Introductory description

Judith Butler’s Gender Trouble (1990) radically advanced the way that we think about gender and sexuality. The philosopher argues that gender identity is not an intrinsic essence. Instead the illusion of a gendered identity is created through the way we walk, talk, dress, and act in accordance to gender norms. The “trouble” that Butler evokes in her title refers to several things. In patriarchal culture, she argues, woman (other and unknowable) has always been a source of trouble. At the same time, patriarchy is founded upon a perception of sexual difference that affirms the superiority of the male subject. Binary notions of masculinity and femininity, attached to heteronormative sexuality, bolster existing power structures. To challenge these concepts thus challenges the social order.

Module web page

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

Week 1: Gender Trouble in Germany
Week 2: Performing Gender Trouble: Thomas Meinecke, Tomboy (1998)
Week 3: Literature and Theory: Thomas Meinecke, Tomboy (1998)
Week 4: Trans/Sexual/Gender/Culture/Genre: Kutluğ Ataman, Lola and Bilidkid (1999)
Week 5: Queering German Identity in Antje Rávic Strubel’s Unter Schnee (2001)
Week 6: Mother Trouble: Julia Franck's Die Mittagsfrau (2007)
Week 8: Awkward Politics: Julia Franck's Die Mittagsfrau (2007)
Week 9: Troubling the Literary Establishment: Helene Hegemann's Axolotl Roadkill (2010)
Week 10: Digital Feminism: #regrettingmotherhood, #aufschrei, #aufstehen

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• Demonstrate a firm grasp of key concepts in gender and queer theory: performativity; social constructs; queer; heteronormativity; intersectionality.
• Critically examine debates about gender in contemporary Germany;
• Evaluate how different media and genres intervene in political debates
• Intercultural awareness, understanding and competence
• Knowledge of the cultures, communities and societies of the country of the target language(s) gained through the study of written texts and other cultural products in the target language
• Knowledge and understanding of one or more aspects of the literatures, cultures, linguistic contexts, history, politics, social and economic structures of the country or countries of the target language
• Familiarity with the methodologies and approaches appropriate to the discipline.

