GERMAN LITERATURE 1 MOD.2

Academic year
2018/2019 Syllabus of previous years
Official course title
LETTERATURA TEDESCA 1 MOD. 2
Course code
LM0032 (AF:282436 AR:158580)
Modality
On campus classes
ECTS credits
12
Subdivision
Class 1
Degree level
Master's Degree Programme (DM270)
Educational sector code
L-LIN/13
Period
2nd Semester
Course year
1
Where
VENEZIA
The module is taught as a mandatory subject in the Master’s degree programme in European, American and Postcolonial Language and Literature (60 hours lesson time and 12 CP). It is mandatory also in the Language Sciences Master’s degree for students specializing in German (30 hours lesson time and 6 CP). It shares the general objectives of the mentioned Master's degree programme within the area of German Literature.

To meet the objective of bringing students to an advanced level of German language and historical-cultural knowledge, the course will be taught in German with brief comments and explanations in Italian where necessary or requested.

Students who choose to follow the course as an optional subject and students who take part in the Erasmus programme are requested to contact the course instructor to ascertain they have the necessary language and literary competences.
The course wishes to obtain the follwing results:

- awareness of the historic-cultural context of the German speaking countries in the 18th and 19th centuries

- comprehension of the complex literary landscape at the time of the Enlightenment and the early Romantic Period

- intensive study of chosen works representing different genres

- development of the critical and expository skills needed to discuss the complex themes of emotionality, corporality, conflict and violence from a variety of philosophical, psychological and literary standpoints, in relation to the period in question

- acquisition of meta-theoretical notions concerning the relationship between literature and historical and political contexts

- acquisition of comparative intercultural notions and awareness through outcomes achieved in a European literary prospective

- improvement of language skills (towards levels C1/C2 on the CEFR) and skills of bibliographic research

- ability to translate into Italian extracts from literary texts and literary-cultural articles and to reflect on the translation process

- improvement of the ability to evaluate differing interpretative approaches and to formulate personal and effective hypotheses and judgements and to express them publicly, arguing a personal position

- development of the capacity to project and to map out a process of text analysis and to elaborate autonomously short presentations and papers

- ability to interact in interuniversity and international contexts through meetings with German-speaking students and researchers

- continued consolidation of the ability to select and utilize electronic sources and resources in German autonomously, and introduction to the ability to plan and carry out scientific work required in the various phases of the degree course, and the final thesis in particular.
Bachelor’s degree (triennale) and number of credits of German Language and Literature following the access guidelines established by the Master’s degree programme in European, American and Postcolonial Language and Literature (LLEAP). Other students are required to follow the guidelines of their chosen degree course.

All students are to have the language and analytical skills necessary to cope autonomously with the reading and semantic analysis of texts in German (at the C1 level of the CEFR). They are also required to prepare a ca. 20-minute oral presentation in German on a topic related to the course programme. Students are also required to have the communicative and conversational skills necessary to take an active role in scientific debate.

Students who choose to follow the course as an optional subject and students who take part in the Erasmus programme are kindly requested to contact the course instructor to ascertain they have the necessary language and literary competences for the course and the coursework.
“Affektpoetik” –
Emotionality, corporality, conflict and violence in German literature from Lessing to Büchner

As a consequence of the lively attention to reason and virtue throughout Europe during the Age of Enlightenment, there soon evolved that which in later days came to be referred to as the “Dialektik der Aufklärung”.
In an attempt to react against the obvious imbalance both at the micro individual and at the macro socio-political levels, there was unleashed a distinct philosophical and literary impetus in German culture. By focusing closely on theoretical and practical issues in regards to the potentialities and the limits of arts in the relation to the biopolitical, pychophysical and emotional dynamics experienced at the time, the selected authors under examination present an ever-growing interest in introspective analysis about what really motivates human beings in their feelings, their acts, and in the interpersonal conflicts raising from these existential realities.
The course intends to explore in depth and in full the new paradigms of the semantics of physical and psychological sensations in the languages of fiction explored and elaborated by the selected texts of particular historical and cultural significance in order at a later moment to discuss how far those texts are surprisingly still relevant.
Primary literature (set):

- Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Miss Sara Sampson

- Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Emilia Galotti

- Johann Gottfried Herder, Übers Erkennen und Empfinden in der menschlichen Seele

- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Die Leiden des jungen Werthers

- J.M.R. Lenz, Der Hofmeister

- Friedrich Schiller, Die Räuber

- Karl Philipp Moritz, Fragmente aus dem Tagebuch eines Geistersehers

- Friedrich Schiller, Über die ästhetische Erziehung des Menschen, in einer Reihe von Briefen (text selection)

- Friedrich Schiller, Über Anmut und Würde (text selection)

- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Iphigenie auf Tauris

- Friedrich Schiller, Die Braut von Messina

- Heinrich von Kleist, Über die allmähliche Verfertigung der Gedanken beim Reden

- Heinrich von Kleist, Die Marquise von O....

- Heinrich von Kleist, Michael Kohlhaas

- Heinrich von Kleist, Penthesilea

- Heinrich von Kleist, Die Verlobung in St. Domingo

- E.T.A. Hoffmann, Der Sandmann

- Georg Büchner, Lenz

- Georg Büchner, Woyzeck


Secondary literature (recommended):

- Claudia Benthien, Tribunal der Blicke: Kulturtheorien von Scham und Schuld und die Tragödie um 1800. Böhlau: Köln, Weimar 2011

- Claudia Benthien, Anne Fleig, Ingrid Kasten (ed.): Emotionalität. Zur Geschichte der Gefühle. Böhlau: Köln 2000

- Burkhard Meyer-Sieckendiek, Affektpoetik. Eine Kulturgeschichte literarischer Emotionen. Königshausen & Neumann: Würzburg 2005

- Hans-Jürgen Schings (ed.), Der ganze Mensch. Anthropologie und Literatur im 18. Jahrhundert. J.B. Metzler: Stuttgart, Weimar 1994

For study-purposes students can refer to translations of the texts, meanwhile at the examination are admitted only the original versions in german language. Further bibliographical explanations and indications will be given during the course.
In the oral all students will be required:

1) to be familiar with the chosen texts and to be able to translate into Italian a piece from one of those texts discussing the linguistic-cultural reasons for the translation solutions adopted;

2) to be able to discuss the cultural and historical contexts of the works being examined;

3) to be conversant with the textual tools to be able first to comment on both the content and formal aspects, in order finally to present competently their own personal opinions;

4) to be able to make use of the critical tools of analysis when discussing the texts in the original;

and 5) to present a case in German on a particular chosen subject from a selection first covered during the course. This theme, first agreed upon, will require a bibliographic study, as well as scholarly review of the different critical ideas encountered in the literary criticism.

The exam is divided into three parts, each ca. 20 minutes long. The first part is the oral presentation of the topic chosen. The second part is the translation and critical commentary of an extract taken from one of the course texts. Finally, students will answer specific questions and discuss the theses put forward by the course instructor in an oral exam focusing on one or more texts not already dealt with in the first part of the exam. The last part will be conducted in German or, if students request, partially in Italian, with no effect on the final overall mark.

Students who choose to take German Literature (6 CP) within the Language Sciences Master’s degree may attend 30 hours lesson time and agree on an individual programme based on half the texts indicated in the course bibliography.

Front lectures with seminarial elements (presentations and class discussion); additional support material; supplementary multi-medial activities.
At the beginning of classes, students are advised to print out this programme and bring it with them. It will be discussed and explained in detail by the lecturer. The topics of the lessons will be presented together with the order in which the texts will be dealt with and discussed.
Other informations will be communicated during the module and/or in internet ("scheda docente - avvisi/materiale didattico"). For further information contact the professor.
oral

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "Human capital, health, education" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development

Definitive programme.
Last update of the programme: 12/04/2019