This module is not currently running in 2024 to 2025.
This introduction to the modern period in German literature covers a variety of representative authors and works including lyric poetry, drama, the novella and short story. Texts are selected for their relevance, not only to the development of varieties of German writing, but also to the social and political development of the German-speaking territories during these seminal years. Literary movements discussed include the Sturm und Drang, Romanticism, Naturalism, Expressionism and political engagement in the interwar period. Political and social currents include the repression of free speech during the Vormärz, German Nationalism in the late nineteenth century, the Unification of Germany, the First World War and the rise of National Socialism.
Total Contact Hours: 20
Essay (2,500 words) – 50%
Examination (3 hours) – 50%
Indicative Reading List
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von, Luke, David, (1999) 'Selected Poems', Libris, London.
Hauptmann, Gerhart, (1956) 'Vor Sonnenaufgang: soziales drama', Ullstein,
Kafka, Franz, (1989) 'Die Verwandlung', Suhrkamp,
Tieck, Johann Ludwig, (1990), 'Der blonde Eckbert: Den Runenberg. Die Elfen ; Ma¨rchen', Reclam.
See the library reading list for this module (Canterbury)
On successfully completing the module students will be able to:
Demonstrate they have gained experience in reading short narrative texts, poems and plays in German written between 1760 and 1933;
Show enhanced reading comprehension skills and passive and active vocabulary in German;
Display knowledge of several major genres of German literature and genre development during the period;
Demonstrate their knowledge of the social and political developments in the German-speaking territories during the period.
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