30652 - German Literature 2 (2nd cycle)

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course, the student will have acquired in-depth knowledge about various aspects and problems regarding literary history. The student will have a sound knowledge of the individual authors and works, and will be able to evaluate the literary quality of the works that have been studied, analyzing the texts according to specific critical methodologies.

Course contents

Conceptions and Images of Nature: Forms and Aesthetic Functions in German Language Literature since the Middle Ages

The course aims to investigate some of the most important stages of German language literature by drawing on the different images of nature conceived throughout the centuries. While examining these conceptions and discussing the man-nature-relation that they imply, the main focus will lie on their aesthetic functions. The concept of “nature” comprises the natural environment, the landscape, the animal world as well as human nature ­­– but also the “culturalized” and aestheticized forms of nature. Throughout the centuries, the representation of how nature is perceived undergoes various transformations. It is the eighteenth century ­– not only in regard to the German language history of ideas – that appears to have produced nature conceptions most strongly. In this period, no aesthetic concept or utopia goes without referring to nature or to naturalness. Although the course will adopt a much broader perspective, the time of the Enlightenment and of the Sturm und Drang will therefore constitute one of the main focal points of the analysis.

- Locus amoenus and locus terribilis in medieval literature: Gottfried von Straßburgs Tristan and the Spielmannsepik (Ministrel epic)

- The topos of Nature in the Minnesang

- The threat posed by one’s own nature: Wittenwiler’s The Ring

- Pastoral idylls in the baroque lyric

- Simplicius Simplicissimus and the dangerous nature

- Albrecht von Haller: Die Alpen (The Alps)

- Nature magic in Goethe’s early works

- Science and nature in Goethe’s Faust

- Büchner, Woyzeck: wenn einem die Natur kommt

- Romanticism and nature

- Endangered nature: realism and industrialisation

- Naturalism

- Myths of nature in expressionism

- Human nature in Benn’s Morgue

- Nature and urban environment in the Weimar period

- Nature in ruins: the post-war period

- The discovery of ecology

- Nature during ideology of division

- The post-unification era: back to nature?

 

 

The course will be held in German. Each participant must eitherwrite a home assignment or present a seminar paper. 

 

The programme for non-attending students has to be arranged with the professor

Readings/Bibliography

Košenina, Alexander; Literarische Anthropologie. Die Neuentdeckung des Menschen. 2. Auflage, Berlin2016 (va bene anche la prima edizione)

Kapitel 1, 2, 3, 13, 14

Dallapiazza, Michael: Storia della letteratura tedesca,1: Dal Medioevo al Barocco. Pp. 21-102

Ulteriore letture consigliate:

Kindl, Ulrike: Storia della letteratura tedesca, 2: Dal Settecento alla prima guerra mondiale, pp. 21-74; 169-223; 333-396

Dallapiazza, Michael/ Santi, Claudio: Storia della letteratura tedesca, 3: Il Novecento, pp. 5-48; 179-229.

primary literature:

4 works from the following:

Goethe, 30 Gedichte aus dem Band: Gedichte / Goethe ; hrsg. u. kommentiert von Erich Trunz. – Sonderausg Munchen : Beck, 1974

Friedrich Schiller, 20 Gedichte aus dem Band: Gedichte : eine Auswahl / Friedrich Schiller ; hrsg. und mit einer Einl. vers. von Gerhard Fricke, Stuttgart : Reclam, 1952

Friedrich Schiller: Über den Gartenkalender 1795 (online bei Spiegel-Gutenberg: http://gutenberg.spiegel.de/buch/ueber-den-gartenkalender-auf-das-jahr-1795-3312/1

Joseph von Eichendorff, 10 Gedichte aus dem Band: Gesammelte Werke in zwei Baenden / Joseph von Eichendorff ; Eingeleitet von Bernt von Heiseler ; Herausgegeben von Hans Jurgen Meinerts

Georg Büchner: Woyzeck

Adalbert Stifter: Der Hochwald

Adalbert Stifter: Bergkristall-online reperibile su Spiegel/Gutenberg:

http://gutenberg.spiegel.de/buch/bergkristall-214/1 (Cristalli di Rocca)

Gottfried Benn, Morgue

Oskar Loerke, Gedichte, 1954 Frankfurt am Main

Günter Eich: Ausgewahlte Gedichte / Gunter Eich ; Auswahl und Nachwort von Walter Hollerer Frankfurt a. M. c1960

Günter Eich: Abgelegene Gehöfte, Gedichte

Günter Eich: Botschaften des Regens, Gedichte

Peter Handke: Wind und Meer. Vier Hörspiele

Saša Stanišić: Vor dem Fest, Roman, 2014

Ulrike Draesner: Subsong, Gedichte, 2014

Ulrike Draesner, Sieben Sprünge vom Rand der Welt, Roman, 2015

Teaching methods

Seminar lessons

Assessment methods

The exam consists in an oral interview. During the interview the methodological and critical skills acquired by the student will be evaluated . The student will be invited to discuss the texts covered during the course and to move within the sources and bibliographical material in order to be able to identify in them the useful information that will enable to illustrate the similarities and cultural areas of the discipline. The achievement of an organic vision of the issues addressed during the classes and their critical use, which demonstrate ownership of a mastery of expression and specific language, will be assessed with marks of excellence. Mechanical and / or mnemonic knowledge of matter, synthesis and analysis of non-articulating and / or correct language but not always appropriate will lead to discrete assessments; training gaps and / or inappropriate language - although in a context of minimal knowledge of the material - will lead to votes that will not exceed the sufficiency. Training gaps, inappropriate language, lack of guidance within the reference materials offered during the course will lead to failed assessments.

Office hours

See the website of Michael Gottlieb Dallapiazza