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BA Courses

General

Academic Writing
Gen, sem, 2-3, BAEN, BAAM,ENG, US
Bocsor Péter, Kovács Ágnes Zsófia, Péter Róbert, P. Balogh Andrea
Academic writing

The course aims to instruct students in the development and practice of writing
skills necessary for a successful completion of their academic papers and theses.
Students will be provided with samples of academic writing following the topics of
the course.
The lecture component of each class session will target the various aspects and
elements of the writing process as well as the structural organization of various
parts of papers. In the discussion component of each class students will analyze
and critique each other's work, while in the end of the class all students will
report on and summarize the main points of their discussions.
Throughout the term, students will be required to write and rewrite various short
texts, with the main assignment of the course being the rewriting of a term paper
according to the aspects of writing discussed in the course.

Language Courses
English Foundation 1
Lang, 1, sem, BAEN, BAAM, BAENmin, BAAMmin
Bajnóczi Beatrix, Curleyné Rónay Zsuzsanna, Curleyné Rónay Zsuzsanna, Doró
Katalin, Gombosné Haavisto Kirsi, Pálos Ildikó, Pálos Ildikó, Pálos Ildikó, Pálos
Ildikó, Szabó-Gilinger Eszter, Szabó-Gilinger Eszter
BAEN, BAAM, BAENmin, BAAMmin (English Foundation)

The aim of this two-term course is to give an overview of English grammar with
an emphasis on practical application. The course material covers word classes,
phrase structures, as well as sentence structures and functions. Topics discussed
include sentence types, simple, compound and complex sentences, the functions
and structures of phrases, as well as discourse functions sentences. By the end of
the course, the students are expected to know the basic grammar rules and to be
able to apply them in practice. The assessment is based on weekly quizzes,
midterm and final tests, and classroom participation.

Communication Skills
Lang, 1, sem, BAEN, BAAM, BAENmin, BAAMmin
Doró Katalin, Jeremy Parrott, Jeremy Parrott, Thomas Williams, Thomas Williams,
BAEN, BAAM, BAENmin, BAAMmin (Language Class)
In this class, focus is laid on developing fluency and communicative skills to help
the students to become active participants in conversation and discussion in
English. Practice is given in the various ways in which a particular communicative
function can be realised to assist in making choices as to what one says and in
thinking about the appropriateness of how one says it. Personal experiences and
points of view are exchanged and topics are discussed. Structured
communication exercises may include extended situational responses, eliciting of
information, problem solving and short talks on prepared topics. Emphasis is laid
upon practising stress and intonation patterns, which are more directly related to
communicative functions than grammatical forms. Attention is also drawn to the
differences between spoken and written English. To be effective, the workshop
requires full participation of course members. Students will be expected to work
individually or in small groups in sharing their ideas during informal discussion or
in preparing various topics, which they will then present to the group as whole.

Communication Skills, British Culture


Lang, 1, sem, BAEN, BAENmin
Curleyné Rónay Zsuzsanna
BAEN, BAENmin (Language Class)

This Communication Skills class has a British Culture content. The aim of this
course is to acquaint the students with British institutions along with political and
social issues of the UK today. The students will present and discuss these topics
while voicing their own opinions and, if they wish, contrast them with the
Hungarian experience. They will also have the chance to practise their listening
and reading skills. Assessment will be based on the students` presentations, their
test results and class participation.

Reading Skills
Lang, 1, sem, BAEN, BAAM, BAENmin, BAAMmin
Bajnóczi Beatrix, Bajnóczi Beatrix, Bajnóczi Beatrix, Gombosné Haavisto Kirsi,
Gombosné Haavisto Kirsi, Tápainé Balla Ágnes, Tápainé Balla Ágnes
BAEN, BAAM, BAENmin, BAAMmin (Language Class)

The main aim of this course is to help the students to read more effectively by
developing the skills (extracting main ideas, reading for specific information,
understanding text organisation, linking ideas, skimming, scanning etc.) needed
for successful reading comprehension in an academic environment.

Use of English 1
Lang, 1, sem, BAEN, BAAM, BAENmin, BAAMmin
Bajnóczi Beatrix, Curleyné Rónay Zsuzsanna, Pálos Ildikó, Jeremy Parrott, Jeremy
Parrott, Tápainé Balla Ágnes, Molnár Timea
BAEN, BAAM, BAENmin, BAAMmin (Language Class)

The aim of this course is to provide practice in various fields of the English
language; to practise grammar phenomena especially difficult for a Hungarian
speaker; to practise the areas of language competence needed in the academic
environment; to help the students perform better at language competence tests;
to familiarise the students with the various types of tests and tasks used for the
assessment of English competence; to initialise and/or enhance systematic
vocabulary building; to make the students aware of different options made
possible by the economy of the language.
Writing Skills
Lang, 1, sem, BAEN, BAAM, BAENmin, BAAMmin
Don Peckham, Szabó-Gilinger Eszter, Szabó-Gilinger Eszter, Thomas Williams,
Thomas Williams, Patrick Alexander
BAEN, BAAM, BAENmin, BAAMmin (Langauge Class)

This course will introduce students to the types of academic writing that they
may need to produce in their first and second years at the university. While
working on different genres and text types (description, report, exposition and
argumentation), the course will also focus on questions of usage, grammar and
basic organisational patterns. Students will be encouraged to take a process
approach to writing.

Academic Reading
Lang, 2-3, sem, BAEN, BAAM, ENG, US
Gombosné Haavisto Kirsi
BAEN, BAAM (Language Class/Any Course Seminar), ENG, US (Kiegészítő
törzsképzés)

The aim of this course is to help the students to develop techniques for dealing
with extended texts with particular reference to academic prose. Emphasis is
given to recognising aspects of text structure, to understanding lexis common to
academic prose, aspects of textual cohesion and coherence, and other linguistic
features typical of academic texts.

Essay Writing
Lang, 2-3, sem, BAAN, BAAM, ENG, US
Bukta Katalin, Patrick Alexander
BAEN, BAAM (Language Class/Any Course Seminar), ENG, US (Kiegészítő
törzsképzés)

The aim of the course is to help students improve their argumentative writing
skills. The course involves a lot of writing practice, assignments, vocabulary
building, and dictionary work with focus on structural questions, vocabulary use
and grammar. It also involves in-class writing assignments and tests.

Proficiency Practice
Lang, 2-3, sem, BAAN, BAAM, ENG, US
Curleyné Rónay Zsuzsanna, Thomas Williams
BAEN, BAAM (Language Class/Any Course Seminar), ENG, US (Kiegészítő
törzsképzés)

The aim of this course is to provide practice in various fields of the English
language at an advanced level; to practise the areas of language competence
needed in the academic environment; to help the students perform better at
different kinds of advanced level language; and to make the students aware of
different options made possible by the economy of the language.

Translation
Lang, 2–5, sem, ENG, US, BAEN, BAAM
Dudits András
ENG (kiegészítő törzsképzés/kiegészítő szakképzés, sem), US (kiegészítő
törzsképzés/kiegészítő szakképzés, sem), BAEN (any course, sem), BAAM (any
course, sem)
The purpose of the seminar is to develop the basic skills required for source text
comprehension and target text production within the framework of written
translation from English into Hungarian and Hungarian into English. Class
discussions will focus on the grammatical, lexical and pragmatic difficulties and
problems translators may encounter in translating between the two languages.
Students will be expected to translate texts of a general nature (i.e. non-technical
and non-literary) at home, with their work evaluated by the instructor and
analyzed in class. Grading will be based on the formative assessment of
translation assignments and class participation.

Interpreting 1 (Beginners)
Lang, 2–5, sem, ENG, US, BAEN, BAAM
Dudits András
ENG (kiegészítő törzsképzés /kiegészítő szakképzés, sem), US (kiegészítő
törzsképzés/ kiegészítő szakképzés, sem), BAEN (any course, sem), BAAM (any
course, sem)

The purpose of the seminar is to provide a general introduction to the principles


and practice of interpreting, focusing on the relevant cognitive operations and
practical techniques related to attention, source language comprehension,
interlingual transfer and target language expression. The development and
enhancement of the basic cognitive and presentation skills required for oral
mediation will be facilitated by the performance of simple tasks in consecutive,
liaison and simultaneous interpreting. Assessment will be formative in nature,
with grading based on class participation.

Presentation Techniques
Lang, 2-3, sem, BAEN, BAAM, ENG, US
Patrick Alexander
BAEN, BAAM (Language Class/Any Course Seminar), ENG, US (Kiegészítő
törzsképzés)

The aim of this course is to prepare students for the oral part of Academic English
2, where they will expected to present an argument and elaborate on it.
Therefore we shall examine the way we think about experiences and the way we
organise them for discourse, planned or unplanned, i.e. memorised speeches,
manuscript speeches and extemporaneous speeches. We shall look into the
structure of informative and argumentative discourse: the point, the pattern and
the detail and how to shape them to inform and motivate an audience, how to
achieve coherence and clarity.

Students will be expected to work actively in class and to prepare home


assignments. Based on work done in class, they will have to analyse discourse,
prepare their own delivery on different topics, perform in front of others, analyse
their own performance and that of others and be ready to improve on it. Grading
will be based on class participation and the quality of oral presentation.

Linguistics
Lectures
Introduction to Linguistics
Ling, lect, 1, BAEN, BAAM, BAENmin, BAAMmin, BAENlev, BAENminlev
Fenyvesi Anna

The course offers a general introduction to all major areas of theoretical and
applied linguistics: phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, first
and second language acquisition, sociolinguistics, historical linguistics, and
psycholinguistics. The purpose of the course is to provide the student with a
basic knowledge of the fundamental principles and notions of linguistics, as well
as to introduce the most important methods of linguistic analysis.
Descriptive Grammar and the Syntax of English
Ling, lect, 2-3, BAEN, BAAM, BAENmin, BAAMmin, BAENlevv, BAENminlev,
Kenesei István

The course gives a survey of the major fields in the grammar of English: word
classes, syntactic constituents, construction types, clauses, as well as the
principles and conditions underlying syntactic operations. Topics include
descriptive analyses of the tense and auxiliary systems, determiners, finite and
nonfinite clause structures, and generative syntactic approaches to thematic
roles, arguments and adjuncts, and movement operations. On the basis of the
results of descriptive and generative linguistics, the course offers sound
foundations for any further study in English linguistics. Grading: written exam

Morphohonology of English
Ling, lect, survey, 2-3, BAEN, BAAM, BAENmin, BAAMmin, ENG, US
Polgárdi Krisztina
BAEN (linguistics survey, any course lecture), BAAM (linguistics survey, any
course lecture), BAENmin (linguistics survey, any course lecture), BAAMmin
(linguistics survey, any course lecture)

This course introduces students to the morphophonology of English, the area of


grammar where phonology and morphology interact. Phonological processes like
vowel shift or stress assignment will be examined in detail, where different types
of affixes show different behaviour. In the course of this, the main developments
of generative phonology (autosegmental, metrical and lexical phonology) will also
be introduced. Evaluation will be based on a written final exam.
Prerequisite: English Phonetics and Phonology lecture or Phonology and
Morphology lecture

Introduction to Historical Linguistics


Ling, lect, survey, 2-3, BAEN, BAAM, BAENmin, BAAMmin, ENG, US
Suszczyńska Małgorzata
BAEN, BAAM, BAENmin, BAAMmin, ENG, US (survey)

The course is designed to cover (1) historical linguistics with its scope, principles
and methods, including such topics as sound change and its types, analogy,
comparative method, comparative and internal reconstruction, and semantic
change, and (2) the history of the English language, with the focus on Old
English, Middle English Early Modern English and their grammatical systems, on
most important sound changes in English like vowel lengthenings and
shortenings, Great Vowel Shift and some consonantal changes and on the
development of grammatical categories. The course ends in a final written exam.
Introduction to Applied Linguistics
Ling, lect, survey, 2-3, BAEN, BAAM, BAENmin, BAAMmin, ENG, US
Don Peckham
BAEN (Linguistics Survey Course), BAAM (Linguistics Survey Course), BAENmin
(Linguistics Survey Course), BAAMmin (Linguistics Survey Course)

This lecture course introduces and surveys some of the basic issues and areas
which fall under the broad heading of "applied linguistics". Topics to be covered
include: foreign language learning and teaching, bilingual education,
sociolinguistics, world Englishes, language and the law, testing and research
methods. The course will look at applied linguistics not only from the “linguistics
applied” point of view, but will also present applied linguistics as a distinct
branch of linguistics.

Cross-cultural Pragmatics
Ling, lect, 2-5, BAEN, BAAM, ENG, US, BASpecTr, BASpecBus
Suszczyńska Małgorzata
BAEN (any course, lecture), BAAM (any course, lecture), ENG (Kiegészítő
törzsképzés, Kiegészítő nem nyelvi képzés, Kiegészítő szakképzés), US
(Kiegészítő törzsképzés, Kiegészítő nem nyelvi képzés, Kiegészítő szakképzés)

The course focuses on cross-cultural pragmatics, which deals with differences in


verbal behavior across languages and cultures, and on intercultural pragmatics,
which examines communication between speakers of different languages and
cultures. The course presents empirical research in both areas, reviews different
explanatory frameworks used to account for the observed differences, addresses
methodological issues and gives insight into applications of cross-cultural studies
in business communication. Grading will be based on participation, one in-class
presentation and a mid-term quiz. At the end of the course 2-3 year students will
be given a written home assignment while 4-5 year students will write a short
research paper.

Seminars

English in Europe (NEW)


Ling, sem, 2-3, BAEN, BAAM, ENG, US
Kalocsai Karolina
BAEN (any course, seminar), BAAM (any course, seminar)

In this course, the present status of English as a lingua franca (ELF) in Europe,
and the theoretical and practical consequences of its changing role will be
explored. After a general overview of the spread of English, and of some of the
tensions underneath the different views concerning its global spread, the focus
will be narrowed down to ELF, which is the majority English today. In the
exploration of the field, the following issues will be addressed: how the fact that
the majority of the interactions in English are between the non-native speakers
of the language impacts on our understanding of language, language variation
and change; ‘English or Englishes?’, ‘Whose English(es)?’, ‘What norms of
speaking?’, ‘Learner error or innovation?’ and ‘What norms for teaching?’ In the
practical component of the course, a fair amount of class time will be devoted to
the empirical analysis of naturally occurring ELF data collected by the
participants of the course, providing a chance to address and resolve some of the
problems that ELF researchers are challenged with when working on ‘real-life’
data. The overall aim of the course, therefore, is to develop an awareness of the
changing role of English, and to prepare the students interested in ‘Englishes’, or,
in ELF, for asking appropriate research questions set against an appropriate
theoretical background, and for making an insightful empirical investigation on
their own. Prerequisite: Introduction to sociolinguistics.
Topics:
Week 1 Introduction
Week 2 The spread of English in Europe: ENL, ESL, EFL, ELF
Week 3 The globalization of English: Different perspectives
Week 4 Early developments in ELF: The ‘interlanguage’ perspective
Week 5 ‘Current perspectives’ on ELF: Theoretical literature
Week 6 ‘Current perspectives’ on ELF: Research literature
Week 7 Latest developments in ELF: The communities-of-practice approach
Week 8 Implications for teaching
Week 9 Synthesis
Week 10 Workshop 1
Week 11 Workshop 2
Week 12 Presentation of individual projects
Grading
Classroom participation: 30%, Individual projects: 30%, Research paper: 40%
Classroom participation measures how prepared the students arrive for the class.
For maximum scores, they need to read the obligatory readings before each class
and be actively involved in the discussion of the papers in the class. The
requirement for the individual project is to come out with a meaningful research
question, apply it to any one data set collected by the participants of the course,
and present an initial data analysis. Finally, the requirement for the research
paper is to develop the initial data analyses into well-grounded research papers
based on empirical data.
Reading list
Ehrenreich, S. 2009. English as a lingua franca in multinational corporations –
Exploring business communities of practice. In: A. Mauranen and E. Ranta (eds.),
English as a lingua franca: Studies and findings. Newcastle upon Tyne:
Cambridge Scholars Press, 126–151.
House, J. 2003. English as a lingua franca: A threat to multilingualism? Journal of
Sociolinguistics, 7/4, 556─578.
Hülmbauer, C. 2007. ‘You moved, aren’t?’ − The relationship between
lexicogrammatical correctness and communicative effectiveness in English as a
lingua franca. Vienna English Working Papers 16/2, 3–35. Also available at:
http://www.univie.ac.at/Anglistik/Views_0702.pdf.
Hülmbauer, C., H. Böhringer and B. Seidlhofer. 2008. Introducing English as a
lingua franca (ELF): Precursor and partner in international communication.
Synergies Europe 3, 25─36.
Jenkins, J. 2006. Current Perspectives on Teaching World Englishes and English as
a Lingua Franca. Tesol Quarterly 40/1, 157−181.
Jenkins, J. 2009. Who speaks English today? In: J. Jenkins. World Englishes: A
resource book for students. (2nd edition). London: Routledge, 15-24.
Kalocsai, K. 2009. Erasmus exchange students: A behind-the-scenes view into an
ELF community of practice. Apples – Journal of Applied Language Studies, 3/1, 24-
48.
Mauranen, A. 2006. Signalling and preventing misunderstanding in ELF
communication. International Journal of Sociology of Language, 177, 123−150.
Meierkord, C. 2002. ‘Language stripped bare’ or ‘linguistic masala’? Culture in
lingua franca conversation. In: K. Knapp and C. Meierkord (eds.) Lingua Franca
Communication. Frankfurst-am-Main: Peter Lang, 109–133.
Peckham, D., K. Kalocsai, E. Kovács and T. Sherman. Forthcoming. English and
Multilingualism, or English only in a Multilingual Europe? Mouton de Gruyter.
Phillipson, R. 2008. Lingua franca or lingua frankensteinia? English in European
integration and globalisation. World Englishes, 27/2, 250-284.
Seidlhofer, B. 2004. Research perspectives on teaching English as a lingua
franca. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics 24, 209−239.
Seidlhofer, B. 2007. English as a lingua franca and communities of practice. In: S.
Volk-Birke and L. Julia (eds.) Anglistentag 2006 Halle Proceedings. Trier:
Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier. 307-318.
Trudgill, P. and J. Hannah. 2008. Standard English in the world In: P. Trudgill and
J. Hannah. International English (5th edition). London: Arnold, 1-14.

Doing sociolinguistics
Ling, sem, 2-3, BAEN, BAAM, ENG, US
Nagy Judit
BAEN (any course, seminar), BAAM (any course, seminar)

Doing sociolinguistics is a course which aims at giving both a practical and a


theoretical insight into the field of sociolinguistics. The course is designed for
those students who are considering sociolinguistics as a possible field for their
B.A. thesis. Therefore, drawing on the survey lecture course “Introduction to
sociolinguistics,” the course will focus on issues of current relevance and earlier
research as well. The course will not be the “classic” complementary seminar for
the lecture course, as the two will take two separate, though connected, paths
into sociolinguistics.
The course aims to develop a solid understanding of sociolinguistic notions
in context; to develop skills in reading articles in sociolinguistics; to enable
students to make independent sociolinguistic analysis and to encourage
reflection and individual research using quantitative and qualitative research
methodology.
In order to give students a more thorough theoretical background and a
chance to familiarize them with the basic questions that can be studied within
the scope of a B.A. thesis, five issues are selected from the course contents of
“Introduction to sociolinguistics,” and will be explored in detail, using various
resources and methodologies.