Indicative reading list

BAER, H. Redoing Feminism: Digital Activism, Body Politics, and Neoliberalism. Feminist Media Studies,
16(1), pp. 1-18.
BOBINAC, M., 2012. Am Herzen erblindet: Zur Inszenierung der Geschichte in Julia Francks Roman Die
Mittagsfrau. Zagreber Germanistische Beiträge: Jahrbuch für Literatur- und Sprachwissenschaft, 21, pp.
145-164.
BREGER, C., 2003. Pop-Identitäten 2001: Thomas Meineckes Hellblau und Christian Krachts 1979.
Gegenwartsliteratur: A German Studies Yearbook, 2, pp. 197-225.
— 2008. Hegemony, Marginalization, and Feminine Masculinity: Antje Rávic Strubel's Unter Schnee.
Seminar: A Journal of Germanic Studies, 44(1), pp. 154-173.
BUTLER, J. 2002. Gender Trouble, Routledge.
CLARK, C., 2006. Transculturation, Transe Sexuality, and Turkish Germany: Kutluǧ Ataman's Lola und
Bilidikid. German Life and Letters, 59(4), pp. 555-572.
CONNEL, R.W., 2005. Masculinities. Polity Press.
DUNKER, A., 2006. 'Alle tanzen, doch niemand kennt die Platten': Pastiche, Sampling und
Intertextualität in Thomas Meineckes Roman 'Tomboy'. Weimarer Beiträge: Zeitschrift für
Literaturwissenschaft, Ästhetik und Kulturwissenschaften, 52(1), pp. 105-118.
ERNST, T., 2015. Pop vs. Plagiarism: Popliterary Intertextuality, Author Performance and the
Disappearance of Originality in Helene Hegemann. In: M. MCCARTHY, ed, German Pop Literature: A
Companion. de Gruyter, pp. 263-284.
FINCH, H., 2012. Gender, Identity, and Memory in the Novels of Antje Rávic Strubel. Women in German
Yearbook: Feminist Studies in German Literature & Culture, 28, pp. 81-97.
GEIER, A., 2008. Poetiken der Identität und Alterität: Zur Prosa von Terézia Mora und Thomas
Meinecke. In: E. ZEMANEK and S. KRONES, eds, Literatur der Jahrtausendwende: Themen,
Schreibverfahren und Buchmarkt um 2000. Transcript, pp. 123-138.
GILDEMEISTER, R, 2001. Soziale Konstruktion von Geschlecht: Fallen, Missverständnisse und Erträge
einer Debatte. In: C. RADEMACHER and P. WIECHENS, eds, Geschlecht — Ethnizität — Klasse (2001),
Lese + Budrich, pp. 55-87.
GRAVES, P., 2002. Karen Duve, Kathrin Schmidt, Judith Hermann: “Ein literarisches Fräuleinwunder”?
GLL 55(2), pp. 196-207.
HALBERSTAM, J. 1998. Female Masculinity. Duke UP.
—2005. In a Queer Time and Place: Transgender Bodies, Subcultural Lives. New York UP.
HALL, D.E. and JAGOSE, A. eds., 2012. The Routledge queer studies reader. Routledge.
HAMM-EHSANI, K., 2008. Intersections: Issues of National, Ethnic, and Sexual Identity in Kutlug
Ataman's Berlin Film Lola und Bilidikid. Seminar: A Journal of Germanic Studies, 44(3), pp. 366-381.
HARK, S. 2015. Das Geschlecht, das nicht zwei ist: Geschlecht, Differenz und queere Einsprüche. In: C. MAHS ET. AL., eds, Betonen-Ignorieren-Gegensteuern? Zum pädogogischen Umgang mit Geschlechtstypiken, Juventa, pp. 135-150. HAYER, B., 2017. Das multiple Ich – Gegenwartsliterarische Identitätskonstruktionen im Spiegel der neuen Medien: Jelinek, Kehlmann, Glavinic, Meinecke. In: M. WOLTING, ed, Identitätskonstruktionen in der deutschen Gegenwartsliteratur. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, pp. 65-77.
HILL, A.M., 2011. Motherhood as Performance: (Re)Negotiations of Motherhood in Contemporary German Literature. Studies in Twentieth and Twenty First Century Literature, 35(1), pp. 5-94.
JEREMIAH, E., 2013. The Case of Helene Hegemann: Queerness, Failure, and the German Girl. Seminar: A Journal of Germanic Studies, 49(4), pp. 400-413.
KLOCKE, S.E., 2016. Specters of the Stasi: Antje Rávic Stubel's Novels. Gegenwartsliteratur: A German Studies Yearbook, 15, pp. 217-234.
KNAPP, G. 1997. Differenz und Dekonstruktion: Anmerkungen zum "Paradigmenwechsel" in der Frauenforschung. In: Kongreß der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Soziologie: Differenz und Integration. Campus, pp. 497-513.
KRAß, A, ed, 2003. Queer Denken. Gegen die Ordnung der Sexualität. Suhrkamp.
McCANN, C. and KIM, S.K., 2013. Feminist theory reader: Local and global perspectives. Routledge.
MECKY, G., 2001. Ein Ich in der Genderkrise: Zum Tomboy in Thomas Meineckes Tomboy. Germanic Review, 76(3), pp. 195-214.
MUELLER, A.C., 2012. Sampling 'America': Rolf Dieter Brinkmann and Thomas Meinecke's Poetics of Postmodernism. In: C. ZELLER, ed, Literarische Experimente: Medien, Kunst, Texte seit 1950. Universitätsverlag Winter, pp. 255-267.
MUNDLOS, C., 2015. Wenn Mutter sein nicht glücklich macht: Das Phänomen Regretting Motherhood. mvg Verlag.
SMITH PREI, C., and M. STEHLE., 2016. Awkward politics: Technologies of popfeminist activism. McGill-Queen’s Press.
SOILAND, T., 2008. Die Verhältnisse gingen und die Kategorien kamen. Intersectionality oder Vom Unbehagen an der amerikanischen Theorie. querelles-net, 9(26).
STONE, K., 2018. Writing Rape, Troping History: Story, Plot, and Ethical Reading in Julia Franck's Die Mittagsfrau (2007). German Quarterly, 91(2), pp. 153-169.
TALPADA MOHANTY, C., 2003. Feminism without Borders: Decolonizing Theory, Practicing Solidarity. Duke UP. VILLA, P., 2004, (De)Konstruktion und Diskurs-Genealogie: Zur Position und Rezeption von Judith Butler. In: BECKER, R. and KORTENDIEK, B. Handbuch Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung, VS-Verlag, pp. 146-57.
VINKEN, B. 2001. Die deutsche Mutter. Der lange Schatten eines Mythos. Berg.
VON REDECKER, E., 2016. Anti-Genderismus and right-wing hegemony. Radical Philosophy, 198, pp.2-7. WALTER, N., 2010, Living Dolls: The Return of Sexism. Virago.
WHITTLE, S. and STRYKER, S., 2006. The transgender studies reader. Routledge.

View reading list on Talis Aspire

Research element

For the presentation, students are encouraged to design their own titles that develop the core content and concepts of the module through independent research

International

All modules delivered in SMLC are necessarily international. Students engage with themes and ideas from a culture other than that of the UK and employ their linguistic skills in the analysis of primary materials from a non-Anglophone context. Students will also be encouraged to draw on the experiences of visiting exchange students in the classroom and will frequently engage with theoretical and critical frameworks from across the world.

Subject specific skills

This module will develop students’ linguistic skills through engaging with primary materials in the target language. It will build students’ capacity to engage with aspects of German culture through analysis of this primary material and through seminar discussion aimed at deeper critical thinking. In particular, students’ awareness of gender trouble in contemporary German culture will be enhanced through lectures and seminars which engage in scholarship in the field.

Transferable skills

All SMLC culture modules demand critical and analytical engagement with artefacts from target-language cultures. In the course of independent study, class work and assessment students will develop the following skills: written and oral communication, creative and critical thinking, problem solving and analysis, time management and organisation, independent research in both English and their target language(s), intercultural understanding and the ability to mediate between languages and cultures, ICT literacy in both English and the target language(s), personal responsibility and the exercise of initiative.