31046 - German Literature 1

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course students should know the general outline of literary history of German-speaking countries from 1675 to 1832. They should be acquainted with the methods and analytical tools they need to interpret the works of the main authors, contextualising them within their cultural and historical period.

Course contents

Title of the course: The Journal, Medium of the Enlightenment. Every era creates its own media, and the history of media is as old as that of mankind. After or besides the traditional "human" medium (especially the messenger, the preacher, the teacher, the storyteller), the medium of contruction (the castle, park, etc.), and the medium of writing (letter, sheet, wall), the early modern age developed the print medium (book, newspaper, journal, broadsheet, poster, calendar, almanac and so on). The eighteenth century was the epoch of journal, and was followed by the mass and electronic media of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries (the daily press, telephone, telegraph, record, film, television, and computer). The journal, the periodical literature of the eighteenth century, provided the key medium for bourgeois society; this course focuses on the jornal as a new medium in the era of Enlightenment. Literary History G. Cantarutti (a cura di), La cultura letteraria tedesca dalla nascita del giornalismo moderno alla Rivoluzione francese, di prossima pubblicazione nelle “Istituzioni di Letteratura tedesca”, serie diretta da D. Mugnolo, Ed. Laterza, Bari. M. Cometa (a cura di), L'età classico-romantica. La cultura letteraria in Germania fra Settecento e Ottocento, Bari, Laterza, 2009, pp. 3-97 Primary sources Lessing, Minna von Barnhelm a cura di E. Bonfatti, Marsilio, oppure Nathan il saggio, trad. di A. Casalegno, Garzanti; I dolori del giovane Werther di Goethe; I Masnadieri di Schiller, edizione Oscar Mondadori con introduzione di L. Crescenzi; G.C. Lichtenberg, Sulla fisiognomica; contro i fisionomi (contenuto nel volume J.C. Lavater/G.C. Lichtenberg, Lo specchio dell'anima. Pro e contro la fisiognomica. Un dibattito settecentesco, a cura di G. Gurisatti, Il Poligrafo 1991, da p. 99 a p. 138; H. von Kleist, Michael Kohlhaas, a cura di H. Dorowin, Marsilio.

Teaching methods

Since the course is addressed to first year student, it will consist of frontal lessons

Assessment methods

The examination consists of two inseparable parts: a written test lasting a maximum of 100 minutes and a subsequent oral examination, to be supported after approximately 48/72 hours of sustaining the written test, based on the number of students and the availability of the teacher. The written test consists of 5 open questions. The final mark will be averaged out between the two parts. It will be tested the descriptive knowledge of the topics and the ability to contextualize the cultural and literary phenomena.

Teaching tools

Extensive use will be made of the projector to display concepts, fragments of texts and images.

Office hours

See the website of Giulia Cantarutti