Accents of English
Ling, sem, 2-5, BAEN, BAAM, ENG, US
Polgárdi Krisztina
BAEN (any course, seminar), BAAM (any course, seminar), ENG (Kiegészítő
törzsképzés, Kiegészítő nem nyelvi képzés, Kiegészítő szakképzés), US
(Kiegészítő törzsképzés, Kiegészítő nem nyelvi képzés, Kiegészítő szakképzés)

Which sequences rhyme and which puns work in a given accent and not in
another? Questions like these can be answered by investigating differences in
pronunciation between varieties (i.e. accents) of English. In this course the
phonetic and phonological aspects of both geographical and social variation will
be explored. We will study differences in vowel systems (the number and identity
of vowels, the significance of length vs. tenseness, the influence of /r/), the
distribution of /r/ (rhotic vs. non-rhotic accents, linking [r], intrusive [r]), lenition
of /t/, vocalisation of /l/, the distribution of the velar nasal. We will concentrate on
the following accents: Received Pronunciation (RP), General American, Scottish
English, Irish English and Cockney. Requirements: classroom test and home
paper, 4-5 year: longer home paper.
Prerequisite: English Phonetics and Phonology lecture or Phonology and
Morphology lecture

Conversation Analysis
Ling, sem, 2-5, BAEN, BAAM, ENG, US
Suszczyńska Małgorzata
BAEN (any course, seminar), BAAM (any course, seminar), ENG (Kiegészítő
törzsképzés, Kiegészítő nem nyelvi képzés, Kiegészítő szakképzés), US
(Kiegészítő törzsképzés, Kiegészítő nem nyelvi képzés, Kiegészítő szakképzés)

Conversation analysis is a sub-field of pragmatics that focuses on the analysis of


recordings of spontaneous, face-to-face verbal interaction. The basis assumption
of CA is that ordinary talk produced in everyday situations of human interaction is
a highly organized, ordered phenomenon. The objective of CA is to illuminate the
nature of this orderliness by describing the tools social member use to sustain,
(re)create or alter interpersonal relationships and social order.
Grading will be based on participation, one in-class presentation and a
mid-term quiz. At the end of the course 2-3 year students will be given a written
home assignment while 4-5 year students will write a short research paper.

Speech act research across languages and discourses (NEW)


Ling, sem, 2-5, BAEN, BAAM, ENG, US
Suszczyńska Małgorzata
BAEN (any course, seminar), BAAM (any course, seminar), ENG (Kiegészítő
törzsképzés, Kiegészítő nem nyelvi képzés, Kiegészítő szakképzés), US
(Kiegészítő törzsképzés, Kiegészítő nem nyelvi képzés, Kiegészítő szakképzés)

The course aims at presenting empirical research on speech acts, which has been
carried out in a number of fields, such as first and second language acquisition,
cross-cultural pragmatics, workplace discourse, public discourse and the analysis
of historical texts and records. The course offers an introduction to the basic
concepts of speech act theory and reviews various research methods that have
been applied in speech act research. The course requirements include regular
attendance, active participation in classroom discussions based on reading
assignments, and one in-class presentation. As the final course assignment the
students will write a short research paper on a topic related to the course
readings.
Topics:
1. Speech acts: basic concepts
2. Speech acts: research methods
3. Speech act research: compliments
4. Speech act research: refusals
5. Speech act research: requests
6. Speech act research: apologies
7. Speech acts acquisition by children
8. Speech acts and second language acquisition
9. Teaching speech acts
10.Face threatening acts in a workplace
11.Political discourse: public apologetic speech
12. Diachronic perspective: speech acts in witchcraft trial records
Second Language Vocabulary Acquisition
Ling, sem, 2-5, BAEN, BAAM, ENG, US
Don Peckham
BAEN (any course, seminar), BAAM (any course, seminar), ENG (Kiegészítő
törzsképzés, Kiegészítő nem nyelvi képzés, Kiegészítő szakképzés), US
(Kiegészítő törzsképzés, Kiegészítő nem nyelvi képzés, Kiegészítő szakképzés)

This course will draw on the large amount of research which has been done in the
past few years on the acquisition of second language vocabulary. After looking
into current models of memory and the description of lexical knowledge, students
will investigate various topics including: the development of the bilingual lexicon,
psycholinguistic factors in vocabulary learning, case studies and empirical
research concerning acquisition of vocabulary, and pedagogical implications of
recent research. Note that although there are pedagogical implications to the
material and although second language learners are the subjects of the empirical
research, this is not a methodology course; a more theoretical approach will be
maintained throughout the course.

Introduction to Old English


Ling, sem, 2-5, BAEN, BAAM, ENG, US
Nagy Gergely
BAEN (any course, seminar), BAAM (any course, seminar), ENG (Kiegészítő
törzsképzés, Kiegészítő nem nyelvi képzés, Kiegészítő szakképzés), US
(Kiegészítő törzsképzés, Kiegészítő nem nyelvi képzés, Kiegészítő szakképzés)

Knowing modern English, one could with relative ease read Shakespeare, Malory,
or even Chaucer; but one could not possibly read Beowulf or any text from the
earliest phase of the English language. This course aims to introduce students to
this earliest variety, taking as its basis (as is customary in learning Old English) a
9th-century West Saxon dialect, the language of King Alfred the Great and the
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Situating English in the Germanic family, we will study
how Old English is spelled and pronounced, how its morphology and syntax are
different from either Middle or Modern English, and survey the system of Old
English verbs and their conjugations. The system of language that we learn will
be put to use in reading actual Old English texts: short and simplified at first, but
eventually getting to read shorter pieces of actual Anglo-Saxon poetry, thus
seeing some interesting peculiarities of the specifically poetic language.
Evaluation is based on homework assignments and class participation (20
%), a midterm (40 %) and a final test (40 %).

Language Attitude Research


Ling, sem, 2-5, BAEN, BAAM, ENG, US
Balogh Erzsébet
BAEN (any course, seminar), BAAM (any course, seminar), ENG (Kiegészítő
törzsképzés, Kiegészítő nem nyelvi képzés, Kiegészítő szakképzés), US
(Kiegészítő törzsképzés, Kiegészítő nem nyelvi képzés, Kiegészítő szakképzés)

The course gives an overview of the theory and practice of language attitude
research focusing on attitudes towards English and Hungarian dialect and accent
varieties. In particular, the course contributes to the better understanding of the
concept of language attitude, and it encourages students to apply various
language attitude measurement techniques to carry out their own attitude
research. Assessment will be based on participation, weekly assignments, a mid-
term exam, and a final research paper (5-10 pages for 2-3 year students, 10-15
pages for 4-5 students). Prerequisite: Introduction to sociolinguistics.
The age factor in language acquisition
Ling, sem, 2-5, BAEN, BAAM, ENG, US
Doró Katalin
BAEN (any course, seminar), BAAM (any course, seminar), ENG (Kiegészítő nem
nyelvi képzés, Kiegészítő szakképzés), US (Kiegészítő nem nyelvi képzés,
Kiegészítő szakképzés)

The course examines the evidence relative to the idea of an age factor in first
and second language acquisition. It explores the various explanations that have
been advanced to account for such evidence. We will discuss speech milestones
in L1, L1 and L2-related evidence appertaining the Critical Period Hypothesis,
evidence for an optimum age for language learning, educational issues that are
linked to the age factor, and, finally, the L1 and L2 development for the middle-
aged and the elderly. Assessment is based on classroom participation, class
assignments and a written final exam. Previous knowledge in second and/or first
language acquisition and related thesis topics are an advantage in the selection
of students on a possible waiting list for the course.
Prerequisite: Introduction to Applied linguistics or Introduction to Second
Language Acquisition or Introduction to Psycholinguistics

Literature
Lectures

Introduction to Literature and Culture I.


Lit, lect, 1, BAEN, BAENmin, BAENlev, BAENminlev
Kiss Attila

The study of literature involves the student in a complex activity of reading and
interpretation. This process combines methods of understanding how meaning is
produced on different levels of society; how meaning-making activities reflect the
dominant discourses of our social and historical position; how the status of the
literary work of art becomes problematic when investigated in an interactive
model between text and interpreter. This introductory course aims at providing
students with a set of tools to examine the above problems as represented in
various literary works, together with a survey of the technical skills indispensable
to the experience of reading. Special emphasis will be laid on students'
understanding of terminology. Grading: final examination in writing.

Introduction to American Literature and Culture 1


Lit, lect, 1 BAAM, BAAMmin
Kovács Ágnes Zsófia
AMEBA21

What are the basic theoretical and historical issues for studying American
literature and culture today? The first objective of the course is to make us
realize that the very terms literature and culture shift their meaning according to
context and to explore current understandings of them. Secondly, we are to
survey the most important historical periods in American intellectual history like
Puritanism, Enlightenment, Transcendentalism, Realism, Modernism, etc. in order
to secure a sense of the past and present in US culture. Moreover, stress will be
laid on pinpointing characteristic interactions of past and present in US culture
that you might not notice without a background knowledge, for example how the
Pocahontas narrative figures for its diverse readers in diverse centuries (and
many more case studies). At the same time, the lecture provides examples for
characteristic American cultural genres in which this intertextuality of discourses
takes place (romance, autobiography, jeremiad, detective story, film noir,
cyberpunk, etc.).

Restoration Through 18th Century English Literature (English Literature


Survey from Milton to Sterne)
Lit, lect, survey, 2-3, BAEN, BAAM, BAENmin
Szőnyi György Endre
Literature Survey Course 1

The course – in the form of lecture-conversations – aims at giving a survey of


literary trends in the period beginning with the Restoration and ending with 18th-
century New Sensibility. The covered material ranges from Milton to Sterne, and
focuses on literary forms which include elements of fiction (epic, drama, novel).
The topics include questions of cultural history, poetics, and the career of the
period's major artists. Special emphases fall on questions of the sociology of
literature and gender issues, especially in connection with the emergence of the
novel. Major authors discussed: Milton, Dryden, Pope, Defoe, Swift, Fielding,
Richardson, Sterne.

American Modernism
Lit, lect, survey, 2-3, BAAM, BAEN, BAAMmin
Cristian Réka M.
ANGBA33, AMEBA31 Literature survey course (American 1.)

American Modernism discusses modernist tendencies in American literature and


culture. The context is that of the various modernisms within and outside the
U.S.A., the terrain is that of its cultural construction in American literature. The
course is a reader into various cultural texts dating from the end of the
nineteenth century until the period after WWII combined with pertinent issues of
modern literary and cultural theories,. Discussions will be based on the works of
W.E.B. DuBois, E. Wharton, Robert Frost, Robinson Jeffers, Wallace Stevens,
Gertrude Stein, Henry James, William Carlos Williams, Walt Whitman, Anzia
Yezierska, e. e. cummings, Eugene O´Neill, Kate, Chopin, Djuna Barnes, H. D.
(Hilda Doolittle), F. S. Fitzgerald, Ezra Pound, James Baldwin, Langston Hughes,
William Faulkner, Hart Crane, Mourning Dove, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Ernest
Hemingway, Tennessee Williams, José Martí, Edward Albee, Arthur Miller, Sylvia
Plath, Gertrude Bonnin, Anne Sexton. The course ends with an exam. The source
for the primary texts is The Heath Anthology of American Literature (2006) vol. C,
D, E. gen. ed. Paul Lauter.

Gothic Fiction: from the Beginnings to the Postmodern


Lit, lect, 2-3 BAEN, BAAM, BAENmin, US, ENG
Reschné Marinovich Sarolta
Any course lecture

The objective of this lecture course is an attempt to answer the question 'What is
Gothic fiction?'. This gloomy, mysterious, marvellous and transgressive genre,
which for over two centuries has endured and reappeared both in high and popular
literature. Why has it been always so popular and why has it been marginalized in
the canon of literature? The course follows the transformations of the genre
through its history by charting key texts over two centuries from the early Gothic
novel in the late 18th century (Horace Walpole, Mrs Radcliffe), its continuing
tradition in the 19th century (early American Gothic: E.A.Poe, N. Hawthorne; the
Victorian Gothic: Stevenson, Oscar Wilde), the Modern Gothic (Henry James, Carson
McCullers) up to the Postmodern Gothic (Angela Carter, Fay Weldon, Muriel Spark),
and looks at both the historical and cultural location of Gothic images and texts.

Reading the Grotesque Body. Risk, Excess, Alterity


Lit, lect, survey, 2-3, BAEN, BAAM, ENG, US,
Kérchy Anna
Literature Survey Course

The course proposes to examine the grotesque from the perspective of engendering
and embodiment through a wide array of theoretical, literary, visual, autobiographical
and performance texts. We shall explore the grotesque as a process, a strategy
through which genders, bodies and identities are (de)constructed in disciplinary or in
subversive transformative manners. Drawing upon theoreticians of the grotesque as
Bakhtin, Kayser, Clayborough, Russo, Garland-Thomson and prominent thinkers as
Burke, Bergson, Freud, Merleau-Ponty, Kristeva, Butler and Braidotti we will trace the
salient connection between the carnivalesque, the uncanny, the abject, the burlesque,
the sublime material and the (feminized) grotesque. The aim is to re-examine the
symbolically disabling, cultural coding-process whereby anatomical difference is
(dis)located as a marginalized yet contained “constitutive outside” against which the
(post)modernist subject—circumscribing ‘his’ identity conforming to the “logic of
negativity and domination”—can define its self as normal, ‘readable.’ We reveal how
we displace onto this in-between ‘meat-space’ of grotesque otherness anxieties and
desires related to the loss of identity, meaning and order, coincident with the potential
re-emergence of the repressed corporeal reality troubling conventional re-presentation.
On the one hand we study how bodies identified/excluded as culturally ‘grotesque’
either become “more fully body” or fade into “disembodiment”, on the other we trace
how an identity emphatically grounded in an empowering experience of alterity may
enable the emergence of revolutionary counter-narratives. Special attention is to be
paid to manifestations of the ambigous logic of the grotesque throughout the different
kinds of laughter provoked (ie. communal carnivalesque celebration, tendentious joke’s
derisive mockery, compensatory giggle of terror, neurotic laughing fit, infantile joie de
vivre, or sisterly burlesque, etc.). The ambiguous logic of the grotesque will be
illustrated by a variety of subversive fictional texts –literary, visual, musical and
architectural alike– Jonathan Swift, EA Poe, Mary Shelley, Lewis Carroll, Katherine
Mansfield, Stevie Smith, Sylvia Plath, Doris Lessing, Angela Carter, Jeanatte Winterson,
Sarah Kane, Chuck Palahniuk, David Cronenberg, David Lynch, Cindy Sherman, Orlan,
Diamanda Galas among others).

Seminars
Modern Poetry in English
Lit, sem, 2-3 BAEN, BAAM, US, ENG
Bocsor Péter
Any course seminar ANGBA81; AMEBA81, ANAMBA81

The seminar will provide students with the possibility to participate in the close
reading of poems that allow a wide range of approaches to modernism along with
its struggle for poetic renewal and increasing social and psychological
consciousness. The discussion of the readings will be an essential part of the
seminar (20% of the final grade) but students will have to complete the tasks of a
guided interpretation (2-4 pages, mid-term, 20%) and another essay based on –
previously agreed – home-made questions (7-8 pages, end-term, 60%).
Readings: Walt Whitman: Respondez!; Lewis Carrol: The White Knight’s Song; W.
B. Yeats: The Circus Animal’s Desertion; D.H. Lawrence: Love on the Farm; W.
Owen: Strange Meeting; E.E. Cummings: [my father moved through dooms of
love]; Langston Hughes: Theme for English B; W.H. Auden: In Memory of
Sigmund Freud; Gwendolyn Brooks: A song in the Front Yard; Keith Douglas:
Simplify Me When I’m Dead; Richard Wilbur: Pangloss’s Song; Philip Larkin:
Church Going, This Be the Verse.

Modern American Short Fiction


Lit, sem, 2-3, BAEN, BAAM, US, ENG
Bocsor Péter
Any course seminar ANGBA81; AMEBA81, ANAMBA81

This seminar offers an overview of some of the representative authors and trends
in modern American fiction. During the course, we will evaluate works in both
their social and artistic context, paying attention to a range of themes: violence
and the American Dream; materialism and spiritualism; American individualism
and identity development; the American landscape and expatriation; and
American attitudes towards race, class, and gender. The reading list consists of
narrative texts by Theodore Dreiser, Willa Cather, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott
Fitzgerald, Flannery O’Connor, Richard Wright, William Faulkner, and Ralph
Ellison. Grading: mid-term (20%), end-term (50%), team-work (30%).

Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf? Fairy Tales for Adults (NEW)
Lit, sem, 2-3, BAEN, BAAM, ENG, US
Kérchy Anna
Any Course Seminar

Although the fairy tale is conventionally regarded as one of the most influential
socio-cultural formative (ie. didactic, moralizing, disciplinary) factors on children’s
developing psyches, folklore research has revealed that the genre originally
intended for an audience of adults as well as children, is indeed an „art of
subversion,” „a powerful discourse”(Zipes) apt to destabilize normative scenarios
and to release repressed desires’ and anxieties’ energies. No wonder the fairy
tale becomes a key influence on postmodernist fiction preoccupied with adding
an adult, meta-touch to well-known infantile themes. The aim of the course is to
study rewritten, contemporary bedtime stories for grown-ups, which use fantastic
creatures – like faeries, mermaids, werevolves, headless horsemen, vampires,
and oysterboys – to embody postmodern dilemmas ranging from the reliability of
urban legends, traumatic memories, meaningful nonsense, and impossible/ queer
desires to issues of ecocriticism, psychogeography , affective narratology and
image-text dynamics. Magic resides in the very act of storytelling, emotional ties,
and self-reflective insights. Readings include short-stories by Garcia Marquez,
Angela Carter, Robert Coover, AS Byatt, Jeanette Winterson, Oscar Wilde, Neil
Gaiman, Salman Rushdie. We shall start out from classics like Washington
Irving’s “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” and move towards immediately
contemporary marvels like Tim Burton’s poems, the graphic novel Fables, and
recent blockbuster movies as Stardust, Avatar or Twilight.
Grading policy: participation, presentation (30%), homework booklogs (30%),
final essay/test (40%)
1.Introduction
2. Gabriel Garcia Marquez. “The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World”
3. Angela Carter. “The Werewolf,” “The Company of Wolves,” “Wolf Alice,” “Peter
and the Wolf” from The Bloody Chamber, Anne Sexton “Transformations”
4. Robert Coover. “The Gingerbread House”
5. Jeanette Winterson. “Twelve Dancing Princesses”, Oscar Wilde “The Happy
Prince”
6. Neil Gaiman. “Snow, Glass, Apple”, extract: Stephanie Meyer. Twilight, Angela
Carter
7. Neil Gaiman. Stardust
8. A.S. Byatt. “The Thing in the Forest”
9. Tim Burton. “The Melancholy Death of Oysterboy and Other Stories”, Lewis
Carroll. “The Hunting of the Snark”
10. Washington Irving. “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”
11. extract: Alan Moore. Lost Girls, Bill Willingham: Fables. Legends in Exile
12. James Cameron. Avatar, extract: Gregory Maguire. Wicked
13. Salman Rushdie: “At the Auction of the Ruby Slippers”, Neil Gaiman. “Locks”

Making Both Love and War in Middle English Romance


Lit, sem, 2-3 BAEN, BAAM, ENG, US
Nagy Gergely
Cult/hist course seminar, Any course seminar

The genre or literary mode of ‘romance’ is inextricably linked with the double
themes of love/sexuality and violence, but also with the historical institution of
knighthood. The course aims at introducing students to a selection of the corpus
of medieval English romances, with a necessary outlook on continental (mainly
French) romance. From early Continental precursors (such as The Song of
Roland) through Chrétien de Troyes’s great courtly love-and-blood pieces (like
Lancelot), in the course we will read a relatively small selection of romances
(King Horn, Havelok the Dane, Sir Orfeo, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight,
Stanzaic and Alliterative Morte Arthur) to study the cultural and ideological
frameworks within which these texts functioned as the locus of both love and
hate, refined courtly love and bloody wars and duels. The cultural historical
background of the institution of knighthood will provide a useful screen through
which to see the individual figures of the texts. Women’s roles will also be
examined as the changing social context and conventions/ideological formations
appear in the works from different periods. Stock romance elements, situations,
characters and stories proved to be of very great influence on subsequent literary
works: the aim of the course is to survey some important representatives of the
genre, and see how the tensions between the ‘romantic’ and the ‘warlike’ play
out in the ideological context of knighthood.

