University of Leeds

Since unification in 1990, Germans have asked whether it might finally be possible for Germany to put the Nazi past to rest and to become a ‘normal’ country. In the course of these discussions, the relationship between Jewish and non-Jewish Germans both before and after the Holocaust has, necessarily, been the subject of much debate. This module examines the post-Enlightenment history of German Jews with particular reference to the dilemma of assimilation, German-Jewish patriotism, German-Jewish culture, the rise of anti-Semitism, the Holocaust, post-war attempts to confront the past, and efforts in the 1990s to re-establish a famed — but most likely imagined — ‘German-Jewish symbiosis’. In so doing, we will be looking at a range of cultural texts, including plays, journalistic essays, novels, film, diaries, and memorials.

Outcomes

On completion of this module, you should be able to:

Display knowledge of the major developments in the cultural and intellectual history of German-Jewish relations since the Enlightenment
Display an understanding of these developments and particularly of the dilemmas contained within them, with special reference to the dilemma of assimilation, the mythologisation of the German-Jewish symbiosis, the problem of anti-Semitism, and German-Jewish relations after the Holocaust
Present cogent arguments in the form of assignments and examination essays to demonstrate knowledge and understanding.

Assessment

1 3000 word essay to be submitted at the end of Semester one (50%)

1 2hr examination at end of Semester two (50%)

Example Essay Questions

In all essay questions you will be asked to compare and contrast at least two writers/thinkers/artists covered in semester one. Typically, you will be asked to discuss these writers/thinkers/artists with reference to a major theme of the module.

With reference to any two or more of the writers/thinkers/artists covered in semester one, discusse the opportunities and drawbacks for German Jews of the so-called 'emancipation contract'.

With reference to any two or more of the writers/thinkers/artists covered in semester one, discuss the viability and reality of the so-called 'German-Jewish symbiosis' in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Example Exam Questions

Some essay questions will ask you to compare and contrast two or more of the writers/thinkers/artists covered in semester two; some will focus on a single writer, thinker or artist. Typically, you will be asked to discuss these writers/thinkers/artists with reference to a major theme of the module.

With reference to any two or more of the writers/thinkers/artists covered in semester two, discuss the proposition that anti-Semitism had always been a constant in German society even before the Holocaust.

Martin Walser's Friedenspreisrede is not anti-semitic - on the contrary, it is a long-overdue and courageous attempt to re-establish the German-Jewish symbiosis. Discuss.

Essay Questions Semester One 2004-5

GERM 2880/3880

Write an essay of 3000 words in response to ONE of the following.

Deadline: First day of Examinations’ Period January 2005

1. ‘The view of the ideal relationship between Christians and Jews propagated by Lessing’s Nathan der Weise is just as flawed as Dohm’s vision of Jewish assimilation into German society’. Discuss.

2. ‘Mendelssohn’s “Brief an den Herrn Lavater” is a clever attempt to reconcile the doctrine of Reason with his religious beliefs. He is naïve to suppose, however, that his vision of the relationship between Enlightenment and Judaism is the same as that propagated by state officials such as Dohm’. Discuss.

3. ‘In the early to mid-nineteenth century, it should have been obvious to any sensible observer that it was impossible to be both a Jew and a German patriot.’ Discuss.

4. Discuss the ways in which any TWO German-Jewish artists of the nineteenth century attempted to reconcile their Jewish heritage with their sense of being German.

5. ‘Zionism was an obvious reaction to anti-Semitism at the end of the nineteenth century; indeed, it also shared some of its fundamental premises’. Discuss.

6. ‘The years just before the First World War and then the Weimar Republic witnessed the high point of the German-Jewish cultural flowering’. Discuss.

Mock Exam Paper

This question paper consists of 1 printed pages, each of which is identified by the code number GERM 2880/3880

Mock Paper

GERM 2880/3880

© UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS

(2005)

Jews and Other Germans: The German-Jewish ‘Symbiosis’ from the Enlightenment to the Present

Time allowed: 2 hours

Answer two questions

In their answers, candidates should avoid substantial duplication of material.

1. ‘Hitler’s Mein Kampf is an explicit incitement to mass-murder’. Discuss.

2. ‘Victor Klemperer’s Tagebücher 1933-1945 are of limited value in any discussion of the treatment of Jews during the Nazi period’. Discuss.

3. ‘Goldhagen is right; Browning is wrong’. Discuss.

