Arbeitsbereich Anglophonie (Anglophone Literatures and Cultures)

Understanding English entails understanding English cultures – and it is the plural that is of particular importance. English is spoken, written, performed and transformed throughout the world, in Africa, the Caribbean, throughout the Pacific, in Australasia, and in South Asia, as well as in North America and Europe.

English – as language, as ‘cultural heritage’ – is deeply connected to past and continuing processes of migration, as well as imbalances of political and economic power. The study of Anglophone Literatures and Cultures means considering the political and cultural weight of the transformations of large parts of the globe in conjunction with the changes brought about by the spread of the English Empire, historically, and the influence of English language cultures today.

Anglophone Literatures and Cultures in Germersheim means investigating cross-cultural negotiations, tracing migrations, hybridizations, colonising and decolonising processes through all sorts of cultural texts. Literary texts are examined alongside and together with audio-visual media such as film, television series, music videos; visual media such as paintings and photographs; and other written texts, such as cookbooks, advertisements, magazine and newspaper articles.