GERMAN LITERATURE

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/C2 level of the CEFR). They are also required to prepare ca. 30-minute oral presentations 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.

Corse title: "Kleists Erzählungen"

On the background of Kleist's troubled biography and the complex historical-political scenario of the Napoleonic era, the course aims not only to identify the extremely innovative approaches both of his responses to the late-Enlightenment tradition and of his poetics in general, but also to analyze specifically the narratological strategies that mark his prose texts.

We will try to investigate how this author, who was rightly defined by Thomas Mann as completely "sondergleichen", that is, incomparable or unparalleled, almost lets explode the schemes of contemporary classicism and romanticism, exploiting all the potential of literary genres, from the trivial to the so-called "high" ones, to contribute, with the means of art, to a radical cultural and social awakening without ever denying, however, the insurmountable uncertainties of the human condition.

Primary literature (set):

Heinrich von Kleist:

Erzählungen:

- Michael Kohlhaas
- Die Marquise von O....
- Das Erdbeben von Chili
- Die Verlobten von St. Domingo
- Das Bettelweib von Locarno
- Der Findling
- Die heilige Cäcilie
- Der Zweikampf

Kleinere Schriften und Briefe:

- Über die allmähliche Verfertigung der Gedanken beim Reden
- Betrachtung über den Weltlauf
- Empfindungen vor Friedrichs Seelandschaft
- Brief eines jungen Dichters an einen jungen Maler
- Brief an Wilhelmine von Zenge vom 22. März 1801
- Brief an Ulrike von Kleist vom 20. November (?) 1811
- Brief an Marie von Kleist vom 21. November 1811

Kleist's texts can be found also online (https://www.projekt-gutenberg.org/autoren/namen/kleist.html ) and in the economic edition:Helmut Sembdner: Heinrich von Kleist. Sämtliche Werke und Briefe. München 2001.
Information on current research and cultural activities around Kleist can be found via the following sites: https://www.heinrich-von-kleist.org/kleist-gesellschaft ; https://www.heilbronn.de/kultur-freizeit/kultureinrichtungen-und-angebote/literatur/kleist-archiv-sembdner.html .

Secondary literature (recommended):

Günter Blamberger: Heinrich von Kleist. Biographie. Frankfurt a.M. 2011
Ingo Breuer (Hg.): Kleist-Handbuch. Leben - Werk - Wirkung. Stuttgart, Weimar 2013
Bettina Faber, Ingo Breuer (Hgg.): "Ein blauer Schleier, wie in Italien gewebt". Kleist-Tage in Venedig. Heilbronner Kleist-Studien 14, Heilbronn 2016
Klaus Müller-Salget: Kleist und die Folgen. Stuttgart 2017

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 preparation for and during 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;

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 present oral critical analyses in German on particular texts from a selection covered during the course. The presentations, first agreed upon, will require a bibliographic study and a scholarly review of the different critical ideas encountered in the literary criticism.

The approximately 40 minute-oral examination is divided into two parts, the first part of about 10 minutes and the second part of about 30 minutes. In the first part a passage from one of the texts analysed in the presentations will be translated and commented on. will be dedicated to a discussion of the texts submitted. In the second part the student will have to answer specific questions and discuss the theses proposed by the teacher during the colloquium with reference to one or more of the topics covered during the course. The exame will be held in German.

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. For further information contact the professor.

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