais’ L’Année Dernière à Marienbad, as well as its spillover into television, as seen in Noah Hawley's Legion or Sam Esmail's Mr. Robot. By the end of the course, participants will be able to identify different forms of narrative complexity and film-specific strategies that challenge viewers’ understanding, possible reasons for the trend and its appeal, and how we can cope with these films, both while watching and when analyzing them.

In light of global warming and other large-scale crises and catastrophes, ‘resilience’ and ‘sustainability’ have become part and parcel of the standard vocabulary of our time. But what do they actually mean? And how are their meanings entangled with other cultural assumptions as well as political and economic paradigms such as growth, liberty, security, justice, and the good life, among many others?
The seminar has four main goals: 1) to introduce and discuss the main concepts and interdisciplinary theories of resilience and sustainability; 2) to probe the heuristic potential of these concepts and theories for the analysis of literary and cultural perspectives on resilience and sustainability; 3) to acquaint students with some selected literary narratives of resilience and sustainability (in the wider sense that also includes, e.g, films and TV series); 4) to explore the potential of narrative fiction as counter-narratives to political, technological, and economic notions of resilience and sustainability. We will draw especially on recent work in ecocriticism and environmental humanities to investigate the eco-ethical dimensions of literature manifesting in the ways in which the relationship between literature and survival is envisioned in the selected works.

This seminar will explore British poetry from the mid-20th century to the present day, focusing on the works of Ted Hughes, Seamus Heaney, George Mackay Brown, Simon Armitage, Liz Berry, Alice Oswald and others. Through close readings, critical analysis, and contextual studies, students will engage with the thematic, stylistic, and historical developments that have shaped British poetry over the past six decades. The course will emphasize the interplay between poetry and society, the relationship of poetry to the natural world, the role of the poet in contemporary society, and the evolution of poetic forms and techniques.

In the twenty-first century, British theatre remains an artistic force to be reckoned with. Not only do new productions continue to be performed on national and international stages. The theatre also provides other creative industries with stage-trained actors, and some of the most celebrated screenwriters of our time (from Martin McDonagh and Lucy Prebble to Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Richard Gadd) have been socialized in the cultural environment of British theatre.

The seminar surveys some of the key forms, themes, and developments that have shaped British theatrical culture since the 1990s. Beginning with the impact of ‘in-yer-face theatre’, we are going to explore negotiations of mental health on the stage, responses to #metoo in legal drama, and the legacy of theatrical storytelling in recent TV series.

Participants are kindly asked to buy two plays: Martin McDonagh's The Beauty Queen of Leenane (1996) and Suzie Miller's Prima Facie (2019). All other course material is available on Stud.IP.

Please note that contemporary theatre often confronts audiences with highly uncomfortable and traumatic experiences, and that this applies – in different ways – to all of the productions we are going to discuss. It is paramount that we practice a form of communication which is attuned to the subject matter and mindful of the diversity of experiences assembled in our group.

When we hear fictionality, we tend to think of novels, feature films, comic books, and TV series; when we hear non-fictionality, we tend to think of politics, journalism, documentary films, and scientific communication. Recent research, especially in the field of rhetorical theory, has troubled the clarity of these distinctions, inviting us to consider fictionality and non-fictionality as modes of communication that cut across discourses, genre, and media. Moreover, this work asks us to understand both fictionality and non-fictionality as resources whose functions vary depending on context-specific use and historical circumstances. In the seminar, we are going to explore uses and combinations of fictionality and non-fictionality in a range of texts and contexts including the early novel, contemporary fiction, the documentary film, and non-literary discourses.

Participants are kindly asked to buy two novels: Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey (1818) and Ben Lerner's Leaving the Atocha Station (2011). All other course material is available on Stud.IP.

