Search result: Catalogue data in Autumn Semester 2016

Number	Title	Type	ECTS	Hours	Lecturers
GESS Science in Perspective Only the topics listed in this paragraph can be chosen as GESS Science in Perspective. Further below you will find the "type B courses Reflections about subject specific methods and content" as well as the language courses. 6 ECTS need to be acquired during the BA and 2 ECTS during the MA Students who already took a course within their main study program are NOT allowed to take the course again.
Type A: Enhancement of Reflection Competence Suitable for all students Students who already took a course within their main study program are NOT allowed to take the course again.
History
851-0549-00L	WebClass Introductory Course History of Technology Number of participants limited to 100. Particularly suitable for students of D-BAUG, D-INFK, D-ITET, D-MATL, D-MAVT.	W	3 credits	2V	G. Hürlimann
Abstract	WebClass Introductory Course History of Technology is an introductory course to the history of technology. The students are challenged to discover how technological innovations take place within complex economical, political and cultural contexts. They get introduced into basic theories and practices of the field.
Learning objective	Students are introduced into how technological innovations take place within complex economical, political and cultural contexts. They get to know basic theories and practices of the field.
Content	WebClass Einführungskurs Technikgeschichte ist eine webgestützte Einführung in die Technikgeschichte. Technikgeschichte untersucht Angebote technischer Entwicklungen, die in bestimmten historischen Kontexten entstanden und von sozialen Gruppen oder ganzen Gesellschaften als Möglichkeit sozialen Wandels wahrgenommen, ausgehandelt und schliesslich genutzt oder vergessen wurden. Der Onlinekurs wird von zwei obligatorischen Präsenzveranstaltungen begleitet. Die aktive Teilnahme und das erfolgreiche Bearbeiten von Onlineaufgaben werden vorausgesetzt.
Lecture notes	Informationen zur Arbeit mit WebClass finden Sie unter https://www.tg.ethz.ch/de/programme/herbstsemester-2016/. Sobald Sie eingeschrieben sind, haben Sie Zugang zum Skript und zu weiterführenden Materialien.
Literature	https://www.tg.ethz.ch/de/programme/
Prerequisites / Notice	Onlinekurs kombiniert mit zwei obligatorischen Präsenzveranstaltungen. Einführungssitzung: 26.9.2016, zweite Präsenzsitzung: 14.11.2016. Die aktive Teilnahme und das erfolgreiches Bearbeiten von Onlineaufgaben werden vorausgesetzt. Die Zahl der Teilnehmenden ist auf 100 beschränkt. Anmeldung: In der Einführungssitzung am 26.9.2016, zudem schriftliche Einschreibung sowohl unter www.einschreibung.ethz.ch wie auch auf dem Olat-Server. Verspätete Anmeldungen können nicht berücksichtigt werden. Weitere Informationen unter https://www.tg.ethz.ch/de/programme/
853-0725-00L	History Part One: Europe (The Cradle of Modernity, Britain ca. 1789-1939)	W	3 credits	2V	H. Fischer-Tiné
Abstract	Using the concrete example of Britain, the "cradle of modernity", this lecture offers a survey and analysis of the crucial historical transformations that engendered "modernity" in Europe from the late 18th to the mid 20th centuries.
Learning objective	At the end of this lecture course, students can: (a) highlight the most important changes in the "long nineteenth century" in Europe (b) explain their long-term effects; and (c) relate these changes to global developments.
Content	The thematic foci include: the economic and social consequences of the industrial revolution, the genesis of political ideologies and social movements, shifts in gender roles, colonialism and imperialism, as well as the emergence of consumerism and a "leisure society."
Lecture notes	Power Point Slides and sources will be made available at POLYBOX in the course of the semester.
Literature	Mandatory and further reading will be listed on course plan that is made available before the first session.
