LFU:online

Institut für Anglistik Institut für Anglistik, Pädagogische Hochschule Vorarlberg Pädagogische Hochschule Vorarlberg

Simone Broders Simone Broders

921045

823EN609x1
(Pädagogische Hochschule Vorarlberg)

VO Anglistische Cultural Studies

VO 2

2,5

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keine Angabe

Englisch

The course enables students to analyse cultural phenomena critically and to reflect on the affordances of different media forms in their social, historical, and global contexts. Particular emphasis is placed on developing critical thinking, analytical skills, and an awareness of how cultural meanings are produced, negotiated, and transformed. For future teachers, these competences are of particular relevance, as English teaching increasingly requires engagement with diverse cultural perspectives, texts, and media environments. The course supports students in developing the ability to contextualise literary texts and cultural products, critically evaluate processes of inclusion and exclusion in cultural representation, and reflect on how meaning changes across genres and media formats. It therefore connects academic inquiry with educational practice and prepares students to engage learners with cultural issues that shape both English-speaking societies and everyday life.

This lecture introduces students to key concepts, theories, methods, and contexts of British and Anglophone Cultural Studies. It explores how cultural identities, social structures, political institutions, historical developments, and media practices shape and are shaped by cultural representation in Britain and the Commonwealth. Students engage with topics such as nation, class, gender, ethnicity, migration, colonial and postcolonial histories, popular culture, and digital media. The course also introduces students to questions of canon formation, genre, and media transformation, encouraging critical reflection on how texts and cultural products are selected, valued, adapted, and interpreted across different historical and cultural contexts. Selected case studies illustrate how Cultural Studies approaches can be applied to contemporary issues and cultural phenomena. Examples may include questions of representation and non-knowledge in AI narratives, constructions of masculinity and femininity in media, the relationship between popular culture and identity in fandoms and digital cultures, the role of Enlightenment ideas in present-day debates on culture and knowledge production, and the analysis of adaptations across literary, visual, and digital media.

Assessment will be based on a final examination covering the concepts, contexts, and case studies discussed in the lecture.

Giles, Judy and Tim Middleton. Studying Culture: A Practical Introduction. Wiley-Blackwell, 2008.

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