Welcome! This class seeks to familiarize students with the state of literary theory in the twenty-first century. We will read and discuss theoretical texts that concern cognitive narratology, postcolonial criticism, feminism, gender / queer theory, masculinity studies, critical race theory, whiteness studies, new formalism, postcriticism, and surface readings. We will also deal with the question of what we need theories for, and we will demonstrate what these approaches can do (and what they cannot do) by applying the theoretical frameworks to a set of literary texts.

T. S. Eliot and Virginia Woolf were almost exact contemporaries and are today seen as two leading figures of literary modernism. Even though Woolf critically observed in her diary „how sharp, narrow, & much of a stick Eliot has come to be, since he took to disliking me", they were also close friends and both readers and critics of each other's work. This seminar will trace correspondences and differences in their respective writings, looking at Eliot’s poetry, specifically the Four Quartets, and his critical work, the essays and autobiographical writings of Virginia Woolf and her novel To the Lighthouse (any edition is fine).

This seminar aims to explore the multifaceted role of poetry as a form of socio-political participation and cultural critique across different communities and historical contexts. In this context, we will explore African American Voices from Slavery to the 21st Century, Native American Poetry from the U.S. Expansion to Contemporary Expressions of Indigenous Culture, as well as Feminist and Queer Writing from the Suffrage to Same-Sex Marriage.

Our discussions will engage with poets such as Phillis Wheatley, Langston Hughes, Jacqueline Woodson, Jane Johnston Schoolcraft, Joy Harjo, Simon Ortiz, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, and Audre Lorde. In approaching these texts, we will employ a range of critical perspectives, including postcolonial, cultural, and religious frameworks as well as theories of gender and sexuality.

Relevant primary and secondary literature will be uploaded to Stud.IP at the beginning of the semester. Participants are expected to engage actively with the readings, contribute to seminar discussions, and complete assignments.

Exam for Of History and Hope - Poetry as Means of Socio-Political Participation and Cultural Critique: Monday, 09 February 2026.

This course offers an introduction to the critical theory of Posthumanism and it uses it as a lens to analyze the representation of migration in contemporary literature. The course’s objective is to equip students with posthumanist critical tools to understand the phenomenon of migration through cultural practices. The Blockseminar will follow a trajectory that begins with the most pressing theoretical and conceptual concerns and ends with an opening onto the most creative and affirmative ways of thinking about migration through posthumanism. Each class focuses on a specific thematic thread. The first class will introduce migration and posthumanism. The final four intensive classes will be each focuses on the following topics:
1) Technology and Migration
2) Mastery (Dehumanism) and Migration
3) Nonhuman Migration
4) Other Forms of Migration
The course is heavily focused on critical theory and close reading exercises. We will study the primary texts closely with narratological rigor and paying specific attention to the formal aspects of the text.
By the end of the course, the students should be able to employ posthumanist thinking in their understanding of migration phenomena. More information is provided in the Syllabus document.

Since the mid-1990s, a peculiar trend has taken hold of US cinema. Films began telling stories in looping, reversible, fragmented, or parallel times, introduced impossible worlds that coexist, followed an opaque logic – or simply make it difficult to make sense of them. Collectively known as puzzle films, these productions introduce variations to classical storytelling, challenge Hollywood conventions, and pose questions that confuse viewers. In this course, we take a closer look at the phenomenon of puzzle films, how they work, what their effects are on viewers, and why they continue to be popular. The course requires students to watch one film per week, including key examples such as Christopher Nolan’s Memento and Inception, and more recent representatives such as Charlie Kaufman’s I’m Thinking of Ending Things. We will also consider the trend beyond Hollywood to look at its origins in European art cinema, such as in Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane and Alain Resnais’ L’Année Dernière à Marienbad, as well as its spillover into television, as seen in Noah Hawley's Legion or Sam Esmail's Mr. Robot. By the end of the course, participants will be able to identify different forms of narrative complexity and film-specific strategies that challenge viewers’ understanding, possible reasons for the trend and its appeal, and how we can cope with these films, both while watching and when analyzing them.