851-0551-03L	Postal Knowledge and the History of Digital Societies Particularly suitable for students of D-ARCH, D-BAUG, D-HEST, D-INFK, D-ITET, D-MAVT	W	3 credits	2S	D. F. Zetti
Abstract	In the second half of the 20th century, postal services have dramatically changed. Communication today is computerbased. The lecture offers problem oriented insights into this sociotechnical process of translation.
Learning objective	Students become familiar with the mutual interdependence of social and technological change that characterises the history of computing and communication.
Content	Die Palette postalischer Produkte, Dienstleistungen und Personalien ist spannend und vielfältig. (Liebes-)Briefe und Geldsendungen, Boten und Anrufer, Geheimnisse und Telefonbücher, analoge Vermittlungen und digitale Übertragungen - auf der Basis von Forschungsliteratur und Archivquellen werden solche Objekte, Figuren und Dienste auf ihre kultur-, technik- und wirtschaftshistorische Dimensionen hin befragt. Der behandelte Zeitraum umfasst das 19. und 20. Jahrhundert, inhaltlich liegt ein Schwerpunkt auf den Jahren ab 1950. In jenen Jahrzehnten wurden der Verkehr und die Korrespondenzen der Post mit den Anforderungen rechnergestützter Verständigung kompatibel. Die Vorlesung bietet einen problemorientierten Einblick in diesen soziotechnischen Übersetzungsprozess.
851-0101-18L	"Bollywood and Beyond" - A Cultural History of Indian Cinema in the 20th Century	W	3 credits	2V	H. Fischer-Tiné
Abstract	The Indian film industry has been around for 100 years and is one of the richest and miost variegated of the world. The lecture reconstructs the historical development of Indian cinema and uses it as a lens through which cultural, social and political change in the subcontinent can be explored.
Learning objective	The objectives of this course are three-fold. For one, the participants shall learn to question aesthetic cetainties and received modes of perception of cinematographic art. Secondly they will be acquainted with the huge potential of films as a historical source to grasp processes of social and cultural change. Besides, the reconstruction of the international career of a specific variety of art and entertainment will also raise important questions of cultural globalisation and consumerism. As a side-effect, a sit were, the students will will also be provided with important insights into the chequered history of the Indian subcontinent in during the course of the 20th century.
Literature	Zur Einführung: DWYER, Rachel, 'Bollywood's India: Hindi Cinema as a Guide to Modern India', Asian Affairs, 41 (3), 2010, pp. 381-98. VIRDIK, Jyotika, The Cinematic Imagination: Indian Popular Film as Social History, New Brunswick, NJ and London: Rutgers University Press, 2003.
Prerequisites / Notice	A detailed course description and session plan will be available from 15 Sept 2013 onwards at http://www.gmw.ethz.ch/education
851-0512-05L	Development Cooperation from a Biographical Point of View	W	3 credits	2U	G. Spuhler
Abstract	The Archives of Contemporary History provide 75 video interviews with contemporary witnesses who report on their missions abroad for swiss humanitarian aid and development cooperation. Based on selected interviews the motives of their commitment and the experience in a foreign country are examined.
Learning objective	The course provides basic knowledge about the beginnings of modern development aid and its increasing professionalism. It aims for a critical and historically informed reflection on the transfer of knowledge and technology between the first and the third world. Furthermore it sharpens the critical awareness of the possibilities and limitations of retrospective accounts of eyewitnesses.
Literature	Gregor Spuhler / Lea Ingber / Sonja Vogelsang: Auslandhilfe als biografische Erfahrung. In: Handlungsfeld Entwicklung. Schweizer Erwartungen und Erfahrungen in der Geschichte der Entwicklungsarbeit (Itinera 35). Hg.: Sara Elmer et al., Basel 2014, S. 253-279. Thomas Gull / Dominik Schnetzer: Die andere Seite der Welt. Was Schweizerinnen und Schweizer im humanitären Einsatz erlebt haben, Baden 2011.