4. With reference to any two or more of the writers/thinkers/artists covered in semester two, discuss the proposition that anti-Semitism had always been a constant in German society even before the Holocaust.

5. Compare and contrast any poem on the Holocaust written by Nelly Sachs to Celan’s ‘Todesfuge’.

6. From the 1960s, German writers have tended to instrumentalise the Holocaust in order to talk about contemporary events. Discuss with reference to at least ONE of the writers from the period from the 1960s onwards.

7. ‘Biller and Broder are concerned less with Auschwitz itself than with the way in which Auschwitz is remembered in the present’. Discuss.

8. ‘Martin Walser's Friedenspreisrede is not anti-semitic - on the contrary, it is a long-overdue and courageous attempt to re-establish the German-Jewish symbiosis’. Discuss.

9. ‘The Holocaust memorial is actually an attempt to put an end to discussions of German responsibility for Auschwitz’. Discuss.

10. ‘The “new” Jewish quarter is Berlin is Disneyworld’. Discuss.

11. Discuss the way in which Jews are presented in recent German films.

Programme

A German-Jewish Symbiosis?

Jews and Other Germans

Semester One

From the beginnings of Jewish settlement to the Enlightenment

‘Geschichte der Juden in Deutschland bis 1848’

Howard Sachar, ‘Jewish Settlement in the German-speaking World’. In: Howard Sachar, The course of modern Jewish history (London: Weidenfeld, 1958), 1-13

Mordechai Breuer, ‘Prologue: The Jewish Middle Ages’and chapters, 1, 2, 3 and 4. In: Michael Meyer, German-Jewish History in Modern Times. Volume I. Tradition and Enlightenment 1600-1780 (New York: Colombia University Press, 1996), 7-164.

A Plea for Equality? Lessing

Extracts from Lessing’s Nathan der Weise

Differences of Religion? Reason, Lavater and Moses Mendelssohn

Moses Mendelssohn, ‘Brief an den Herrn Lavater’

Alexander Altmann, ‘Moses Mendelssohn as the Archetypal German Jew’. In: Jehuda Reinharz and Walter Schatzberg (eds.), The Jewish Response to German Culture. From The Enlightenment to The Second World War (Hanover: University Press of New England), 1985), 17-31.

Jews and the Enlightened State

Extracts from Christian Wilhelm Dohm, Über die bürgerliche Verbesserung der Juden

Extracts from The Response to Dohm by Michaelis

Mendelssohn’s Response to Dohm

Mendelssohn’s response to Michaelis’ Response to Dohm

Eoin Bourke, ‘Christian Wilhelm Dohm’s Conception of the Civic Improvement of the Jews’. In: Edward Timms and Andrea Hammel (eds.), The German-Jewish Dilemma. From The Enlightenment to The Shoah (New York: Edwin Mellen, 1999), 39-52.

The French Revolution and German Nationalism

Johann Gottlieb Fichte (philosopher)

The Grimm Brothers, ‘Der Jude im Dorn’

Assimilation and The Problem of Assimilation

Rahel von Varnhagen

Oppenheim Paintings

Fanny Lewald, Jenny

Heine, ‘Jehuda ben Halevy’

Anti-Semitism and Zionism: Herzl

Anti-Semitism in the The Nineteenth Century

Walter Rathenau, ‘Höre Isreal!’

Wagner, ‘Das Judentum in der Musik’

Heinrich von Treitschke, ‘Unsere Aussichten’

Theodor Mommsen, ‘Auch ein Wort über unser Judentum’

Theodor Herzl, ‘Einleitung’ from Der Judenstaat

Ritchie Robertson, ‘Varieties of Antisemitism from Herder to Fassbinder’. In: Edward Timms and Andrea Hammel (eds.), The German-Jewish Dilemma. From The Enlightenment to The Shoah (New York: Edwin Mellen, 1999), 107-21.