The Lord of the Rings in Its Real and Fantastic Contexts


Lit, sem, 2-3, BAEN, BAAM, ENG, US
Nagy Gergely
Any course seminar

J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings is can be read in a variety of different


contexts and frameworks from a more traditional literary historical one (with
antique/medieval parallels) to a more modern and contemporary one (modern
novel, fantastic fiction). Not only can it be seen as a ‘founding text’ of a very
popular and productive ‘genre’ (that of ‘fantasy’), it can also be seen as one of
the strongest theoretical statements on the functions and uses of fiction in this
specifically 20th-century mode of writing. The course is intended to take a look at
these contexts from the historical to the theoretical, and introduce students to
the variety of approaches and major themes of inquiry which have been brought
to bear on Tolkien’s book. Peter Jackson’s film adaptation of Tolkien’s text will
often be referred to by way of comparison. This is not a reading course: the
schedule will be structured to include frameworks and interpretive
considerations, and major themes, the traditions that can be found operating in
The Lord of the Rings and their central concepts.
Evaluation will be based mainly on participation in class discussions, a mid-term
test, and a seminar paper (6-8 pages). In addition, students will also be required
to do a presentation on a topic of their choice from the schedule, based on some
secondary works concerning the topic in question. Everyone is required to write
and send by email a one-page mini-essay, reflecting on the upcoming week’s
topic every week.

The Jazz Age 1


Lit, sem, 2-3 BAEN, BAAM, ENG, US
Kovács Ágnes Zsófia
Any course sem: ANAMBA81, ANGBA81

The course offers an introduction to the US literary production of the 1920s


traditionally called the Jazz Age. The Jazz Age is an umbrella term for diverse
sorts of intellectual and/or artistic productions between the end of WW1 and the
Great Depression: as its name indicates, it is connected to new trends in popular
music, but 'jazz' on a more abstract level is present in fine arts and, most
importantly for us, in literature as well. In our readings, we are to trace texts
related to both Fizgerald's "Jazz age" and to Locke's "New Negro Movement."
Simulataneously, we are to have a glimpse at the broader intellectual context of
the age: intellectual history, social history, arts and music. Readings include texts
by W. Faulkner, E. Hemingway, F. S. Fitzgerald, A.Yezierska, W. Cather, L.
Hughes, N. Larsen, and Z. N. Hurston. Requirements and evaluation: weekly
journals = 40%, activity = 20%, final paper = 40%. Maximum two absences are
allowed.

Migrants, Immigrants and Strangers in Contemporary Fiction (NEW)


Lit, sem, 2-3 BAEN, BAAM, ENG, US
P. Balogh Andrea
Any course, seminar

This course is engaged in reading four contemporary fictions, Salman Rushdie’s


The Ground Beneath Her Feet (a rock ‘n’ roll novel which stretches across
continents), The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy (an Indian anti-
globalization/alter-globalization activist), Marina Lewycka’s Two Caravans (a
romantic love story about the adventures of two Ukrainian seasonal agricultural
workers travelling from the South of England to the North while being chased by
underworld Eastern European men-traffickers), and Glenn Patterson’s Number 5
(a (hi)story of an urban protestant neighbourhood in Belfast, including the story
of the integration of a Hungarian ’56 immigrant and a Chinese family into the
Irish community). The goal is to explore the ways in which these contemporary
fiction writers introduce different perspectives on cross-cultural and inter-cultural
relations and, more importantly, on the embodied experience of encountering
cultural difference; welcoming and/or repudiating migrants, immigrants, and the
‘strangerness’ of other cultures and social behaviours in communal and local
terms. This focus implies that we will be concerned with such current issues as
the notion of nation in Western multicultural societies, the exoticization and
integration of geographically and/or politically distant cultures, and the
fascination with and anxiety about racial and geo-cultural differences as well as
‘ethnicity.’ Whereas these issues have frequently been examined in relation to
post-coloniality, the fictions we are reading also address these points regarding
the social location of Eastern European (including Hungarian) migrants and
immigrants in contemporary Western multicultural societies. Indeed, the ultimate
question is under what conditions one feels at home or homeless within and
across nations and continents. Grading policy: Activity 20%, Assignments 40%,
Report on a research project related to the theme of the course (1500 words), 40
%.
1. Introduction: multicultural Western nations, globalization, transnationalism and
forms of migration: political and economic immigration, exile, global migrants of
artists and intellectuals, internationally mobile people
2. Introduction: Western multiculturalism, exoticization of cultural difference,
fetishization of otherness, strangerness, expelling and welcoming strangers, and
the Western literary production of migrant and immigrant fictions.
3. Salman Rusdie’ s The Ground Beneath Her Feet: Postcolonial literature;
Rushdie, the political immigrant/exile and his reception and career in the West;
the position of The Ground Beneath Her Feet in Rushdie’s oeuvre; the synopsis of
the novel
4. Rushdie’s The Ground Beneath Her Feet: plot, characters, and the figure of the
ground in Rushdie’s narrative; globalization and transnationalization of popular
music, cultural emcounters, consuming the exotic, migrant artists and the issue
of uprooting re-grounding.
5. Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things: The perspective of the post/colonial
subject. Anti-globalization/alter-globalization position, nationalism and
transnationalism; the synopsis of the novel (plot, structure, characters, point of
view, language, style).
6. Roy’s The God of Small Things: The Western reception of the novel; the
exoticism of the East in the postcolonial context, reading the geographically
distant and the culturally different, encounters between British and Indian
cultures and people in India and in Britain.
7. Revision: discussions of the issues and controversies raised by students’ home-
projects (set questions for home). A comparative discussion of Rushdie’s and
Roy’s positions on postcoloniality and Western multiculturalism
8. Glenn Patterson’s Number 5: synopsis of the novel; construction of Belfast as a
multicultural society; Patterson’s literary revision of Northern Irish society;
integrating ‘strangers’ into communal memory and communal history.
9. Patterson’s Number 5: Growing up as a Chinese in Belfast, possibilities of
becoming Chinese and Irish, conflicts of cultural traditions, estrangement, Irish
nationalism, multicultural in/tolerance, and the discourse of stranger-danger.
10. Patterson’s Number 5: the Irish community and the Hungarian political
immigrant. Eastern Europe in the Western cultural imagination from the Cold-War
to the Post-Cold War. Cultural Encounters between the Irish ‘native’ and the
Hungarian ‘immigrant;’ the experience of political exile; Eastern Europe as a
metaphor for constructing Irish communal identities.
11. Marina Lewicka’s Two Caravans: Fall of the Iron Curtain, European
integration, and Eastern European labour migration. The synopsis of the novel.
12. Lewicka’s Two Caravans: The British media coverage of labour migrants and
Lewicka’s politics of representing labour migrants (from Eastern Europe, Africa
and China). Encounters between Western exoticization of Eastern Europe and
Eastern European exoticization of the West.
13. Revision and Evaluation: Students’ presentations of their research-based
essays on a chosen theme related to the course, reviews and discussion.

Gentlemen, Gentlewomen and the English Novel (18th century)


Lit, sem, 2-3 BAEN, BAAM, ENG, US
P. Balogh Andrea
Any course, seminar

This course explores the ways in which the novel as an emerging new genre in
18th century Britain is engaged in formulating the notions of the gentleman and
the gentlewoman in terms of the emerging middle class’s vision of the English
nation. We approach the novels as cultural narratives in which the figures of the
gentleman and gentlewoman are endowed with meanings through accentuating
the importance of education and associating ‘Englishness’ with the notions of the
‘civilized’ and ‘cultured.’ We will look at the role of the discourses of liberal
humanism, imperialism, and colonialization in shaping the ideas of the English
gentleman and gentlewoman in narratives such as Daniel Defoe’s Robinson
Crusoe and Moll Flanders, Samuel Richardson’s Pamela and Henry Fielding’s Tom
Jones. We will also consider how the 18th century notion of ‘English
gentlemanliness’ legitimates racial and sexual oppression and discrimination.
Grading policy: activity 20%, short assignments 40%, take-home papers (2
essays) 40%.

Narrative Strategies in Contemporary American Fiction


Lit, sem, 2-3 BAAM, BAEN, ENG, US
Dragon Zoltán
Any course (excluding language) seminar, AMEBA81, ANGBA81

The objective of the course is to explore aspects of narratives in contemporary


American fiction. The primary concerns of the course are issues relating to
narrative techniques and strategies employed by the selected authors, and
questions such as: how does contemporary America narrate itself?; what role
does the novel play in an age of global communication? With emphasis upon the
range of fictional voices and identities, focalization and ocularization versus
narration, characters and characterization, images and visions, experiments with
genre, style and form, we will read Don DeLillo’s White Noise, Kurt Vonnegut’s
Slaughterhouse Five, Paul Auster’s The New York Trilogy and Chuck Palahniuk’s
Fight Club in the light of theories of the narrative and cultural studies.

History/Culture
Lectures

Introduction to English Studies


Cult/hist, lect, survey, 1, BAENmin, BAENlev, BAENminlev
Matuska Ágnes
ANGBA11-1, ANGBAL11-1, ANGLMIN11-1, ANGMIN11-1

The aim of the course is to help students who are majoring or minoring in English to
understand the characteristics of the English Studies degree program, and provide a structured
introduction both to the field of English studies as a scholarly discipline of the humanities, as
well as to the dynamism of the changes within this specific academic field. By the end of the
course students will be familiar with the basic terminology, themes and approaches that
characterize the diversity within the discipline.

Introduction to American Studies


Hist/cult, lect, survey, 1 BAAM, BAAMmin
Novák György
AMEBA11

The course offers an introduction to the discipline, discussing the various definitions,
approaches, and methods of American studies. In the course, you will be presented some of
the current and older ("traditional") major fields, methodologies, themes, and topics of the
discipline with a view on the wide array of other disciplines (anthropology, cultural studies,
literary studies, history, sociology, etc.) that American studies have relied on, borrowed from,
or appropriated. Hopefully, students will be familiarized with with options, available in the
American Studies program to organize their own BA study program. Grading will be based
on 1) a Term Paper (5,000 to 6,500 characters) on a topic given by the instructor to be
submitted by the end of the term; 2) oral test including a) topics covered in class b) a range of
essays some compulsory, some optional on various aspects of American Studies.

American History III. The 20th-21st Centuries


Hist/cult, lect, survey, 2-3 BAEN, BAAM, BAAMmin, ENG, US
Novák György
AMEBA51, ANGBA51

The course is a lecture series on the history of the United States in the last hundred years or
so. The most important political, economic, military and cultural events will be discussed, and
relevant contemporary "documents", not necessarily textual, considered. Topics will include:
The rise of the US as a world power; World War I; Depression and New Deal; World War II;
Cold War and after; radicalism, civil rights movements; multiculturalism; immigration,
Hungarian Americans. The course will be concluded with an oral examination.

Contemporary American Culture and Society


Hist/Cult, lect, survey, 2-3, BAAM, BAAMmin, BASpecTr, BASpecB
Annus Irén
AMEBA42 (Cult Survey3), BASpecTr, BASpecB (Regional and Cultural Studies)

The purpose of this lecture is to familiarize students with the American people, culture and
government along with various areas most influential in framing the essential notions and
manners of operation particular to the US, thus to deepen the students’ understanding of this
country and its people. The course opens with the introduction of the country and its inhabitants.
Then it discusses the development and present structure of the American federal government, its
policies and field of operation. It also surveys the various areas, such as religion or the media,
supposedly independent of the government but still a major force in defining American culture
and identity.

Approaches to Popular Culture


Hist/cult, lect, 2-3 BAEN, BAAM, BAENmin, BAAMmin
Vajda Zoltán
AMEBA7, ANGBA7, ANGMIN111 (Any course, lecture)

This lecture is designed to introduce participating students to scholarly approaches to the


study of popular culture. Covering themes such as British mass culture theory, Marxist
political economy, the Frankfurt school, semiology and structuralism, youth cultures,
audience research, feminism or the Bakhtinian carnivalesque, it offers students the
opportunity to familiarize themselves with concepts that can be applied in the study of
popular media texts. These will include Americanization; the culture industry; production,
exchange and consumption; bricolage; ideology; hegemony; pleasure; dialogism; or the
carnivalesque.

Theorizing Literature and Culture from the Perspective of the Social (NEW)
Cult/hist, lect, survey, 2-3, BAEN BAENmin, BAENlev, BAENminlev
P. Balogh Andrea
Survey lecture
This course covers various conceptions of culture from the nineteenth century to the present.
We will look at the meanings and functions of literature and culture in the narratives of
modernism, cultural nationalism, cultural materialism, postmodernism, postcolonialism,
multiculturalism, social theories and feminist and queer critical theories. In other words, we
will approach literature and culture as issues of social practices structured through power
relations, social agency, and institutionalization along class, race and gender interests.
Grading Policy: take-home mid-term: 40% written examination: 60%
1. Introduction: positions, objectives, key-categories and key-concepts
2. Mathew Arnold’s idea of literature and culture from the perspective of the social
Culture and Anarchy; On the Study of Celtic Literature
3. T. S. Eliot
“Notes Towards a Definition of Culture;” “Tradition and the Individual Talent”
4. W. B. Yeats’ Irish cultural nationalism: revision of Celticism; aesthetics and politics, Yeats
and the Irish masses.
5. Raymond Williams’ Cultural Materialism
“Analysis of Culture;” “Towards a Sociology of Culture;” The Politics of Modernism.
6. Alan Sinfield and Cultural Materialism
Post-War British Literature, Culture and Politics, culture of dissidence.
7. Materialist Feminism: Rosemary Hennessy
8. Jürgen Habermas’ approach to the modern history of British culture; critiques of
Habermas’s theory of the literary-public sphere
9. Pierre Boudieu’s social theory of the literary field and the feminist re-readings of Bourdieu
10. Roland Barthes’ ‘demystification’ of culture
11. Homi Bhabha’s postcolonial critique of postmodern theory
12. Sara Ahmed’s critical re-readings of the narratives of postmodernism and multiculturalism
13. Judith Butler’s gender theory from the perspective of the social
14. Concluding remarks and questions for further considerations

Theories of Culture
Hist/cult, lect, survey, 2-3, BAEN, BAENmin, BAENlev, BAENlevmin
Bocsor Péter
ANGBA41; ANGBAL91; ANGMIN81; ANGLMIN81; ANG-MA-2011; ANGT-MA-B2;
ANGTL-MA-B2; ANGB2-51
This series of lectures offers an overview of various conceptualizations of culture from the
beginning of the 20th Century up to the present. We examine how culture emerges as a
concept in the course of theorizing it from a multiplicity of viewpoints. The approach of
semiotics will serve as a basis for discussing means of subjectivity and meaning production
within systems of ideologies. It takes us to more recent critical formulations addressing the
political and the social. We shall explore the interests of feminism, post-colonialism, and anti-
consumerism in culture as an issue. Evaluations will be based upon a comprehensive exam.

Cultural Theories and American Studies


Hist/cult, lect, survey, 2-3, BAAM, BAAMmin, US, ENG
Cristián Réka M.
AMB2-51, ANG2-62

This course is a survey of the making of American Studies as an institutionalized academic


discipline. The development of American Studies has had its shifts of paradigms with the
changing framework of cultural theories and cultural studies, starting from the Myth and
Symbol School synthesis of literature and history to New Americanists, post-national and
transnational American studies, all within the interdisciplinary in area of cultural and cross-
cultural studies. We will discuss the relationship of theory and practice and will focus on the
cultural production, re-construction and deconstruction of identities, gender, class, race,
ethnicity, sexuality, etc. Students will be familiarized with theories and methods for the study
of the field, and with strategies and tools of the trade through diverse models of practicing
American Studies as cultural studies. The course ends with an oral examination.

Early Modern Britain


Hist/cult, lect, survey, 2-3, BAEN, BAAM, BAENmin
Péter Róbert
This survey course explores the cultural, social, religious and political history of Britain from
the Reformation to the Glorious Revolution of 1688. The Tudor-Stuart period witnessed the
establishment of the Church of England, ‘the varieties of religious experience’, the rise of the
modern science, the growth of literacy, witchcraft trials, the Civil War as well as the first
conflicts between the Whigs and Tories. It was not only the age of Henry VIII and Oliver
Cromwell but also of William Shakespeare, John Milton, John Locke, Isaac Newton and
Christopher Wren. It pays attention to the daily life of people and the way they understood
the world around them, as much as to the fundamental historical processes, events and the
shifts in mental attitudes. The main themes to be considered during this lecture include the
Reformation and the creation of the Church of England; religious contest and identities in
Elizabethan England; the early Stuarts and the three kingdoms; civil war and revolution;
Restoration and religion; the commons and the aristocracy; households, families and gender;
witchcraft, magic and the occult; the Scientific Revolution; education and the culture of print;
what is the best form of government?; the Glorious Revolution; Britain, Empire and the
World.
Schedule of lectures
1. The Reformation and the creation of the Church of England
2. Religious contest and identities in Elizabethan England
3. The Early Stuarts and the three kingdoms
4. Civil war and revolution
5. Religion and Restoration
6. The commons and the aristocracy
7. Households, families, and gender
8. Witchcraft, magic and the occult
9. The Scientific Revolution
10. Education and the culture of print
11. What is the best form of government?
12. Glorious Revolution?
13. Britain, Empire and the world

Seminars

Racial and Ethnic Groups in the US: A History


Hist/cult, sem, 2-3 BAAM, BAEN, ENG, US
Annus Irén
AMEBA61, AMEBA 81 (any course), ANGBA81 (any course), ANAMBA81,

This course offers a history of more prominent racial/ethnic groups in the US. It is designed to
familiarize students with key approaches to race and ethnicity as well as the various ways
these were used and manipulated throughout American history. The course discusses the
history of major racial/ethnic communities, including Native American, Afro-American,
White, Hispanic, Jewish and Asian, from their arrival up till today. Special attention is given
to the history of immigration, pull and push factors, cultural variety, issues of accommodation
and assimilation, as well as their contemporary status and location within the ethnic map of
the US. Equally significant is the exploration of all series of cultural and political clashes:
changing American approaches to concepts of race and ethnicity along with the politicization
of these categories, as well as the self-organization of these groups, eventually gaining power
and public voice through identity politics.

US Society and Culture from 1800 to the Civil War


Hist/cult, sem, 2-3 BAEN, BAAM, ENG, US
Vajda Zoltán
AMEBA81, ANGBA81 (Any course … seminar), AMEBA61, ANAMBA81

The first 30-40 years of the 19th century transformed the economic, social and cultural
landscape of the United States. Characterized by the rapid development of free market
capitalism, the triumph of egalitarian ideas in the political sphere or the intensifying sectional
conflict, the period brought about fundamental changes in the Americans' perception of their
world/s. The aim of this seminar course is to examine the significance of these changes and
discuss the responses that they evoked from contemporary Americans. Topics include: the
industrial revolution in the United States; social changes in the early 19th century; westward
expansion and its consequences; nationalism; children in the republic; the democratic ideal;
domesticity and sentimentalism; social evils and their remedies.

