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

Waste-books and Göttinger Taschen-Calender .

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.

“Kurzzeitdozentur“ der Gastprofessorin Maria Lieber (Technische Universität Dresden): Translations and Transfer. Those who will not be able to attend the envisaged class sessions of Visiting Professor Maria Lieber of University of Technology Dresden, who is in charge of the edition of Volume 25 of the national collection of letters by Lodovico Antonio Muratori, will have to set up a substitute program at the end of the class. The participants are obliged to show active participation, also in the form of a talk or a final written test.

Some of the material and extracts discussed during the course will be published in “Materiale didattico online”.

Other Readings:

Primary sources:

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

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

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

A. Döblin, Lessing in Berlin, in Id., Kritik der Zeit: Rundfunkbeiträge 1946-1952, Walter-Verlag 1992, S. 340-350; or N. Kermani, Lessings Nathan (in: Toleranz. Drei Lesearten zu Lessings Märchen vom Ring im Jahre 2003, Wallstein, p. 33-45)

Critical sources:

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)

K.S. Guthke, Lessing und die Exoten, in „Lessing Yearbook“ 1996, p. 1-33.

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

- 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

 

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