Module Identifier GEM0430  
Module Title TRAJECTORIES OF MODERNISM: INTRO TO GERMAN CRITICAL THEORY  
Academic Year 2002/2003  
Co-ordinator Paul A Cooke  
Semester Semester 2  
Pre-Requisite Normally a 2, 1 degree in German Studies  
Co-Requisite GEM0130 , GEM0230  
Course delivery Seminars / Tutorials   10 Hours  
  Lecture   10 Hours  
Assessment Semester Assessment   Seminar Presentation: 2 lead seminars   25%  
  Semester Assessment   Essay: 1 x 5000 word essay of a comparative nature   100%  
  Supplementary Assessment   Resubmission of essay   75%  

Learning outcomes

On completion of this module, students should be able to

1.   demonstrate that they have acquired a knowledge and understanding of the major theoretical issues raised during the module.
2.   discuss critically the debates surrounding the development of Modernism.
3.   write about theories and issues in a well-structured and well-argued way
4. undertake further postgraduate research

Brief description

The aims of this course are to introduce students to German critical theory, focusing on teh development of Modernism, a key issue throughout the twentieth century. As a starting point students will explore the 'Expressionism Debate' of the 1930s amongst writers in exile. They will then look at how this debate developed in both the east and west German States, tracing its movement in the west from Adorno's position in the 1950s and 1960s to that of Habermas, finally examining the issue of Postmodernism. With regard to the east, students will look at the 'Formalism Debate' of teh 1950s, the 'problem' of Kafka in the Eastern Bloc, the controversy concerning Christa Wolf in the 1960s, and her continued engagement with Modernist aesthetics, through to the 'rediscovery' of the early twentieth-century avant-garde amongst writers in teh 1970s and 80s.

Reading Lists

Books
** Recommended Text
Adorno, Theodor W; Hiorkheimer, M. (1969) Dialektik der Aufklarung. Frankfurt/Main: S. Fischer
Bathrick, D. (1995) The Powers of Speech: the politics of culture in the GDR. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press
Benjamin, Walter. (1977) Illuminationen. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp
Bradbury, Malcolm; McFarlane, James (eds.). (1991) Modernism: a guide to European Literature 1890-1930. 2nd. Harmondsworth: Penguin
Erbe, Gunter. (1993) Die verfemte Moderne: die Auseinandersetzung mit dem 'Modernismus' in Kulturpolitik, Liteaturwissenschaft und Literatur der DDR. Opladen: Westdeutscher
Frank, Manfred. (1993) Conditio Moderna. Leipzig: Reclam
Grant, Colin. (1995) Literary Communication from Consensus to Rupture: Practice and Theory in Honecker's GDR. Amsterdam: Rodopi
Habermas, Jurgen. (1990) Die Moderne - ein unvollendetes Projekt: Philosophisch-politische Aufsatze 1977-1990. Leipzig: Reclam
Hermand, Jost. (1974) 'Das Gute-Neue und das Schlechte-Neue: Wandlungen der Modernismus-Debatte in der DDR seit 1956'in Literatur und Literaturtheorie in der DDR, pp. 73-79. Peter-Uwe Ho. Frankfurt/Main: Suhrkamp
Hermans, Theo. (1982) The structure of modernist poetry. London: Croom Helm
Huyssen, Andreas. (1984) Mapping the Postmodern. New German Critique, 33
Lyotard, Jean-Francois. (1984) The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge. Manchester: Manchester University Press
Norris, Christopher. (1992) Uncritical Theory: Postmodernism, Intellectuals and the Gulf War. London: Lawrence & Wishart
Raddatz, Fritz J. (1969) Marxismus und Literatur: eine Dokumentation in drei Banden. Reinbek: Rowohlt
Reid, J H. (1985) Another turn in the road: Kafka in the GDR, 21-38. GDR Monitor 13
Riese, Utz. Wie international ist die LiteraturwissenschaftPoststrukturalismus/Postmoderne und das Nahen der Wende in der DDR, in. Lutz Dannebe. , pp. 425-439
Schmidt, Burghart. (1987) Postmoderne - Strategien des Vergessens, ein kritischer Bericht. Darmstadt: Luchterhand
Schmitt, Hans-Jurgen (ed). (1973) Die Expressionismusdebatte: Materialen zu einer marxistischen Realismuskonzeption. Frankfurt/Main: Suhrkamp
Weber, Max. (1924) Gesammelte Aufsatze zur Soziologie und Sozialpolitik. Tubingen: Mohr
Wittstock, Uwe (ed). (1994) Roman oder Leben: Postmoderne in der deustchen Literatur. Leipzig: Reclam
Wolf, Christa. (1977) Fortgesetzter Versuch. Leipzig: Reclam