The Late Nineteenth Century and Weimar

Jews in Germany in The First Half of the Twentieth-Century

‘The Cosmopolitan Jew’

Franz Kafka, ‘Bericht für eine Akademie’, ‘Schakale und Araber’,

Optional:

Film — Paul Wegener, Der Golem: Wie er in die Welt kam

Noah Isenberg, ‘Weimar Cinema, The City, and the Jew: Paul Wegener’s Der Golem: Wie er in die Welt kam’. In: Noah Isenberg, Between Redemption and Doom (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1999), 77-104

Weimar Modernity and Jews

Jews in the Weimar Republic

Jacob van Hoddis

Else Lasker-Schüler

Erich Mendelssohn

Max Beckmann

Walter Benjamin: The Catastrophe of Modernity

Über den Begriff der Geschichte

Noah Isenberg, ‘Culture in Ruins: Walter Benjamin’s Memories’. In: Noah Isenberg, Between Redemption and Doom (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1999), 105-146

Semester Two

The Nazi Period

Hitler, extracts from Mein Kampf

‘Aufruf zum Boykott aller jüdischen Betriebe vom 31. März 1933’

‘Das Pogrom vom November 1938’

‘Hitler über das Schicksal der Juden bei einem europäischen Krieg in einer Rede vom 30. Januar 1939’

Goebbels speech, Der Krieg und die Juden

Extracts from The Wannsee Protocoll

Optional:

Film - Veit Harlan’s Jud süß

Victor Klemperer: Extracts from Tagebücher 1933-45

Hans Reiss, ‘Victor Klemperer (1881-1960): Reflections on his “Third Reich” Diaries’, German Life and Letters, 51:1 (1998), 65-92.

Henry Ashby Turner, ‘Victor Klemperer’s Holocaust’, German Studies Review, 22:3 (1999), 385-96.

Arnold Paucker, ‘Responses of German Jewry to Nazi Persecution 1933-1943’. In: Edward Timms and Andrea Hammel (eds.), The German-Jewish Dilemma. From The Enlightenment to The Shoah (New York: Edwin Mellen, 1999), 211-29.

Roderick H. Watt, ‘Victor Klemperer and the Language of National Socialism’. In: Edward Timms and Andrea Hammel (eds.), The German-Jewish Dilemma. From The Enlightenment to The Shoah (New York: Edwin Mellen, 1999), 243-55.

The Holocaust: The Culmination of An Ancient German Anti-Semitism?

Roderick Stackelberg, ‘The Holocaust’. From Roderick Stackelberg, Hitler’s Germany (London: Routledge, 1999), 215-32

Introduction to Christopher R. Browning, Ordinary Men: Reserve Battailon 101 and The Final Solution in Poland (New York: HarperPerennial, 1992)

Introduction to Daniel Jonah Goldhagen, Hitler’s Willing Executioners (New York: Knopf, 1996)

Post-war Responses I

Nelly Sachs, Poems

Paul Celan, ‘Todesfuge’

Post-war Responses II

Hans Magnus Enzensberger, Poems

Erich Fried, Poems

The 1990s

Henryk Broder, ‘Auschwitz für alle’

Henryk Broder, ‘Die Gemanisierung des Holocaust’

Maxim Biller, ‘Heiliger Holocaust’

Maxim Biller, ‘Deutscher wider Willen’

Martin Walser and the ‘Friedenspreisrede’ (1998)

Extracts from Walser’s ‘Friedenspreisrede’ (1998)

Extract from Ruth Klüger, weiter leben

Kathrin Schödel, “Normalising Cultural Memory? The ‘Walser-Bubis-Debate’ and Martin Walser’s Novel Ein springender Brunnen.” In Stuart Taberner and Frank Finlay, eds., Recasting German Identity, 69-87, 72-3.

Stuart Taberner, “‘Wie schön wäre Deutschland, wenn man sich noch als Deutscher fühlen und mit Stolz als Deutscher fühlen könnte’: (Deutsche Vierteljahrsschrift, 73 (1999), 710-32).

Memorials

The Neue Wache

The Holocaust Memorial in Berlin

Berlin Memorials

The Jewish Past – and Jewish Life – in Berlin

The New Jewish Museum in Berlin

The Scheuenviertel

The new Philo-Semitism?

Films: Aimée und Jaguar and Rosenstraße

Stuart Taberner, ‘Philo-Semitism in The Berlin Republic and in Three Recent Films: Aimée und Jaguar, Rosenstraße and Das Wunder von Bern’

Stuart Taberner, ‘A German-Jewish Symbiosis’. In Stuart Taberner, German Literature of the The 1990s and Beyond (Rochester: Camden House, 2005)

