GERST 4100 - The Seminar

(LA-AS) Satisfies Option 1.

Fall. 4 credits. Letter grades only.

Prerequisite: standard German proficiency as required for this level: any German course at the 3200-3499-level or equivalent. Taught in German. The Seminar is a requirement of the German Studies major, but is open to all students who have met the prerequisites. The course has a research component, including poster presentations of all final projects, and is taught each fall by a faculty member in the Department of German Studies on a topic of their expertise.

P. Gilgen.

Topic: “At the Borders of Language: German Poetry”

The course is based on an historical survey of German poetry. We will examine the conventions and limits of the genre as well as the specific uses of language that German poetry has developed. What mode of saying is involved in lyric poetry? How is it distinguished from the epic and the dramatic genres, respectively? In order to answer these questions, we will closely read a wide array of poets, including such seminal figures as Hölderlin, Goethe, Schiller, Meyer, Trakl, Rilke, Benn, Brecht, Celan, Bobrowski, Bachmann as well as contemporary poets.