851-0101-53L	Collections in Context: What Do Historians and Scientists Learn from Butterflies, Stones, and Bones? Particularly suitable for students of D-BIOL, D-BSSE, D-USYS	W	3 credits	2S	B. Schär, M. Greeff
Abstract	Zurich holds huge scientific collections. They contain objects from around the world, some of them dating back to the 18th century. This interdisciplinary seminar combines perspectives from the history of science and from current scientific disciplines. What do these objects tell us about Zurich's place in the global history of science? What potentials do old collections hold for scientists today?
Learning objective	The aim of this seminar is threefold: Firstly, students will become familiarised with historiographical approaches to scientific collections. Among them are constructivist approaches that seek to understand scientific knowledge not primarily as a system of objective truths, but rather as an outcome of human 'constructions'. Other approaches deal with the problem of how scientific objects are related to systems of power and oppression, namely in the case of objects collected during the time of european colonialism overseas. Secondly, students will become familiarized with how old collections can yeald new insights for current scientists working, e.g., on questions of ecology. Thirdly, the seminar shall serve as a plattform to discuss ways of dialogue and possible collaboration between these different approaches. Students will be expected to read theoretical texts and case studies during semester, participate in discussions with external experts (historians, curators, and scientists), and to write a summarizing essay at the end of the term.
851-0535-09L	Regional Politics of the Arabian Peninsula	W	2 credits	2K	E. Manea
Abstract	The course explores the complex nature of politics and history of the Arabian Peninsula. It takes a closer look at the political systems of several countries of the Arabian Peninsula, especially Yemen, Saudi Arabia and Oman and Bahrain.
Learning objective	To highlight how the politics of the Arabian Peninsula is a product of two spheres: politics within states and politics between states. Introduce the Arabian Peninsula as a political unit, but not a homogeneous one An overview of the type of political systems prevalent in the region, religious Denominations, sectarian rivalry, and how this shape its regional relations
Content	The neighbouring states of the Arabian Peninsula - especially Saudi Arabia, Oman and Yemen - make for strange bedfellows. They are governed by different systems with different results, calling into question how their internal policies affect regional relations and vice versa. Saudi Arabia is a monarchy, a prosperous, religious and restrictive state increasingly facing problems of social/politica unrest. Oman is a small, thriving, stable sultanate, modernised and moderate but tightly controlled; and the republic of Yemen, which has the region's poorest economy, has still not shrugged off the legacy of its turbulent modern history. Each state adheres to a different Islamic sect, moreover, and though their populations are overwhelmingly Arab, differing tribal structures result in widely variant effects on the political process in their respective systems. Each state has also had extensive historical relationships with the Ottoman and British empires, the US and Russia, and these too have coloured regional relations. Recent events like the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001, the American-led invasion of Iraq and the Arab uprisings of 2011 have also influenced these states' internal policy decisions, further affecting their dealings with one another and at with the world at large. This course examines each country in detail, from state formation to current affairs and from local to international government.
051-0311-00L	History of Art and Architecture III	W	3 credits	2V	L. Stalder
Abstract	The two-semester course offers an introduction to the history and theory of architecture from the industrial revolution up to now. Based on current questions a variety of case studies will be discussed.
Learning objective	The aim is to give an overview on crucial events, works of art, buildings and theories since the beginning of the 19th century up to today. The course should enhance the comprehension of historical and theoretical issues, and allow the students to localize their own practice within a broader historical context.
Content	The subject of this lecture course is the history and theory of architecture since the beginning of the 19th century up to now. It examines the architectural answers to the changing technical inventions and social practices. Consequently, the focus will be less on individual architects or buildings than on various themes that determined the architecture of the period.
Lecture notes	http://www.stalder.arch.ethz.ch/courses
051-0363-00L	History of Urban Design I	W	2 credits	2G	V. Magnago Lampugnani
Abstract	The lecture covers the time from the beginning of urban culture until the mid 19th century. With selected examples it emphasizes on the historical plannings and methods of European cities. Each specific urban development will be presented within a broader context.
