Ideally, marriages are meant to be based on love and devotion, but they can turn into battlefields as well. Feelings of deep affection alternate with struggles for power, personal freedom and individual desires. In the seminar we will have a closer look at selected texts in which male and female characters transcend the traditional gender roles by violating the concept of a dominant husband and his obedient wife.
Partners fighting each other can also be found among engaged and even potential couples. Here, passionate wooing is turned into a liberation from patriarchal structures and objecting to the dichotomy of man/active and woman/passive. Employing selected feminist and gender theories we will analyse texts from different genres and historical epochs in order to critically assess the complex spectrum of human relations.
Participants are kindly asked to read the following texts prior to the first session:
· Edward Albee Who‘s Afraid of Virginia Woolf
· Charlotte Brontë Jane Eyre
· Helen Fielding Bridget Jones’ Diary
· William Shakespeare Twelfth Night
· George Bernard Shaw Man and Superman
Credits will be awarded on the basis of either:
· a written test
· ‘aktive Teilnahme’ (oral presentation and shorter paper)
- Lehrende:r: Natalia Elisa Fuhry