Cultural Identity (engl.)

Current debates in contemporary cultural studies and social theory reveal that questions of culture are directly linked to questions of identity. Cultural identity reflects people´s sense of belonging and is therefore important for their sense of self and the way they relate to others. In addition cultural identity has defined the social and cultural world of modern societies for a long time. However, since the cultural turn in postmodern philosophy and sociology the modern individual is no longer seen as a unified subject. The fragmented self is considered to be a combination of various cultural identifiers such as gender, ethnicity, location, nationality, sexuality, religious beliefs and social class. This “crisis of identity” questions different aspects of identification.

What are the functions of difference in terms of these cultural identifiers? What does a transgression of cultural boundaries imply and what is the meaning of concepts such as hybridity, otherness, transgender and diversity? These are some of the questions we will discuss in this course.

This course will be taught in English in order to give students the opportunity to practice their academic English in a tolerant seminar atmosphere.