Symbols Lost? A Dan Brown reader ( NEW)


Hist/cult, lit, sem, 2-3 BAAM, BAEN, ENG, US
Péter Róbert
AMEBA81 (any course, seminar), ANGBA81(any course, seminar)

The objective of this seminar is to deconstruct Dan Brown's thrillers, in particular The Lost
Symbol, from historical, sociological, anthropological and religious studies perspectives.
Relying on a partially-factual history, Brown's novels have had a major impact on the public
perception of (professional) historiography. It is clear that millions are unable to distinguish
academic history from its alternative popular versions. The Lost Symbol, released on 15
September, 2009, is said to be the fastest selling adult novel in history. Like the Da Vinci
Code Brown´s new thriller again starts with "facts." This course seeks to place both the
themes and the reception of this novel in context. Using this fiction as a tool, we shall discuss
the history of the Invisible College, its connection with the Royal Society, Newton's interest
in alchemy, the myths and rituals of freemasons and their alleged impact on the foundation of
the United States. We shall also explore why such books are so popular these days in the
context of the American civil religion and recent sociological surveys indicating increasing
public interest in the spiritual and the occult, which can be interpreted as a manifestation of a
general shift from organized religion to `unchurched´ spirituality. We shall investigate what
has been left out from the thriller, which would have reinforced Brown´s `thesis.´
As a basic requirement, students have to be familiar with the novel by the second week of the
course. Students have to make a 15-minute presentation upon a chosen topic and submit a
research paper of 3000 words at the penultimate week of the term.

1. Introduction
2. Boundaries between fiction and history - from the positivists to Hayden White
3. The Da Vinci Code in context
4. What is plagiarism? Dan Brown vs. Michael Baigent´s case (2007)
5. The Lost Symbol - six years of expectations and the sources
6. The setting, the architecture of Washington D.C. and the plot
7. The Invisible College, the Royal Society and Isaac Newton
8. Perceptions of freemasonry in the thriller
9. Secret rites of passage
10. Freemasons and the birth of the American nation
11. American civil religion and its representation in the novel
12. A shift from organized religion to 'unchurched' spirituality in the light of recent
sociological surveys
13. Final essays due

America Onscreen
Cult/hist, sem, 2-3 BAAM, BAEN, ENG, US
Dragon Zoltán
AMEBA81, ANGBA 81Any course (excluding language) seminar, ANAMBA81

The course intends to explore, on the one hand, the representations and renderings of America
in various films; on the other hand, how America has helped to transform film itself,
including the documentary form. Films of the past decades will be discussed during the
seminars that occasionally provide powerful link to classic films of earlier generations of
directors and actors, such as John Ford and John Wayne, Frank Capra and Jimmy Stewart – to
name just a few. The course also aims to investigate how direct and immediate continuities
obtain between classic and contemporary films regarding central issues of American culture
and character, especially pertaining to race, ethnicity and gender. Films to be discussed –
among others - are: Crash (2005), Malcolm X (1992), Raging Bull (1980), Monster’s Ball
(2001).

British and American Cinema – Histories and Industries


Cult/hist, sem, 2-3 BAAM, BAEN, ENG, US
Dragon Zoltán
AMEBA81, ANGBA 81 Any course (excluding language) seminar), AMANBA81

The course offers a look at British and American film histories from the 1890s until today, but
it does not explore these histories in a purely chronological way. Rather, it proposes a cultural
history, which focuses more on topics and issues than on what happened when. Defining
cinema as a cultural interface, the course discusses issues relating to classical Hollywood
cinema as a unique economic, industrial, aesthetic, and cultural institution, while also
considering the experience of moviegoing, the nature of Hollywood story-telling, and – just as
importantly – the roles played by the studio system, the star system, and film genres in the
creation of a body of work that functions not only as entertainment but as a portrayal of the
relationship between an American national identity and an industrialized mass culture that has
slowly evolved over the past century. The course also investigates a parallel history of the
British film industry with a consideration of its specific generic inventions and evolving
trends from the birth of cinema through the British new wave until recent revival of films
offering a redefining of “Britishness”.

British Classicism: Literature and Arts in 18th century Britain


Hist/cult, sem, 2-3 BAEN, BAAM, ENG, US
Cora Zoltán
Any Course Seminar

The seminar offers a survey of British Classicism in culture in the eighteenth


century. ’Culture’ is here understood and interpreted as a unity of historical,
philosophical, literary, aesthetic as well as artistic trends and discourses. By
interpreting selected primary sources – mainly literary works of art, paintings and
architecture, as well as a few philosophical and aesthetical texts – and secondary
literature, we will make an attempt to understand trends, themes, ideas, and
qualities of eighteenth century British Classicism. Such various authors and their
works of art will be examined as, for example, Alexander Pope, Samuel Johnson,
Thomas Gray, William Hogarth, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Colin Campbell or William
Kent. Assessment: students’ participation in discussions and debates of the
classes (30%), presentation and the quality of the handout (20%), end term test
(50%).

The History of the British Isles in the Age of Nations (NEW)


Hist/cult, sem, 2-3 BAEN, BAAM, ENG, US
Cora Zoltán
Culture/History Course Seminar, Any Course Seminar

This seminar surveys the history of Britain through the ’long nineteenth-century’
(1789-1914). After its birth in the 17-18th century, the history the British Empire
will be discussed mainly from the perspective of political history, nevertheless, an
emphasis will be laid upon social, economic and cultural trends and questions as
well. The seminar seeks to familiarise students with the essential historical issues
and themes in the period. This will include the influence of the French Revolution
on England, the relationship of Britain and European powers during the
Napoleonic Wars and later in connection with the „Sacred Alliance”. We shall also
look at major questions of British foreign policy and internal affairs in the 19 th
century. Of course, parallel to problems of political history, the course will
investigate important political and social ideas that became current and stressed
in this century, such as conservativism, liberalism, socialism, radicalism,
nationalism, Marxism, anarchism, positivism, romanticism and realism. Besides
these, we will briefly tackle with social, economic and cultural phenomena of this
period, such as the agrarian and industrial revolution, religion and social reforms,
social emancipation in Victorian England, the economic development or the
colonial challenge. During this historical study, students will also familiarise with
such influential political and cultural „icons” and their major ideas as, for
example, Palmerston, Gladstone, Disraeli, Carlyle, Dickens, Tennyson, or Mill.
Assessment: students’ participation in discussions and debates of the classes
(20%), presentation and the quality of the handout (20%), mid term test (30%),
end term test (30%).
SCHEDULED TOPICS:
1. Introduction: (lecture)
2. Europe in turmoil (1789-1815)
3. Britain and the ”Sacred Alliance” – foreign politics from 1815 to 1848
4. Imperialism, colonialism and foreign policy after the revolutions of 1848 (1848-
1900) I
5. Imperialism, colonialism and foreign policy after the revolutions of 1848 (1848-
1900) II:
6-7. Internal affairs I: politics and ideas (1815-1900):
8. Internal affairs II: economy in the ’long nineteenth–century’ – If progress, how?:
9-10. Internal affairs III: British society – are there really classes in Victorian
society?:
11. Internal affairs IV: Religion, science, culture – a new trajectory of identities?:
12. Turn of the century:
13. End Term Test

The First Action Heroes: Violence and the Narratives of the English Middle Ages (NEW)
Hist/cult, sem, 2-3 BAEN, BAAM, ENG, US
Nagy Gergely
History/culture course seminar, Any course seminar

The course will examine how conceptions of the hero in Medieval literature have related to
the idea of violence. Both ‘popular’ and more ‘learned’ medieval narratives often valorize and
celebrate violence much like contemporary action movies, and even if it is not the world that
needs to be saved in every case, the violent heroes of medieval literature show a great variety
in their relation to what they (need to) do and how they do it. The conflicts that characterize
the world of Old and Middle English texts reveal much about the culture and expectations of
these periods (as well as of the audiences), and also show a marked difference between
Germanic concepts and those imported from the continent; native frameworks and the
international ones of romance clearly indicate the differences. The heroic society of Beowulf
shows a relation to violence nearly entire at variance with Chaucer’s Knight or Malory’s
Round Table (where several different points of view can be seen). The ‘meaning’ of violence
in each text is thus seen in a number of contexts, and can be as various as in contemporary
popular culture. Texts for discussion will be (1) Beowulf, (2) The Battle of Maldon, (3)
Genesis B and The Dream of the Rood, (4) Elene, (5) Layamon’s Brut (selections), (6) Sir
Gawain and the Green Knight, (7) Havelok the Dane, (8-10) the Alliterative Morthe Arthure,
Stanzaic Morte Arthur, and Malory’s Morte Darthur (selections), (11) Chaucer’s Canterbury
Tales (selections). Evaluation is based on participation in class discussions (20 %), weekly
mini-essays on the readings (20 %), and a seminar paper (8-10 pp. for 2-3 ys, 12-15 pp. for 4-
5 ys; 60 %).

Sport as Performance (NEW)


Hist/cult, sem, 2-3 BAEN, BAAM, ENG, US
P. Balogh Andrea
Any course, seminar, Hist course sem
This course explores sport from the perspective of cultural studies with a focus on the roles of
sports in British popular and consumer cultures. We take performance as an analytical
concept which enables us to understand the complexity of sport as a cultural phenomenon
becoming meaningful through social ideologies and political interests, and closely linked to
the issue of identity along the categories of nation, class, race, and gender. This focus implies
that we will be interested in sports as both forms of entertainment and physical activities,
contributing to the formation of various communities and social groups along the promotion
of the ‘healthy body’ and the ‘beautiful body.’ Accordingly, we will be concerned with the
(re)presentation of sports in the mass media and the electronic media, including
advertisements, life-style magazines and life-style reality shows. Grading Policy: activity
20%, research reports: 40% paper presentation 40%
1. Introduction 1: watching sports (Goffman’s metaphor of theatre for analizing sport
events
2. Introduction 2: the phenomelogical approach to embodiment and movement
3. Sports in the making of national identities in the 20th century (The British Empire and
decolonization)
4. Transnationalism (the politics of the modern olympic games)
5. Race and racism
6. Gendering sports
7. sports and the cultural constructions of masculinity and femininity
8. Sports, sexuality, and sexual identities
9. Sports and the Media
10. Mediated sport-related subcultures (internet)
11. Sports in consumer cultures
12. Athletic bodies, healthy bodies, beautiful bodies and fashionable bodies
13. Paper presentations
14. Paper presentations
Suggested Reading:
Atkinson, Michael and Young, Kevin (eds). Tribal Play: Subcultural Journeys Through
Sport, Bingley: JAI Press, 2008.
Cahn, Susan K.. Coming on Strong. Gender and Sexuality in Twentieth-Century Women’s
Sport. New York: The Free Press, 1994.
Goffman, Erving “The Theatrical Frame” in Frame Analysis. An Essay on the Organization
of Experience. New York: Harper and Row, 1974, 123-55.
Harris, John and Parker, Andrew (eds.). Sport and Social Identities. Palgrave MacMillan,
2009.
Hill, Jeff and Williams, Jack (eds.) Sport and Identity in the North of England. Keele: Keele
UP.
Ihde, Don. “The Tall and the Short of It. Male Sports Bodies.” Nancy Tuana et. al. (eds.)
Revealing Male Bodies. Bloomigton and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2002,
231-46.
Journal of Lesbian Studies Special Issue: In/Visible Bodies: Lesbian Sexualities and Sporting
Spaces, 13(3), 2009.
MacAloon, John J.. “Olympic Games and the Theory of Spectacle in Modern Societies.” John
J. MacAloon (ed.). Rite, Drama, Festival, Spectacle. Philapdelphia: Institute for the
Study of Human Issues, 1984, 241-80.
McDevitt, Patrick. May the Best Man Win. Sport, Masculinity, and Nationalism in Great
Britain and the Empire, 1880.1935. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004.
Parker, Andrew. “Sporting masculinities: gender relations and the body.” Máirtín Mac An
Ghaill ed. Understanding Masculinities. Social Relations and Cultural Arenas.
Buckingham, Philadelphia: Open University Press, 1996, 126-38.
Schneider, Angela J.. “On the definition of ‘woman’ in the sport context.” Torbjörn Tännsjö
and Claudio Tamburrini eds. Values in Sport. Elitism, nationalism, gender equality and
the scientific manufacture of winners. London: E &FN Spon, 2000, 123-38.
Raney, Arthur A. and Bryent Jennings (eds.) Hand Book of Sports and Media, Mahwah (New
Jersay): Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Ltd., 2006.
Young, Iris Marion. “Throwing Like a Girl: A Phenomenology of Feminine Body
Comportment, Motility, and Spatiality.” Young, Throwing Like a Girl and Other Essays
in Feminist Philosophy and Social Theory. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana
University Press, 1990, 141-59.

Politics and Cultural Media in Interwar Britain (1918-1939) (NEW)


hist/cult, 2-3, sem; BAEN, ENG
Cora Zoltán
Any Course Seminar

The seminar provides a survey of the political, social and cultural history of
Great-Britain in the interwar period (1919-1939) with a view to the European
context as well.We will discuss various topics, including the rise of democracy,
nationalism, fascism and socialism in Europe, or, for example, the post-Victorian
cultural milieu. An emphasis will also be laid on questions of social and economic
changes in Britain before and after the Great Economic Depression (1929-1933).
During this historical study, participants of the course will have a chance closely
examine the ideas of such influential politicians, philosophers, and writers as, for
example, David Lloyd George, Bertrand Russell, Winston S. Churchill, George
Orwell, T. S. Eliot, James Joyce or Virginia Woolf. While discussing various topics,
an emphasis will be laid on the question of different forms of British cultural
media, such as newspapers, or new broadcasting technologies and institutions
(cinema, radio, or the BBC). II. The course seeks to familiarise students with
major historical problems throughout the period by interpreting relevant primary
(literary texts, diaries, newspapers, legal texts, and speeches) and secondary
(literature) sources. Assessment: students’ participation in discussions and
debates of the classes (20%), mid term test (40%), end term test (40%).
SCHEDULED TOPICS:
1. Introduction: The Turn of the Century
Core reading: Heyck (Vol. I.), 435-441. p.
2. The “Great War” (1914-1918): Pacifism versus Imperialism?
Core reading: Heyck, 109-131. p.
3-4. Europe and Britain in the Interwar period (1919-1939) I: building–up
Core reading: Heyck, 171-183. p.
5-6. Europe and Britain in the Interwar period (1919-1939) II: “The
economy dwindles, the society thrives? The role of the Cultural Media
(cinema, radio, BBC)
Core reading:Heyck, 149-169. p.
7. Mid-term Test
8-9. Answers to challenges: political ideas in interwar Europe and Britain
Core reading: Heyck, 183-193. p., Perry, 764-768, 771-773. p.
10. Thought and Culture in an Era of World of Wars: Disorientation, Doubt
and Commitment
Core reading: Perry, 745-762, 768-771. p.
11. Going to War Again: British political and cultural milieu in the first years
of World War II
Core reading: Heyck, 193-212. p. (British), Perry, 773-789. p. (European)
12. Reserve Class
13. End Term Test

Introduction to British Aesthetics (NEW)


hist/cult, 2-3, sem, BAEN, ENG
Cora Zoltán
Any Course Seminar

The course surveys and discusses key texts of British aesthetics while trying to
introduce students to the most important aesthetic problems and concepts. The
seminar concentrates on 18th and 19th century British, as well as early 20th
century authors. The study of aesthetics itself conveys an interdisciplinary critical
attitude: it is a mode of critical judgement and a mode of analysing personal
creativity, openness, taste and ethics. Besides Beauty, Artistic Creation, or
Nature, aestheticism calls attention to other fields of sensation as well. During
the course, students will familiarise, on the one hand, with original themes
(mimesis, beauty, nature, sublime) of aesthetics by chosen treatises from Plato
and Aristotle, with different receptions of them through reading texts of, for
example, Joseph Addison, David Hume, Edmund Burke, S.T. Coleridge, John
Ruskin, William Morris (also the aesthetics ideas of the Pre-Raphaelite
Brotherhood and the Arts and Crafts Movement). On the other hand, the
course will deal with issues of early 20 th century aesthetics and receptions of
earlier ideas, mainly by reading excerpts from expressivist aestheticians, such as
the Italian philosopher, Benedetto Croce or the Oxford archeologist-historian
Robin G. Collingwood. Assessment: participation in classes (30%), presentation
and the quality of the handout (20%), home paper (5-10 pages) (50%).
SCHEDULED TOPICS:
1. What and how is aesthetics? – introductory discussion
Core reading: Danto, Arthur C.: “A Future for Aesthetics” The Journal of
Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 51. évfolyam, 2. szám (1993), 271-277.
2-3. Founders: Plato and Aristotle
Core reading: Routledge Companion, 1-27. p.
4. Joseph Addison and “the pleasures of imagination”
Core reading: Sanders, 292-298. p., Lovejoy, 69-77.p.
5. David Hume and “the standard of taste”
Core reading: Routledge Companion, 41-54. p.
6. Burke’s Enquiry: Beauty and Sublime
Core reading: Monk, 84-100. p.
7. Romanticism – How is Aesthetics shaped?
Core reading: Sanders, 340-351. p.
8. The Gothic Vision – Neo-Gothic England?
Core reading: Brooks, 154-176. p.
9. The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and The Arts and Crafts Movement – A
Turn Towards Medievalism? Core reading and sources: Selected poems and
artworks by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Holman Hunt, selected writings
by William Morris (Rossetti: Poems; Morris: Selected Writings, 13-21, 84-
107, 139-145. p.; Hunt: Pre-Raphaelite Illustrations, 1-30. p.
10. Beauty and Taste: formation of theories
Core reading: Routledge Companion, 307-317. p., Lorand, Ruth: “Beauty
and Its Opposites”, in: The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism. 52:4 (Fall
1994), 399-406.
11. Expressivism, formalism and pragmatism: contesting grounds of the
early 20th century
Core reading and sources: Routledge Companion, 109-145. p.
12. Discussions of Home Paper proposals
13. Submission of Home Paper

Specialisations
Lectures

Contemporary British Culture and Society


Hist/cult, lect, 2-3, BASpecTr, BASpecB
Nagy Gergely
BASpecB, BASpecTr (Regional and Cultural Studies)

This lecture is meant to introduce students to the basic facts, institutions and
fields of contemporary British culture. In this, it complements the historical and
the thematic survey courses, and offers a contemporary cross-section with some
historical perspective where necessary. The British political and legal system is
based on very old traditions, and the institutions and social questions of British
culture cannot be complete with an outlook to the colonial past and the
commonwealth; however, as these give place to the EU-integrated United
Kingdom, a multi-cultural and post-colonial society, they will only be touched
upon in the course of the lectures. The course aims to concentrate on cultural
(rather than political) issues, including subcultures and their study (e.g. the
Birmingham school), the theoretical approaches to such a complex society (post-
colonial theories, feminism and women’s movements, etc.), the British system of
education and collection (the famous London museums and the picture of
contemporary relations to art that they sketch out), the various branches of the
arts as they appear in contemporary Britain (film and theatre, the fine arts, music
and popular culture). The British media and its flagship, the BBC and its role in
popular culture will also be a separate facet of our examinations. Students will be
expected to use their lecture notes as well as the coursebook when they prepare
for the written exam at the end of the semester.