In light of global warming and other large-scale crises and catastrophes, ‘resilience’ and ‘sustainability’ have become part and parcel of the standard vocabulary of our time. But what do they actually mean? And how are their meanings entangled with other cultural assumptions as well as political and economic paradigms such as growth, liberty, security, justice, and the good life, among many others?
The seminar has four main goals: 1) to introduce and discuss the main concepts and interdisciplinary theories of resilience and sustainability; 2) to probe the heuristic potential of these concepts and theories for the analysis of literary and cultural perspectives on resilience and sustainability; 3) to acquaint students with some selected literary narratives of resilience and sustainability (in the wider sense that also includes, e.g, films and TV series); 4) to explore the potential of narrative fiction as counter-narratives to political, technological, and economic notions of resilience and sustainability. We will draw especially on recent work in ecocriticism and environmental humanities to investigate the eco-ethical dimensions of literature manifesting in the ways in which the relationship between literature and survival is envisioned in the selected works.

Welcome! When Todorov coined the French term 'narratologie' in 1969, he used the word in analogy to disciplines such as biology and sociology to convey the idea of a science of narrative. This lecture begins by zooming in on the development of classical structuralist narratology, which was, for instance, influenced by Russian formalism. In a second step, we will then focus on recent debates within the field of postclassical narratology. Among other things, we will look at new developments in the area of ethical and postcolonial narratology (compared to the 'older' rhetorical theory of narrative); crucial differences between first- and second-generation cognitive narratologists; the role of cognitive parameters vis-à-vis unnatural narratives; new approaches in the areas of feminist, queer, and transmedial narratologies; recent work on oral storytelling, small stories, and online storytelling; the narrativity of music, paintings, and dance performances; as well as the role of empirical studies. We will also discuss the question of what to do with these approaches, i.e., how to apply the theoretical frameworks to literary texts.

The lecture provides an overview of the development of Gothic literature from the late eighteenth- to the early twenty-first century, focusing predominantly (though not exclusively) on the Gothic novel. It pursues three key objectives: firstly, to familiarize attendees with major forms and subgenres of Gothic literature; secondly, to introduce key periods of literary history (as refracted through a Gothic lens); and, thirdly, to read Gothic texts as responses to cultural contexts and social anxieties. Each lecture will first introduce salient contexts for the topic at hand, then move on to a close reading of a sample text, and conclude with a brief summary and perspectives for further research. While the lecture mainly charts the evolution of Gothic literature in England, it will touch upon US-American and include postcolonial contexts the further we proceed diachronically.

Just like any other living language, English is neither geographically nor socially homogeneous. More often than not there are many ways of saying the "same thing". For instance, in English there are different possibilities of forming negative interrogatives with do-support: "Did you not know that?", "Didn't you know that?" and some speakers would even accept "Did not you know that?" Variation has always been a fundamental characteristics of human language. It is the prerequisite for most language changes in that one variant in the variation (e.g. 1. "Did you not know that?", 2. "Didn't you know that?", 3. "Did not you know that?") may become preferred by language users and eventually replace one or more of the other variants.
In this lecture, we will have a closer look at selected sound, morphological and syntactic changes from pre-Old English to Present Day English.

No final exam; ungraded credit only.

In this seminar, we will focus on phonological variation in English. We will study methods of accent analysis and apply this knowledge in a practical approach: you will conduct your own research and get the opportunity to work with authentic data. In the course of the semester, you will learn to prepare, conduct, and record a sociolinguistic interview and to transcribe, code and analyze spoken language. The project work will be closely supervized and each step will be carefully guided in class.