Learning objective	This course analyzes the history of urban architecture primarily in its existing three dimensional form as a complex human artefact. It also explores the inspirations that prompted the creation of this artefact: philosophical and religious concepts, social conditions, property relationships and the mechanisms that exploit the economics of real estate and the influence of building technology. Intellectual, literary or artistic modes of thought will also be assessed with regard to their impact on urban development. Urbanism has its own distinctive approach as a discipline, but it is also clearly responsive to the influence of related disciplines. Study is made of actual cities and urban expansion plans which are in the process of implementation, as well as unrealized projects and visions of the future. These projects sometimes illustrate ways of thinking that are equal to, or clearer than, actual urban situations.
Content	In the first semester an introduction to the discipline and the methods are given along the thematic issues from the beginning of urban culture until the mid-19th century. 01. Introduction to the discipline and method: The history of urban design as a historical project 02. Athens and Rome in the ancient world: Myth, selfportrayal and speculation 03. From the spirit of equality to the colonial module: Greek and Roman City foundings 04. From the urban ideal to new cities in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance 05. Baroque strategies: The new organisation of Rome under Sixtus V, the production of Versailles under Louis XIV and the invention of St. Petersburg 06. The city between Absolutism and Enlightment: baroque defence-designs, the European colonization of the American continent and the reconstruction of Lisbon 07. Ideology and speculation after the Glorious Revolution: landscapegardens and urban figurations in England from 1650-1850 08. Between modernization, Grandeur and repression: Embellishment in Paris from 1750-1830 09. The construction of the bourgeois city: Georges-Eugène Haussmann transforms Paris into the capital of the 19th century 10. Architectural insertion and plan for the expansion of the city: From the Berlin of Karl Friedrich Schinkel to James Hobrecht 11. Neoabsolute power, bourgeois self-confidence and Marxian Idealism: The Viennese Ringstrasse and Ildefonso Cerdas Ensanche for Barcelona
Lecture notes	The lectures are accompagnied by a script (two semesters of the bachelor studies), that can be purchased at the chair for the history of urban design (HIL D 75.2) at the price of CHF 30,-. The script serves as an auxiliary means to the attended lecture compiling the most important illustrations showed and the names and dates of the buildings and its builders along with a short introductory note.
Literature	Further recommended literature to consult is listet within the script.
Prerequisites / Notice	History of Urban Design from antiquity to the 19th century
701-0791-00L	Environmental History - Introduction and Overview Number of participants limited to 100.	W	2 credits	2V	D. Speich Chassé
Abstract	Our society faces a serious ecological crisis. Of what historical dimension is this crisis? How have human societies already in earlier times changed their environment, and, consequently, perhaps also ours? What were the main ecological challenges for societies and how did they change over time? And how did societies adapt to changing environmental conditions?
Learning objective	Introduction into environmental history; survey of long-term development of human-nature-interrelations; discussion of selected problems. Improved ability to assess current problems from a historical perspective and to critically interrogate one's own standpoint.
Lecture notes	Course material is provided on OLAT.
Literature	McNeill, John R. 2000. Something new under the sun: An environmental history of the twentieth-century world, New York: Norton. Uekötter, Frank (Ed.) 2010. The turning points of environmental history, Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press. Winiwarter, Verena und Martin Knoll 2007. Umweltgeschichte: Eine Einführung, Köln: Böhlau.
Prerequisites / Notice	Students are asked to write an exam during the second last session (11.12.2015).
063-0366-00L	The Architecture of the City from Modernity to Today	W	2 credits	2V	V. Magnago Lampugnani
Abstract	The lecture covers the time of the 20th century and describes with theories, projects and implemented plannings the history of the modern city. The lectures emphasizes on the historical plannings and methods and presents each specific urban development within a broader context.
