30031 - German Literature 1 (LM)

Learning outcomes

The students must have an in-depth knowedge of the history of German Literature, a critical insight into its most important texts, and they must be able to evaluate their literary qualities and to analyse them in a transational and comparative prespective. At the end of the course they must have acquired the theoretical and methodological tools to be able to discuss, and examine the works included in the syllabus, relating them to their historical and cultural context.

Course contents

Lichtenberg: aphorism and essay writing

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742-1799) was an experimental physicist, an astronomer, a mathematician, a practicing critic of art and literature. He is most celebrated, however, for the notes he collected in what he called his Waste Books. With unflagging intelligence and encyclopedic curiosity, Lichtenberg wittily deflates the pretensions of learning and society, examines a range of philosophical questions, and tracks his own thoughts down hidden pathways to disconcerting and sometimes hilarious conclusions. Lichtenberg's Waste Books have been greatly admired by writers as different as Tolstoy, André Breton and Elias Canetti, while Nietzsche and Wittgenstein acknowledged them as a significant inspiration for their own radical work in philosophy. The record of a brilliant and subtle mind in action, The Waste Books are above all a powerfull testament to the necessity, and pleasure, of unfettered thought.

Aphorism and essay writing, Dream and scientific knowledge

Lichtenberg, Sudelbücher and Aufsätze (selection from G.C. Lichtenberg, Schriften und Briefe, hrsg. W. Promies, Hanser Verlag)

G. Cantarutti, I Sudelbücher di Lichtenberg (Nel volume La brevità felice, a cura di M.A. Rigoni, Marsilio, pp.215-239)

Bibliography in progress.

Other Readings:

Identity, alterity, difference and diversity

1)

E. Canetti, Die Provinz des Menschen, Fischer Taschenbuch, S. 9-84, S. 161-162 u. S. 263 (Lichtenberg)

E. Canetti, Wortanfälle, in Id., Das Gewissen der Worte, Fischer Taschenbuch, S. 170-174

E. Canetti, Die gerettete Zunge. Fischer Taschenbuch (Teil 1 u. Teil 2, S. 7-92)

W. Helmich, «Fedele per amore». Elias Canetti e le sue lingue materne (Nel volume La lingua salvata, a cura di G. Cantarutti e P.M. Filippi, Ed. Osiride, pp. 57-70)

or

2)

N. Kermani, Lessings Nathan (Nel volumetto Toleranz. Drei Lesearten zu Lessings Märchen vom Ring im Jahre 2003, Wallstein, S. 33-45;

K.S. Guthke, Lessing und die Exoten, in „Lessing Yearbook“ 1996, p. 1-33 or K.S. Guthke, Die Geburt des Nathan aus dem Geiste der Reimarus-Fragmente, in "Lessing Yearbook" 2006, pp. 13-46.

The Permanence of Classics

Among the great German language contemporary poets and essayists, nobody shows better than Durs Grünbein (Dresden, 1962) how "the poetry of the ancients" becomes "a means of interpreting one's own existence". The extraordinary quality of his writing confirms that "the most ancient is always the newest".

Durs Grünbein, Schlaflos in Rom, in Antike Dispositionen. Aufsätze, Suhrkamp, 2005, pp. 328-368, e Zwischen Antike und X, in Antike Dispositionen. Aufsätze, Suhrkamp, 2005, pp. 393-398 and a further essay of choice.

Secondary Literature: W. Adam, Dialogo con Giovenale, in Prosa saggistica di area tedesca, Il Mulino, 2011, pp. 197-210.

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The students attending the “German women's literature” course have the option of choosing one of the following subjects in substitution for Elias Canetti, for the essay on Lessing and for Durs Grünbein:

- a selection from the travel journal of Sophie von La Roche (1730-1807), considered a founding figure for the German female novel tradition

- Die Schildkröten (The tortoises) by Veza Canetti, a canonical text of the female “exile novel” tradition. Secondary Literature: A. Kosenina Il romanzo d'esilio di Veza Canetti in La lingua salvata, a cura di G. Cantarutti e P.M. Filippi, Ed. Osiride, 2008, pp. 71-80.

This part of the course is related to other courses within the current degree programme that also engage with the macro concepts of identity, alterity, difference and diversity.

 

 

Teaching methods

Seminar lessons. An active partecipation of the students is required.

Assessment methods

The students must be able to contextualize the literary works. They must have read all the primary sources and all the critical texts in the syllabus and must be able to use an appropriate critical language to analyse them, avoiding impressionistic and/or superficial criticism. Students will be required to write an essay on a topic connected with the course to be discussed during the exam.

Office hours

See the website of Giulia Cantarutti