TEXT ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION

The module is taught as a core course in the Master’s degree programme in European, American and Postcolonial Language and Literature (30 hours lesson time and 6 CP). It shares the general objectives of the mentioned Master's degree programme within the area of German Literature and its analysis and interpretation.

To meet the objective of bringing students to an advanced level of German language and skills of analysis and interpretation, the course will be taught in German with brief comments and explanations in Italian where necessary or requested.

Students who choose to follow the course as an optional subject and students who take part in the Erasmus programme are requested to contact the course instructor to ascertain they have the necessary language and literary competences.

The course wishes to obtain the follwing results:

- intensive study of chosen works representing different genres

- development of the critical and expository skills needed to discuss and analyse literary texts

- acquisition of meta-theoretical notions concerning the relationship between literature and historical and political contexts

- acquisition of comparative intercultural notions and awareness through outcomes achieved in a European literary prospective

- improvement of language skills (towards levels C1/C2 on the CEFR) and skills of bibliographic research

- ability to translate into Italian extracts from literary texts and to reflect on the translation process

- improvement of the ability to evaluate differing interpretative approaches and to formulate personal and effective hypotheses and judgements and to express them publicly, arguing a personal position

- development of the capacity to project and to map out a process of text analysis and to elaborate autonomously short presentations and papers

- ability to interact in interuniversity and international contexts through meetings with German-speaking students and researchers

- continued consolidation of the ability to select and utilize electronic sources and resources in German autonomously, and introduction to the ability to plan and carry out scientific work required in the various phases of the degree course, and the final thesis in particular.

It will therefore be possible to develop an effective awareness of the functioning and structure of a literary text and the direct ability to identify the critical mechanisms functional to its interpretation.

Bachelor’s degree (triennale) and number of credits of German Language and Literature following the access guidelines established by the Master’s degree programme in European, American and Postcolonial Language and Literature (LLEAP).

All students are to have the language and analytical skills necessary to cope autonomously with the reading and semantic analysis of texts in German (at the C1 level of the CEFR). They are also required to prepare a written paper of 5-10 pages and a ca. 20-minute oral presentation in German on a topic related to the course programme. Students are also required to have the communicative and conversational skills necessary to take an active role in scientific debate.

Students who choose to follow the course as an optional subject and students who take part in the Erasmus programme are kindly requested to contact the course instructor to ascertain they have the necessary language and literary competences for the course and the coursework.

"Hölderlin verstehen"

Through a detailed analysis of different approaches to literary texts an overview of reading strategies and methods of literary analysis will be provided, following the major hermeneutic – or anti-hermeneutic – currents in European literary criticism. By drawing up models of structuring critical discourses from a content and formal standpoint, as well as by highlightening the semantic, stylistic and, more deeply, metaphorical dimensions of literary writing, it will be possible to aquire specific, active analytical competences in textual analysis. We will begin from an understanding of the crucial constituant elements and the dinamic structure, with a view to evaluating the aims of texts and their effect on the reader in the light of the methodological features of different theoretical approaches.
More concretely, students will have the opportunity to develop their insights and sensitivity across a range of texts written by Friedrich Hölderlin, one of the most outstanding german authors ever.There exist countless variants and often opposing interpretations in the historical analyses of Hölderlin’s works, particularly in terms of their complexities of form and content. The course will focus upon an understanding of the analytical methodologies and text analyses of his prose and theoretical writings, also providing in turn a thorough cultural background of the history around 1800.
By applying the different interpretative strategies learnt on the one hand one will recognize how the social-political relationships interact with the author’s personal life stories and which occasionally are directed towards somewhat unexpected, innovative expressive choices; whereas on the other, it will underline that the interpretative methods chosen by the scholar will always reflect the spirit of the age of the reader decoding the message. From an intertextual vision it will be possible to glimpse how the written text transcends the confines of space and time, to lay the first paths of a limitless transversal history of communication.

Primary literature:

Friedrich Hölderlin:
- Ausgewählte Gedichte
- Über Religion
- Urteil und Sein
- Das älteste Systemprogramm des deutschen Idealismus
- Reflexionen

Hölderlin's texts can be found also on-line (http://www.wlb-stuttgart.de/sammlungen/hoelderlin-archiv/sammlung-digital/zur-stuttgarter-hoelderlin-ausgabe-online/ ).

Secondary literature (recommended):

a.
Jürgen K. Hultenreich: Hölderlin - das halbe Leben. Edition A. B. Fischer: Berlin 2018

Johann Kreuzer (Hg.): Hölderlin-Handbuch: Leben - Werk - Wirkung. J.B. Metzler: Stuttgart 2011

Ulrich Gaier: Hölderlin. Eine Einführung. UTB: Tübingen, Basel 1993

Rüdiger Safranski, Hölderlin. Komm! ins Offene, Freund! Hanser: München 2019

b.
Sabina Becker, Christine Hummel, Gabriele Sander: Grundkurs Literaturwissenschaft. Reclam: Stuttgart 2018

Claus Gigl: Klett Training Intensiv - Textanalyse und Interpretation Deutsch. Ernst Klett-Verlag: Berlin, Leipzig 2014

Burkhard Moennighoff, Eckhardt Meyer-Krentler: Arbeitstechniken Literaturwissenschaft. UTB: Paderborn 2015

Miltos Pechlivanos, Stefan Rieger, Wolfgang Struck, Michael Weitz (Hgg.): Einführung in die Literaturwissenschaft. J.B. Metzler-Verlag: Stuttgart, Weimar 1995

Rüdiger Zymner, Harald Fricke: Einübung in die Literaturwissenschaft. Parodieren geht über Studieren. UTB: Paderborn 2018

For study-purposes students can refer to translations of the texts, meanwhile at the examination are admitted only the original versions in german language. Further bibliographical explanations and indications will be given during the course.

In the exam all students will be required:

1) to be familiar with the chosen texts and to be able to translate into Italian a piece from one of those texts discussing the linguistic-cultural reasons for the translation solutions adopted;

2) to be able to discuss the cultural and historical contexts of the works being examined;

3) to be conversant with the textual tools to be able first to comment on both the content and formal aspects, in order finally to present competently their own personal opinions;

4) to be able to make use of the critical tools of analysis when discussing the texts in the original;

and 5) to write clear scientific summaries and to present an oral critical analysis in German on a particular text from a selection covered during the course. This presentation, first agreed upon, will require a bibliographic study, as well as scholarly review of the different critical ideas encountered in the literary criticism.

The oral exam (approx. 30 minutes long) will be dedicated to the discussion of the presentation which students are required to prepare during the course and will include the linguistic-literary analysis of a part of one of the poems dealt with in the presentation as well as reflections on the reasons for the translation solutions encountered. Finally we will deepen a topic chosen from the synthetic summeries of the lessons that students will have to hand in at least ten days before. About half of the exam will take place in German, the other half, at the student's choice, in German or Italian.

Front lectures with seminarial elements (presentations and class discussion); additional support material; supplementary multi-medial activities.

At the beginning of classes, students are advised to print out this programme and bring it with them. It will be discussed and explained in detail by the lecturer. The topics of the lessons will be presented together with the order in which the texts will be dealt with and discussed.
Other informations will be communicated during the module and/or in internet ("scheda docente - avvisi/materiale didattico"). For further information contact the professor.

written and oral

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "Human capital, health, education" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development