420008 DS Self-Images and Images of the Other/Selbst- und Fremdbilder (2018S)

This PhD seminar entails two elements: presentations of parts of students dissertations and a close reading bloc in the second part of the course.
Imagology has become a very powerful methodology in analyzing literary texts, documents and films.
It is a theoretical concept that is from the very beginning cross-disciplinary starting with comparative but also includes general questions of cultural theory. Self-images and images of the other are relevant with regard to various national culture, ethnic groups, classes, "races" and gender. From the very beginning, they have a comparison between the construction of self and other in the background. There are three relevant elements: the image of the other, the hidden and often flattering self-image and the relation between two symbolic entities.
We will discuss relevant theoretical concepts of imagology starting with the comparative study of literature, including sociology, visual concepts, cultural analysis and post-colonial studies. We will discuss e.g. texts from the Aachen School of Comparative Literature, from Homi K. K. Bhabha and from Edwards Said´s "Orientalism" and approaches in psychoanalysis. Our main reference will be Davor Dukic´s volume "Imagology today" (2012), an international collection of articles that gives an overview about the actual state of the debate.