German Postwar Narrative (3 credits) The Post-wars in Context
Fall 2011 01.470:367:01 Index: 32765 Cross-listed with Comparative Literature 01:195:396:01 TTh5 2:50 pm – 4:10 pm SC 105
Salvatore Pappalardo German House 172 College Avenue 732-932-7201 [email protected] Office Hours, Mondays 11.30 am – 12.30 pm or by appointment
Course description Post-war intellectuals, trying to come to terms with a national history characterized by a Nazi- Fascist or Communist past, explored in their fiction questions of shared responsibility and intellectual renewal. This course examines the post-war literature within a larger German- speaking context, including writers from Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the former German Democratic Republic and Romania. Before engaging the classics of postwar German literature such as Thomas Mann, Günter Grass and Heinrich Böll, we will start with the Austrian Robert Musil in order to compare the postwar literature of the Great War with the literature after 1945. Friedrich Dürrenmatt and Max Frisch will provide insights into Swiss German debates about indirect participation in the war. Christa Wolf, Elfriede Jelinek and Herta Müller help delineate the relationship between totalitarian regimes and patriarchal oppression. The objective of this course is to offer students in-depth reading skills of postwar literature, making them at the same time aware of the cultural and literary diversity within the German- speaking area. Over the course of the semester, students will learn about crucial debates in German literary culture.
Taught in English
Required texts
Thomas Mann. Doctor Faustus, The Life of the German Composer Adrian Leverkuhn As Told by a Friend (ISBN-13, 978-0375701160)
Friedrich Dürrenmatt. The Inspector Barlach Mysteries, The Judge and His Hangman and Suspicion (ISBN-13, 978-0226174440)
Max Frisch. Homo Faber (A Report) (ISBN-13, 978-0156421355)
Günter Grass. Crabwalk (ISBN-13, 978-0156029704)
Elfriede Jelinek. The Piano Teacher (ISBN-13, 978-0802144614)
Herta Müller. The Appointment (ISBN-13, 978-0312420543)
Heinrich Böll. The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum (ISBN-13, 978-0140187281)
Recommended texts
Robert Musil. The Man Without Qualities . Vol. 1 . (ISBN, 978-0-679-76787-9)
Christa Wolf. Cassandra, A Novel and Four Essays (ISBN-13, 978-0374519049)
Thomas Mann. Confessions of Felix Krull, Confidence Man, The Early Years (ISBN-13, 978- 0679739043)
Books are available at the Rutgers bookstore. All other readings will be available on the Sakai website for this class.
Requirements Final paper (10-12 pages) 40 % Midterm paper (5-7 pages) 30 % Presentation (10 minutes) 20 % Class participation 10 %
A=90-100%; B+=85-89; B=80-84; C+=75-79; C=70-74; D=65-69; F=64 and below
All written assignments must be printed in black ink on one side of white paper. Pages must be numbered sequentially in the bottom right hand corner. All papers must be written in Times New Roman size 12 (size and font used here). No other font and size will be accepted. All papers must have standard 1-inch margins on the top, bottom, left and right sides. Do not justify the margins of your paper – left alignment only. All papers must have a title, preferably a relevant one free of cliché and sentiment. All papers must be double-spaced. Papers not in compliance with the regulations will not be read and will not receive a grade.
Guidelines for the presentations Every student is required to give a 10-minute presentation. Students sign up for presentations the first week of the course. The topic for the presentation needs to be related to the week’s reading. It can be a discussion of an aspect of the work, a background topic that helps to understand the work, a discussion of a cinematic adaptation of the work.
When preparing your class presentations please respect the following guidelines:
- Please avoid any summary of the plot for the reading that we have done. My expectation is that everybody has done the reading and that we all know the plot. - Please avoid long biographical notes for the authors.
Possible ways to proceed:
- You might wish to focus on a particular aspect, theme or topic addressed in the work that we have read. - You might wish to provide some background information, i.e. the historical, ideological and cultural background against which a particular author wrote his or her work. - You are encouraged to acquaint us with any representation of the work or link to it that involves different media such as painting, film, sculpture etc. - What you might summarize for us is any possible secondary literature on the works that we have read (books, scholarly articles). - While it is intended to be an oral presentation, you might wish to bring written notes with you. Please think of your presentation as a possible dialogue with your colleagues. Questions from the floor will be encouraged.
Attendance All students must attend regularly and arrive prepared; if you expect to miss one or two classes, please use the University absence reporting website https,//sims.rutgers.edu/ssra/ to indicate the date and reason for your absence. An email is automatically sent to me. Those who miss more than two class sessions without a compelling excuse (a doctor’s note, for instance) should expect a one-step reduction in the course grade (i.e. an A becomes a B+, a B+ becomes a B). Three late arrivals count as one absence. Note, It is the responsibility of students who have been absent (for any reason) to find out what they have missed and obtain materials that may have been handed out. Photocopies Department photocopying fees add up quickly and impressively; we will therefore need to collect from each student 5 cents per page toward the cost of handouts other than the syllabus, quizzes and tests.
