GERMAN LITERATURE 1 MOD.2

The course - entitled "Literarische Moderne und Avantgarde (1890-1933)" - is organically part of the Germanistics course of the Master's Degree Course LLEAP, but can be followed by all interested students who read German and are able to attend lessons in German.
The module is part of the Master's Degree Course in EUROPEAN, AMERICAN, AND POSTCOLONIAL LANGUAGES AND LITERATURE - LITERATURE AND CULTURE as compulsory teaching (with 60 hours of lessons and 12 CFU) and shares the objectives described above, in this case for the area of German literature.
In line with the objective of introducing students to advanced linguistic knowledge and cultural-historical skills at a specialist level, the course will be held in German.
The course is also open to students who wish to choose it in order to obtain free or supernumerary credits and for Erasmus students who have the prerequisites.
The teaching of German Literature 1 (module 2) is part of the Master's Degree Course in European, American and postcolonial languages and literature. In harmony with the objectives and learning areas of the course of study, the teaching allows students to acquire a mastery of advanced critical and methodological tools and a solid knowledge of the cultural phenomena dealt with in the society that produced them.
Furthermore, it is closely coordinated with the teachings of "History of German Culture 1" (LM1010) and "History of German Culture 2" (LM1020), with which it interacts in order to offer students a comprehensive discourse on the canon of German, Austrian and Swiss literature/culture between the 19th and 20th centuries.

Within the framework just outlined the objectives to be achieved, and the expected results, are:

1) the in-depth knowledge of the cultural, literary and historical phenomena covered by the course; the development of the necessary skills to understand them (studying and critically understanding the content of the lessons, the texts in the program, critical literature in German and English, and possible in-depth thematic studies) [knowledge and understanding];

2) the ability to apply the knowledge acquired and duly understood (e.g. knowing how to present a topic orally, how to write and discuss a thesis in German, how to analyze and comment on a text in Italian or German) [applying knowledge and understanding];

3) the development of autonomy of judgment (e.g. learning how to present and motivate one's opinion in a discussion in class or as part of a written exercise; being able to identify points within the program that are difficult to understand and to ask the teacher for an account; being able to propose, on occasion, an interpretation, a judgment, a thesis as the result of personal critical work) [making judgments];

4) the development of communication skills (e.g. being able to intervene in a discussion in class, being able to ask questions to the teacher, being able to share one's work with fellow students, being able to summarise and present - orally and in writing - the knowledge acquired) [communication skills];

5) the development of an effective method to consolidate the acquired knowledge and make it usable in the long term [learning skills].

Particular attention will be paid during the course to the achievement of a level of linguistic knowledge that consolidates the C 2 level (http://www.memorbalia.it/descrittori/dalframeworkeuropeo.pdf ), at least in oral comprehension, reading and writing skills. Reading and linguistic, stylistic, and rhetorical commentary on German texts is an integral and fundamental part of the lessons. Through the chosen texts, language lessons, and classroom discussions the course aims to increase and consolidate the kind of language knowledge that only reading (and analysis-commentary-discussion in the language) can provide.
The expected learning outcomes are therefore a significant, significant improvement in C 2 level language knowledge and skills.
The exams are designed - of course - to verify punctually the students' acquisition of the contents and methods just described.

Knowledge of the history of 20th-century German ideas and literature is desirable. Advanced knowledge of the German language is also desirable.
Bachelor's degree and number of credits in German language and literature according to the access rules established by the LLEAP Master's Degree Course Regulations. Other students must follow the rules of their degree courses.
All students must have the necessary linguistic and analytical skills to autonomously deal with the reading and semantic analysis of texts in the original language (at CEFR level C1) and must be able to prepare an oral presentation in German on an argument inherent to the course program lasting approx. 20 minutes. Participants must also have the appropriate communicative and discursive skills for active participation in a scientific discussion.

The course provides an overview of avant-garde developments in German-language modernist literature (Naturalism, 'Klassische Moderne' and Expressionism, literature of the Weimar Republic, New Objectivity).
The naturalistic 'literary revolt' marks the beginning of the self-proclaimed literary modernist movements and ends in the period of the Weimar Republic with the New Objectivity in 1933. In these decades, movements that represent different, and in some cases competing, concepts of modernity - above all the aestheticism of Viennese and Munich modernism -, the literary experiments in Berlin and Prague modernism, (Italian) futurism, expressionism and dadaism. The diversity of programmatic approaches (autonomy and l'art pour l'art, heteronomy, psychological crisis, language crisis, novel crisis, aestheticization of the ugly and the beautiful, big-city theme) and aesthetic considerations (dissolution of form, fragmentarism, montage style, simultaneity, objectivity) will be presented and illustrated by means of selected texts.