Bibliography

Mendelssohn and the Haskalah

Altmann, Alexander. ‘Moses Mendelssohn as the Archetypal German Jew’, Jehuda Reinharz and Walter Schatzberg, eds., The Jewish Response to German Culture. From the Enlightenment to Second World War (1985), 17-31
--. ‘The Philosophical Roots of Moses Mendelssohn's Plea for Emancipation’, Jewish Social Studies 36, (1974), 191-202
--. Moses Mendelssohn: A Biographical Study (1992)
Arkush, Allan. ‘The Questionable Judaism of Moses Mendelssohn’, New German Critique, 77 (1999) 29-44
--. Moses Mendelssohn and the Enlightenment (1994)
--. The Philosophical Account of Religion and Judaism in the Thought of Moses Mendelssohn (1989)
Bamberger, F. Four Unpublished Letters to Moses Mendelssohn (1963)
Barzilay, I. ‘Moses Mendelssohn: A Biographical Study by Alexander Altmann, [1973]’, Jewish Social Studies, 36 (1974), 330-335
Breuer, Edward, The Limits of Enlightenment: Jews, Germans and 18th century Study of Scripture (1996)
Engel, Eva J. ‘Lavater, Mendelssohn, Lichtenberg’, Rex William Last, ed., Affinities. Essays in German and English Literature (1971), 187-205
--. ‘Moses Mendelssohn. His importance as a literary critic’, E. Bahr, E. P. Harris and L. G. Lyon, eds., Humanität und Dialog (1981), 259-274
--.‘The Emergence of Moses Mendelssohn as Literary Critic’, YLBI, 24 (1979), 61-82
--.' The World of Moses Mendelssohn’, YLBI, 36 (1991), 27-43
Friedlander, A.H. ‘Mendelssohn and the German Jewish Myth’, European Judaism 19/20 (1985/86), 45-50
Gilman, Sander L.: ‘Ebrew and Jew. Moses Mendelssohn and the sense of Jewish identity’, E. Bahr, E. P. Harris and L. G. Lyon, eds., Humanität und Dialog (1981), 67-82
Green, Kenneth Hart. ‘Moses Mendelssohn's Opposition to the Herem. The First Step Toward Denominationalism’, Modern Judaism, 12 (1992), 39-60
Hermann, W. Moses Mendelssohn, Critic and Philosopher (1973)
Issacs, A. S. Step by Step: A Story of the Early Days of Moses Mendelssohn (1910)
Kochan, Lionel. ‘Mendelssohn. True or False Prophet’, European Judaism, 19/20 (1985/86), 41-45
Maurice, Simon. Moses Mendelssohn: His Life and Times (1952)
Pelli, Moshe. 'The beginning of the epistolary genre in Hebrew Enlightenment literature in Germany', YLBI, 24 (1979), 83-103
Rosenbloom, Noah H. ‘Mendelssohn's Redefinition of Judaism - Tension and Solution’, Judaism, 21 (1972), 477-489
--.‘Theological Impediments to a Hebrew Version of Mendelssohn's Phaedon’, Proceedings of the American Academy for Jewish Research, 56 (1990), 51-81
Smith, Jeffrey. ‘The Image of Lessing and Mendelssohn: "Die Deborah. Allgemeine Zeitung des amerikanischen Judentums’, Lessing Yearbook 13 (1981), 275-288
Sorkin, David.'The case for comparison; Moses Mendelssohn and the religious Enlightenment', Modern Judaism 14,2 (1994),121-138.
--. ‘The Mendelssohn Myth and its Method', New German Critique, 77 (1999), 7-28
--. Moses Mendelssohn and the Religious Enlightenment (1996) (Arkush, A. ‘Review of David Sorkin, Moses Mendelssohn and the Religious Enlightenment (1996)’, Modern Judaism 17, 2 (1997), 179-185 and Kaplan, J. L. Review of David Sorkin, Moses Mendelssohn and the Religious Enlightenment (1996)’, AJS Review 23, 2 (1998), 504-530)
--. The Berlin Haskalah and German Religious Thought: Orphans of Knowledge (2000)
Walter, Hermann. Moses Mendelssohn, Critic and Philosopher (1973)

