2018/2019

2018/2019

DM270

L-LIN/13 (GERMAN LITERATURE)

DEPARTMENT OF HUMANITIES

LITERATURES OF EUROPE AND THE AMERICAS

PERCORSO COMUNE

1°

2nd semester (25/02/2019 - 05/06/2019)

9

54 lesson hours

German

ORAL TEST

ANDRESSOHN STEFAN JURGEN (titolare) - 9 ECTS

No prerequisites

The program is divided into two independent but complementary courses, each focusing on a key period and writer of German literature. The first part (“Weimar I – Between carpe diem and Quiet Grandeur”) will examine J. W. Goethe’s poetry and the literary culture centering around the Weimar court at the turn of the 19th century. The second part (“Weimar II: Between Cabaret and Revolution”) is dedicated to the analysis of Bertolt Brecht’s lyrical poems and songs during the interwar period of the Weimar Republic.
The first 36 units equal 6 CFU credit points; the entire course equals 9 CFU points.

The course aims at retracing two of Germany’s major literary periods, the “Goethezeit” and the years between the end of World War I and Hitler’s rise to power in 1933 analyzing the literary output of each era’s canonically central writer, J.W. Goethe and Bert Brecht, respectively, focusing on close readings of their lyrical poems and songs. The first part of the course (“Weimar I – Between carpe diem and Quiet Grandeur”) is dedicated to Goethe’s literary evolution from his rococo beginnings to the dense symbolism of his late poems. The second part (“Weimar II: Between Cabaret and Revolution”) will deal with the equally important but quite different literary world of the Weimar Republic using Bert Brecht’s songs and poems as focal points.
Both parts of the course will explore the principal literary movements of the periods under investigation, such as Anacreonticism, “storm and stress”, and Winckelmannian neo-classicism in the first part; expressionism, naturalism, and New Objectivity in the second part. In addition to close reading, historical contextualization and translation special emphasis will be put on analyzing the relationship between poetry and music. Each part of the course will end with an outlook on later periods and movements and an investigation of the impact the two writers had on them, i.e. Goethe’s influence on romanticism and Brecht’s continuing centrality for both German literature in exile between 1933 and 1945 (Exilliteratur) and the two Germanies after the war.

Lessons will consist primarily of frontal lectures, mainly in German. Space will also be given to discussion and a more seminary-style approach of close reading and translation. The lectures will be accompanied by slides and other audiovisual materials. A series of excursions are dedicated to establishing a metalinguistic vocabulary and critical toolkit to facilitate close reading and discussion of the texts. The course will also provide historical background information and an introduction to genre theory.

Main texts:

Johann Wolfgang Goethe: Gedichte, kommentiert von Erich Trunz, Beck, 2006
https://www.amazon.it/Gedichte-Johann-Wolfgang-von-Goethe/dp/340655248X


Bertolt Brecht: Die Dreigroschenoper, Text und Kommentar, Suhrkamp 2004
https://www.amazon.it/Die-Dreigroschenoper-Kommentar-Bertolt-Brecht/dp/3518188488


For further investigation:

Jurij Striedter (Hrsg.): Russischer Formalismus. Texte zur allgemeinen Literaturtheorie und zur Theorie der Prosa, 3. Auflage, UTB 1971
https://www.amazon.de/Russischer-Formalismus-allgemeinen-Literaturtheorie-Theorie/dp/B00A0PEF4W/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1549377687&sr=1-1


Gerhard Kurz: Macharten. Über Rhythmus, Reim, Stil und Vieldeutigkeit, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2009
https://www.amazon.de/Macharten-Rhythmus-Vieldeutigkeit-Sanskrit-worterbuch-lieferungsausgabe/dp/3525340133/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1549377905&sr=8-1&keywords=Gerhard+Kurz+Macharten


Gerhard Kurz: Metapher, Allegorie, Symbol, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2009
https://www.amazon.it/Metapher-Allegorie-Symbol-Gerhard-Kurz/dp/352534032X/ref=sr_1_1?s=english-books&ie=UTF8&qid=1549377788&sr=1-1&keywords=Gerhard+Kurz+Metapher

There will be one oral exam about the texts and subjects covered in the lectures.