A reader with primary literature will be made available, which collects shorter texts by Kafka, Musil, Robert Walser, Hofmannsthal, Benn, Paul Adler, Jakob van Hoddis, Albert Ehrenstein, Georg Heym, Carl Einstein, Carl Sternheim).
For acquisition is recommended: Moritz Baßler (Hg.) Literarische Moderne: Das große Lesebuch, Frankfurt: Fischer 2010.
Gotthart Wunberg (Hg.): Die Wiener Moderne. Literatur, Kunst und Musik zwischen 1890 und 1910. Stuttgart 2000

The following bibliography contains the POOL (!) of texts relevant for the course. It is clear that not all of these texts can be read within a semester, so you should start reading early. The course should be read at least in part:
Hermann Bahr: Die gute Schule (1890)
Arthur Schnitzler: Anatol (1893)
Hugo von Hofmannsthal: Das Märchen der 672. Nacht (1895)
Arthur Schnitzler: Reigen (1896/7)
Richard Beer-Hofmann: Der Tod Georgs (1900)
Arthur Schnitzler: Lieutenant Gustl (1900)
Hugo von Hofmannsthal: Ein Brief (1901) Reitergeschichte, Andreas, Gestern
Alfred Döblin: Berlin Alexanderplatz
Rainer Maria Rilke: Die Aufzeichnungen des Malte Laurids Brigge (1904 / 1910)
Musil: Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften (Auszüge)

Kürzere Texte:
Jakob von Hoddis: Vom mir und vom Ich (1908)
Paul Hatvani, Versuch über den Expressionismus (1917)
Kasimir Edschmid, Über den dichterischen Expressionismus (1918)
Carl Einstein, Totalität (1914), Bebuquin (1907)
Alfred Döblin, Die Ermordung einer Butterblume (1910)
Georg Trakl, Traum und Umnachtung (1914)
Gottfried Benn, Gehirne (1916), Gottfried Benn, Die Insel (1916), Der Garten von Arles (1920)
Robert Walser: Krise der Nervosität*. / Tagebuch-Fragment (1926) (Werke VIII S.61-113)*, Für die Katz (1928/1929);*
Franz Kafka: Beschreibung eines Kampfes (Fassung A, 1904-7)
Franz Kafka_ Betrachtung.
Franz Kafka, Ein Landarzt (1917)
Franz Kafka, Ein Brudermord (1917)
Franz Kafka, Ein Hungerkünstler (1922)
Franz Kafka, Das Urteil
Franz Kafka: Betrachtung
Franz Kafka/Max Brod: Richard und Samuel
Robert Musil: Das Fliegenpapier, Krise des Romans
Lyrik von Hofmannsthal, Benn, Rilke, Trakl, Stramm, Heym, Stadler

Zur Prosa-Theorie: Carl Einstein: Über den Roman (1912)*, Otto Flake: Stadt des Hirns / Döblin: Reform des Romans – Krise des Romans?* – Bemerkungen zum Roman / Über futuristische Worttechnik / Marinetti: Manifest des Futurismus / Walter Benjamin: Krise des Erzählens / Franz Jung: Die Telepathen (1914);

Als Modellanalysen:
Kafka: Das Urteil, dazu: Oliver Jahraus / Stefan Neuhaus: Kafkas „Urteil“ und die Literaturtheorie. Zehn Modellanalysen. Stuttgart: Reclam 2002

Secundary sources
Thomas Anz: Literatur des Expressionismus. 2. Aufl. Stuttgart: Metzler 2010.
Moritz Baßler: Die Entdeckung der Textur: Unverständlichkeit in der Kurzprosa der emphatischen Moderne (1910-1916), Berlin: De Gruyter 1994
Sabina Becker, Helmuth Kiesel: Literarische Moderne. Begriff und Phänomen. Berlin 2007
Walter Fähnders (Hrsg.): Expressionistische Prosa, Bielefeld: Aisthesis 2001
Walter Fähnders: Avantgarde und Moderne 1890 - 1933. Stuttgart, Weimar 1998;
Walter Delabar: Klassische Moderne. Deutschsprachige Literatur 1919-1933, Berlin 2010
Peter Sprengel: Geschichte der deutschsprachigen Literatur 1870-1900. Von der Reichsgründung bis zur Jahrhundertwende (= Geschichte der deutschen Literatur von den Anfängen bis zur Gegenwart; Bd. 9, 1), München: C.H.Beck

The exam will consist of a short thesis and a 30-minute colloquium (in German). During the oral colloquium, the reading and comprehension skills of the German texts in the programme will be examined, as well as the knowledge acquired and the analytical and commentary skills developed during the preparation.
In short, the exam will verify the achievement of the training objectives indicated at the beginning of this sheet.

Frontal lectures with reading and commentary of the texts; seminar discussion. During the lessons, students will be offered in-depth materials. Powerpoint presentations will be used, containing the most significant passages, which will then be made available to students and will form the basis for the preparation of the exam.
Sources and some critical texts of particular importance will be made available on the Moodle platform in pdf format.
The lessons will be held in German; the contents will be repeated and glossed over until they are clear to all students.
The commentary of the texts in German will give great space to linguistic and stylistic analysis.

Very important is the communication between the students and the teacher: students are asked to take into account the consultation hours, during which the teacher can offer explanations and insights, clarify doubts, discuss topics.
Students are also asked to consider the lessons as open spaces in which they can discuss topics of individual and general interest, ask questions and ask for further information. Communication between students and the teacher is very important: students are kindly requested to take into account the reception hours, during which the teacher can offer explanations and insights, clarify doubts, discuss topics.
Students are also asked to consider the lessons as open places where they can discuss topics of individual and general interest, ask questions, ask for further information.

Students who are not attending are requested to contact the teacher. If this is not possible during office hours, students are requested to write to the teacher's mail adress. Students are requested not to use the teacher's internal telephone number and to write to claus.zittel@unive.it instead. In case of emergency, students are asked to indicate their telephone number so that they can be called back.
Students are also asked to always check the notices on the teacher's online page, which may contain information on changes in reception hours, or on exam appeals.

written and oral