GERM
2876/3876
German
Fiction since Unification
This
course analyses the emergence of a new
generation of writers in Germany since unification,
the manner in which they rework established themes such as Vergangenheitsbewältigung,
the GDR past, Ostalgie,
parental conflict, opportunism, conformity and violence, and their engagement
with new themes such as postmodernity, globalisation
and modern urban life. We will also be asking whether this 'new
generation' has abandoned the political
engagement of older German writers. In addition, we will be looking
closely at the literary style embraced by many
writers of this generation—the so-called Neue
Lesbarkeit, which embodies readability, and a more ‘international’,
or anglo-saxon narrative style—and asking questions about post-feminism, the
effectiveness of satire, the trend towards encouraging identification with
perpetrators of violence (in the Nazi period, and in the drug wars of the
1990s), Germany’s process of normalisation, east
and west (the two parts of the country and writers from each part) and
postmodernism. We will also be asking whether this new writing, Der
Beat der 90er, is just pop.
Hopefully, we will be able to draw parallels with contemporary British
fiction—Bridget Jones’s Diary, Trainspotting
or Fever Pitch—whilst tracing the
specifically German twist
in matters of theme and style within an increasingly global market for
fiction.
There
will be a LECTURE every two weeks in WEEKS ONE, TWO, FOUR, SIX AND EIGHT
There
will be a seminar (in two groups) every two weeks in WEEKS THREE, FIVE, EIGHT
AND TEN
YOU
ARE EXPECTED TO COME TO SEMINARS HAVING READ THE BOOK AND PREPARED TO DISCUSS.
WE WILL BE ASKING FOR IMPROMPTU PRESENTATIONS SO YOU NEED TO BE PREPARED!
Lecturers:
Semester
One - Dr Stuart Taberner
Semester
Two - Dr Paul Cooke
Semester
Groups
This
semester will deal with the treatment of the Nazi Past since unification
Additional
Reading:
Stuart
Taberner, 'The Nazi Past in The Literature of the 1990s- "Ordinary
Germans"'
(available from me)
Stuart
Taberner, 'The Nazi Past in The Literature of the 1990s- "Germans as
Victims"'
(available
from me)
Bill
Niven, Facing the Nazi Past
Week
One: Introductory
lecture - German Literature after unification
Weeks
Two and Three: W.G.
Sebald, Die
Ausgewanderten
Weeks
Four and Five: Bernhard
Schlink, Der
Vorleser
Week
Six: Marcel Beyer, Flughunde
Week
Seven: Reading Week
Week
Eight: Marcel Beyer, Flughunde
Weeks
Nine and Ten: Grass,
Günter, Im
Krebsgang
The
second semester will deal with new trends since unification
Weeks One Introduction Semester Two
Week
Two and Three Thomas Brussig, Helden
Wie Wir
Weeks Four und Five: Herta Müller, Der Fuchs war damals schon der Jäger
Weeks
Six und Seven: Judith
Hermann, Sommerhaus
Spaeter
Weeks
Eight and Nine : Russendisko,
Wladimir Kaminer
Weeks
Ten:
GERM3876:
An essay of 3000 words by the start of the Semester One exam period (50%)
GERM2876:
An essay of 3000 words by the start of the Semester One exam period (50%)
For
students going abroad, a 1,500 word essay before the period of residence
abroad (50%)
There
will be a 2-hour examination at the end of the second semester (50%)
The
rules: Departmental
guidelines on assessed work
How
essays are assessed: Essay
Assessment grid
Some
hints
on writing essays (in exams and otherwise)
Stephen
Brockmann, Literature
and German reunification
Keith
Bullivant, The
Future of German Literature
Keith
Bullivant (ed), Beyond
1989. Re-reading German Literature since 1945
William Collins Donahue, 'Illusions of Subtley: Bernhard Schlink's Der Vorleser and the Moral Limits of Holocaust Fiction', German Life and Letters, 54:1 (2001), 60-81.