Contemporary American Culture and Society


Hist/Cult, lect, 2-3, BAAM, BASpecTr, BASpecB
Annus Irén
BAAM 17. sor (Cult Survey3), BASpecTr, BASpecB (Regional and Cultural Studies)

The purpose of this lecture is to familiarize students with the American people,
culture and government along with various areas most influential in framing the
essential notions and manners of operation particular to the US, thus to deepen the
students’ understanding of this country and its people. The course opens with the
introduction of the country and its inhabitants. Then it discusses the development
and present structure of the American federal government, its policies and field of
operation. It also surveys the various areas, such as religion or the media,
supposedly independent of the government but still a major force in defining
American culture and identity.

Introduction to Translation and Interpreting Theory


Spec, lect, 2–3, BASpecTr
Dudits András
BAspecTr (Introduction to the Theory and Practice of Translation and Interpreting,
lect)

The purpose of this survey course is to provide a general overview of the theory
of translation and interpreting, with a focus on translation and interpreting
typology, the theoretical models of translation and interpreting, cognitive
processing in interlingual mediation, translation and interpreting skills as well as
the evolution of translation and interpreting studies. Grading will be based on a
final assignment.

British and American Culture of Business World: Marketing, Promotion,


and PR
Spec, lect, survey, 2-3, BASpecB
Bajnóczi Beatrix
BASpecB (Business World Survey course)

This course serves as an introduction to the field of business studies, with an


emphasis on issues which are of special interest to students who would like to
understand the basic business and economic concepts. The class covers a wide
range of business-related topics, focusing on marketing, promotion, and PR. By
the end of the term the students will be familiar with the language and concepts
found in authentic business materials, newspaper and magazine articles as well
as the theory and terminology that is necessary in the business world.
Major topics include Marketing management process; Marketing communication
mix; The role of promotion and promotional tools; PR; Advertising; The role of the
media.

Cross-cultural Pragmatics
Ling, lect, 2-5, BAEN, BAAM, ENG, US, BASpecTr, BASpecB
Suszczyńska Małgorzata
BAEN, BAAM, ENG, US (any course lecture), BASpecTr, BASpecB (Regional and
Cultural Studies)

The course focuses on cross-cultural pragmatics, which deals with differences in


verbal behavior across languages and cultures, and on intercultural pragmatics,
which examines communication between speakers of different languages and
cultures. The course presents empirical research in both areas, reviews different
explanatory frameworks used to account for the observed differences, addresses
methodological issues and gives insight into applications of cross-cultural studies
in business communication. Grading will be based on participation, one in-class
presentation and a mid-term quiz. At the end of the course 2-3 year students will
be given a written home assignment while 4-5 year students will write a short
research paper.

Seminars

Introduction to Translation
Spec, sem, 2–3, BASpecTr
Dudits András
BAspecTr (Introduction to the Theory and Practice of Translation and Interpreting)

Designed to cover translation-specific concepts such as equivalence, explicitation


and compensation, along with a wide range of lexical and grammatical transfer
operations, the seminar focuses on the practical aspects of interlingual mediation
to facilitate the acquisition of relevant translation skills and techniques. Students
will be expected to translate texts of a general nature (i.e. non-technical and non-
literary) at home, with their work evaluated by the instructor and analyzed in
class. Grading will be based on the formative assessment of translation
assignments and class participation

Translation Techniques
Spec, sem, 2–3, BASpecTr
Dudits András/Novák György
BAspecTr (Introduction to the Theory and Practice of Translation and Interpreting)

Designed to cover translation-specific concepts such as equivalence, explicitation


and compensation, along with a wide range of lexical and grammatical transfer
operations, the seminar focuses on the practical aspects of interlingual mediation
to facilitate the enhancement of translation skills and techniques related to
source text comprehension, interlingual/intercultural transfer and target text
production. In addition to completing actual translation assignments and various
exercises, students will learn practical strategies for 1) establishing and
maintaining intra-textual and inter-textual coherence, 2) text-type recognition
and register analysis, 3) correct usage and 4) using software tools. Assessment
will be formative in nature, based on students’ translations and class
participation.
Introduction to Interpreting
Spec, sem, 2-3, BAspecTr
Matuska Ágnes, Matuska Ágnes
BAENspecTr (Introduction to the Theory and Practice of Translation and
Interpreting)

The aim of this course is to provide a general view of the nature of interpreting
with a focus on the processes and management of interpreting. Emphasis is laid
on presentation, the grouping of information and logical analysis, and extending
students’ vocabulary. Practice is provided through shorter units in different types
of oral mediation: liaison, community and conference interpreting. Topics range
from current affairs to social studies. Grading: Preparation and class input: 30%;
Mid-term test: 30%; End-term test: 40%.

Business Communication: Techniques and Applications


Spec, sem, 2, BASpecB
Bajnóczi Beatrix
BASpecB (Business Communication Seminar)

The aim of this course is to acquaint the students with the main themes of
business as well as the various situations that people communicate in in the
world of business. The course is based on a coursebook, and besides focusing on
acquiring the special vocabulary, emphasis is laid primarily on oral and listening
activities. Students are required to actively and creatively participate in the
course, and do individual and group assignments. Assessment will be based on
the students’ class participation and their test results.

Business Writing: In-company Correspondence


Spec, sem, 3, BASpecB
Gombosné Haavisto Kirsi
BASpecB (Business Writing Seminar)

Part of the Business English spezialization of the IEAS, this course is designed to
develop the writing skills the students need in business life, through improving
their general writing skills and familiarising them with different fields, styles and
conventions of business writing. Business Writing 2 focuses on in-company-to
correspondence, including memorandums, reports, and notes, as well as social
correspondence like appointments, invitations and good-will letters. The course
also deals with correspondence related to employment, such as job
advertisements, job applications, letters of recommendation, and personal
reference. Throughout the course, emphasis is laid on both the formal and the
language aspects of business correspondence, layout, style, vocabulary,
correctness, conciseness and courtesy.

Business Writing: Company-to-company Correspondence


Spec, sem, 2, BASpecB
Gombosné Haavisto Kirsi
BASpecB (Business Writing Seminar)

Part of the Business English specialization of the IEAS, this course is designed to
introduce the students to writing skills needed in business life, both developing
their general writing skills and familiarizing them with different fields of business
writing. Business Writing 1 focuses on company-to company correspondence,
including letters, inquiries, orders, complaints, adjustments, payment, banking,
and transportation. In-company correspondence is dealt with only to the extent
necessary in business life, that is, preliminary and follow-up memorandums and
reports are discussed. Throughout the course, emphasis is laid on both the formal
and the language aspects of business correspondence, layout, style, vocabulary,
correctness, conciseness and courtesy.

Business Skills 2: Business Reading


Spec, sem, 3, BASpecB
Gombosné Haavisto Kirsi
BASpecB (Business Skills Seminar)

Part of the Business English specialization of the IEAS, this course is designed
to help interested students to improve their business English reading skills as
well as to familiarize them with the ways in which English is used in the
contexts of career and workplace, including time management, negotiations,
meetings, reports, and ethical, cultural and legal issues, as well as travel, and
promotion and advertising, as well as other related material. In addition to the
reading techniques of scanning and skimming, the development of skills such
as understanding text organization and important information in the text will
be practiced. The readings consist of authentic material taken from
newspapers, books, magazines, textbooks and manuals, covering a wide
range of topics and language styles from the colloquial to the formal.

BAENGLev
BAENGLev I.

Introduction to Literature and Culture


Kiss Attila
ANGBAL21

Introduction to Linguistics
Fenyvesi Anna
ANGBAL31

Introduction to English Studies


Matuska Ágnes
ANGBAL11

English Foundation 1.
Bajnóczi Beatrix
ANGBAL51

Use of English
Rónay Zsuzsanna
ANGBAL61 (1/3)
BAENGLev II.

Theories of Culture
Bocsor Péter
Lecture, ANGBAL91

Descriptive Grammar and Syntax of English


Kenesei István
ANGBAL121

Introduction to Historical Linguistics


Suszczyńska Małgorzata
Linguistics survey course ANGBAL122 (1/3)

Marketing
Bajnóczi Beatrix
Business lecture ANGBAL-BUS21

Theorizing Literature and Culture from the Perspective of the Social


P. Balogh Andrea
Any course lecture (exc. lang.) ANGBAL141 (2/2) ANGLMIN111

Politics and Cultural Media inInterwar Britain


Cora Zoltán
Culture/History Course Seminar ANGBAL11

Business Communication: Problem Solving


Bajnóczi Beatrix
ANGBAL-BUS21

Business Skills: Reading


Haavisto Kirsi
ANGBAL-BUS21,

BAENGLev III.

Academic Reading
Haavisto Kirsi
Any Course Seminar ANGBAL15 (1/2)

Introduction to Historical Linguistics


Suszczyńska Małgorzata
Linguistics survey course ANGBAL122 (1/3)

Marketing
Bajnóczi Beatrix
Business lecture ANGBAL-BUS21

Theorizing Literature and Culture from the Perspective of the Social


P. Balogh Andrea
Any course lecture (exc. lang.) ANGBAL141 (2/2) ANGLMIN111
Academic Writing
Bocsor Péter
ANGBAL131

Business Communication: Problem Solving


Bajnóczi Beatrix
ANGBAL-BUS21

Business Skills: Reading


Haavisto Kirsi
ANGBAL-BUS21

BAENGLevMin

Theories of Culture
Bocsor Péter
Lecture, ANGLMIN81

Introduction to Literature and Culture


Kiss Attila
ANGLMIN 1

Introduction to Linguistics
Fenyvesi Anna
ANGLMIN 2

Introduction to English Studies


Matuska Ágnes
ANGLMIN3

Theorizing Literature and Culture from the Perspective of the Social


P. Balogh Andrea
Any course lecture (exc. lang.) ANGBAL141 (2/2) ANGLMIN111

Descriptive Grammar and Syntax of English


Szécsényi Krisztina
ANGLMIN101

Use of English
Rónay Zsuzsanna
ANGLMIN61

English Foundation I.
Bajnóczi B.
ANGLMIN51

Reading skills
Haavisto K.
Language class ANGLMIN62
MA Courses
Language Courses
Translation
Lang, 2–5, sem, ENG, US, BAEN, BAAM
Dudits András
ENG (kiegészítő törzsképzés/kiegészítő szakképzés, sem), US (kiegészítő
törzsképzés/kiegészítő szakképzés, sem), BAEN (any course, sem), BAAM (any
course, sem)

The purpose of the seminar is to develop the basic skills required for source text
comprehension and target text production within the framework of written
translation from English into Hungarian and Hungarian into English. Class
discussions will focus on the grammatical, lexical and pragmatic difficulties and
problems translators may encounter in translating between the two languages.
Students will be expected to translate texts of a general nature (i.e. non-technical
and non-literary) at home, with their work evaluated by the instructor and
analyzed in class. Grading will be based on the formative assessment of
translation assignments and class participation.

Interpreting 1 (Beginners)
Lang, 2–5, sem, ENG, US, BAEN, BAAM
Dudits András
ENG (kiegészítő törzsképzés /kiegészítő szakképzés, sem), US (kiegészítő
törzsképzés/ kiegészítő szakképzés, sem), BAEN (any course, sem), BAAM (any
course, sem)

The purpose of the seminar is to provide a general introduction to the principles


and practice of interpreting, focusing on the relevant cognitive operations and
practical techniques related to attention, source language comprehension,
interlingual transfer and target language expression. The development and
enhancement of the basic cognitive and presentation skills required for oral
mediation will be facilitated by the performance of simple tasks in consecutive,
liaison and simultaneous interpreting. Assessment will be formative in nature,
with grading based on class participation.

Linguistics
Lectures

An Introduction to Systemic Functional Grammar


Ling, lect, 1, MAEN, all tracks
Barát Erzsébet

This lecture is intended to explore key areas within systemic functional


linguistics, building on the foundation laid by M.A.K. Halliday's An Introduction to
Functional Grammar (2nd Edition). The course provides a model of grammar
which analyses authentic texts in their social context. In other words, SF is a
linguistic theory that takes into account the contextual dimensions of language. It
views language as a social semiotic resource people use to accomplish their
purposes by expressing meanings in context. The aim of the course is
accordingly both theoretical and applied. It will present a general theoretical
outline with descriptive illustrations from English in order to develop a set of tools
which focus on the lexical and grammatical patterns of a variety of texts from
different genres and registers. The major areas of linguistic means and their
interaction to be covered are the following three functions of language use: The
representation of experience, the enactment of speaker/addressee relationships,
and the relation of language to the context in which it is unfolding.

The Social Uses of Language


Ling, lect, 1, MAEN, MAAM
Don Peckham

This team taught lecture course covers the following topics: geographic, social
and style variation in English; multicompetence and the English spoken by native
speakers vs. nonnative speakers (including English as a lingua franca); language
policy and planning (the spread of English, the European Union); forensic
linguistics; pragmatics (its scope and methods); cross-cultural, intercultural and
interlanguage pragmatics; linguistic politeness; conversation analysis; talk in
institutional contexts; the interdisciplinary concept of discourse; the intersection
of language, ideology and power; language use and identity formation.

Sociopragmatics (NEW)
Ling, lect, 1, MAEN (AL)
Suszczyńska Małgorzata

The course provides an up-to-date overview of sociopragmatics, defined as the


sociological interface of pragmatics, which examines how social, situational and
cultural norms affect performance and interpretation of communicative action.
The course addresses both theoretical issues and empirical work in the field. The
topics include a review of speech act theory and Gricean pragmatics,
sociopragmatic variation within and across cultures, pragmatic competence and
SLA, pragmatics and feminism, and research methods in sociopragmatics.
Topics:
1. Defining pragmatics
2. Speech act theory
3. Gricean pragmatics
4. Linguistic politeness: models
5. Sociopragmatics: definition and scope
6. Research methods in sociopragmatics
7. Sociopragmatic variation: speech act realization
8. Sociopragmatic variation: conversational organization
9. Sociopragmatic variation: politeness
10.Sociopragmatics and gender
11.Interlanguage pragmatics and SLA
12.Pragmatics in language teaching

Sociolinguistics (NEW)
Ling, lect, 1-2, MAEN
Szabó Gilinger Eszter
MAEN: EAL szakirány (ANG-MA-AL3 Sociolinguistics)

The course provides an up-to-date overview of sociolinguistics, divided into


several smaller sections on different topics on the linguistic dimensions of
gender, power, society and identity. Several primary texts are going to be used
as basic food for discussion in each class alongside secondary texts chosen by
students and presented in class. Both variationist and constructivist approaches
are going to be studied in order to give students a more complete understanding
of what sociolinguistics is.
Students are going to be evaluated in an oral exam, based on readings and
their own understanding of what sociolinguistics is and how is can be used as a
methodology to study language, identities, discourses and people.
Prerequisite: Social uses of language
Topics:
1. Variation 1 (Chambers 1-38)
2. Variation 2 (Chambers 163-174, 194–218)
3. Variation 3 (Holmes and Meyerhoff /Romaine 98–118)
4. Critical applied linguistics (Pennycook 1–23)
5. Sociolinguistics and power (Pennycook 46–73)
6. Gender 1 (Coulmas/Wodak and Benke 127–150)
7. Gender 2 (Holmes and Meyerhoff/Bucholtz 43–68)
8. Gender 3 (Holmes and Meyerhoff /McConnell-Ginet 69–98)
9. Identities 1 (Coulmas/Tabouret-Keller 315–326)
10.Identities 2 (Omoniyi 11–33)
11.Identities 3 (Pavlenko/Pavlenko 34–67)
12.Orthography as a social practice 1 (Sebba 26–57)
13.Orthography as a social practice 2 (Sebba 102–131)

Readings:
Chambers, J. K. 2003. Sociolinguistic theory. Oxford: Blackwell.
Coulmas, Florian. 1997. The Handbook of Sociolinguistics. Oxford: Blackwell.
Holmes, Janet and Meyerhoff, Miriam (eds). 2003. The handbook of language
gender. Malden: Blackwell.
Omoniyi, Tope and White, Goodith (eds). 2006. The sociolinguistics of identity.
London; New York, NY: Continuum.
Pavlenko, Aneta and Blackledge, Adrian (eds). 2006. Negotiation of identities in
multilingual contexts Clevedon Buffalo: Multilingual Matters.
Pennycook, Alastair. 2001. Critical applied linguistics : a critical introduction.
Mahwah, N.J.: L. Erlbaum.
Sebba, Mark. 2007. Spelling and society : the culture and politics of orthography
around the world. Cambridge, UK; New York: Cambridge University Press.

Approaches to English Linguistics (NEW)


Ling, lect, 2, MAEN
Kenesei István

The course offers an overview of the main trends, debates and theoretical
approaches of current, i.e., 20th-21st century, linguistics from Saussure to the
present day. Topics include the following: Saussure, structuralism, (linguistic)
semiotics. Descriptive linguistics in the USA (Bloomfield, Harris, Hockett). Sapir,
Whorf, linguistic relativism. Chomsky and the influence of Syntactic structures.
The first mentalistic period of generative grammar and its aftermath: the
proliferation of grammatical theories (generative semantics, Lexical-functional
grammar, head-driven phrase structure grammar, etc.). Principles and
parameters theory, minimalist program. Applications of grammatical/linguistic
theories: psycholinguistics, neurolinguistics, cognitive science, language
technology. The rise of generative phonology and its subsequent trends.
Chomsky and Halle's Sound pattern of English, lexical, autosegmental, metrical
phonologies, optimality theory. The effect of Frege's ideas and the philosophy of
language on (linguistic) semantics, the Cambridge philosophers (Moore, Russell,
Wittgenstein). The Oxford school of 'ordinary language philosophy' (Austin, Ryle,
Grice). Fundamentals of formal semantics. Problems and trends in cognitive
semantics. Exam: written exam (sample exam sheet made available during
term).
Schedule
1. Saussure, structuralism, (linguistic) semiotics.
2. Descriptive linguistics in the USA (Bloomfield, Harris, Hockett).
3. Sapir, Whorf, linguistic relativism.
4. Chomsky and the influence of Syntactic structures.
5. The first mentalistic period of generative grammar and its aftermath.
6. The proliferation of grammatical theories (generative semantics, Lexical-
functional grammar, head-driven phrase structure grammar, etc.).
7. Principles and parameters theory, minimalist program.
8. Applications of grammatical/linguistic theories: psycholinguistics.
9. Applications of grammatical/linguistic theories: neurolinguistics, cognitive
science.
10. Applications of grammatical/linguistic theories: language technology.
11. The rise of generative phonology and its subsequent trends. Chomsky and
Halle's Sound pattern of English.
12. Lexical, autosegmental, metrical phonologies, optimality theory.
13. The effect of Frege's ideas and the philosophy of language on (linguistic)
semantics, the Cambridge philosophers (Moore, Russell, Wittgenstein).
14. The Oxford school of 'ordinary language philosophy' (Austin, Ryle, Grice).
15. Fundamentals of formal semantics. Problems and trends in cognitive
semantics.

