GERST 6400 - [The Modern German Novel]

Fall or Spring. Next Offered: 2020-2021. 4 credits. Student option grading.

All texts will be read in translation. German speakers are encouraged to read the original texts.

A. Schwarz.

The goal of this seminar is to analyze selected works of modernist fiction in order to assess the stylistic qualities that constitute their specifically modernist character. Concentrating on novels ranging from the late 19th to the early 20th century, we will pay close attention to questions of narrative structure as well as temporal and spatial arrangements. Also including comparatist interests, the seminar will discuss the modern German novel within the European context; discuss generic differences (modern versus “classic”); examine theories of the novel and their relationship to contemporary representational concerns. Specific points of interest are: the status of self-reflection; philosophical interruptions; irony; montage; subjectivity and literary self-projection; literature and urbanity. In order to evaluate the “very” modern, the class will also discuss two examples of contemporary fiction. Authors include: Rilke, Kafka, Döblin, Broch, Th. Mann, R. Walser, Nossack, Handke, Johnson, Bernhard, Goetz, Musil, Beckett.