26020 - German Women's Literature

Learning outcomes

The student gains deep knowledge of the women's writing in the modern German literature. The student knows already how to analyze a literary text.

Course contents

The course is divided in 3 parts: each part deals with a different aspect of the image of the woman in the German modern literature

Giulio Garuti Simone

The image of women in Richard Wagner's  Ring des Nibelungen: rewriting of the Old Germanic sources.

 

Eva-Maria Thüne

Analysis of the relationship between text and image in the works of Unica Zürn. The linguistical and visual aspects of  Zürn's works will be interpreted in a semiotic perspective.

Alessandro Zironi

A triangle of emancipation: Karoline von Günderrode, Christa Wolf and Margarethe von Trotta.

The pre-Romantic writer and poet von Günderrode has been object of interest by some German women intellectuals during the last decades of the twentieth century. The independence, the cultural emancipation of Günderrode became a tool for reflection on freedom of thought in the GDR and women's empowerment. Christa Wolf depicts the poet who confronts the writer von Kleist, while the director Margarethe von Trotta uses Günderrode to convey independence of a woman subjugated by the stifling oppression of her husband. The module wants to highlight the reception of the figure of Karoline von Günderrode, particularly with regard to the intersemiotic representations.

Readings/Bibliography

Giulio Garuti Simone

Rieger, Eva: Richard Wagner's Women. Translated by Chris Walton. Woodbridge: Boydell & Brewer, 2011.

Árni Björnsson: Wagner and the Volsungs. Icelandic Sources of Der Ring des Nibelungen. London: Viking Society for Northern Research, 2003.

Reference site:

http://www.rwagner.net

 

Eva-Maria Thüne

Bibliography:

Zürn, Unica (1986): Das Haus der Krankheiten. Geschichte einer Gelbsucht. Faksimile des Manuskripts, Berlin (Brinkmann & Bose / Lilith).

Thüne, Eva-Maria (2008): Unica Zürn, Due diari. Introduzione e traduzione. Brescia (Edizioni l'Obliquo).

Kress, Gunther/ Van Leeuwen, Theo (1996): Reading Images. The Grammar of Visual Design. London. (pagine scelte).

 

Alessandro Zironi

Bibliography:

Christa Wolf, Nessun luogo, da nessuna parte, Roma, E/O, 2009.

Christa Wolf, L'ombra di un sogno. Prose poesie e lettere di Karoline von Günderrode, Milano, La Tartaruga, 1984 (Introduzione di C. Wolf).

Margarethe von Trotta, Lucida follia, Milano, Ubulibri, 1983.

Teaching methods

Seminar and front lessons with help of internet tools

Assessment methods

Paper on the 3 topics of the course You have to write an about 10 pages long paper: you write it according to the rules of the final Laurea Magistrale work writing; footnotes are welcome and a critical final bibliography is needed. Spelling, morphological, syntactic, and semantic accuracy are required as well as, if possible, personal remarks.

Teaching tools

http://www.rwagner.net

Office hours

See the website of Giulio Garuti Simone

See the website of Alessandro Zironi

See the website of Eva-Maria Christina Charlotte Thune