GERMAN LITERATURE 1 MOD.1

The course is intended for students in the first semester of the first year of the LLEAP Master's degree course in Germanistics and the related Double Degree with the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen; it is part of the characterising educational activities. It offers advanced knowledge in the field of German literature in the original language and advanced critical tools for the reading and interpretation of literary texts in the modern era.

1) A thorough knowledge of German prose from late Realism to the young Thomas Mann both in the cultural context of the time and in the structural constants immanent in the texts; 2) the ability to identify the complexity of the literary construction of the 19th century and its transformation up to the early 20th century with the aid of semiological criticism; 3) the ability to analyse and recognise the structural characteristics of the texts analysed in the light of a philologically plausible interpretation; 4) the ability to put forward competent interpretative proposals and to communicate them clearly in the seminar.

Bachelor's degree and number of credits in German Language and Literature according to the access rules laid down in the regulations of the Master's Degree Course in European, American and Postcolonial Languages and Literature.

Among the greatest exponents of late Realism are writers such as Theodor Storm, author of refined novels set in the far north of Germany, Theodor Fontane, known for his Berlin novels, and Wilhelm Raabe, to whom the first German ecological novel dates back: authors who stand on the threshold of a modernity they seem to shy away from, but which they thematise with extraordinary sensitivity. The great season of the German twentieth century begins by bidding farewell to these authors who, within a few years of their death, seem to have fallen into a remote and dusty past. And yet, the production of late Realism that accompanied the founding of the Deutsches Reich in 1871 and discreetly commented on its crisis of values and culture, was rightly interpreted as an ‘anti-modern modernity’ that carried within itself all the contents that emerged with the urgency of Symbolism first and then of the avant-garde in the next generation. In the world represented in the prose of late Realism and mutatis mutandis in early Thomas Mann, we meet fascinating characters, women and men attracted by the exception to the norm, engaged in a lacerating negotiation with the inherited commonplaces, which only with the onset of modernity will surrender to their obsolescence, releasing new ways of perceiving the self, the world and the language capable of conveying them.

Theodor Fontane, Effi Briest, (Reclam Ausgabe).
Theodor Fontane, Stine, (Estratti, Reclam Ausgabe).
Wilhelm Raabe, Die Akten des Vogelsangs (Reclam Ausgabe).
WIlhelm Raabe: Pfisters Mühle (Reclam Ausgabe)
Thomas Mann, Buddenbrooks. Verfall einer Familie (Fischer Ausgabe).


The following texts are recommended for the historical and theoretical contextualisation of the literature of Realism:
Edwar McInnes, Rolf Grimminger, Hansers Sozialgeschichte der deutschen Literatur vom 16. Jahrhundert bis zur Gegenwart. Band 6: Bürgerlicher Realismus und Gründerzeit, 1848-1890,
München [u.a.] : Hanser , 1996.
Claudia Stockinger, Das 19. Jahhundert. Zeitalter des Realismus, Berlin : Akademie-Verl., 2010
Norbert Mecklenburg, Theodor Fontane : Realismus, Redevielfalt, Ressentiment, Stuttgart : J. B. Metzler Verlag, 2018.
Stefania Sbarra, «Il confine, il confine, dov'é?» Theodor Fontane, Friedrich Nietzsche e il realismo tedesco, Firenze: Le lettere 2019.
Michael Titzmann, Lutz Hagestedt, Realismus und Frühe Moderne : Beispielinterpretationen und Systematisierungsversuche, München : Belleville, 2009.

The oral examination is an interview in German covering all the topics covered during the course. In the overall assessment, the presentation of a topic that the student has discussed in seminar with other students in the last weeks of the course will count for 50%.

oral

In the overall assessment, the exposition of a topic that the student will have discussed in a seminar with other students during the course will count for 50%. On this occasion, clarity of presentation will be assessed (30%), the ability to undertake in-depth study independently (30%), and the competence and originality of the critical conclusions reached (40%).
Those who, for personal reasons, cannot present the topic in the seminar may do so in the oral examination.
During the exam, the lecturer will verify 1) knowledge of the texts dealt with during the course; 2) the ability to apply to the texts the critical and interpretative categories developed during the course; 3) the ability to argue on the specificities of the texts in relation to their period and to any structural constants that emerge from a semiological reading of them. In order to pass the examination it is necessary to obtain a sufficient mark in each of the above three parts, which will be assessed 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, and points 7 to 10 will be obtained according to the breadth of knowledge and the quality of argumentation and exposition.
Honours will be awarded in the case of particular critical originality.

Lectures and workshops in German, with moments in Italian where necessary for full understanding and active participation in the course. Of some of the works, as indicated in the list of reference texts, only extracts will be read. Efforts will be made to stimulate oral discussion in German in a friendly learning environment.

If you require specific information on the course in German, please contact the lecturer by e-mail or during her office hours.
Erasmus students are welcome.

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "Poverty and inequalities" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development