Examination: Exam on February 12, 2026 or a project report due on March 31, 2026

Just like any other living language, English is neither geographically nor socially homogeneous. More often than not there are many ways of saying the "same thing". For instance, in English there are different possibilities of forming negative interrogatives with do-support: "Did you not know that?", "Didn't you know that?" and some speakers would even accept "Did not you know that?" Thus, variation is one of the fundamental characteristics of human language. Sociolinguistics, the study of language in society, investigates how social groups vary in their use of a language (for example, it is imaginable that "Did not you know that?" is used more by older speakers or more by women than by men) in different situations ("Didn't you know that?" is used much more in informal spoken than in formal written language), etc.
After reviewing basic principles and assumptions of synchronic sociolinguistics, this course will focus on historical sociolinguistics, i.e. the reconstruction and analysis of the sociolinguistic variation in earlier stages of English. We will familiarize ourselves with important databases and methods in historical sociolinguistics and look at some seminal studies. A substantial part of this course will be devoted to the practical analysis of historical English texts and text collections (corpora) from a historical sociolinguistic perspective.

Credit: Graded: Regular attendance, active participation in discussions and in-class tasks, in-class presentation and a final exam or term paper (tba). Ungraded: Regular attendance, active participation in discussions and in-class tasks, in-class presentation.
Final exam: 10.02.2026
Term paper submission according to the department-wide deadline: 31.03.2026

“Corpus linguistics is a research approach that facilitates empirical investigations of language variation and use, resulting in research findings that have much greater generalizability and validity than would otherwise be feasible.”
(Biber & Reppen 2015: 1)

Corpus linguistics as a tool can be used in many areas of linguistics, such as variation studies, contrastive and comparative linguistics, translation studies, and it can also play an important role in applied linguistics, for instance in language teaching.

In this seminar, students will (i) learn about the field of corpus linguistics, (ii) get to know a number of important (English) corpora, (iii) learn about tools and programs that facilitate the use of corpora and the analysis of corpus data (AntConc, Excel, R Studio), and (iv) start working on their own empirical corpus study (either in pairs/small groups or individually). This research project will be the basis for the term paper.

In order to analyze variation in English, for instance based on different foreign language learners of English, by comparing different varieties of English, genres or modes, students should have an understanding of the relevant terms and concepts of the different fields of linguistics (i.e., morphology, syntax, semantics, …). Furthermore, this is a learning-by-doing course introducing statistical methods based on topical linguistic problems. Ideally, students should have an interest in quantitative data analysis (and statistics). Prior knowledge is an asset but not a pre-requisite to successfully complete this course.

Reading: Reading material will be made available for download via Stud.IP [students receive access code during the first seminar session].

Registration: Please register with FlexNow.

Ungraded credit: Regular attendance, active participation in class, completion of weekly reading and/or exercise assignments, project presentation.

Graded credit: In addition to the above, a final exam or a term paper.

Exam period: Final exam on 10 February 2026; deadline for term paper submission on 15 March 2026.

This course is devoted to the exploration of the relationship between politics and language. We will critically discuss current political discourse in the Anglophone world surrounding topics such as the electoral politics, policies concerning immigration, health care, etc. In doing so, we will pay special attention to linguistic approaches to political discourse analysis, with an emphasis on those approaches closely aligned to Cognitive Linguistics (e.g., Conceptual Metaphor Theory, Moral Politics, Critical Discourse Analysis). We will also make use of corpus-based methodologies to analyze political speeches, (social) media-based discourse and political satire.

Exam: Feb. 12, 2026
or Term Paper: March 31, 2026

Building on the overview of the internal (linguistic) and external (socio-political and cultural) history of the English language dealt with in the introductory lectures, this course will introduce you to Late Modern English. This period, spanning the 18th and 19th centuries, is the forerunner of Present Day English. It was characterised by drastic social changes due to the Industrial Revolution, increased social and geographical mobility, urbanisation, continuing British overseas expansion and colonisation, growing literacy, the rise of new genres like the novel and the newspaper, to name but a few. Nevertheless, Late Modern English has been called the “Cinderella of historical linguistics” because the common assumption was that by 1700 English had essentially already reached the present-day stage. This is why historical linguists for a long time concentrated on earlier periods. While it is true that Late Modern English is more accessible to us than, say, Early Modern English (just compare the language of Jane Austen or Charles Dickens to that of Shakespeare), the structure of Late Modern English has seen quite a few, and in some cases sweeping, changes. Some of these are still ongoing today. In this course we will examine these changes in front of the backdrop of social changes outlined above.

