Tentative Syllabus (Subject to Change!) V51.0152 Introduction to German Literature Spring 2016 Chadwick Smith Email: cts233@nyu.edu Office: 19 University Place, Room 328 Prerequisite Intermediate German II, Intensive Intermediate German or approval by the director of language program Course Description This course has two major goals: (1) to introduce students to a selection of representative authors and exemplary texts of literature written in German language from the 18th to the 20th century and (2) to develop close and critical reading skills while learning to express yourselves about literary texts in German, both in writing and in speaking. Covering the three major literary genres poetry, prose, drama some of the following issues will be discussed: the depiction of otherness; the representation of time and history; the uncanny; the relationship between form and content; the economy of human relationships on the basis of hierarchy, love, authority, among others. Course Materials There is one book to be purchased for this course: Nicolas Boyle: German Literature: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press 2008 (ISBN 978-0-19-920659- 9). Readings will be posted on Classes I expect you to bring them to class. If you have not done so already, the acquisition of a good dictionary (bilingual is fine) is necessary at this point. Grading Attendance, preparedness and active participation 20% Homework and regular written reading responses 30% Midterm Exam 20% Final paper (5-7 pages) 30% Attendance Attendance is required and will be checked every time the class meets. Each unexcused absence will lower your attendance grade by 5%. If you miss class without excuse six times or more, you will be failed. You will not be penalized for legitimate absence due to illness (documented by a note from NYU health services), emergency, or religious observance; contact your instructor as soon as possible
Semesterplan Erste Woche Tag 1 Einführung Tag 2 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832): Prometheus, Erlkönig Background Reading: Boyle 5-26 ( The bourgeois and the official: a historical overview ) 2. Woche Tag 3 Goethe: Amerika Goethe, Wanderers Nachtlied (1780/3) Friedrich Hölderlin (1770-1843): TBD Tag 4 Heinrich von Kleist, Das Bettelweib von Locarno or Das Erdbebeb in Chili Background Reading: 27-57 ( The laying of the foundations (to 1781) ) 3. Woche Tag 5 First Reading Response due Ludwig Tieck (1773-1853): Lebens Überfluß Tag 6 Tieck: Lebens Background Reading: 58-79 ( The age of idealism 1781-1832) ) 4. Woche Tag 7 Tieck: Lebens
Tag 8 Joseph von Eichendorff (1788-1857): Mondnacht, Sehnsucht Annette von Droste-Hülshoff (1797-1848): Im Grase Eduard Möricke (1804-1875): Um Mitternacht 5. Woche Tag 9 Second Reading Response due Georg Büchner (1813-1837): Woyzeck Tag 10 Background Reading: 80-119 ( The age of materialism ) Georg Büchner (1813-1837): Woyzeck 6. Woche Tag 11 Annette von Droste-Hülshoff, Die Judenbuche Tag 12 Die Judenbuche 7. Woche Tag 13 Third Reading Response due Die Judenbuche Tag 14 Stefan George (1868-1933): Du schlank und rein wie eine Flamme, Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926): TBD, Christian Morgenstern (1871-1914): Das ästhetische Wiesel, Der Lattenzaun 8. Woche Springbreak 9. Woche Tag 15 Theodor Fontane, Die Brück am Tay (1879) Gerhard Hauptmann, Bahnwärter Thiel
Background Reading: 146-171 ( Traumas and memories (1914- ) ) Tag 16 Fourth Reading Response due 10. Woche Tag 17 Bahnwärter Thiel Tag 18 Franz Kafka (1883-1924): Heimkehr, Eine kaiserliche Botschaft 11. Woche Tag 19 Franz Kafka (1883-1924): Der Hungerkunstler Tag 20 Fifth Reading Response due Der Hungerkunstler 12. Woche Tag 21 Else Lasker-Schüler: Weltende, Jakob van Hoddis, Weltende Gottfried Benn: Kleines Aster, Kurt Schwitters: Anna Blume, Erich Kästner: Sachliche Romanze 13. Woche Tag 22 Walter Benjamin: Das Telefon Alfred Döblin, Die Ermordung einer Butterblume (1913) Tag 23 Die Ermordung einer Butterblume
14. Woche Tag 24 Paul Celan: Todesfuge, Corona Tag 25 Ingeborg Bachmann (1926-1973): Besichtigung einer alten Stadt Tag 26 Ingeborg Bachmann: Anrufung des Großen Bären, Erklär mir, Liebe 15. Woche Tag 27 Friedländer: Goethe spricht in den Phonographen (with Kittler, Grammophon Film Typewriter) Tag 28 Yoko Tawada: Computergeister Last class session Final Paper due