Readings:
Archangeli, Diana, and D. Terence Langendoen. 1997. Optimality theory: An
overview. Blackwell, Oxford.
Haegeman, Liliane, and Jacqueline Guéron. 1999. English grammar. Blackwell,
Oxford.
Hurford, James. 1994. Grammar: A student's guide. Cambridge University Press,
Cambridge.
Kenstowicz, Michael. 1994. Phonology in generative grammar. Blackwell, Oxford.
Lyons, John. 1996. Linguistic semantics: An introduction, Cambridge University
Press, Cambridge.
Newmeyer, Frederick J. 1986. Linguistic Theory in America. Academic Press,
Orlando.
Radford, Andrew. 2004. English syntax: An introduction. Cambridge University
Press, Cambridge.
Seuren, Pieter A.M. 1998. Western linguistics: An historical introduction.
Blackwell, Oxford.
Seminars

Bilingualism
Ling, sem, 2, MAEN, MAAM
Fenyvesi Anna
MAEN: mindhárom szakirány (any course, seminar), MAAM (Dissenting Voices in
American Culture: Language, Religion, Gender, Ethnicity)

The aim of the course is to give an overview of the most important aspects of
bilingualism as a societal and individual phenomenon from a variety of points of
view: those of sociolinguistics, the sociology of language, language contact,
language acquisition, and psycholinguistics. Class sessions will focus on aspects
of bilingualism regardless of the languages in question, but, wherever possible, a
greater emphasis will be placed on discussing bilingual situations involving
English and/or Hungarian.
Prerequisite: Social Uses of English

Language Policy in the EU and Hungary (NEW)


Meth/ling, 2, sem, MATE, MAEN
Kontra Miklós
MATE (Language Policy in the EU and Hungary), MAEN (AL, any course seminar)

This seminar surveys basic issues in language policy in general, and those in the
European Union and Hungary in particular. Acquisition planning and the spread of
English will be discussed in great detail. Grades will be based on participation in
classroom discussions and a mid-term and final essay.
Topics:
1) Ricento 2006: Language Policy: Theory and practice – an introduction
2) Phillipson 2003, chapter 1: The risks of laissez faire language policies
3) chapter 2: European languages: families, nations, empires, states
4) chapter 3: Global trends impacting on European language policy
5) chapter 4: Languages in EU institutions
6) chapter 5: towards equitable communication
7) chapter 6: Recommendations for action on language policies
8) Grin 2006: Economic Considerations in Language Policy
9) Phillipson 2008: Language policy and education in the European Union
10) Sándor 2006: Nyelvtervezés, nyelvpolitika, nyelvművelés
11) Bárdos 2009: Tanárképzési kontextusok különös tekintettel az angolra
12) Kontra 2009: A focihoz és a pedagógiához mindenki ért, a nyelvhez még a
politikus is
Readings
Bárdos Jenő. 2009. Tanárképzési kontextusok különös tekintettel az angolra. In:
Frank Tibor és Károly Krisztina, szerk., Anglisztika és amerikanisztika:
Magyar kutatások az ezredfordulón, 33–49. Budapest: Tinta Könyvkiadó.
Grin, François. 2006. Economic Considerations in Language Policy. In: Ricento,
Thomas, ed., An Introduction to Language Policy: Theory and Method, 77–94.
Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.
Kontra Miklós. 2009. A focihoz és a pedagógiához mindenki ért, a nyelvhez még a
politikus is. Korunk 2009. május: 87–95.
Phillipson, Robert. 2003. English-Only Europe? Challenging Language Policy.
London: Routledge.
Phillipson, Robert. 2008. Language policy and education in the European Union.
In: May, Stephen and Hornberger, Nancy H., eds., Language and political
issues in education, volume 1 of Encyclopedia of Language and Education,
2nd edition, 255–265. New York: Springer.
Ricento, Thomas. 2006. Language Policy: Theory and practice – an introduction.
In: Ricento, Thomas, ed., An Introduction to Language Policy: Theory and
Method, 10–23. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.
Sándor Klára. 2006. Nyelvtervezés, nyelvpolitika, nyelvművelés. In: Kiefer Ferenc,
főszerk., Magyar nyelv, 958–995. Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó.

Non-linear phonology
Ling, sem, 4-5, ENG, US (Limitation: 4-5 MAT writers only)
Polgárdi Krisztina
ENG (Kiegészítő nem nyelvi képzés, Kiegészítő szakképzés), US (Kiegészítő nem
nyelvi képzés, Kiegészítő szakképzés)

This course gives an introduction to non-linear phonology. After a brief overview


of early generative phonology, we will deal with three basic issues: (1) syllable
structure, (2) melodic representations, and (3) licensing relations. Phenomena
such as stress, phonotactic restrictions, vowel ~ zero alternation and lenition will
be considered. Course book: Harris, J. (1994): English Sound Structure. Evaluation
is based on a mid-term test, homework assignments and a seminar paper. Since
the course is offered to students of the Theoretical Linguistics PhD Program, the
language of the course is Hungarian (although the readings are in English).

The Theory of Syntax


Ling, sem, 4-5, ENG, US
Kenesei István
ENG (Kiegészítő nem nyelvi képzés, Kiegészítő szakképzés), US (Kiegészítő nem
nyelvi képzés, Kiegészítő szakképzés)

Overview and various topics in the "Principles and Parameters" Theory


(Government & Binding, Minimalist Program) are discussed based on reading the
relevant literature, i.e., papers and (text)books by N. Chomsky, A. Radford, D.
Adger, L. Haegeman, J. Gueron, etc. The purpose of the course is to provide
students with current knowledge in syntax, enabling them to carry out
independent work.

Literature
Lectures

A 2 Theories of British and American Literature and Culture


Lit, hist/cult, lect, survey, 1 MAEN, MAAM, 4-5 US, ENG
Rozsnyai Bálint
MA1 Survey Lect ANAM-MA2; AMB3-22 , -11, ANGB3-11, ANGB3-311,
AMB3-22, -11, EN (ANGB3-11 Literary/Cultural Theory, ANGB3-311), MAB3-311

The course introduces the students to 20th century theories of literature, literary
history, studies of culture, and cultural studies, with special relevance to
American culture and American Studies. The course focuses on the shift of
modernist to postmodernist traditions or "paradigms" and discusses the
significant European (Continental and British) positions which shaped American
approaches to culture. Finally, through the presentation of various models of
American Studies as cultural studies, I hope to introduce still functional and
viable procedures and tools of the trade. Grading: mid-term test -30%, final
examination (test and essay question)--70% of course grade

The Multimediality of Culture


Lit, hist/cult, lect, survey, 1 MAEN (all tracks), MATE, 4-5 ENG, US
Szőnyi György Endre
MA1 Survey lecture

Modern literary and cultural theory distinguishes two major 'turns' since the
crystallization of the humanities disciplines in the 19th century. These are the
'linguistic turn' which occured in the first half of the 20th century, primarily
inspired by the concepts of Ferdinand de Saussure; and the 'pictorial or iconic
turn' which emerged in the last quarter of the 20th century. The chief
theoreticians of the latter are the American W. J. T. Mitchell and the German art
historian, Hans Belting. It is quite obvious that Anglo-American culture cannot be
examined without taking into consideration the above theoretical concerns which
then have to be completed by case studies, applied to various media of cultural
representations.
The course primarily relies on the methods and achievements of classical and
postmodern iconology but also refers to semiotics and poststructuralist subject-
theories on the one hand and traditional philology on the other. Topics include
the multimediality of cultural representations, image-word relations throughout
the centuries, the reconfiguring of the text into hypertext, aesthetic
reception/production of visual arts (painting, photography, cinema), embodied
experience of space, spectacularity, distinctions betweeen the unspeakable /
unimaginable / unbelievable / impossible in a post-traumatic culture, and the
move towards the 'corporeal turn' and the 'museum turn'.

Histories of Women’s Writing in English


Lit, lect, survey, MAEN Gend
Kérchy Anna
MAEN C5

Women writers from late 18th century up to the present have always been
searching for a literary tradtion of their own, and from Mary Wollstonecraft,
Elizabeth Browning, Virginia Woolf to Doris Lessing or Joanna Russ often put the
question where their literary grandmothers are, whom they could follow and/or
reject.The objective of this lecture course is to read and study the attempts and
the stages of writing feminist literary history revising the canon, and how the
emergence of the second and third wave feminist literary theory supported
and/or interrogated the validity, as well as the relevance of the concept ’a
literature of their own.’ Histories of women’s writing involves a study of the
history of the ’images of women’ literary criticism, the ’resisiting reader’ critical
approach, gynocriticism: developing a woman-centered analysis, gynesis: the
history of the textualizing of woman, the history of ’écriture féminine’
emphasizing not the gender of the writer (female), but the writing effect of the
text (feminine), as well as the histories of black and third world women’s writing
in English.

Race, Class, and Gender in English and American Literature and Culture
(NEW)
Lit, lect, survey, MAEN Gend
Federmayer Éva
MAEN C4, lect, survey, gender

The interlocking categories of race, class, and gender/sexuality shape our


experiences and structure our identities. Also known as the theory of
intersectionality, this new conceptual framework seeks to expose processes of
domination in complex ways.The lecture will address approaches to the
imbrication of race, class, and gender/sexuality and examines various cultural
and literary texts to show their operation. Particular attention is paid to the
revisions of the cultural canons in the wake of the various social movements,
such as the Civil Rights Movement, the Women’s Rights Movement, the
Ethnic Renaissances and various Sexual Liberation movements. Requirements:
attendance; written exam based on the lectures and the reading assignments in
the Reader (at JATE Press). Schedule:
1 Introduction
2-3 The conceptual framework
4-5 Whiteness, class, and gender
6-7 Blackness, class, and gender
8-9 Mixed-race, class, and gender
10-11 The representation of blackness in American cinema
12-13 Race, class, and gender in the New Negro Renaissance
14-15 Post-race narratives and the ’cultural mulatto’

English Renaissance Drama and Cultures of Performance (NEW)


Lit, lect, MAEN Cult
Matuska Ágnes
MAEN Cult C4, survey lecture

These lectures will provide students with a critical analysis of the major
achievements in the history of English drama before the Restoration, as well as an
apparatus of theoretical and interpretive tools to be employed in the contextual
understanding of the dramatic achievement of the early modern period. The course
will focus on problems of interrelationships between dramatic art and the dominant
cultural, political, representational discourses that informed the development of
specific modes of dramatic expression. Special emphasis will be laid upon genre-
generating factors, the logic of staging and actual forms of theatricality, the
problems in historical reconstruction, and the semiotics of social theatricality and
representational techniques. Early modern English drama will be understood as a
mode of social expression in a society of spectacle and performance, the
interpretation of which necessitates the study of traditions of iconography,
emblematology, role-playing and social entertainment, as well as the general
constituents of the epistemological crisis of the period. Key-words:
representation, iconography, iconology, emblem, epistemological crisis,
world models, semiotic typology of cultures, subject, subjectivity,
abjection, catharsis, emblematic theater, tragedy of consciousness,
essentialism, historicism, new historicism, cultural materialism,
heterogeneity, self-fashioning, body, unsconscious.
Topics to be discussed:
1. Medieval, classical and popular origins of English drama. Drama as social
expresion and literary genre. Preliminary problems in the semiotics of drama.
2. English Renaissance drama and Elizabethan theatricality. Problems in the
typology of Renaissance culture. The logic of the emblematic theatre. “Making
greatness familiar.” The "founding fathers": Kyd and Marlowe.
3. Shakespeare: the undecidabilities of poetic drama. The chronicles and the
comedies.
4. Shakespeare: the tragedies and the romances. Shakespeare revised: new
historicism, deconstruction, decanonization.
5. The "contemporaries" and "the decadence of the Jacobean stage."
Jonson, Chapman, Webster, Heywood, Middleton, Marston. From emblematic to
photographic theatre.
Primary readings
Kyd The Spanish Tragedy, Marlowe Doctor Faustus, Shakespeare Richard III, A
Midsummer Night's Dream, Measure for Measure, Hamlet, King Lear, Macbeth, The
Tempest, Jonson Volpone, Middleton The Revenger's Tragedy, Webster The
Duchess of Malfi, Marston The Malcontent, Middleton – Rowley The Changeling
Secondary readings
BELSEY, Catherine, 1985. The Subject of Tragedy. Identity and Difference in
Renaissance Drama. London and New York: Methuen.
BERGERON, David M. (ed.) 1985. Pageantry in the Shakespearean Theater.
University of Georgia Press.
BRADBROOK, M.C. 1969. Themes and Conventions of Elizabethan Tragedy.
Cambridge University Press.
DOLLIMORE, Jonathan, 1984. Radical Tragedy. Religion, Ideology and Power in the
Drama of Shakespeare and His Contemporaries. Chicago: University of Chicago
Press.
DOLLIMORE, J. - & SINFIELD, A. (eds.) 1985. Political Shakespeare. Cornell University
Press.
DRAKAKIS, John (ed.) 1992. Shakespearean Tragedy. London: Longman Limited.
DRAKAKIS, John (ed.) 1985. Alternative Shakespeares. London and New York:
Methuen.
FABINY, Tibor (ed.) 1984. Shakespeare and the Emblem. Studies in Renaissance
Iconography and Iconology. Szeged: Attila József University.
KASTAN, D.S & STALLYBRASS, P. (eds.), 1991. Staging the Renaissance.
Reinterpretations of Elizabethan and Jacobean Drama. London and New York:
Routledge.
McALINDON, Thomas, 1986. English Renaissance Tragedy. Macmillan.
WEIMANN, Robert, 1978. Shakespeare and the Popular Tradition in the Theater.
Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press.
WELLS, Stanley (ed), 1986. The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare Studies.
Cambridge: Cambridge U. P.
WICKHAM, Glynne, 1963. Early English Stages. 1300 to 1600. Volume Two 1576
to 1660, Part One. New York: Columbia U. P.

Seminars

Madwomen in the Attic: Women, Writing and Madness


Lit, sem, MAEN Gend, Cult (any course, sem), 4-5 ENG, US, PhD
Kérchy Anna
MAEN C6 Gender Track Seminar, MAEN D3 Cultural Studies

Freud’s 1905 case-study on Dora, the young hysteric woman peaked in the birth of
psychoanalysis, while The Madwoman in the Attic, Gilbert and Gubar’s vast 1979 study
on 19th and 20th century women writers became an ultimate reference point in gender
studies. Tracing the connections between madness (hysteria, schizophrenia, psychosis,
neurosis, etc.), femininity, subjectivity, authorship and writing has been a challenging
project ever since. The course proposes to analyse literary, filmic and theoretical
representations of women and madness examining the discursive construction, the
engendering social surveillance, as well as the transgressive potentials of the ‘female
malady,’ focusing on the question: Is the madwoman a victim of patriarchal oppression,
a silenced ‘leaking vessel’ of the ‘wandering womb’ or an empowering figure of female
rebellion and creativity, speaking up in an embodied, subversive voice? The material to
be discussed includes theoretical texts by S. Freud, Toril Moi, E. Bronfen, Gilbert and
Gubar, Cixous and Clément, Elaine Showalter, Shoshana Felman, Barbara Johnson,
Alice Jardine, poems by Emily Dickinson, Adrienne Rich, Anne Sexton, Sylvia Plath,
short stories by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Joyce Carol Oates, Nathaniel Hawthorne,
Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre and its rewritings (Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca, Jean
Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea), Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar, Susanna Kaysen’s Girl,
Interrupted, Virginia Woolf’s Moments of Being, Muriel Spark’s The Driver’s Seat,
Margaret Atwood’s Surfacing, a medieval treatise on witchcraft the Malleus
Maleficarum, as well as Roman Polanski’s film Repulsion, and John Cassavetes’ A
Woman Under the Influence.
Grading policy: participation, presentation (30%), homework booklogs (30%),
final essay/test (40%)

Literature and the Semiotics of the Subject


Lit, sem, MAEN Cult, Gend (any course, sem), PhD
Kiss Attila
MAEN D3 Gender Studies, C7 Cultural Studies

1. Objectives:
Recent developments in (literary) theory and the semiotics of the speaking subject
reveal that the study of literature presupposes an understanding of how meaning
emerges in the human subject through a socio-historically specific situatedness.
The theory of this positioning of the subject involves psychoanalytical, sociological
and semiological approaches to both the macrodynamics of social discursive
practices and the microdynamics of individual meaning-production.
This course aims at introducing students into the above theoretical issues through
the study of a representative selection of works on the theory of the subject. We
will concentrate on the problem of interaction between text and reader, and
investigate how they mutually produce each other in a semiotic model.
2. Scheduled topics:
1.The theory of the subject and the critique of the sign.
Preliminary problems in the theory of communication.
2.Ideology, power-technologies and the constitution of the subject.
3.Psychoanalysis, symbolization and the constitution of the subject.
4.The problem of the extra-linguistic and the borderlines of meaning in literat ure:
abjection and the subject-in-process.
5.Problematizing the "brute materiality of the Letter": surplus, containment and ex-
penditure.
6.Notes towards a theory of practice.
3. Grading policy:
a/attendance, participation in discussions, reading journals, presentations: 40%
b/Home paper (8 pages, on one of three topics to be specified later, Style Sheet
should be observed, 40% content, 10% language, 10% apparatus, to be submitted
on last Friday of classes): 60%

Ezra Pound’s Cantos (NEW)


Lit, sem, MAAM, 4-5 ENG, US,
Novák György
AM-MA_D7 Challenges to American Literary Canon

The course will discuss The Cantos, the main work of Ezra Pound, one of the most
important and influential figures of 20th-century American literature. The aim of
the course is to show how The Cantos embodied most of what Pound regarded as
important to express in literature - as well as the way he viewed the role/position
of litterati in the 20th century, along with the pitfalls, economic, political,
aesthetic and other, that he failed to avoid. List of topics to be covered: The long
poem (in American literature); The Cantos, Ulysses, and The Waste Land; Quest,
picaresque, going home; Metamorphoses; Creating Paradise; Ching ming to
chung; The end that’s missing. Required readings will include Kenner, Hugh:
The Pound Era. University of California Press: Berkeley, 1971. Surette, Leon:
Pound in Purgatory. From Economic Radicalism to Anti-Semitism. University of
Illinois Press: Urbana, 1999.

American Travel Writing (NEW)


Lit, hist/cult, sem, MAAM, 4-5 ENG, US
Kovács Ágnes Zsófia
The Rhetoric of American Literature
AMMA 15. sor: AM-MA-D6
4-5 AM EN: AMB3-21, AMB3-312 ANGB3-21, ANB3-312

Travel writing has always been intimately linked with the construction of national
identity. Occupying the space between fact and fiction, it exposes cultural
problems and reveals the changing desires and anxieties of both the traveler and
the reading public. The objective of the course is twofold: both to explore the
function of travel writing as a means of constructing a national identity in general
and to focus on American examples of this process in particular. The course
traces the journeys taken by American travel writers from the pre-revolutionary
period right up to the present. We are going to examine a wide range of
responses to the problems posed by landscapes found both at home and abroad,
from the Mississippi and the Southwest to Europe and the Holy Land.
Requirements and evaluation: journals = 40%, final = 60%, Grading: 0-50=1, 51-
65=2, 66-76=3, 77-89=4, 90-100=5
Topics
1. Travel writing and the definition and formulation of national identity.
2. The American landscape: from NYC to the Niagara. Thoreau, Hawthorne,
James
3. The Mississippi, Mark Twain, Huck Finn, Life on the Mississippi.
4. The Southwest; Jack Kerouac, On the Road.
5. Americans Abroad: Europe before the Civil War, Henry Adams
6. Europe from H. James to the present 1. Mark Twain Innocents Abroad,
7. Europe from James to the present 2. Henry Miller, The Tropic of Cancer
8. Holy Land, Hannah Arendt, Eichman in Jerusalem. Saul Bellow, To
Jerusalem.
9. Latin America; John Steinbeck, The Sea of Cortez.
10. Social Scenes: African-American travel writing, Richard Wright, W.E.B.
DiBois
11. Travel writing by American women 1. Jamaica Kincaid, A Small Place.
12. Travel Writing by American Women 2. Maya Angelou. All God’s Children.
Optional reading list
Hulme, Peter and Tim Youngs, eds. The Cambridge Companion to Travel Writing.
C. CUP, 2002.
Bendix, Alfred and Judith Hamera, eds. The Cambridge Companion to American
Travel Writing. C: CUP, 2009.
Pratt, Marie Louise. Imperial Eyes: Travel Writing and Transculturation. London:
Routledge, 2003 (1992)
Todorov, Tzvetan. The Conquest of America. The Question of the Other. Tr.
Richard Howard. New York: HarperCollins, 1984.