Learning objective	This course analyzes the history of urban architecture primarily in its existing three dimensional form as a complex human artefact. It also explores the inspirations that prompted the creation of this artefact: philosophical and religious concepts, social conditions, property relationships and the mechanisms that exploit the economics of real estate and the influence of building technology. Intellectual, literary or artistic modes of thought will also be assessed with regard to their impact on urban development. Urbanism has its own distinctive approach as a discipline, but it is also clearly responsive to the influence of related disciplines. Study is made of actual cities and urban expansion plans which are in the process of implementation, as well as unrealized projects and visions of the future. These projects sometimes illustrate ways of thinking that are equal to, or clearer than, actual urban situations.
Content	The lecture which will be hold only in one semester includes the developments of the 20th century 1. Le Corbusier: theories, visions and clearcuts in the name oft he autorité 2. The United States in the Jazz Age: Between Metropolis of Tomorrow and Broadacre City 3. Italy in the Fascist Era: Monumental ensembles and new town between assiduousness of modernization and obsession of representation 4. Urban design under totalitarian regimes: The architects of the "Tausendjährige Reich" and the "engineers of luck" of the Soviet Union of Stalin 5. Coming to terms with the past and the Cold War: Reconstruction in the two German states 6. The myth of the human scale: the 1950s in Spain, Great Britain, Scandinavia and Italy 7. Postwar Experiments: Rationalistic classicism in France 8. Two new towns in the 20th century: Chandigarh and Brasilia 9. Fictions and visions: The international utopia of the city 10. The second conquest of the North American territorium: The automobile and the city in the USA 11. Analysis, analogy and renewal: The adventure of the typological city
Lecture notes	To each lecture an overview is listet within a script, that can be purchased at the chair for the history of urban design (HIL D 75.2) at the price of CHF 25,-. The script serves as an auxiliary means to the attended lecture compiling the most important illustrations showed and the names and dates of the buildings and its builders along with a short introductory note. Aside this script the chair offers the ‚Quellentextbände' (sourcetexts) which help to extend the knowledge of theoretical discourses in the field of urban design. For the master program the institute offers one volume of texts at the price of CHF 5,-. The script is in German, the ‚Quellentextbände’ are reprinted in their original languages.
Literature	Further recommended literature to consult is listet within the script.

Literature
Number	Title	Type	ECTS	Hours	Lecturers
851-0300-85L	The Knowledge of Literature. An Introduction	W	3 credits	2V	A. Kilcher
Abstract	This lecture provides a general introduction to literary theory and presents the important theories dealing with knowledge and its role in and as literature.
Learning objective	Students are introduced to the various approaches and methods of literature studies and gain an overview of literary theory.
Content	This lecture has two aims: Firstly, it serves as a general introduction into the fiel of literary theory (thereby looking into "knowledge about literature"). Secondly, there will be a special emphasis on recent theoretical approaches that take seriously literature and knowledge as one of its components (thus investigating the "knowledge of literature"). Even though traditional criticism disagrees, a number of recent approaches, based on literature and culture studies, hold that literature is not to be conceived of as standing in opposition to the world and the classificatory system of the academic disciplines, particularly the sciences (e.g. Foucauldian discourse analysis and New Historicism). Instead, these approaches understand literature in terms of its epistemological forms and functions. Thus, the main thesis is that literature actively participates in the constitution and formation of knowledge. Literature itself generates models of knowledge, sometimes with critical or even utopian intentions. Moreover, it draws attention to the fundamental role of order and representation (systematization, narrative rendering, linguistic and pictorial representation) in both humanities and sciences.
851-0301-04L	Photography and Literature. Exchanging Practices and Poetics	W	3 credits	2G	F. Broggi-Wüthrich
Abstract	The course discusses writers from Henry James to Margaret Atwood whose interest for photography led them to elaborate new intriguing modes of representation. The aim is to identify how literature, photography and art meet to promote a photographic aesthetics while approaching the theories of Susan Sontag, Roland Barthes and Bourdieu as well as postmodern or posthuman criticism.
Learning objective	Students know a wide variety of literary text (and their authors) that are related in content or form to the practice of photography. Students know how to relate texts to key critical theories as well as to the historical and social context.