Paul Cooke, Writers and the East German Secret Police (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2002), Introduction, plus chapters on Brussig and Grass (obtainable from PC)
Paul Cooke, 'Opfer or Täter? From Opfer to Täter? Identity and the Stasi in post-Wende East German Literature', in Legacies and Identity: East and West German Literary Responses to Unification, ed. by Martin Kane (Bern: Peter Lang, 2002), pp. 50-66
Paul
Cooke, 'East German Literature in the Age of Globalisation' (obtainable from
PC)
Peter Graves, article on Judith Hermann in German Life and Letters, 55:2 (2002)
Martin
Kane, Legacies and Identity: East and West German Literary Responses to
Unification, ed. by Martin Kane (Bern: Peter Lang, 2002)
Ralf
Juetter, '"Am Rand der Finsternis": The Jewish Experience in the
Context of W.G Sebald's Poetics'. In: Pol O'Dochartaigh (ed.), Jews
in German Literature Since 1945: German-Jewish Literature?,
German Monitor, Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2000,165-180
Katharina
Hall, 'Jewish Memory in Exile: The Relation of W.G. Sebald's Die
Ausgewanderten to The Tradition of the Yizkor Books'. In:
Pol O'Dochartaigh (ed.), Jews
in German Literature Since 1945: German-Jewish Literature?, German
Monitor, Amsterdam: Rodopi, 153-164.
Rachel
Halverson, 'Comedic Bestseller or Insightful Satire: Taking the Interview and
Autobiography to Task in Thomas Brussig's Helden wie wir'. In: Carol Anne
Costabile-Heming, Rachel Halverson, Kristie Foell, Textual
Responses to German Unification, Berlin: De Gruyter, 2001, 95-105.
Thomas
Kraft, Aufgerissen:
zur literatur der 90er (Essay on Libidissi)
Carlotta
von Maltzan, '"Die Angst davor, daß es rauskommt". Über das das
Schweigen von Opfern und Tätern bei Katja Behrens und Bernhard Schlinnk'. In:
Pol O'Dochartaigh (ed.), Jews
in German Literature Since 1945: German-Jewish Literature?, German
Monitor, Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2000,463-476.
Bill
Niven, 'Literary Portrayals of National Socialism in Post-Unification German
Literature'. In: Helmut Schmitz (ed.), German
Culture and the Uncomfortable Past, Ashgate, 2001
Stuart
Parkes, 'The Theme of National Socialism in the Recent Novels by Bernhard
Schlink and Klaus Modik.' In: Helmut Schmitz (ed.), German
Culture and the Uncomfortable Past, Ashgate, 2001
Stuart
Taberner, Introduction
to Schlink's Der Vorleser (campus-restricted)
Stuart
Taberner, Essay
on Georg Klein (campus-restricted)
Stuart
Taberner, 'A New Modernism or "Neue Lesbarkeit?": Hybridity in Georg
Klein's Libdissi', German
Life and Letters, 55:2
(2002)
Stuart
Taberner, '"ob es bei diesem Experiment um eine gescheiterte Utopie oder
um ein Verbrechen gehandelt hat": Enlightenment, Utopia, the GDR
and National Socialism in Monika Maron's Work from Flugasche to
Pawels Briefe'. In: Carol Anne Costabile-Heming, Rachel Halverson, Kristie
Foell (eds.), Textual
Responses to German Unification, 35-57
Stuart
Taberner, '"Normalisation
"and the New Consensus on the Nazi Past: Im Krebsgang', Oxford
German Studies, forthcoming December 2002
Stuart
Taberner, 'The Nazi Past in The Literature of the 1990s- "Ordinary
Germans"'
(available from me)
Stuart
Taberner, 'The Nazi Past in The Literature of the 1990s- "Germans as
Victims"'
(available from me)
Arthur
Williams et. al., Whose
story?’ — Continuities in contemporary German-language Literature
Arthur
Williams et. al., Literature,
Media, and Markets in Contemporary Germany
Arthur
Williams, 'Remembrance and Responsibility in W. G Sebald', In: Helmut Schmitz
(ed.), German
Culture and the Uncomfortable Past, Ashgate, 2001