History/Culture
Lectures

Theories of British and American Literature and Culture


Hist/cult, lect, 1 MAEN, MAAM
Rozsnyai Bálint

The course introduces the students to 20th century theories of literature, literary history,
studies of culture, and cultural studies, with special relevance to American culture and
American Studies. The course focuses on the shift of modernist to postmodernist traditions or
„paradigms” and discusses the significant European (Continental and British) positions which
shaped American approaches to culture. Finally, through the presentation of various models
of American Studies as cultural studies, I hope to introduce still functional and viable
procedures and tools of the trade. Grading: mid-term test –30%, final examination (test and
essay question)—70% of course grade

Colonies to Empire through Transatlantic Dimensions


Hist/cult, lect, survey, 1, MAAM, 4-5 ENG, US
Vajda Zoltán
AM-MA-A1 U.S. History

The aim of the course is to survey major issues in the development of American history from
colonial times to the twenty-first century in order to show how, rooted in colonial traditions,
originally imported from the old country but developed in the new world, the USA became
the sole superpower by the beginning of the twenty-first century. Particular emphasis is laid
on the causes, course and consequences/results of the American revolution, the making of the
Constitution, the thrust of modernity in the nineteenth century as well as the economic and
social development of the USA in the twentieth that launched it as a superpower. The course
concludes with a written examination.

American Cultural Studies


Hist/cult, lect, survey, MAAM, 4-5 ENG, US
Federmayer Eva
AMB3-11, Lit/cult theory, ANGB3-11

The objective of this course is to give a handle on some of the most exciting
issues of contemporary American Cultural Studies inflected by recent
developments in this multidisciplinary project. We start with charting the territory
of American studies signposted by its institutional framework and conceptual
grounds, then we proceed to explore its recent affiliations with green studies,
dance studies, musicology, and critical race studies. The lecture also seeks to
provide students with a basic tool kit to integrate electronic resources into their
study of ACS. The course ends with a sample exam to make sure students
understand the requirements and organize their final preparations accordingly.

Requirements: regular attendance, midterm and final exam (written) based on


the readings and the lectures.
Readings: Reader to be deposited at the library.

Gendering Theory, Theories of Gender


Hist/cult, lect, survey, 1 MAEN, all tracks, 4-5 ENG, US
Barát Erzsébet

The lecture is designed to advance a dialogue about the implications of the various academic
theorizations of the categories of sex, gender, and sexuality from the 1970s to the beginning
of the 21st century in literary criticism, cultural studies and linguistics. Based on the critical
readings of both classic and recent texts, we shall explore the insights and subversive potential
we can gain from ‘gender’, the key concept of feminism/s and that of ‘sexuality’ developed
by radical feminism and the 1990s generation of queer theory. Our ultimate aim is to go
beyond the unproductive polarization between social historical versus cultural materialist
approaches to culture, literature, and language use. This means that we are neither taking
‘women’ as a pre-given social group/category that is straightforwardly taken to be comparable
with its cultural ‘images’, ‘representations’. Nor are we going to accept the introduction of
‘femininity’ in its stead that hinges on contingent sexual difference. Instead, the course is
hoped to seek a more integrative account of the complex hegemonic relations between gender
and sexuality, destabilizing the (theoretically) assumed reductive continuities between
anatomical sex, social gender, gender identity, sexual practice, sexual desire, and sexual
identity as well as its allegedly infinite dis-embodied playful act of performances. As a result,
we shall not slide from a falsely universalistic ‘woman’ (social essentialism) to a falsely
individualised ‘feminine identity’ (cultural essentialism) but argue for gender and sexuality
relations to be integral to the formation of the cultural filed, including the understanding of
the most relevant conceptual terms, such as authorship, modernism, the distinction between
high and popular culture, co-operative and competitive language strategies.

The Rise of Popular Culture


Hist/cult, lect, 2 MAEN Cult, 4-5 ENG, US
Barát Erzsébet
The Rise of Popular Culture

This course introduces the diversity of approaches to the study of popular culture. It offers an
awareness of cultural studies as a discipline in its own right, and contrasts this with other
approaches drawn from different disciplinary foundations. It explores how different
backgrounds and methodologies change our notions of what popular, mass, folk, and
subculture versus high culture, arts should consist of as well as the various political
implications of such distinctions. At the same time we shall also address the issues of popular
culture as post-modern culture and as globalization, with a particular focus on further internal
differentiations of popular versus unpopular form of cultural production. By the end of the
course students should develop an awareness of different theoretical approaches to (the
invention of) popular culture, namely the changes in the various intellectual discourses that
articulate the distinctions. At the same time students will also acquire the ability to evaluate
and analyze texts critically in relation to their social embeddedness, and to identify the key
concerns in the debates around the emerging range of meanings of ‘popular’ culture and their
‘ordinary’ audiences.

Digital Theory: The Language of New Media


Cult/hist, lect, survey, 1, MAAM, 2 MAAM, 4-5 US, ENG
Dragon Zoltán
06. Visual representations: American arts and media (MAAM); MAAM 2: any course,
lecture, Kiegészítő nem nyelvi képzés (incl. MAT-rel.) – AMB3-2 ill. ANGB3-2

The aim of this course is to analyze the language of new media by placing it within the history
of modern visual and media cultures. What are the ways in which new media relies on older
cultural forms and languages and what are the ways in which it breaks with them? What is
unique about how new media objects create the illusion of reality, address the viewer, and
represent space and time? How do conventions and techniques of old media—such as the
rectangular frame, mobile viewpoint and montage—operate in new media? If we are to
construct an archeology which will connect new computer-based techniques of media creation
with previous techniques of representation and simulation, where should we locate the
essential historical breaks? To answer these questions, we will look at several areas of new
media: Websites, virtual worlds, VR, multimedia, computer games, interactive installations,
computer animation, digital video, cinema, and human-computer interfaces.

Seminars

Cultural Poetics of America


Hist/cult, sem, 2 MAAM, 4-5 ENG, US
Cristian Réka M.
American Culture in Historical Context - AM-MA-D2, AMB3-2

The course aims to present the connections between the field(s) of cultural studies and the
American experience; targets to examine the tensions that exist within the multifaceted and
multi-cultural mix of American life and facilitates glimpses into complex contexts that best
describe the discourses of America. The tools for introspection include academic essays about
global and local culture, objects of everyday use and art making, kitsch and commerce,
politics and identity, representations of personal histories and cultures, of relationships
perceived in the designs and forms of different sets of artefacts, and the way they relate to
organizing principles that tie a whole society together, and how, over time and individual
responses, these shift. During the semester we will 1) develop interdisciplinary research skills
in the domain of American studies; 2) understand how seemingly unimportant cultural
changes of everyday life can be used as tools in the academic interpretation of a given culture
as such; 3) evaluate and synthesize popular culture within American studies 4) utilize the
acquired research skills in preparing and presenting an individual research paper on one of the
topics commonly agreed with the course tutor. Classes will be a combination of presentations,
discussions and team-work. Grading: 20% participation, 30% presentation, 50% final paper
10-12 pages long. Primary readings: Neil Campbell and Alasdair Kean American Cultural
Studies. An Introduction to American Culture (Routledge: New York, 1997), Rob Kroes If
You’ve Seen One, You’ve Seen the Mall. Europeans and American Mass Culture (U of
Illinois P, Urbana and Chicago, 1996), Jean Baudrillard Amerika, Ford. Tótfalusi Ágnes
(Magvető: Budapest, 1996), Stephen Fry in America (BBC 6 series, 2008).

The Iconology of American Painting


Hist/cult, sem, MAAM, 4-5 ENG, US
Annus Iren
MAAM 12. sor (Am Arts and Their Contexts), ENG, US (kiegeszito nem nyelvi
kepzes), AMB3-23 (research methods in Am Studies)

Rooted in the iconological tradition of Panofsky and Mitchell, the course pursues: (1) the
boundaries of reading pieces of American painting, both public and domestic within the
context of contemporary American cultural and social milieu; and (2) the possible relations to
written pieces by American authors, with the purpose of deepening our understanding of
possible social, cultural and political realities out of which these pieces have emerged as well
as the realities they may attempt to convey to the reader.

Film Noir and the American Film


Cult/hist, sem, 2 MAAM, 4-5 US, ENG
Dragon Zoltán
13. American Film Arts and the Media (MAAM); Kiegészítő nem nyelvi képzés
(incl. MAT-rel.) – AMB3-2 ill. ANGB3-2;

Paris, summer of 1946: a moment that marks an important event in film history, for this was
the summer when, after the hiatus of World War II, French moviegoers were again given the
chance to see films from Hollywood. The films they could then see (The Maltese Falcon and
Double Indemnity among them) prompted the naming and theorization of a new phenomenon:
film noir. The course offers an insight into the still ongoing critical and theoretical debates on
film noir: whether it is a genre or a cycle, or none at all; the re-emergence of noir in recent
years primarily in hybrid forms merging it with science fiction and horror; or the somewhat
“lethal” relation between the sexes, the roles and cultural background of the hard-boiled
detective and the femme fatale. The preliminary list of films tries to cover the wide range of
issues: Double Indemnity, The Maltese Falcon, The Postman Always Rings Twice, Blade
Runner, and Femme Fatale.

Advanced Research Methods


Hist/cult, sem, 2, MAEN (all tracks)
Barát Erzsébet

This seminar prepares students to learn about the major ways and most recent developments
of doing qualitative research methods in culture studies, as well as applied linguistics and
gender studies. The course will be focused on interdisciplinary approaches organized around
three thematic issues: methods, self-reflection, and theoretical and conceptual exploration.
The students will read sample researches and self-reflections on the research procedure by top
names in the chosen field of research to help students learn how to develop their own
methodology in response to the need of the changing design of their projects. They will be
asked to reflect on their own research projects regarding the questions of how to
conceptualize the ‘problem’ and its consequences for selecting and approaching data, sorting
and coding, the ways of reading for emphasis, details and gaps, as well as presenting and
interpreting the ‘results’ of analysis. Finally, we shall address questions of internal and
external ‘validity’ in qualitative approaches where the analysis is concerned with meaning and
the complex – textually mediated – process of its production.

Research Methods in the Information Society (NEW)

Cult/lit, sem, MAEN (all tracks)

Péter Róbert

This seminar prepares students to learn quantitative and qualitative research methods in
culture studies, literary studies as well as applied linguistics and gender studies. As far as
quantitative methods are concerned, students will be introduced to statistical thinking. The
course is designed to assist young researchers in applying the proper statistical procedure to
their data and reporting results in a professional manner consistent with commonly accepted
practice. They will study SPSS examples, learning about how to plan a study, prepare data for
analysis in SPSS, perform the analysis, and interpret the SPSS output.
It will also offer interdisciplinary qualitative methods organized around three thematic issues:
methodology, epistemological reflection, and theoretical and conceptual exploration. They
will also read sample researches and reflections on the research procedure by top names in the
chosen field of research to help them learn how to develop their own methodology in response
to the need of their changing design. They will also be offered an expanded list of suggested
readings, arranged thematically within their chosen framework of research, including relevant
websites and electronic databases.
Reading:
Bercovitch, Sacvan. ”The Problem of Idelogy in a Time of Dissensus” The Rites of Assent:
Transformation in the Symbolic Construction of America. New York & London:
Routledge, 1993. 353-376.
Berry, Ralph. The Research Project. London: Routledge, 2001 (1966).
Bollobás, Enikő. ”Dangerous Liaisons: Politics and Epistemology in Post-Cold War
American Studies.” American Quarterly 54(Dec. 2002): 4. 563-579.
Clandinin, Jean. Handbook of Narrative Inquiry: Mapping a Methodology. London: Sage.
2006.
Eco, Umberto. Hogyan írjunk szakdolgozatot? Budapest: Gondolat, 1994.
Federmayer, Éva. ”American Studies in Hungary” EJAS 2006 (Online) Available:
http://ejas.revues.org/document451.html, access: 06 June, 2006.
Ickstadt, Heinz. ”American Studies in the Age of Globalization” American Quarterly 54(Dec.
2002): 4. 542-562.
Maynard, Mary and June Purvis (eds.) Researching Women’s Lives from a Feminist
Perspective. London: Taylor and Francis. 1994.
Reinard, C. John. Communication Research Statistics. London: Sage.
Seale, Clive (ed.) 1998. researching Society and Culture. London: Sage.
Stanczak, C. Gregory. Visual Research Methods Image, Society, and Representation. London:
Sage. 2006.

MATE
Lectures

The Multimediality of Culture


Lit, lect, 1, MAEN, MATE, 4-5, ENG, US
Szőnyi-György Endre

Modern literary and cultural theory distinguishes two major 'turns' since the
crystallization of the humanities disciplines in the 19th century. These are the
'linguistic turn' which occurred in the first half of the 20th century, primarily
inspired by the concepts of Ferdinand de Saussure; and the 'pictorial or iconic
turn' which emerged in the last quarter of the 20th century. The chief
theoreticians of the latter are the American W. J. T. Mitchell and the German art
historian, Hans Belting. It is quite obvious that Anglo-American culture cannot be
examined without taking into consideration the above theoretical concerns which
then have to be completed by case studies, applied to various media of cultural
representations.
The course primarily relies on the methods and achievements of classical and
postmodern iconology but also refers to semiotics and poststructuralist subject-
theories on the one hand and traditional philology on the other. Topics include
the multimediality of cultural representations, image-word relations throughout
the centuries, the reconfiguring of the text into hypertext, aesthetic
reception/production of visual arts (painting, photography, cinema), embodied
experience of space, spectacularity, distinctions between the unspeakable /
unimaginable / unbelievable / impossible in a post-traumatic culture, and the
move towards the 'corporeal turn' and the 'museum turn'.
Seminars

English Phonetics and Phonology for Teachers


Meth, sem, 1, MATE
Kontra Miklós

The aim of the course is to familiarise students with regional, social and stylistic
varieties of English regarding phonetics/pronunciation, to enable them to transfer
these issues as the minimum requirements into their language classes; to
present the successful and less successful phonetic/pronunciation characteristics
of communicating in English; in addition, to deal with typical language learning
and language use problems of Hungarian learners’ of English. The course is
assessed on the basis of homework assignments, as well as presentations, based
on small-scale empirical research, preparation for and participation in class.

English Grammar for Teachers


Meth, sem, 1, MATE
Pálos Ildikó

The main aim of the course is to examine English grammar from a language
learning and teaching perspective. In order to realise this aim, English morpho-
syntax, basic phonology and pragmatics, and relevant classroom processes will
be in the centre of attention. The course provides opportunities for teacher
trainees to consider different practical and concrete ways of possible application
of their grammatical knowledge in the classroom. The course focuses on
encouraging students to look at grammar from socio-communicative perspective.
The course is assessed on the basis of weekly assignments related to grammar
teaching, two grammatical proficiency tests, and a presentation of a paper in the
field of teaching grammar.
Language Policy in the EU and Hungary (NEW)
Meth, sem, 2 MATE, ling, 2 MAEN (any course seminar, AL)
Kontra Miklós

This seminar surveys basic issues in language policy in general, and those in the
European Union and Hungary in particular. Acquisition planning and the spread of
English will be discussed in great detail. Grades will be based on participation in
classroom discussions and a mid-term and final essay.
Topics:
1) Ricento 2006: Language Policy: Theory and practice – an introduction
2) Phillipson 2003, chapter 1: The risks of laissez faire language policies
3) chapter 2: European languages: families, nations, empires, states
4) chapter 3: Global trends impacting on European language policy
5) chapter 4: Languages in EU institutions
6) chapter 5: towards equitable communication
7) chapter 6: Recommendations for action on language policies
8) Grin 2006: Economic Considerations in Language Policy
9) Phillipson 2008: Language policy and education in the European Union
10) Sándor 2006: Nyelvtervezés, nyelvpolitika, nyelvművelés
11) Bárdos 2009: Tanárképzési kontextusok különös tekintettel az angolra
12) Kontra 2009: A focihoz és a pedagógiához mindenki ért, a nyelvhez még a
politikus is
Readings
Bárdos Jenő. 2009. Tanárképzési kontextusok különös tekintettel az angolra. In:
Frank Tibor és Károly Krisztina, szerk., Anglisztika és amerikanisztika:
Magyar kutatások az ezredfordulón, 33–49. Budapest: Tinta Könyvkiadó.
Grin, François. 2006. Economic Considerations in Language Policy. In: Ricento,
Thomas, ed., An Introduction to Language Policy: Theory and Method, 77–94.
Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.
Kontra Miklós. 2009. A focihoz és a pedagógiához mindenki ért, a nyelvhez még a
politikus is. Korunk 2009. május: 87–95.
Phillipson, Robert. 2003. English-Only Europe? Challenging Language Policy.
London: Routledge.
Phillipson, Robert. 2008. Language policy and education in the European Union.
In: May, Stephen and Hornberger, Nancy H., eds., Language and political
issues in education, volume 1 of Encyclopedia of Language and Education,
2nd edition, 255–265. New York: Springer.
Ricento, Thomas. 2006. Language Policy: Theory and practice – an introduction.
In: Ricento, Thomas, ed., An Introduction to Language Policy: Theory and
Method, 10–23. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.
Sándor Klára. 2006. Nyelvtervezés, nyelvpolitika, nyelvművelés. In: Kiefer Ferenc,
főszerk., Magyar nyelv, 958–995. Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó.

English language teaching methodology 2: Skills and practices


Meth, sem, 1 MATE, 3-4 ENG, US
Bukta Katalin

The course is the second part of the methodology training and will cover the four
skill areas (listening, speaking, reading and writing), dealing with errors, testing
and lesson planning. Some current coursebooks and set reading passages will be
discussed and evaluated. A variety of teaching modes will be employed: mini
lectures, peer observations, pair- and groupwork, problem solving, discovery
learning, loop-input, etc. The course will be assessed on the basis of class
performance and assignments at the end of the semester.

Vocabulary Acquisition for Teachers


Meth, sem, 1-2 MATE
Doró Katalin
MATE any course sem

This course in the English teacher training MA program recognizes the central
role that lexical knowledge plays in the communicative competence and in the
acquisition of a second language. The course provides a comprehensive overview
of the role of vocabulary in language learning, language teaching, language use
and language testing. The topics discussed will include: aspects of knowing a
word, vocabulary in discourse, the role of vocabulary in reading, writing, listening
and speaking, implicit and explicit learning, vocabulary learning strategies,
vocabulary teaching, assessment of vocabulary knowledge and vocabulary
building materials. The course will also highlight the importance of learners’ first
language, age, motivation and overall language proficiency in lexical acquisition.
These issues will help students to, on the one hand, understand how they can
improve their own language competence, and, on the other hand, to prepare
them for the application of research tools and existing written and online
materials to their own classroom teaching, testing and material design.

Language Testing (Methodology Option)


Meth, sem 1 MATE, 3, 4-5, ENG, US
Bukta Katalin
MATE any course sem

The course focuses on testing in ELT classes and aims at familiarizing teacher
trainees
with the basic theories in language testing. In addition, test construction and
evaluation techniques will be presented. Bearing in mind communicative
language teaching, testing is based on the four skills: reading, writing, speaking
and listening. Testing vocabulary and grammar will also be included. The current
state of art in language testing in Hungary will also be discussed.

Old MATE
Seminars

English language teaching methodology 1: Theories and practices


Meth, sem, 3-4, ENG, US
Bukta Katalin

The course is the first part of a two-semester course, and will deal with the
following issues of teaching English: language teaching methods and approaches,
teacher and student roles, classroom observation, classroom management,
teaching vocabulary. A variety of teaching modes be employed: presentations,
pair and groupwork, discovery learning, etc. The course will be assessed on the
basis of homework assignments, as well as preparation for and participation in
class.

