GERMAN LITERATURE

Single discipline educational activity

Course Sheet

Academic Year of enrolment:

2021/2022

Type of Course:

Characterising

Optional/Mandatory:

Optional

Degree:

Bachelor's Degree Programme in HUMANITIES

Disciplinary Sector:

German Literature

Language:

Italian

Credits:

Programme Year:

Hours of classroom activity:

Prerequisites:

NONE

Borrowed from

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GERMAN LITERATURE

HUMANITIES

AF code:

40001560

Assessment Methods

Verification of learning:

Oral exam

In order to be admitted to the exam it is necessary to read the works listed below in READINGS.

Non-participant students have to prepare for the oral exam:
Zmegac/Skreb/ Sekulic: Breve storia della letteratura tedesca, Torino (Einaudi) 2000, pp. 82-397

Teaching period

Second semester

Objectives

The course aims to provide basic knowledge of German literary and cultural history, specifically with regard to the peculiarities of its main stylistic periods and canonical authors (such as Goethe, Schiller, Kleist, Jean Paul etc.). Through exemplary interpretations the student will acquire critical tools for the analysis of literary texts, placing them in their respective historical and cultural context. He/she will be made aware of the problems of literary and cultural historiography in general, and of the periodisation of German literature in particular, and will also be able to orientate him/herself, in principle, independently within the field of German Literature.

Contents

'GERMAN NARRATORS' (according to Hugo von Hofmannsthals 'Deutsche Erzähler')

When Hugo von Hofmannsthal (1874-1929), a distinguished protagonist of Viennese Modernism, published his anthology 'Deutsche Erzähler' (German Narrators) in 1912, he declared in the introductory note that he had chosen the various tales solely for the aesthetic effect they would have had on him. "I collected these tales solely because of their exceptional beauty...." ("Ich habe diese Erzählungen nur um der besonderen Schönheit willen zusammengetragen,...").

That the collection of Hofmannsthal - a literate poet, great stylist and particularly refined author- is more than just a personal 'Best of', however, is already evident from the fact that it rejects chronological order. What else, then, did Hofmannsthal have in mind? An empirical aesthetic? An artistic history of the modern age?

Hofmannsthal's famous collection 'Deutsche Erzähler' will serve our course as a thread and starting point for interrogating and interpreting the individual texts (all 'jewels' of German literature), for presenting their authors and their works in general (distinguished authors such as Goethe, Schiller, Kleist, Jean Paul etc.) and, broadening the perspective, for reflecting on the stylistic metamorphosis of the arts between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, comparing literary trends with contemporary trends in the other arts (music, painting etc.).

Recommended Bibliography

READINGS

In order to be admitted to the exam it is necessary to read the works listed here:

1) SECONDARY LITERATURE (tot. 3 readings)

Uno tra:

Luca Crescenzi: Letteratura tedesca – Secoli ed epoche, Roma (Carrocci) 2005.
Michele Cometa, L’età di Goethe, Carrocci 2008.
Safranski, Rüdiger: Il Romanticismo, Milano (Longanesi) 2011.

+ due tra:

Hugo von Hofmannsthal, La letteratura come spazio spirituale della nazione, Aragno 2019 //Le opere come spazio spirituale della nazione, Marcellana 2019.)
Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Lettera di Lord Chandos, Mimesis 2007.Lettera di Lord Chandos, Rizzoli 1985.
Hugo von Hofmannsthal: La rivoluzione conservatrice europea, R. Christin/ J. Bednarich (a c. di) Marsilio 2013.

2) PRIMARY LITERATURE (5 texts of your own choice)

Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Il cavaliere della rosa, Adelphi 1992

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: Novella (Novelle) (Faligli) 2013.

Friedrich Schiller: Il visionario, Trad. Giovanni Berchet (intra) 2021.

Achim von Arnim: L’ ínvalido folle del forte Ratonneau (Der tolle Invalide auf dem Fort Ratonneau). In: A, Arnim, Il manichino tragico, Roma (Editori Riuniti) 1996.

Clemens Brentano: Geschichte vom braven Kasperl und dem schönen Annerl. In: C. Brentano, I racconti, Genova (Il Nuovo Melangolo) 2006.

Heinrich von Kleist: Il terremoto in Cile. In: Kleist, Tutti i racconti, Milano (Mondadori) 1997.

Ludwig Tieck: Il biondo Eckbert (Der blonde Eckwert). In: Fiabe romantiche, Milano (Garzanti) 2009.

Jean Paul: Vita di Maria Wuz (Leben des vergnügten Schulmeisterlein Wutz in Auenthal) Milano (Lampi di stampa) 2002.

Friedrich de la Motte-Fouqué: Ondina (Undine), (Il piacere di leggere) 2016.

Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann: Lo spirito elementare (Der Elementargeist). In: E. T. A. Hoffmann, Racconti (PDF https://www.academia.edu/30995448/Ernst_Theodor_Amadeus_Hoffmann_Racconti)

Joseph von Eichendorff: Vita di un perdigiorno (Aus dem Leben eines Taugenichts), Milano (BUR) 2018.

Methods of Provision

Conventional

Teaching Methods

Lectures/ Online-Lectures

Contacts/More Information

Recommendations for additional readings.

David E. Wellbery/Hans Ullrich Gumbrecht et al.(Ed.): A New History of German Literature, Cambridge/MA (Harvard University Press) 2005.
Mary Garland/ Henry Garland: The Oxford Companion to German Literature, Oxford (Oxford University Press) 1997.

The teacher's student reception time during the lecture period will be communicated on the Department's website.

GERMAN LITERATURE

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GERMAN LITERATURE