Module Identifier GEM0530  
Module Title THE LITERARY LANDSCAPE OF GERMANY AT THE TURN OF THE CENTURY  
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 Lecture   6 Hours  
  Seminars / Tutorials   14 Hours  
Assessment Semester Assessment   Essay: 1 x 5000 word essay   100%  
  Semester Assessment   Seminar Presentation: Lead 2 seminars   25%  
  Supplementary Assessment   Resubmission of essay   75%  

Learning outcomes

On completion of this module a student should be able to
a) demonstrate that they have a mastery of the key developments of German literature since 1990
b) demonstrate a mastery of key contemporary debates concerning these developments
c) articulate their own stance on these debates
d) demonstrate an ability to 'read' culture in a sophisticated manner.
e) those students who wish to go on with their studies should be able to demonstrate that they have a solid foundation for postgraduate research

Brief description

This course will examine a range of key literary texts produced by artists writing in German since the fall of teh Berlin Wall. Through close textual analysis, students will explore the impact of the process of unification on German literature, examining how writers are tackling issues such as the re-emergence of violent racism (which interlinks with the place of writing by non-Germans in the literary canon), the role of easterners in the new state and the continuing question of Vergangenheitscbewaltigung. As well as an examination of such social issues, the course will explore aesthetic trends in contemporary German writing, looking, for example, at the tensions between the continuing importance of modernism, on theone hand, and the growing trend towards a 'Neue Lesbarkeit' on the other

Reading Lists

Books
** Recommended Text
Hilbig, Wolfgang. (1998) Ich. Frankfurt/Main: S Fischer
Schulze, Ingo. (1998) Simple Storys. Frankfurt/Main: Luchterhand
Hermann, Judith. (2000) Sommerhaus: Spater. Frankfurt/Main: Spater
Duckers, Tanja. (2000) Spielzone. Berlin: Aufbau
Treichel, Hans-Ulrich. (1999) Der Verlorene. Frankfurt/Main: Suhrkamp
Zaimoglu, Feridun. (1995) Kanak Sprak. 24 Misstone vom Rande Gesellschaft. Hamburg: Rotbuch
** Recommended Background
Rimmon_kenan, Shlomith. (1989) Narrative fiction: Contemporary Poetics. London: Routledge
Brockmann, Stephen. (1999) Literature and German Reunification. Cambridge: CUP
Bullivant, Keith (ed). (1997) Beyond 1989: re-reading German literary history since 1945. Providence, RI; Oxford: Berghahn Books
Bullivant, Keithe (ed). (1994) The Future of German Literature. Providence, RI; Oxford: Berg
Doring, Christian (ed). (1995) Deutschsprachige Gegenwartsliteratur. Frankfurt/Main: Suhrkamp
Flanagan, Clare and Taberner, Stuart (eds). (2000) Cultural Perspectives on Division and Unity in East and West. Amsterdam/Atlanta: Rodopi
Fulbrook, Mary. (1999) German national identity after the Holocaust. Oxford: Polity
Kraft, Thomas (ed). (2000) Aufgerissen: Zur Literatur der 90er. Munich: Piper
Kohler, Andrea & Rainer, Moritz (eds). Maulhelden und KOnigskinder: Zur Debatte uber Konigskinder: Zur Debatte uber die deutschsprachige Gegenwartsliterature. Leipzig: Reclam, 1998
Arnold, Heinz L. Text und Kritik, DDR-Literatur der neunziger Jahre.
Glossen (web journal) http://www.dickinson.edu/departments/germn/glossen/.