Prerequisites / Notice	All interested students are most welcome. The course is not intended as a language course but a good knowledge of English is a necessary requirement in order to participate to class discussions and to do the reading.
851-0301-05L	Beginnings Number of participants limited to 25	W	3 credits	2S	C. Jany
Abstract	"All beginnings are difficult," goes the saying, "but without them there wouldn't be an end." However, what makes beginnings so difficult? What kind of action is that? Which knowledge does it presuppose? And what would a beginning say about the end? We will pursue these questions by reading sacred, philosophical, literary, and scientific texts that, each in its own way, make a beginning.
Learning objective	- thorough reading and critical analysis of the texts - reflection upon the conditions and practice of beginnings in terms of their epistemology and rhetorical strategy (i.e. as an intellectual and literary operation) - consider the cultural and historical function of fictions that tell of origins, such as cosmological myths, foundationalist philosophy, or poetic incantations
Literature	Myths of Creation and First Origins (Genesis und Gospel of St. John, Theogony, Upanishads), philosophy (Fichte, Hegel), literature and poetry (Wieland, Hölderlin, Novalis, Wordsworth, Melville, Richard Wagner, Beckett). For an introduction, see Wolfgang Iser, Emergenz: Nachgelassene und verstreut publizierte Essays (Konstanz 2013).
Prerequisites / Notice	readings partly in English
851-0306-05L	Literature and Technology - Simulations, Prototypes, Machines Particularly suitable for students of D-ITET, D-MAVT, D-MATL	W	3 credits	2S	E. Edelmann-Ohler
Abstract	Literature about technology transposes models, products and procedures of scientific progress into the logic of poetry. This literature converts not only technology into fiction, but it also creates new cultural and social contextualisations, which reveal alternative readings of configurations of knowledge.
Learning objective	Students are familiar with different relations between literature and technology. They can verbalise and analyse central contentions.
Content	Im Seminar lesen wir unter anderem Texte von E.T.A. Hofmann, Franz Kafka, Georg Kaiser und Max Frisch.
851-0309-15L	Thomas Mann's Last Novel: "Bekenntnisse des Hochstaplers Felix Krull" Does not take place this semester. Number of participants limited to 20	W	3 credits	2S	not available
Abstract	"Bekenntnisse des Hochstaplers Felix Krull" was published in 1954, one year before Thomas Mann's death. This humorous autobiography of a confidence man was and is often considered a somewhat lightweight work, intellectually inferior to Mann's more earnest and more celebrated output. By contrast, this seminar will seek to elucidate the novel's manifold discursive and knowledge-based contexts.
Learning objective	- Students read and discuss the "Bekenntnisse" - Students familiarize themselves with the critical technique of 'close reading' - The seminar establishes current and well-founded research perspectives on Mann's novel, preferably from the context of the history of knowledge and the history of idea. Approaches from the fields of gender studies, discourse analysis and other areas will also be considered
851-0300-79L	Theories of Joke	W	3 credits	2S	A. Kilcher
Abstract	From Plato, Aristotle and Cicero, philosophers have tried to find the core principle of wit (or the joke, as both meanings are contained in the German term "Witz"). Even during the 20th century, the philosophy of life and psychoanalysis struggle with it. The seminar provides an overview of this history.
Learning objective	This seminar deals with the meaning and history of "Witz" (wit, joke) as a form of knowledge. It places "Witz" as a switch or transitional figure within the development of modern theories of knowledge in particular.
Content	Contrary to intuitive expectations, the German term "Witz" is not only an instance of the comical, but also a form of knowledge that plays on similarity and difference by juxtaposing the disparate. In this vein, especially during the 17th and 18th centuries, "Witz" becomes a central attribute of poetic and rhetorical types of expression (wit). Only during the 19th century "Witz" comes to denote a characteristic genre of the comical (joke). From now on "Witz" is theoretically associated with the comical and laughter. Around 1900 there are approaches based on the philosophy of life, sociology and psychology, elaborated by Bergson, Bakhtin and Freud, among others.
