Time Schedule:
Brigitte Prutti
GERMAN 423
Seattle Campus
Rotating special topics in literature and culture of the twentieth century, such as particular movements, authors, genres, themes, or problems. Recommended: GERMAN 303; either GERMAN 311, GERMAN 312, GERMAN 322, or GERMAN 323.
Class description
Writing the Present, Writing the Self:
Contemporary German literature is both eminently readable and frequently translated. Young writers in their twenties and thirties produce high-literary bestsellers and they garner major literary prizes. The first language of some of the best writers isn’t German and there are plenty of successful women writing today. How did this shift come about? This course provides some answers. It introduces students to contemporary German literature since the fall of the Berlin wall, focusing on shorter prose fiction by a diverse group of writers who started their literary careers during the 1990s and are very well-known and successful today. The stories and novels on the reading list range from playful literary accounts of modern media culture to postmodern travel narratives, from fictional portraits of youthful melancholia in the Berlin Republic to those of provincial lives behind the Iron Curtain, from adolescent identity crises to the globalization of crime in contemporary German detective fiction. We will engage in close readings of individual texts, drawing on pertinent critical concepts that help us link them in interesting and productive ways. Writers include Christian Kracht, Karen Duve, Daniel Kehlmann, Judith Hermann, Terézia Mora, Wladimir Kaminer, Veit Heinichen, and others.
Student learning goals
The course has two main objectives: It will familiarize students with major literary trends and developments in the last twenty years and sharpen their analytical skills with regard to modern German prose fiction.
General method of instruction
Lectures and class discussion.
Recommended preparation
Students should have taken at least one 300-level core course (311, 312, 322) prior to enrolling in this seminar and possess advanced German language skills. Class will be taught in German.
Class assignments and grading
Course requirements include regular attendance and class participation, writing a journal, a midterm and a take-home essay final.
See above.