Disability Support Services Students who may be requesting accommodations due to disabilities are encouraged to familiarize themselves with procedures and policies regarding disability support services at the following website, http,//disabilityservices.rutgers.edu/ . It is recommended that students seeking accommodations begin filing paperwork as soon as possible as the documentation review process may take up to 30 business days. Students are encouraged to speak with teachers about these issues at the beginning of the term. All such conversations will be kept strictly confidential.
Photocopies: Department photocopying fees add up quickly and impressively; we will therefore need to collect from each student 5 cents per page toward the cost of handouts other than the syllabus, quizzes and tests.
Plagiarism Plagiarism is an extremely serious matter, and can lead to a student’s failing the course and being referred to his or her dean for disciplinary action. When referring to ideas other than your own, always acknowledge your sources clearly and completely, whether you are quoting or paraphrasing. Please see the University’s policies on academic integrity at http,//teachx.rutgers.edu/integrity/policy.html, and discuss with your instructor any questions you may have about this and related issues.
Class Schedule
9/1/2011 Intro to the course, Introduction to concepts such as “Zero Hour” and Vergangenheitsbewältigung
A different post-war: The case of Austria
9/6/2011 Robert Musil, The Man without Qualities (chapters 1 to 20) David Luft, Robert Musil and the Crisis of European Culture (pp. 1-22)
9/8/2011 Robert Musil, The Man without Qualities (chapters 21 to 37) Stephen Brockmann, German Literary Culture at the Zero Hour (pp.1-15)
9/13/2011 Robert Musil, The Man without Qualities (chapters 38 to 44) Stephen Brockmann, German Literary Culture at the Zero Hour (pp.21-56)
9/15/2011 Robert Musil, The Man without Qualities (chapters 47 to 58) Stephen Brockmann, German Literary Culture at the Zero Hour (pp.241-258)
9/20/2011 Robert Musil, The Man without Qualities (chapters 98, 99, 100, 107 and 108) Mark Freed, “Robert Musil’s Other Postmodernism, Essayismus , textual Subjectivity, and the Philosophical Discourse of Modernity”
Switzerland and its Uneasy Legacy
9/22/2011 Friedrich Dürrenmatt, The Judge and His Hangman Georg Kreis, Switzerland and the Second World War (excerpts)
9/27/2011 Friedrich Dürrenmatt, Suspicion Georg Kreis, Switzerland and the Second World War (excerpts)
9/29/2011 Max Frisch, Homo Faber (A Report) (part 1)
10/4/2011 Max Frisch, Homo Faber (A Report) (part 2)
After the Rubble: Re-Shaping Germany
10/6/2011 Thomas Mann, Doctor Faustus (pp. 5 – 100)
10/11/2011 Thomas Mann, Doctor Faustus (pp. 101 – 195)
10/13/2011 Thomas Mann, Doctor Faustus (pp. 196 – 280)
10/18/2011 Thomas Mann, Doctor Faustus (pp. 281 – 405) Midterm paper due
10/20/2011 Günter Grass, Crabwalk (part 1) Gary Baker, “The Middle Voice in Günter Grass’s Im Krebsgang ”
10/25/2011 Günter Grass, Crabwalk (part 2)
10/27/2011 Thomas Mann, Confessions of Felix Krull, Confidence Man (excerpts Book 1) T.J. Reed, “Mann and History” Karin Crawford, “Exorcising the Devil from Thomas Mann’s Doktor Faustus ”
11/1/2011 Thomas Mann, Confessions of Felix Krull, Confidence Man (excerpts Book 2) Frederick Lubich, “The Confessions of Felix Krull, Confidence Man” James MacFarland, “Der Fall Faustus: Continuity and Displacement in Theodor W. Adorno and Thomas Mann’s Californian Exile”
11/3/2011 Heinrich Böll, The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum
11/8/2011 Heinrich Böll, The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum
Women Writers from the Periphery
11/10/2011 Christa Wolf, Cassandra, A Novel and Four Essays
11/15/2011 Christa Wolf, Cassandra, A Novel and Four Essays Müller, Jan-Werner, “Just Another Vergangenheitsbewältigung? The Process of Coming to Terms with the East German Past Revisited”
11/17/2011 Elfriede Jelinek, The Piano Teacher
11/22/2011 Elfriede Jelinek, The Piano Teacher
11/23 – 11/27 Thanksgiving Recess No class
11/29/2011 Elfriede Jelinek, The Piano Teacher
12/1/2011 Herta Müller, The Appointment
12/6/2011 Herta Müller, The Appointment
12/8/2011 Herta Müller, The Appointment
12/13/2011 Final Discussion
12/18/2011 Final Paper Due