Credit: Graded: Regular attendance, active participation in discussions and in-class tasks, in-class presentation and a final exam or term paper (tba). Ungraded: Regular attendance, active participation in discussions and in-class tasks, in-class presentation.
Final exam: 09.02.2026
Term paper submission according to the department-wide deadline: 31.03.2026

This class focuses on the field of pragmatics, i.e. the study of meaning in context. After review of the basic concepts and key terms, which you will be familiar with from your introductory course, we will dive deeper into various pragmatic phenomena, including implicature, reference, speech acts, etc. We will also consider broader social and cultural aspects that go into the study of pragmatics.

Exam Date: Feb. 11, 2026
or Term Paper: March 31, 2026

Sociolinguistics is the study of the relationship between language use and society. By examining how different people use language in different social settings, sociolinguists can learn about how language works, how social relationships work in a community, and how social identities can be conveyed and constructed through language use. In this seminar, students will learn about the factors that determine the different forms of a language by focusing on regional, social, and functional variation of English. They will also take a closer look at the role of social factors in speech perception.

Reading: Reading material will be made available for download via Stud.IP (students receive access code during the first seminar session).

Registration: Please register with FlexNow.

Ungraded credit: Regular attendance, active participation in class, completion of weekly reading and/or exercises, assignment, oral presentation.

Graded credit: In addition to the above, a final exam.

Exam period: Final exam on the 9th February 2026.

The study of text linguistics involves going beyond the level of the sentence, which we have previously viewed as the largest linguistic structure. Text linguistic study not only considers the structural aspects of texts, i.e. spoken and written texts, but also dives into the overriding social contexts, in which these texts are constructed. In this vein, this class also will focus on discourse analysis and its methodologies.

Exam Date: Feb. 12, 2026
or Term Paper: March 31, 2026

“English is a highly diversified language that appears in a multitude of varieties across the globe. These varieties may differ extensively in their structural properties.”
(Siemund 2013, back cover)

The term ‘World Englishes’ typically refers to non-native or second language varieties of English (also called ‘New Englishes’) part of what Kachru (1985) classified as ‘outer circle’ varieties of English; yet it could also encompass the ‘expanding circle’ varieties or even the ‘inner circle’ varieties (Filppula et al. 2017; Meshrie & Bhatt 2008; Wolf & Polzenhagen 2009). Typically, the plural form ‘Englishes’ is used to highlight the (systematic) diversity found in the uses of this language across the world (Meshrie & Bhatti 2008: 3). The two most prominent inner circle Englishes are British and American English. However, these are not the varieties we will focus on in this course. Instead, we will investigate outer circle (such as Indian or Nigerian English) or expanding circle varieties (for example English spoken in Korea or Japan). Advances in corpus linguistics as well as the availability of corpora including samples of naturally occurring language use other than of native Englishes allow for substantial investigations of world Englishes.

The aim of this course is to acquire an understanding of (i) the central models describing the evolution of varieties of English and (ii) patterns of development of selected World Englishes, and (iii) to empirically investigate structures/patterns/grammatical features with the help of corpora.

In order to successfully follow and complete the course it is necessary that you have taken and passed the course Introduction to English Linguistics.

Reading: Reading material will be made available for download via Stud.IP [students receive access code during the first seminar session].

Registration: Please register with FlexNow.

Ungraded credit: Regular attendance, active participation in class, completion of weekly reading and/or exercise assignments, project presentation.

Graded credit: In addition to the above, a final exam or a term paper.

Exam period: Final exam on 10 February 2026; deadline for term paper submission on 15 March 2026.