851-0365-01L	Introduction to English Literature: Science and Fiction Part I	W	2 credits	2S	A. Brand-Kilcher
Abstract	"Plot is to the novelist what experiment is to the scientist." (Lionel Trilling) We will read Emile Zola's essay "The Experimental Novel" and other texts to look on the one hand at the scientific aspect to fiction and fiction writing and on the other hand at the narrative and fictional aspects to science.
Learning objective	Compare and find out about differences and similarities between natural sciences and fiction/ fiction writing. Maybe become aware that "to conclude that what happens in the laboratory is what happens in the universe requires a leap of the imagination." (Trilling)
Content	We will look at a number of essays and texts on that subject. We will also read Zadie Smith's highly entertaining novel "White Teeth" which has a very elaborate not to say artificial plot. One line of the story is about the geneticist Marcus Chalfen and the "Future Mouse" he designed.
Literature	Recommended Reading: Zadie Smith: White Teeth; Emile Zola: The Experimental Novel
851-0129-00L	Writing for Others - Science and Public	W	2 credits	2V	U. J. Wenzel
Abstract	Learning to write texts, that can present topics from the sciences to an interested public (in newspapers, non-specialist journals but also in papers for non-specialists in an academic context); to gain insights into the cultural, historical and philosophical contexts of science and the public.
Learning objective	Learning to write texts, that can present topics from the sciences to an interested public (in newspapers, non-specialist journals but also in papers for non-specialists in an academic context); to gain insights into the cultural, historical and philosophical contexts of science and the public.
Content	Practical exercises in writing articles for the feature pages of newspapers will be combined with the theoretical work on topics relevant for the historical, sociological and philosophical aspects of writing for others.
Prerequisites / Notice	Voraussetzungen: Die Bereitschaft, sich auf ein Projekt mit experimentellem Charakter einzulassen. GUTE BEHERRSCHUNG DER DEUTSCHEN SPRACHE. Die Teilnehmerzahl ist begrenzt. SCHRIFTLICHE ANMELDUNG erforderlich (bis 31. August): uwe.justus.wenzel@nzz.ch
851-0315-01L	Writing: Precision of Language as a Field of Research for Literature	W	1 credit	1G	F. Kretzen
Abstract	When we write a literary text we enter into a set-up for experiments and explore the possibilities ensuing from the specific structure and consistency of such a text. Literary writing allows us to go over to another kind of knowledge. Thus, the question: what is it that I want to write about? is replaced by: what do I write?
Learning objective	In this course we shall analyze and apply conditions and criteria for literary writing on the basis of our own texts. The course is intended for persons who are interested in literary approaches to exactitude. Any attempt to write literature is confronted with an unforeseeable linguistic dynamism whose feasibility is determined by laws and rules quite different from those of science and technology. For the science-oriented writer, experiencing the self-evidence produced by literary approaches in his or her own writing project opens up a field of language with new content and new methods.
Content	In the natural sciences as well as in engineering we set up experiments, analyze equation systems, and formulate theories. In order to complement these practices, the course «Writing» shall pursue precision in literary writing, its choice of word and its self-evidence. When we write a literary text we also enter into a set-up for experiments and explore the possibilities ensuing from the specific structure and overall consistency of such a text. This form of writing takes us from the question: what is it that I want to write about? to the question: what do I write? How do such literary approaches differ from the ways in which the natural sciences use language? In this course we shall analyze and apply conditions and criteria for literary writing on the basis of our own texts. The course is intended for persons who are interested in literary approaches to exactitude. Any attempt to write literature is confronted with an unforeseeable linguistic dynamism whose feasibility is determined by laws and rules quite different from those of science and technology. For the science-oriented writer, experiencing the self-evidence produced by literary approaches in his or her own writing project opens up a field of language with new content and new methods.
Prerequisites / Notice	Those wishing to participate are required to send in between two and three pages text of their own writing that will be discussed in class. The next step will be writing a text on a preset topic as a basis for discussing the various realizations of a given task.

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