Time Schedule:
Brigitte Prutti
GERMAN 210
Seattle Campus
Introduction to major figures of German culture from the Reformation to the present, their contribution to the intellectual life of the Western world. Luther, Kant, Goethe, Schopenhauer, Marx, Freud, Nietzsche, Kafka, Brecht, and Mann. In English.
Class description
Classics of German Literature and Thought Winter 2008
This course introduces students to major writers in the German cultural tradition and it makes a case for their significance to an American readership today. We will read mostly canonical texts that were written over a span of two hundred years, focusing on shorter prose fiction along with some plays and poetry. Ranging from 18th century sentimental literature to postmodern fiction, the texts on the reading list include a wide range of themes, styles, and artistic concerns. They include such famous novellas as Thomas Mann’s Death in Venice, Georg Büchner’s Lenz, and the first internationally successful German novel, Goethe’s acclaimed Sorrows of Young Werther. We will also discuss texts by Bertolt Brecht, Heinrich von Kleist, Veza Canetti, Judith Hermann, Franz Kafka, Thomas Bernhard, Ingeborg Bachmann and W.G. Sebald.
Student learning goals
Students can expect to sharpen their critical skills and to gain a basic historical understanding of German literature in the broader European context.
General method of instruction
Lectures and discussion.
Recommended preparation
Class assignments and grading
Brief written assignments, midterm and a final.
Course requirements include regular attendance, active participation, several brief homework assignments, a midterm and a take-home final.