Epicentres in World Englishes are regional varieties of English that exhibit structural influences on neighbouring Englishes, i.e. it has – for instance – repeatedly been shown that Indian English can be regarded as influencing other varieties in South Asia such as Sri Lankan or Pakistani English. Epicentral configurations can consequently be found in South Asia, but also in Southeast Asia as well as in Australia and potentially in other parts of the world. The regional focus of this class is thus on Australasia and the notion of linguistic epicentres provides the framework against which the regional varieties are going to be presented.

In the course of this class, we will introduce central models describing the evolution of postcolonial/non-native varieties of English (e.g. Moag 1982; Kachru 1985; Schneider 2003, 2007) and discuss the notion of a linguistic epicentre in the World Englishes paradigm. Against this background and on the basis of structural and sociohistorical evidence, we will discuss the development and present-day structure-related as well as sociolinguistic profile of a selection of varieties in Australasia. Methodologically, we will explore different ways of a) empirically studying the structures and usage patterns that profile each of these Australasian Englishes in a unique way and b) trying to delineate epicentral configurations.

Prerequisites: Successful completion of the ‘Introduction to English Linguistics’ course.

Reading: Reading material will be provided on closed reserve in the department library or will be made available for download via Stud.IP.

Registration: Please register with FlexNow.

Ungraded credit: Regular attendance, completion of reading and homework assignments, active participation in class and an oral presentation, which may involve group activities and class discussions, or a written report.
Graded credit: In addition to the above, a final exam or a term paper.

Exam period: Final exam on 11 February 2026; deadline for term paper submission: 15 March 2026.

Just like any other living language, English is neither geographically nor socially homogeneous. More often than not there are many ways of saying the "same thing". For instance, in English there are different possibilities of forming negative interrogatives with do-support: "Did you not know that?", "Didn't you know that?" and some speakers would even accept "Did not you know that?" Thus, variation is one of the fundamental characteristics of human language. Sociolinguistics, the study of language in society, investigates how social groups vary in their use of a language (for example, it is imaginable that "Did not you know that?" is used more by older speakers or more by women than by men) in different situations ("Didn't you know that?" is used much more in informal spoken than in formal written language), etc.
After reviewing basic principles and assumptions of synchronic sociolinguistics, this course will focus on historical sociolinguistics, i.e. the reconstruction and analysis of the sociolinguistic variation in earlier stages of English. We will familiarize ourselves with important databases and methods in historical sociolinguistics and look at some seminal studies. A substantial part of this course will be devoted to the practical analysis of historical English texts and text collections (corpora) from a historical sociolinguistic perspective.

Credit: Graded: Regular attendance, active participation in discussions and in-class tasks, in-class presentation and a final exam or term paper (tba). Ungraded: Regular attendance, active participation in discussions and in-class tasks, in-class presentation.
Final exam: 10.02.2026
Term paper submission according to the department-wide deadline: 31.03.2026

This course is devoted to the exploration of the relationship between politics and language. We will critically discuss current political discourse in the Anglophone world surrounding topics such as the electoral politics, policies concerning immigration, health care, etc. In doing so, we will pay special attention to linguistic approaches to political discourse analysis, with an emphasis on those approaches closely aligned to Cognitive Linguistics (e.g., Conceptual Metaphor Theory, Moral Politics, Critical Discourse Analysis). We will also make use of corpus-based methodologies to analyze political speeches, (social) media-based discourse and political satire.

Exam: Feb. 12, 2026
or Term Paper: March 31, 2026

Epicentres in World Englishes are regional varieties of English that exhibit structural influences on neighbouring Englishes, i.e. it has – for instance – repeatedly been shown that Indian English can be regarded as influencing other varieties in South Asia such as Sri Lankan or Pakistani English. Epicentral configurations can consequently be found in South Asia, but also in Southeast Asia as well as in Australia and potentially in other parts of the world. The regional focus of this class is thus on Australasia and the notion of linguistic epicentres provides the framework against which the regional varieties are going to be presented.

