LFU:online

Dealing with historical sources, literary texts and research literature; application and reflection of relevant methods; oral and written presentation; critical discussion

Contrary to common assumptions, multilingualism as a major social phenomenon is not a new effect of accelerated processes of globalisation and migration in the more recent past. Therefore, the seminar will engage with manifestations of multilingualism in the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries. The seminar adopts an interdisciplinary perspective by combining approaches from history and literary studies. After an introduction into theoretical and methodological issues, the topic will be pursued empirically in several fields of action and discourse, which range from diplomatic exchange over long-distance cultural contacts to developments in language ideology. Special attention will be paid throughout to the interplay of historico-political forces, debates in the media and fictional conceptions. At the same time, we will practice basic methods and forms of presentation with reference to selected examples.

Reading and discussion of sources, literary texts and secondary literature; thematic presentations and short written responses; group work

Regular and active participation; oral presentation; written final paper

Burke, Peter, Wörter machen Leute. Gesellschaft und Sprachen im Europa der Frühen Neuzeit, Berlin 2006 (engl. Languages and Communities in Early Modern Europe, Cambridge u.a. 2004); Till Dembeck, Rolf Parr (Hrsg.), Literatur und Mehrsprachigkeit. Ein Handbuch, Tübingen 2017 (Einleitung & Kapitel III.1, III.2, III.3)

This interdisciplinary seminar is team-taught by two lecturers. Students both of history and of comparative literature will take part in the course. Thus, the number of participants is restricted to 15, respectively.
Willingness to engage in interdisciplinary work and to read English texts is expected.