Emancipation and Assimilation

Fischer, B. ‘Residues of otherness; on Jewish emancipation during the age of German enlightenment’, in D. Lorenz and G. Weinberger, eds., Insiders and Outsiders: Jewish and Gentile Culture in Germany and Austria (1994), 30-38
Grab, W. ‘The German way of Jewish emancipation’, Australian Journal of Politics and History, 30, 2 (1984), 224-235
Heilbronner, O. ‘A tale of three German cities,’ Studies in Contemporary Jewry, 15 (1999), 179-184
Katz, Jacob. ‘The Term ‘Jewish Emancipation’: Its Origin and Historical Impact’ Altmann, Alexander, ed., Studies in 19th Century Jewish Intellectual History (1964), 1-25
--. 'The suggested relationship between Sabbatianism, Haskalah, and Reform', Jacob Katz, Divine Law in Human Hands: Case Studies in Halakhic Flexibility (1998), 504-530
Kiessling, Rolf. ‘Between expulsion and emancipation: Jewish villages in East Swabia during the early modern period’, Shofar 15,4 (1997), 59-87
Lamberti, Marjorie. Jewish Activism in Imperial Germany: The Struggle for Civil Equality (1978)
Liberles, Robert. Emancipation and the structure of Jewish community in the nineteenth century’, YLBI, 31 (1986), 51-67
Mosse, W. ‘From "Schutzjuden" to "deutsche Staatsbürger jüdischen Glaubens"; the long and bumpy road of Jewish emancipation in Germany’, in P. Birnbaum and I. Katznelson, eds., Paths of Emancipation: Jews, States and Citizenship (1995), 59-93

Paula Hyman, Gender and Assimilation in Modern Jewish History: The Roles and Representation of Women (1995)

Jacob Katz, Out of the Ghetto: The Social Background of Jewish Emancipation, 1770-1870 (1978)

Jehuda Reinharz and W. Schatzberg, eds., The Jewish Response to German Culture, from the Enlightenment to the Second World War (1985)

David Sorkin, The Transformation of German Jewry, 1780-1840 (1987)

Imperial Germany and Weimar

Steven E. Aschheim, Brothers and Strangers: The East European Jew in German and German Jewish Consciousness, 1800-1923(1994)

Emily Bilski, Berlin Metropolis: Jews and the New Culture, 1890-1918 (1999)

Michael Brenner, After the Holocaust: Rebuilding Jewish Lives in Postwar Germany (1997)

Mordechai Breuer, Modernity Within Tradition: The Social History of Orthodox Jewry in Imperial Germany (1992)

Ruth Gay, The Jews of Germany: A Historical Portrait (1992)

Deborah Hertz, Jewish High Society in Old Regime Berlin (1988)

Noah Isenberg, Between Redemption and Doom: The Strains of German-Jewish Modernism (1999)

Marion Kaplan, The Making of the Jewish Middle Class: Women, Family, and Identity in Imperial Germany (1991)

Marjorie Lamberti, Jewish Activism in Imperial Germany: The Struggle for Civil Equality (1978)

Alred D. Low, Jews in the Eyes of Germans: From the Enlightenment to Imperial Germany (1979)

Holocaust

Michael Brenner, After the Holocaust: Rebuilding Jewish Lives in Postwar Germany (1997)

Marion Kaplan, Between Dignity and Despair: Jewish Life in Nazi Germany (1998)
Jacob Katz, From Prejudice to Destruction: Anti-Semitism, 1700-1933 (1980)

Post-1990

Sander Gilman, and Karen Remmler, eds., Re-emerging Jewish Culture in Germany: Life and Literature Since 1989 (1994)

Sander Gilman and J. Zipes, eds., Yale Companion to Jewish Writing and Thought in German Culture (1997)

Jane Kramer, The Politics of Memory Looking for Germany in the New Germany (1996)

Bjoern Krondorfer, Remembrance and Reconciliation: Encounters Between Young Jews and Germans (1995)

Elena Lappin. Jewish Voices, German Words Growing up Jewish in Postwar Germany and Austria (1994)

Michael A Meyer, ed. German-Jewish History in Modern Times (1996-2000)

Lynn Rapaport, Jews in Germany After the Holocaust: Memory, Identity, and Jewish-German Relations (1997)

Monika Richarz, Jewish Life in Germany: Memoirs from Three Centuries (1991)

Susan Stern, Speaking Out: Jewish Voices from United Germany (1995)

Writing Your Essay

Like most things (bridges, life, spaghetti) a good essay has a beginning, a middle and and end. This might sound silly, but it is worth remembering.

1. Structure:

The structure of your essay is extremely important. Whether your essay is written under exam conditions or your own time, dedicate a substantial proportion of the time available to planning the essay. Usually this will involve setting out an argument, planning which points to include where.

Your essay will probably look like this:

Introduction:

Tells me what you're going to do (answer the question), sets the parameters of the essay, sets dates or identifies the significance of dates mentioned in the question. It’s important that you work out the line of your argument in advance so that you can draw your reader along to your conclusion by the power and eloquence of your evidence. NB: this does not mean setting out your entire stall in advance: allow your argument to develop and leave yourself something interesting for the conclusion.

