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Syllabus German Literature and Culture - 19th And 20th Centuries - 32215
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Last update 12-09-2024
HU Credits: 2

Degree/Cycle: 1st degree (Bachelor)

Responsible Department: German Language & Literature

Semester: 2nd Semester

Teaching Languages: Hebrew

Campus: Mt. Scopus

Course/Module Coordinator: Tamar Abramov

Coordinator Email: tamar.abramov@mail.huji.ac.il

Coordinator Office Hours: by appointment

Teaching Staff:
Dr. Tamar Abramov

Course/Module description:
The history, society, and culture that were created and then destroyed in the German speaking lands since the late 19th and into the 20th century shaped the world we live in today. It is a period of rapid and radical political, technological, and cultural changes. In these lectures we shall acquaint ourselves with some of the most important figures and works of this period. We shall also try to better understand the processes which led Germany plunge the world in to two World Wars as well as the cultural reaction to these wars and the attempt to create a “new Germany” after 1945. In order to do so we shall pass through the decadent Vienna, visit the darkest Prague, witness the trench-warfare of WW1 and go to Berlin between the wars before visiting the ruins of Köln and experience something of the Jewish revival in German of recent centuries.

Course/Module aims:
The course aims at conveying a thorough knowledge of developments in the history of German literature from the mid 19the century to the last decade of the 20th century.

Learning outcomes - On successful completion of this module, students should be able to:
- To define the various movements which form the history of German literature in the above mentioned timeframe.
- To name the most important representatives of those movements.
- To correlate works of literature with those movements.
- To recognize modifications in German literature and culture in the above mentioned timeframe and to assess some of their impact on modernity.
- To identify correlations between literature and history, social, and political life.

Attendance requirements(%):
100%

Teaching arrangement and method of instruction: Lecture; joint readings of selected literary texts; listening to selected pieces of music; power-point presentations.

Course/Module Content:
1. Introduction: Form the German unification of 1871 to the German unification of 1989
2. Vienna and decadence (Reading, Schnitzler’s Dream Story)
3. Kafka (Reading, Metamorphosis)
4. German Realism (Reading, Thomas Mann’s Death in Venice)
5. Literature as politics: DaDa (Reading, Hugo Ball’s Dada Manifesto)
6. First World War in Literatures (Reading, Ernst Jünger’s Storms of Steel)
7. Beyond words: Expressionism (Reading, Gotfried Benn’s Little Aster; Watching: The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari)
8. The big City (Reading, Alfred Döblin’s Berlin Alexanderplatz)
9. Nazi Art (Watch: Jud Süß)
10. Germany and Guilt (Reading, Karl Jaspers’ Question of German Guilt)
11. Reasons and explications (Reading, Thomas Man’s Dr. Faustus)
12. Poetry after Auschwitz (Reading, Paul Celan’s Death Fugue)
13. New-Germany of Group 47 (Reading, Heinrich Böll’s The Clown)
14. The Second Generation in Search of their Past (Reading, Hans Ulrich Treichel’s Lost)
15. Jewish Germany (Reading, Barbara Honigmann’s a Chapter from my Life)

Required Reading:
See in course content above.

Additional Reading Material:

Grading Scheme :
Written / Oral / Practical Exam 90 %
Presentation / Poster Presentation / Lecture/ Seminar / Pro-seminar / Research proposal 10 %

Additional information:
 
Students needing academic accommodations based on a disability should contact the Center for Diagnosis and Support of Students with Learning Disabilities, or the Office for Students with Disabilities, as early as possible, to discuss and coordinate accommodations, based on relevant documentation.
For further information, please visit the site of the Dean of Students Office.
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