GERMAN LITERATURE II

Academic year and teacher
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Versione italiana
Academic year
2016/2017
Teacher
MATTEO GALLI
Credits
9
Didactic period
Secondo Semestre
SSD
L-LIN/13

Training objectives

Two viewpoints on writing of the early twentieth century: Thomas Mann and Franz Kafka.
Thomas Mann and Franz Kafka are perhaps the only two figures of German literature of the early twentieth century to maintain even today their "classic" status. They are different in style and motifs, they summarize most literary trends of their age.. The purpose of the course is to study the two authors under the magnifying glass of literary style, highlighting how their prose manages to be exemplary of the crisis of traditional realistic fiction, even without following the explicit revolutionary avant-garde gesture.

Prerequisites

Letteratura Tedesca I

Course programme

Study of La morte a Venezia, which concludes the first phase of the literary production of Thomas Mann, and La Condanna, La Metamorfosi and Nella colonia penale, three stories that would compose the triptych Punizioni (Strafen). As introduction will be read also selected parts from two of their main novels: I Buddenbrook and Il Castello. In the first part of the course the students will read and discussed some chapters of the book Il tempo e lo spazio by Stephen Kernm, in order to understand the phenomenon ofmodernity from a historical and cultural point of view .

Didactic methods

lessons, interpretation of texts in class

Learning assessment procedures

written exam

Reference texts

Thomas Mann, La morte a Venezia, ed. italiana con testo a fronte, a cura di Elisabeth Galvan, Marsilio, Venezia.
Franz Kafka, Das Urteil, Die Verwandlung, e In der Strafkolonie, in Sämtliche Erzählungen, Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt am Main.

Critical literature
Helmut Koopmann, Warnung vor Wirklichem. Zum Realismus bei Thomas Mann. In H. Koopmann und C. Muenzer (Hg.), Wegbereiter der Moderne, Max Niemayer Verlag, Tübingen, 1990, 68-87.
Børge Kristiansen, Das Problem des Realismus. Leitmotiv. Zitat. Mythische Wiederholungsstruktur, in H. Koopmann (Hg.) Thomas-Mann-Handbuch, Kröner Verlag, Stuttgart, 2001, 823-835.
Friedrich Beißner, Der Erzähler Franz Kafka, Suhrkamp Verlag, Frankfurt am Main, 1983.
Gerhard Neumann, Umkehrung und Ablenkung. Franz Kafkas “gleitendes Paradox”, in H. Politzer (Hg.), Franz Kafka. Wege der Forschung, Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt, 1973, 459-515.
Stephen Kern, Il tempo e lo spazio. La percezione del mondo tra Otto e Novecento, Il Mulino, Bologna.