Time Schedule:
Diana I Behler
GERMAN 390
Seattle Campus
Topics or figures of German literature or language.
Class description
This course will investigate some of the main currents of philosophical, literary, and political thought of the 18th century that came to be known as the European Enlightenment. Issues of individual freedom, citizenship, human rights and duties, as well as race, gender, and class structure enter into the picture, in a mix of optimism and idealism, rationality and equality, counterbalanced by limitations of reason and reassessments of the human condition, eventually leading to revolution and romanticism. We will read texts that develop new ideas about the human condition (what it means to be human) by authors such as Voltaire, Rousseau, Locke, Kant, the French Encylopedists, Kant, Wollstonecraft, Herder, Lessing, Mendelssohn, and Schiller. But we will also analyze plays and stories that mirror the fissures of reason and pitfalls of political, religious, and social structures, such as Mozart’s The Magic Flute, Goethe’s The Sufferings of Young Werther, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Kleist’s Betrothal in Santo Domingo, and Büchner’s The Death of Danton. Analyzing some premises of the American and French Revolutions, we will conclude with a critique of enlightenment ideals and the notions of progress and perfectibility and show how idealistic visions of human society often failed to materialize through reason alone.
Student learning goals
General method of instruction
Recommended preparation
Class assignments and grading
Active participation in class discussions, several short paragraphs during the quarter, a written mid-term exam, and a final take-home exam.