In the course of this class, we will introduce central models describing the evolution of postcolonial/non-native varieties of English (e.g. Moag 1982; Kachru 1985; Schneider 2003, 2007) and discuss the notion of a linguistic epicentre in the World Englishes paradigm. Against this background and on the basis of structural and sociohistorical evidence, we will discuss the development and present-day structure-related as well as sociolinguistic profile of a selection of varieties in Australasia. Methodologically, we will explore different ways of a) empirically studying the structures and usage patterns that profile each of these Australasian Englishes in a unique way and b) trying to delineate epicentral configurations.

Prerequisites: Successful completion of the ‘Introduction to English Linguistics’ course.

Reading: Reading material will be provided on closed reserve in the department library or will be made available for download via Stud.IP.

Registration: Please register with FlexNow.

Ungraded credit: Regular attendance, completion of reading and homework assignments, active participation in class and an oral presentation, which may involve group activities and class discussions, or a written report.
Graded credit: In addition to the above, a final exam or a term paper.

Exam period: Final exam on 11 February 2026; deadline for term paper submission: 15 March 2026.

Just like any other living language, English is neither geographically nor socially homogeneous. More often than not there are many ways of saying the "same thing". For instance, in English there are different possibilities of forming negative interrogatives with do-support: "Did you not know that?", "Didn't you know that?" and some speakers would even accept "Did not you know that?" Variation has always been a fundamental characteristics of human language. It is the prerequisite for most language changes in that one variant in the variation (e.g. 1. "Did you not know that?", 2. "Didn't you know that?", 3. "Did not you know that?") may become preferred by language users and eventually replace one or more of the other variants.
In this lecture, we will have a closer look at selected sound, morphological and syntactic changes from pre-Old English to Present Day English.

No final exam; ungraded credit only.

In this seminar, we will focus on phonological variation in English. We will study methods of accent analysis and apply this knowledge in a practical approach: you will conduct your own research and get the opportunity to work with authentic data. In the course of the semester, you will learn to prepare, conduct, and record a sociolinguistic interview and to transcribe, code and analyze spoken language. The project work will be closely supervized and each step will be carefully guided in class.

Examination: Exam on February 12, 2026 or a project report due on March 31, 2026

Just like any other living language, English is neither geographically nor socially homogeneous. More often than not there are many ways of saying the "same thing". For instance, in English there are different possibilities of forming negative interrogatives with do-support: "Did you not know that?", "Didn't you know that?" and some speakers would even accept "Did not you know that?" Thus, variation is one of the fundamental characteristics of human language. Sociolinguistics, the study of language in society, investigates how social groups vary in their use of a language (for example, it is imaginable that "Did not you know that?" is used more by older speakers or more by women than by men) in different situations ("Didn't you know that?" is used much more in informal spoken than in formal written language), etc.
After reviewing basic principles and assumptions of synchronic sociolinguistics, this course will focus on historical sociolinguistics, i.e. the reconstruction and analysis of the sociolinguistic variation in earlier stages of English. We will familiarize ourselves with important databases and methods in historical sociolinguistics and look at some seminal studies. A substantial part of this course will be devoted to the practical analysis of historical English texts and text collections (corpora) from a historical sociolinguistic perspective.

Credit: Graded: Regular attendance, active participation in discussions and in-class tasks, in-class presentation and a final exam or term paper (tba). Ungraded: Regular attendance, active participation in discussions and in-class tasks, in-class presentation.
Final exam: 10.02.2026
Term paper submission according to the department-wide deadline: 31.03.2026

“Corpus linguistics is a research approach that facilitates empirical investigations of language variation and use, resulting in research findings that have much greater generalizability and validity than would otherwise be feasible.”
(Biber & Reppen 2015: 1)

Corpus linguistics as a tool can be used in many areas of linguistics, such as variation studies, contrastive and comparative linguistics, translation studies, and it can also play an important role in applied linguistics, for instance in language teaching.

In this seminar, students will (i) learn about the field of corpus linguistics, (ii) get to know a number of important (English) corpora, (iii) learn about tools and programs that facilitate the use of corpora and the analysis of corpus data (AntConc, Excel, R Studio), and (iv) start working on their own empirical corpus study (either in pairs/small groups or individually). This research project will be the basis for the term paper.