Culture in ELT (Methodology Option)


Meth, sem, 3, 4-5, ENG, US,
Tápainé Balla Ágnes

When teaching English as a foreign language it is important to supplement


language learning with information about the culture of English-speaking
countries. For the purposes of this course ‘culture’ means knowledge about the
everyday life of people, as well as their history, and art. This course has a dual
aim: while expanding Ss’ knowledge about cultural topics, learning how to
prepare and teach culture-related materials for the ELT classroom. The proposed
topics include: Arts; Technical Innovations, Scientists, Researchers; History,
Politics, Legal System (Parties, Elections, Royal Family, etc.); Geography, Climate;
Sights; Holidays; Miscellaneous (Sports, Educational system, Dialects, etc.)

Differentiated Learning and Cooperative Techniques ((Methodology


Option)
Meth, sem, 3, 4-5, ENG, US,
Pálos Ildikó

The course aims to explore the hot issue of differences among learners from a
number perspectives and to give practical ideas regarding how we can tailor
our teaching to suit these differences – ie. make our teaching as
individualized as possible. The course also gives an introduction to
cooperative learning, as well as practice in some basic techniques that can
be employed to make our learners work cooperatively in this highly
individualistic culture we live in.

MATELev
Lectures

The Multimediality of Culture


Meth. lect. MATElev

Modern literary and cultural theory distinguishes two major "turns" since the
crystallization of the humanities disciplines in the 19th century. These are the
"linguistic turn" which occurred in the first half of the 20 th century, primarily
inspired by the concepts of Ferdinand de Saussure, and the "pictorial or iconic
turn" which emerged in the last quarter of the 20th century. The chief
theoreticians of the latter are the American W. J. T. Mitchell and the German art
historian, Hans Belting. It is obvious that Anglo-American culture cannot be
examined without taking into consideration the above theoretical concerns,
which then have to be completed by case studies, applied to various media of
cultural representations. The course primarily relies on the methods and
achievements of classical and postmodern iconology but also refers to semiotics
and poststructuralist subject-theories on the one hand and traditional philology
on the other. Topics include the multimediality of cultural representations, image-
word relations throughout the centuries, concluding with such up-to-date
phenomena as film, hypertext, and computer applications.
Second Language Acquisition
Meth. lect. MATElev

This course will consider topics in second language acquisition, which are of
interest to teachers of English. The focus will be on the learners, their language,
the internal processes, which affect acquisition, and effects of instruction. In
doing this, a variety of topics will be touched on including: the effect of previously
learned languages on the learning of additional languages; interaction and input;
cognitive process and language learning; individual differences including the
effects of age and learning strategies on language learning; and questions of
what constitutes possible and best classroom practices in general.

Discourse as an Interdisciplinary Concept


Meth. lect. MATElev

The concept of discourse plays an increasingly significant role in contemporary social


sciences and humanities. The lecture aims to explain the prominence of the concept and
explore the difference its introduction makes instead of deploying language and/or text as if a
synonym. As for the trajectory of the changes to the concept, we shall address its shift from a
narrow, structuralist account to the post-structuralist, and post-Marxist critical approaches that
draw on Foucault’s model. At the same time, students will be introduced to sample analyses
from the different scientific fields in order to make them see that no attempt at actual
discourse analysis should take discourse as given but provide supporting linguistic/textual
categories of analysis and arguments for the particular labelling of the discourses in question,
including those of the analyst. The ultimate aim is to find ways of establishing the
specificities of the text/context articulations that make up various orders of discourse any
given text draws on.

Seminars

English language teaching methodology 1: Theories and principles


Meth. sem. MATElev

The course is the first part of a two-semester course, and will deal with the
following issues of teaching English: language teaching methods and approaches,
teacher and student roles, classroom observation, classroom management,
teaching vocabulary. A variety of teaching modes be employed: presentations,
pair and groupwork, discovery learning, etc. The course will be assessed on the
basis of homework assignments, as well as preparation for and participation in
class.

English language teaching methodology 2: Skills and practices


Meth. sem. MATElev

The course is the second part of the methodology training and will cover the four
skill areas (listening, speaking, reading and writing), dealing with errors, testing
and lesson planning. Some current coursebooks and set reading passages will be
discussed and evaluated. A variety of teaching modes will be employed: mini
lectures, peer observations, pair- and groupwork, problem solving, discovery
learning, loop-input, etc. The course will be assessed on the basis of class
performance and assignments at the end of the semester.
Classroom practices in focus
Meth. sem. MATElev

The course aims to address a number of practical issues of teaching English as a


foreign language in a variety of scenarios, to various learner populations. An
initial suggested agenda includes the following topics: differentiated learning, the
age factor in language teaching, discipline, homework, the role of practice in
language teaching, cooperative techniques and materials evaluation - but the
course proceeds on a 'process syllabus' basis, i.e with participants negotiating
and agreeing on the list of the most urgent issues to discuss.

Language proficiency for teachers


Meth. sem. MATElev

This advanced level language course for intending English teachers has two
principal aims:
• To provide high level practice as preparation for taking advanced
public language exams;
• To enable trainees to use correct and appropriate language in
classroom interactions.
Advanced level students generally reach a language-learning plateau at which
point they feel that no further discernible progress is possible and that any
remaining errors in their language use are by this point fossilized. This course will
challenge that view and, by using a variety of diagnostic tools, enable the
participants to measure and analyse their current abilities and deficiencies in the
four language skills areas, vocabulary knowledge, grammar and pronunciation.
On the basis of this initial assessment, participants will agree with course leaders
on an individual programme of self-study to address their major areas of
weakness. In- class tasks will concentrate on vocabulary-building through
extensive reading; listening and speaking practice through the use of authentic
recordings from the mass media and the use of proficiency practice tests. In
addition, participants will be given practice in delivering classroom instructions
and explanations using age- and level-appropriate language. Assessment will be
by means of a final C-1 level language test.

Vocabulary Acquisition for Teachers


Meth. sem. MATElev

This course in the English teacher training MA program recognizes the central
role that lexical knowledge plays in the communicative competence and in the
acquisition of a second language. The course provides a comprehensive overview
of the role of vocabulary in language learning, language teaching, language use
and language testing. The topics discussed will include: aspects of knowing a
word, vocabulary in discourse, the role of vocabulary in reading, writing, listening
and speaking, implicit and explicit learning, vocabulary learning strategies,
vocabulary teaching, assessment of vocabulary knowledge and vocabulary
building materials. The course will also highlight the importance of learners’ first
language, age, motivation and overall language proficiency in lexical acquisition.
These issues will help students to, on the one hand, understand how they can
improve their own language competence, and, on the other hand, to prepare
them for the application of research tools and existing written and online
materials to their own classroom teaching, testing and material design.
English Phonetics and Phonology for Teachers
Meth. sem. MATElev

The aim of the course is to familiarise students with regional, social and stylistic
varieties of English regarding phonetics/pronunciation, to enable them to transfer
these issues as the minimum requirements into their language classes; to
present the successful and less successful phonetic/pronunciation characteristics
of communicating in English; in addition, to deal with typical language learning
and language use problems of Hungarian learners’ of English. The course is
assessed on the basis of homework assignments, as well as presentations, based
on small-scale empirical research, preparation for and participation in class.

English Grammar for Teachers


Meth. sem. MATElev

The main aim of the course is to examine English grammar from a language
learning and teaching perspective. In order to realise this aim, English morpho-
syntax, basic phonology and pragmatics, and relevant classroom processes will
be in the centre of attention. The course provides opportunities for teacher
trainees to consider different practical and concrete ways of possible application
of their grammatical knowledge in the classroom. The course focuses on
encouraging students to look at grammar from socio-communicative perspective.
The course is assessed on the basis of weekly assignments related to grammar
teaching, two grammatical proficiency tests, and a presentation of a paper in the
field of teaching grammar.

Language Policy in the EU and Hungary


Meth. sem. MATElev

This seminar surveys basic issues in language policy in general, and those in the
European Union and Hungary in particular. Acquisition planning and the spread of
English will be discussed in great detail. Grades will be based on participation in
classroom discussions and a mid-term and final essay.
Topics:
1) Ricento 2006: Language Policy: Theory and practice – an introduction
2) Phillipson 2003, chapter 1: The risks of laissez faire language policies
3) chapter 2: European languages: families, nations, empires, states
4) chapter 3: Global trends impacting on European language policy
5) chapter 4: Languages in EU institutions
6) chapter 5: towards equitable communication
7) chapter 6: Recommendations for action on language policies
8) Grin 2006: Economic Considerations in Language Policy
9) Phillipson 2008: Language policy and education in the European Union
10) Sándor 2006: Nyelvtervezés, nyelvpolitika, nyelvművelés
11) Bárdos 2009: Tanárképzési kontextusok különös tekintettel az angolra
12) Kontra 2009: A focihoz és a pedagógiához mindenki ért, a nyelvhez még a
politikus is

Aspects of contemporary British literature and culture


Meth. sem. MATElev
This seminar course will take as its starting point the problematic notion of
’Britishness’ and consider the issue of multiple and overlapping identities in a
modern multicultural state. Wherever possible, parallels will be drawn with
Hungary and Hungarian cultural identity. Each week of the course will have a
specific thematic focus that will be addressed by means of mini-lectures and
presentations, and discussions based on TV and video clips and printed handouts.
Themes to be considered will include the following:
• What is British-ness? The sum of English-ness, Welsh-ness, Scottish-ness
and Northern(?)-Irishness (whatever they are), or more, or less?
• Markers of identity: class; region; education; occupation; race; religion;
income.
• The Establishment.
• From the British Empire to multicultural Britain.
• Music, fashion and youth sub-cultures.
• The place of high culture: the plastic arts; opera; ballet; theatre.
• From angry young men to chick lit: post-war British fiction.
• The British sense of humour.
• Eating and drinking in Britain.
• Demography and democracy: two nations in one?
• The language and languages of Britain.
• The power of the press.
• An Englishman’s home…
• A nation of TV watchers.
• The British year: events; celebrations; commemoration.
• The sporting life of Britain.
• Britain and Europe; Britain and America; Britain in the world.
Assessment will be by means of one substantial piece of writing on any aspect of
the course. It will include guidelines for the incorporation of that element of
British culture into an English language teaching course in Hungary.

Current Approaches to North American Culture


Meth. sem. MATElev

This course will focus on the issues of using North American cultural topics in
English as a foreign language classes in Hungary and will be centered around
three general areas. First, we will look at how culture can be seen as a set of
products and practices. Second, we will explore possibilities for classroom
activities based on this approach. And third, we will investigate how specific
topics can be brought to the classroom for purposes such as motivating students
through the use of authentic language and topics, developing multicultural
understanding, and the learning of specific cultural information.

PhD
Literature and Culture

Literature and Meaning (NEW)


Cult, lect, PhD
Rozsnyai Bálint
The course is intended to survey the career of meaning in literary scholarship
from the late 19th c. to the late 20th c. It covers the various fields and agents of
meaning production, explores the significant theoretical traditions including
relevant linguistic “contributions.” In each major (thematic) section, essentialist
vs non-/anti-essentialist positions will be discussed, relying on representative
arguments on both sides. We will also read representative applications, i.e. texts
(re)producing/discovering meaning of well known (canonical) texts.
The sections, with the antagonists in brackets:
1. The textual orientation—authority of the text: Richards, I.A. and
generations of New Criticism: Brooks, C., Warren, R.P., Wellek, R., Warren,
A. (Leavis, F.R.);
2. The hermaneuts: Frye, N., Abrams, M.H., Hirsch, E.D. Jr.
3. Readers and meanigs: Iser, W., Fish, S., Schweickart, P.
4. Deconstructors: Derrida, J., Man, P. de, Miller, J.H., Culler, J. (Austin, Searle)
5. Neopragmatists: Fish, S., Rorty, R., Michaels, W.B. (Abrams, Hirsch)
Texts include: (selections from)
Richards. Principles of Criticism
Brooks, Warren. eds., Understanding Poetry
Brooks, C.The well wrought urn: studies in the structure of poetry
Wellek, Warren. Theory of Literature
Hirsch. Validity in interpretation
Iser. The Act of Reading
Fish. Is There A Text; Doing What Comes Naturally
Abrams. Natural Supernaturalism
Rorty. Objectivity, Relativism, and Truth
Michaels, Knapp. Against Theory
Derrida. Limited, Inc.
Miller. The Ethics of Reading
Grading:
you will write a short mid-term quiz (identification of texts, 10%) and a final
(identification of texts, 30%, and an essay, 60% of the final grade.)

Madwomen in the Attic: Women, Writing and Madness


Lit, sem, PhD, MAEN Gend, Cult, 4-5 ENG, US
Kérchy Anna
MAEN C6 Gender Track Seminar, MAEN D3 Cultural Studies, PhD

Freud’s 1905 case-study on Dora, the young hysteric woman peaked in the birth of
psychoanalysis, while The Madwoman in the Attic, Gilbert and Gubar’s vast 1979 study
on 19th and 20th century women writers became an ultimate reference point in gender
studies. Tracing the connections between madness (hysteria, schizophrenia, psychosis,
neurosis, etc.), femininity, subjectivity, authorship and writing has been a challenging
project ever since. The course proposes to analyse literary, filmic and theoretical
representations of women and madness examining the discursive construction, the
engendering social surveillance, as well as the transgressive potentials of the ‘female
malady,’ focusing on the question: Is the madwoman a victim of patriarchal oppression,
a silenced ‘leaking vessel’ of the ‘wandering womb’ or an empowering figure of female
rebellion and creativity, speaking up in an embodied, subversive voice? The material to
be discussed includes theoretical texts by S. Freud, Toril Moi, E. Bronfen, Gilbert and
Gubar, Cixous and Clément, Elaine Showalter, Shoshana Felman, Barbara Johnson,
Alice Jardine, poems by Emily Dickinson, Adrienne Rich, Anne Sexton, Sylvia Plath,
short stories by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Joyce Carol Oates, Nathaniel Hawthorne,
Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre and its rewritings (Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca, Jean
Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea), Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar, Susanna Kaysen’s Girl,
Interrupted, Virginia Woolf’s Moments of Being, Muriel Spark’s The Driver’s Seat,
Margaret Atwood’s Surfacing, a medieval treatise on witchcraft the Malleus
Maleficarum, as well as Roman Polanski’s film Repulsion, and John Cassavetes’ A
Woman Under the Influence.
Grading policy: participation, presentation (30%), homework booklogs (30%),
final essay/test (40%)

Literature and the Semiotics of the Subject


Lit, sem, MAEN Gend, Cult, PhD
Kiss Attila
MAEN D3 Gender Studies, C7 Cultural Studies, PhD

1. Objectives:
Recent developments in (literary) theory and the semiotics of the speaking subject
reveal that the study of literature presupposes an understanding of how meaning
emerges in the human subject through a socio-historically specific situatedness.
The theory of this positioning of the subject involves psychoanalytical, sociological
and semiological approaches to both the macrodynamics of social discursive
practices and the microdynamics of individual meaning-production.
This course aims at introducing students into the above theoretical issues through
the study of a representative selection of works on the theory of the subject. We
will concentrate on the problem of interaction between text and reader, and
investigate how they mutually produce each other in a semiotic model.
2. Scheduled topics:
1.The theory of the subject and the critique of the sign.
Preliminary problems in the theory of communication.
2.Ideology, power-technologies and the constitution of the subject.
3.Psychoanalysis, symbolization and the constitution of the subject.
4.The problem of the extra-linguistic and the borderlines of meaning in literat ure:
abjection and the subject-in-process.
5.Problematizing the "brute materiality of the Letter": surplus, containment and ex-
penditure.
6.Notes towards a theory of practice.
3. Readings:
COWARD, R. & ELLIS, J. 1977. "The Critique of the Sign." In: Language and
Materialism. Developments in Semiology and the Theory of the Subject. New York
and London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
SILVERMAN, Kaja, 1983. "The Subject of Lacan." In: The Subject of Semiotics.
Oxford: Oxford University Press.
ALTHUSSER, Luis, 1986. “Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses.” In: ADAMS,
Hazard & SEARLE, Leroy (eds.), 1986. Critical Theory Since 1965. Tallahassee:
Florida State U.P.
DAYAN, Daniel “The Tutor Code of Classical Cinema.” www.apertura.hu
FOUCAULT, Michel, 1984. "The Subject and Power." In: DREYFUS, H.L. & RABINOW,
P. Michel Foucault: Beyond Structuralism and Hermeneutics. Chicago: University of
Chicago Press.
GROSZ, Elizabeth, 1989. “Glossary.” Sexual Subversions. Sidney: Allen and Unwin.
LACAN, Jacques, "The Mirror Stage as Formative of the Function..." In: ADAMS,
Hazard & SEARLE, Leroy (eds.), 1986. Critical Theory Since 1965. Tallahassee:
Florida State U.P.
KRISTEVA, Julia, 1984. "Prolegomena." "Genotext and Phenotext." "Poetry that is
not a Form of Murder." In: Revolution in Poetic Language. New York: Columbia
University Press.
KRISTEVA, Julia 1980. “From One identity into (An) Other.” In: Desire in Language. A
Semiotic Approach to Literature and the Arts. New York: Columbia University Press.
KRISTEVA, Julia, 1984. “The Speaking Subject.” In: Marchall Blonsky (ed.) On Signs.
Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press.
KRISTEVA, Julia, 1973. “The System and the Speaking Subject.” Times Literary
Supplement, October 12, 1973.
ZIZEK, Slavoj, 1989."How Did Marx Invent the Symptom?" In: The Sublime Object of
Ideology. London and New York: Verso.
4. Grading policy:
a/attendance, participation in discussions, reading journals, presentations: 40%
b/Home paper (8 pages, on one of three topics to be specified later, Style Sheet
should be observed, 40% content, 10% language, 10% apparatus, to be submitted
on last Friday of classes): 60%

PhD Research Seminar


Lit/cult, sem, PhD
Szőnyi-György Endre
PhD kutató szeminárium

This course is one of the two research seminars mandatory for PhD students in
the "English and American Literatures and Culture" doctoral program. The
seminar has a flexible thematics: presentations by professors and students as
well as gueast speakers will comprise the curriculum. The language of the classes
is Hungarian but the students who take it for credit will have to compile a week-
to-week journal in English which will be evaluated by their supervisors.

Linguistics

Linguistic Analysis
Ling, sem, PhD (English Applied Linguistics)
Fenyvesi Anna

The aim of the course is to teach students do Structuralist-style traditional


linguistic analysis through completing linguistic problems in phonetics,
phonology, morphology, and historical linguistics. After a brief theoretical
introduction and a survey of methodological tools, class sessions consist of
discussions of linguistic problems and their solutions. Course requirements
include solving problems assigned as homework. Problems contain data from
Indo-European, Native American and other languages.

Phonetics
Ling, sem, PhD (English Applied Linguistics)
Gósy Mária

The course surveys phonetics in its entirety, that is, both traditional and modern phonetic
sciences. The definition of the field as extending from speech planning to speech processing
comprises all its subfields from phonetic theory through experimental phonetics to applied
phonetics – all of which are discussed in the course with a general view of phonetics as a
starting point and utilizing references to and examples from language specific characteristics
of, primarily, Hungarian and English.
Phonology/Syntax
Ling, sem, PhD (English Applied Linguistics)
Zsigri Gyula

The course provides an overview of theoretical and empirical issues of phonology


and syntax relevant to applied linguists, focusing on variation and its practical
and theoretical treatment within empirically based linguistics

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