Main body of the essay:

About five or six paragraphs which make a point each, then illustrate it, expand on it, qualify it or whatever.

Paragraphing is important: a new paragraph usually introduces a new or substantially different point. Plan the content of these paragraphs in advance. Look at the question at the beginning of each paragraph and leave out material which is irrelevant to the actual question. This means that you will have to leave out some of what you know (see ‘relevance). Quotations, if included, should be used to support or illustrate your points and laid out properly (see ‘acknowledging sources’ below).

Reread the question after every point to ensure that you don't stray. Ask yourself: ‘what’s your point?’ and check that you have actually said what you set out to say.

Conclusion:

This is where you say: look: I've answered the question

a. could be a summary of your line of argument: not bad if the topic is complex.

b. could be a summary of your points PLUS some commentary and analysis not dealt with in the body of the essay: something which grows out of your arguments rather than something which contradicts your line of reasoning so far.

c. could be just the commentary and analysis arising out of your argument.

d. could qualify the stark lines of your essay and introduce a note of conciliation in what looks like a cut and dried case.

e. could come down clearly and strongly on one side of the argument while summarising the reasons for your views, especially if the essay is expecting you to weigh the merits of a point of view.

It can be very effective to reserve a killer argument for your conclusion, but this should follow on from what you have been arguing throughout. Avoid introducing radically new or controversial ideas in the conclusion that have not been supported sufficiently in the body of the essay. Try not to contradict your arguments at the last minute as this can be very unsettling for the reader – aim for an ‘aha!’ reaction rather than an ‘eh?’

2. Relevance:

Make sure you answer the whole of the question by identifying key words before planning the essay. Ask yourself: what am I being asked to discuss? What is the underlying question here? In an exam, all material must be relevant to the essay title.

3. Comment and analysis

It is worth remembering that you are NEVER being asked to ‘write all you know about X, Y, or Z.’ You are always being asked to analyse the facts and use them to present your argument.

Sometimes this is explicitly stated, shown in phrases like 'comment critically', 'assess the effectiveness' 'to what extent' where you are being asked to make a judgement based on your knowledge of the facts. Even where the question does not explicitly ask for comment, be aware that high-scoring candidates all display a high level of analytical ability. Ask yourself: Why is this important? What is the significance of this? What conclusions can we draw from this? How does this relate to the question?

4. Use Of English

Remember: the standard of your English is very important, and you can ruin the force of your argument by poor or inappropriate use of language, sloppy spelling, punctuation and grammar. The higher marks (i.e. IIi and above) will only be awarded to those who use English at an appropriate level.

5. Plagiarism

You are asked to sign a declaration that the essays are all your own work. It is very important that you acknowledge all your sources. You must include any articles or books you have read in the bibliography, even if all they have contributed is background information. If you quote directly from one of the sources, you must make this clear and give the full reference, including the page number. If you use or develop the ideas found within an article, you should acknowledge this too. You can do this in a number of ways, depending on how heavily you are depending on the source and whether or not you are agreeing with the ideas outlined in it.

Examples:

'As Gisela Bock argues (1987, 225-6), sterilisation was a weapon mainly used by men against women' or 'When Gisela Bock argues (1987, 225-6) that sterilisation was a weapon mainly used by men against women, she fails to differentiate between different groups of women.' If you came independently to the same conclusions as one of the authors, you can make this clear, too. 'As Claudia Koonz also argues/concludes (1987, 216) ..' In each case, you would have to make clear where Bock or Koonz outline their arguments.

6. Acknowledging sources

Do acknowledge your sources adequately and attach a complete bibliography at the end of all essays apart from those written under exam conditions. The referencing should be based on the Harvard or author date model, which avoids footnotes (see the Departmental ‘Guidelines for Written Work’). All the details of the work cited are given in the bibliography, and references are given within the text, in brackets, giving author, date and page number.

When quoting from sources, use the convention of including a shorter passage seamlessly into your own text (example 1) or indenting a longer quoted passage within inverted commas and introduced by a colon (example 2).