In order to analyze variation in English, for instance based on different foreign language learners of English, by comparing different varieties of English, genres or modes, students should have an understanding of the relevant terms and concepts of the different fields of linguistics (i.e., morphology, syntax, semantics, …). Furthermore, this is a learning-by-doing course introducing statistical methods based on topical linguistic problems. Ideally, students should have an interest in quantitative data analysis (and statistics). Prior knowledge is an asset but not a pre-requisite to successfully complete this course.

Reading: Reading material will be made available for download via Stud.IP [students receive access code during the first seminar session].

Registration: Please register with FlexNow.

Ungraded credit: Regular attendance, active participation in class, completion of weekly reading and/or exercise assignments, project presentation.

Graded credit: In addition to the above, a final exam or a term paper.

Exam period: Final exam on 10 February 2026; deadline for term paper submission on 15 March 2026.

This course is devoted to the exploration of the relationship between politics and language. We will critically discuss current political discourse in the Anglophone world surrounding topics such as the electoral politics, policies concerning immigration, health care, etc. In doing so, we will pay special attention to linguistic approaches to political discourse analysis, with an emphasis on those approaches closely aligned to Cognitive Linguistics (e.g., Conceptual Metaphor Theory, Moral Politics, Critical Discourse Analysis). We will also make use of corpus-based methodologies to analyze political speeches, (social) media-based discourse and political satire.

Exam: Feb. 12, 2026
or Term Paper: March 31, 2026

Building on the overview of the internal (linguistic) and external (socio-political and cultural) history of the English language dealt with in the introductory lectures, this course will introduce you to Late Modern English. This period, spanning the 18th and 19th centuries, is the forerunner of Present Day English. It was characterised by drastic social changes due to the Industrial Revolution, increased social and geographical mobility, urbanisation, continuing British overseas expansion and colonisation, growing literacy, the rise of new genres like the novel and the newspaper, to name but a few. Nevertheless, Late Modern English has been called the “Cinderella of historical linguistics” because the common assumption was that by 1700 English had essentially already reached the present-day stage. This is why historical linguists for a long time concentrated on earlier periods. While it is true that Late Modern English is more accessible to us than, say, Early Modern English (just compare the language of Jane Austen or Charles Dickens to that of Shakespeare), the structure of Late Modern English has seen quite a few, and in some cases sweeping, changes. Some of these are still ongoing today. In this course we will examine these changes in front of the backdrop of social changes outlined above.

Credit: Graded: Regular attendance, active participation in discussions and in-class tasks, in-class presentation and a final exam or term paper (tba). Ungraded: Regular attendance, active participation in discussions and in-class tasks, in-class presentation.
Final exam: 09.02.2026
Term paper submission according to the department-wide deadline: 31.03.2026

This class focuses on the field of pragmatics, i.e. the study of meaning in context. After review of the basic concepts and key terms, which you will be familiar with from your introductory course, we will dive deeper into various pragmatic phenomena, including implicature, reference, speech acts, etc. We will also consider broader social and cultural aspects that go into the study of pragmatics.

Exam Date: Feb. 11, 2026
or Term Paper: March 31, 2026

Sociolinguistics is the study of the relationship between language use and society. By examining how different people use language in different social settings, sociolinguists can learn about how language works, how social relationships work in a community, and how social identities can be conveyed and constructed through language use. In this seminar, students will learn about the factors that determine the different forms of a language by focusing on regional, social, and functional variation of English. They will also take a closer look at the role of social factors in speech perception.

Reading: Reading material will be made available for download via Stud.IP (students receive access code during the first seminar session).

Registration: Please register with FlexNow.

Ungraded credit: Regular attendance, active participation in class, completion of weekly reading and/or exercises, assignment, oral presentation.

Graded credit: In addition to the above, a final exam.

Exam period: Final exam on the 9th February 2026.