HISTORY OF GERMAN CULTURE

The course of History of German Culture is a core educational activity of the Bachelor’s Degree Programme in “Languages, Civilisation and Science of Language” (Literary-Cultural curriculum and Political-International curriculum) and provides a a specific knowledge of German Culture, Literature and Language according to the aims of the Bachelor’s Degree Programme.

The course intends to consolidate knowledge of the history of German culture from the 19th to the threshold of the 21st century, to delve into the historical, social, and literary phenomena linked to it, as well as to provide critical tools in order to contextualize and autonomously analyze a corpus of heterogeneous texts.

German language skills at level B2.

Großstadtliteratur

The aim of the course is to offer an overview of the “literature of the metropole”, from its beginnings to contemporaneity, examining a range of texts representative of different literary phases.
Here it will be observed that, while becoming the place par excellence of modernity, the Großstadt does not constitute a simple background to the facts narrated, but rather takes on a prominent role, revealing itself as a representative strategy in which social structures and individual choices are condensed, and through which it is therefore possible to grasp historical and cultural dynamics in change.
From the first epistolary and literary representations to the Berlin of the Expressionism and the Neue Sachlichkeit, passing through the flânerie in Paris, the “capital of the 19th century”, by Rilke’s Malte, we will finally come to examine the opposing literary conformations that emerge before and after the fall of the Wall, comparing Hilbig’s East Berlin with the reunified capital in Mora’s novel. In particular we will therefore reflect on the mutable character of the German Großstadt, “verdammt” already in 1910 “immerfort zu werden und niemals zu sein”.

1. Primary literature:
• E.T.A. Hoffmann, «Des Vetters Eckfenster», ed. Reclam (in German)
• Excerpts from: «Wilhelm Raabe, Die Chronik der Sperlingsgasse», ed. Reclam (in German)
• Rainer Maria Rilke, «I quaderni di Malte Laurids Brigge», tr. Furio Jesi, ed. Garzanti (in Italian)
• Georg Heym, «Der Irre», in «Werke», Reclam 2006, pp. 215-230 (in German)
• Irmgard Keun, «Doris, la ragazza misto seta», tr. Vincenzo Gallico, L’orma 2017 (in Italian)
• Wolfgang Hilbig, «“Io” », tr. Roberta Gado, Keller 2025 (in Italian)
• Excerpts from: Terézia Mora, «Tutti i giorni», tr. Margherita Carbonaro, Keller 2020 (in Italian)

2. Secondary literature:
• Andreas Huyssen, «The voids of Berlin», in «Critical Inquiry» 24 (1), 1997, pp. 57-81.

A selection of passages by Heinrich von Kleist, Heinrich Heine, Charles Baudelaire, Franz Hessel, Walter Benjamin, Georg Simmel, Alfred Döblin and of Expressionist poems will be provided by the teacher at the beginning of the course, together with a short filmography and further background historical-literary materials.
The texts by Hoffmann, Raabe, Rilke and Heym can also be consulted on http://www.zeno.org/ and on https://www.projekt-gutenberg.org/ .
Students are asked to start reading Hoffmann’s short story before the course begins.

The oral examination is structured in three parts:

• a presentation, in German, on a text or a topic of choice, agreed with the teacher during the course (10 minutes);
• a test of reading and translation of the referral texts in German;
• further questions, in Italian, on the topics and materials covered during the lectures.

In order to pass the examination, it is necessary to obtain a sufficient grade in each of the above three parts, which will be graded with points from 0 to 10 each. Sufficiency, i.e. 6 points, will be obtained with elementary competence and the absence of serious errors and gaps, while points 7 to 10 will be obtained on the basis of breadth of knowledge and argumentative quality.

Lectures on the historical-literary framework, accompanied by seminar activities dedicated to the textual analysis, during which an active student participation will be encouraged.

Italian

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