Example 1. Because feminism is associated with the demand for the right to work and access to the same career opportunities as men, feminism is blamed for the reality for many working mothers: a ceaseless round of 'obligations from which there is no reprieve'. (Kaplan 1992, 225)

Example 2. As Kaplan argues, there is a limit to the number of options available when a particular group has been identified as the oppressor. If the revolution is to be successful, the enemy must be killed, subjugated or reeducated:

'In all cases, power and control has to be taken away from them or the revolution has failed. As said before, women could not eradicate or overpower half of humanity. Familial, physical and sexual ties make this unthinkable and somewhat impractical.' (Kaplan 1992, 225)

Bibliography

Kaplan, G. (1992), Contemporary Western Feminism London: UCL Press, Allen & Unwin.

7. Handing in your essay

You must hand in your essay to the Departmental office, together with the appropriate cover sheet, by the agreed deadline. It is possible to apply for an extension but this must be done well in advance of the deadline and strict criteria apply. Late submission of essays will be reflected in the marks. You must also keep a copy of your essay.

8. Assessment criteria

The essays are assessed using a marksheet which sets out the assessment criteria. The essay must be word -processed, a bibliography must be attached and care taken with presentation, spelling and syntax.

9. Exam essays

Although the tips outlined above refer broadly to all the essays you will be expected to write, exam essays are written under the additional pressure of limited time and the inability to consult reference works, pause for a coffee or a game of squash. Planning and time management and the ability to work within these constraints are especially important when writing exam essays.

Points to remember about exams:

· Take time to read the questions and chose carefully: do not choose by broad topic alone, but ask yourself how you would answer the question.

· Planning is never a waste of time.

· It is up to you to make the points relevant to the question.

· DO NOT PANIC and write everything you know. Answer the question. Use paragraphing to remind the examiners that you are answering the question. In your conclusion, draw the examiners’ attention to how cleverly and thoroughly you have answered the question.

· If things go wrong:
If you are half-way through your essay with only ten minutes to go, write a conclusion - do not simply allow your essay to peter out mid-sentence. If you think you have time, write a bald statement of the points you were planning to make as well. You will get some marks for content even if you lose stylistic marks. If your time-management has broken down completely, leaving you with very little time for the third essay, write out a detailed essay plan rather than launching into an ill-planned essay.

How to write successful exam essays

A. How to start your essay

The Introduction: Basics

Before you can write an introduction, you need an essay plan.
The intro must respond clearly to the question (and NOT supply some other question you will answer instead). It is NOT the place to state conclusions.
Write about HOW you are going to address the question, i.e. what factors it will be crucial to consider. This is the place to introduce the categories you will be using. But don’t write “I shall answer this question by…, I shall say that…” etc. Engage directly with the question.

Questions you will not encounter

Exam questions are NOT a coded way of asking “What happens in this book?” or “Recount the plot in your own words”, let alone “Write anything you can remember about this book”.

Types of question you will encounter

“Book X is ABC.” Discuss.

Eg “The depressing thing about Böll’s stories is their unrelievedly pessimistic view of human relationships.” Discuss.

Type 1 is the simplest to structure but an answer that merely agrees with the statement will always be relatively unsuccessful. Part of your answer will involve explaining why the statement has been made, i.e. supply evidence supporting it. But then you must also supply counter-evidence which undermines the statement and weigh the first against the second.

To what extent does X ABC?

Eg To what extent should we think of Brecht’s poetry as belonging to a particular time and place, or even a particular culture?

As ever, argument is essential. This needs to be balanced with some concessions to the counter-argument. A ‘to-what-extent’ question is asking you to specify a position on a spectrum of possibilities. There is seldom, if ever, a right answer as such: what matters is how effectively you justify the position you take.

Discuss the role of ABC in X.

Eg What part does narrative perspective play in shaping the reader’s response to Mario und der Zauberer?

Type 3 is the hardest to structure because the tendency is to waffle aimlessly around the topic. It is essential to build 3 clear points which comprise distinct ideas and to keep asking yourself “what is my argument here?”. It may be useful to think in terms of bullet points as you are planning, but don’t actually write like this!

When planning your essay, focus on identifying

a) an argument, comprising a series of points

b) evidence to substantiate each point.

In one hour there is no time for irrelevancy: start off as you mean to go on, closely focussed on responding to the question.

TASK: Assess the following opening sentences.

Discuss in pairs/threes the opening of four essays for each of three exam questions. In each case, which opening sentence do you think best? Why do the others fail?

Essay Question 1: “The really depressing thing about Böll’s stories is their unrelievedly pessimistic view of human relationships.” Discuss.

