Intensive courses - Autumn 2020
AJ17082 / AJL27087 / AJL27087
How Did it Come to This? An Intersectional Understanding of the Roots of Inequality in the United States and United Kingdom in the Age of Trump and Brexit
Dr. Sagar Deva (University of Leeds, UK)
the course will be taught online between November 2nd and 27th, 2-3 times a week.
Course description:
This course will seek to understand, through an intersectional analysis, the complex systems of discrimination that have underpinned and still underpin both the rising tide of nationalism in the West and the continued poverty and suffering of the Global South, suggesting a clear connection between the two. It will look at the multiple forms of discrimination on which these systems of prejudice and inequality rest, with a particular focus on racism, sexism, and the ‘intersectional’ relationship between these two forms of prejudice which impacts particularly on women of colour.
AJ18092 / AJL18092
Comprehending Canada I: Canadian Studies, History, and Geography
Dr. Richard Nimijean (Carleton University, Canada)
Wednesdays 14.00 – 15.00 (14 October - 25 November)
Course description:
This course examines various approaches to the study of Canada. Students will learn how interdisciplinary teaching and research differs from traditional academic disciplines and how interdisciplinary Canadian Studies produces a stronger and richer explanation of Canadian phenomena. This prepares you for advanced courses on Canada.
AJL28065 / SAKS015
Canada and the United States: Economy, Politics, and Culture
Dr. Richard Nimijean (Carleton University, Canada)
Tuesdays 14.00 – 15.00 (13 October - 1 December)
Course description:
This course examines the evolution of the Canada-US relationship. Students undertake a comparative, interdisciplinary examination of Canada and the United States. Following a historical examination of the relationship, we look at key policy issues that define the relationship, focusing on Canadian perspectives of the relationship. In the end, not only does looking beyond Canadian borders help students learn more about the United States; they will also learn more about Canada and Canadians.
AJL15082 / AJL25059
Beyond Postmodern Fiction: Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
Dr. Richard Stock, Ph.D.
The course will be taught online in November 23–27, with online classes Monday to Friday 10-12 and 14-16.
Course description:
This course will focus on one of the most important novels in the American tradition in the last two decades of the 20th century. This was a time when postmodernism seemed to have faded, but a consensus on what was to follow was lacking. This caused a particular type of cultural concern. This concern endures today; we don’t know whether to discuss the current period as postmodernism, “post-postmodernism”, or something else (or nothing else). After the turn of the millennium and September 11th, the cultural situation changed. Infinite Jest operates both as a force to bring culture beyond postmodernism and an example of that effort before September 11th and the advent of the 21st century.
AJ(L)17083 / AJ(L)27089
Anthropocene Now: Climate Change in American Literature and Media
Prof. Paweł Frelik (American Studies Center, University of Warsaw)
This course will be taught online, dates TBA
Course description:
Social, political, and economic issues have long provided both material for narratives across a range of media and interpretative frameworks for analyses of cultural texts. Arguably, in the late 20th and early 21st century all these concerns converge in, are intimately connected to, and stem from the central condition variously known as climate change, global warming, and Anthropocene. The phenomenon’s global nature, non-human temporality, and complexity make it difficult to even imagine its impact, but cultural texts have collectively done much to raise the awareness of its presence. The course will engage climate change as the most urgent challenge of our time. It will provide students with theoretical apparatuses necessary to discuss cultural representations of this global phenomenon and expose them to a selection of primary texts across media (novel, film, television, comics) that have foregrounded climate change.
Students of the English Department can also register 3 intensive courses offered by the Department of Czech Literature (all courses will be taught in English and online, most likely in November 16-20, more info will be coming after registration from Dr. Tereza Dědinová):
LMKB_a427 Game of Victims and Monsters: Representation of Sexual and Female Violence in A Song of Ice and Fire and Game of Thrones
LMKB_a428 Native Americans in Fantasy Fiction
LMKB_a431 Adaptation Studies (more information doc. Petr Bubeníček)