After deliberation, I decided to answer this question.
In 1945 the Second World War had just ended.
Böll’s stories focus on human relationships which engender utter despair but also moments of humour.
Böll was born in 1917 in Cologne, won the Nobel Prize in 1972 and died in 1985.

Essay Question 2: What part does narrative perspective play in shaping the reader’s response to Mario und der Zauberer?

Mario und der Zauberer is an autobiographical account of a trip the Mann family took to Italy.
The extent of the narrator’s participation in the story, the degree to which he is perceptible, and his reliability are crucial factors shaping the reader’s attitude to the story of Mario und der Zauberer.
The narrative perspective in Mario und der Zauberer shapes the reader’s response to it.
Mario and the Magician is the story of how Mario, an Italian waiter, comes to shoot a magician called Cipolla.

Essay Question 3: To what extent should we think of Brecht’s poetry as belonging to a particular time and place, or even a particular culture?

When I first read Brecht’s poetry, I thought it didn’t seem very traditional like Goethe.
Brecht’s poetry seems to belong to a particular time and place and a particular culture because it was written in the 1920s and 1930s in Germany.
Brecht’s successful play Die Dreigroschenoper is a musical which satirizes market capitalism and evokes Germany during the Weimar Republic.
Although some of Brecht’s most famous poems respond directly to the situation in Germany and Occupied Europe during the Nazi era, essentially they belong to any time and place where people are crushed by injustice and oppression.

B. Beyond the introduction

Paragraphing

The paragraph is a block of text which makes a specific point, i.e. one point that you (and the reader!) can specify. You need to know what that point is before you start writing.
Paragraphs are not an optional extra: they are essential to guiding your examiner through your argument.
In an hour, you will not have time to make more than three points, i.e. three paragraphs (plus intro and conc)

Content

It is vital to have an idea or ideas to communicate in your essay. The plan is your chance to make sure you have thought up at least one.
Besides identifying themes, your essay should be about HOW the themes are addressed in a particular work e.g. through key lines in the work, through motifs that recur, through images, through the juxtaposition of characters, through turning-points and shifts in perspective etc. You should be writing about the techniques an author uses, not just his/her subject-matter.
You can safely assume that your examiner has read the text(s) you are discussing; there is no need to waste time recounting what happens / the plot. And you will get no credit for doing so. Do not describe the work, analyse it.
Your priority is to respond to the question, NOT to regurgitate chunks of a lecture you once heard.
Know the work well: this includes knowing how to spell the title correctly, the names of the characters, being familiar with the dramatic/narrative structure, a few quotations, key images, characterization.
Do NOT confuse a narrator with an author.
Do NOT recount details of an author’s life.
Do NOT pad out your analysis with inane remarks about a work being very important / beautiful / interesting.

Style

An exam essay is NOT akin to a diary entry, personal letter or chat: it is not appropriate to use don’t, can’t, won’t or other chatty forms.
Do not use “I” – it tends to appear when you are scrabbling around to sound assertive and have failed to substantiate an argument.
Instead use: X shows Y; X demonstrates Y; X exemplifies Y; X represents Y; X functions as Y; X creates the effect of Y; X suggests Y
Avoid repetitious use of it seems that, probably, perhaps and other excessively tentative formulations. Instead make points that you can be confident about because you have provided textual evidence.

Apostrophes 1

its = belonging to it
it’s = it is

Apostrophes 2

ones = plural of one
one’s = belonging to one

Apostrophes 3

Plurals are NEVER formed by adding ’s to the singular

Use of German

Refer to works by their German titles, underlined.
Refer to characters /places in works as they appear in the German, NOT as they appear in an English translation.
Quotations MUST be rendered in the original and 100% accurately. If you cannot remember the quotation exactly, then don’t use it.
Learn two or three quotations from each work – pick lines that sum up something characteristic of the whole text.

How to end your essay

You shouldn’t just end in mid-flow: the closing of your essay is the last impression you leave with the examiner before he/she puts a mark on your script! It is important that this is a coherent and snappy part of your essay.
Leave at least seven minutes to write a conclusion.
The conclusion is NOT a repetition of the introduction.
You cannot rescue a hopelessly incoherent essay by tacking onto it an out-of-nowhere conclusion.
However, if you have put in the effort at the beginning to plan and introduce your essay properly and to paragraph it making clear points that build into a compelling argument, then the conclusion is straightforward.
Simply pull together the points you have made. This is the time to relate your three separate points to one another and to your starting-point. State your conclusions boldly – after all, your entire essay has been leading up to them