GER245/392: Classicism and Romanticism
A Seminar on German Literature from the Enlightenment through Romanticism, 1750-1830
Mondays, 4:00-6:50 p.m.
Fall 1998
 

Instructor: Dr. Deborah Janson
Office and Phone: Chitwood G12 - 293-5121, X 5507
E-mail: djanson@wvu.edu
Office hours: M: 11:30-12:30; W: 12:30-2:30

Course Description and Goals:

In this course we will study representative works of German literature from the Enlightenment, Sturm und Drang, Classical and Romantic periods. We will discuss how the social, political, and personal issues addressed in the texts under consideration reflect the cultural and political climate of that era, and how they continue to influence our thought today. We will also examine the individual texts on their own merit, discussing why they are (or are not) successful works of art.

Required Texts:

Recommended Text: Course Evaluation: Attendance: We will miss you if you are not here, and besides that, if you are absent for (almost) any reason in excess of 1 class period, your final course grade will be lowered by 2 percentage points per absence.
 
Participation: Participation in class discussion involves first of all close and careful reading of the texts. You are expected to read each text thoroughly and conscientiously, to bring to class your ideas, questions, and interpretations, to prepare answers to the questions on hand-outs when they are provided to guide your reading, and to listen to and consider carefully and considerately what others say. Each person's full participation in class discussion is essential to making this course an intellectually stimulating and rewarding experience for everyone.
 
Diskussionsleitung: You will lead the discussion on a selected work for half of one class period. At the end of the class preceding yours, you should provide a list of questions that will help guide our reading. At this time you might also want to explain briefly the work's context and which aspects you would like us to focus on. You will probably want to begin your Diskussionsleitung by providing background information about the text's genesis and its author's life, as well as a summary of important points, both those you have discovered yourself and those discussed in secondary literature. You will then lead the discussion based on the questions you have given us and the other important points you have discovered.
 
As part of this component it is required that you read several works of secondary literature about the text you are discussing, not counting articles in reference works such as The Oxford Companion to German Literature. Knowing how inadequate Wise Library can occasionally be, you will need to search for relevant material early in the semester so that you can avail yourself of the Interlibrary Loan Service, should you need to. It should be clear from your presentation what secondary texts you have read, perhaps by disputing or affirming the positions taken in them. My evaluation of your performance will be based on evidence of effort, accurate and insightful scholarship, and an interesting and informative presentation that involves all class members.
 
Undergraduates may choose to do an oral report instead of the Diskussionsleitung, providing us with background information based on research and your own ideas, but not leading the discussion that follows.
 
Referat: This report will be on a topic of importance to eighteenth and early nineteenth-century German literature and literary history that is not assigned to the class as a whole, but is of relevance to our understanding of the period. It should be 20-40 minutes in length and may be followed by a discussion, but its duration should never exceed 60 minutes. The topic you choose for your Referat may build on that of your Diskussionsleitung or "Semester Project," but cannot, of course, be the very same.

Semester Project: The project will consist of three parts: an abstract of your proposed research paper, in which you state your thesis and how you will proceed (due October 19); a list of works cited plus the first two pages of your paper (due November 9); and the completed research paper (due in finals week and no later than December 17). These different components will be graded. The grade for the abstract will be worth 5%, the bibliography and first two pages 5%, and the completed research paper 30%. The project must reflect familiarity with secondary literature on your chosen topic and it must be written according to the style guidelines presented in the MLA Handbook, including use of parenthetical documentation and a list of works cited. Papers should use standard size font (10 or 12 cpi), one-inch margins, double-spacing, and should consist of the following number of pages:

for undergraduates: 7-10
for graduate students enrolled in GER245: 11-14
for graduate students enrolled in GER392: 15-18.
 
Start thinking now about a topic you would like to research--it can be on the topic of your Diskussionsleitung or other material discussed in class, or on other texts and topics belonging to the period under study, including the topic you chose for your Referat.
 
Our reading schedule will proceed approximately as follows:

31.8:    Introduction
7.9:      Labor Day, no class
14.9:    Miß Sara Sampson
21.9:    Emilia Galotti
28.9:    Werther
5.10:    Werther
12.10:  Iphigenie auf Tauris
19.10:  (abstract due, no class)
26.10:  Heinrich von Ofterdingen
2.11:    Kunstmärchen (Hyazinth und Rosenblütchen, Der Runenberg, Der Königssohn)
9.11:    Der goldene Topf
16.11:  Der goldene Topf
21.11:  Thanksgiving Recess
30.11:  Die Marquise von O.
7.12:    Wrap-up
 
Suggestions for paper and Referat topics include:
 
-The theme of religious tolerance in works by Lessing
-The concept of the schöne Seele in late-eighteenth, early-nineteenth century German literature
-Kant's influence on Schiller/Kleist/the Romantics
-Goethe's and Schiller's friendship
-Romanticism vs. Classicism:
-The evolution of German bourgeois tragedy
-The juxtaposition of madonna-whore figures in eighteenth-century bourgeois tragedies
-The absent mother in German bourgeois tragedies
-Das Frauenideal in eighteenth-century thought
-Universalpoesie: the Aesthetics of Early Romanticism (Fr. Schlegel/Novalis)
-Fichte's influence on the Romantics
-The theme of love in Romantic literature
-How Romanticism changed our concept of marriage
-A comparison of Hoffmann's Der Sandmann with Der goldne Topf
-The alchemical significance of Der goldne Topf
-Dark Romanticism: Tales by Ludwig Tieck and E.T.A. Hoffmann, among others
-The importance of fairy tales in the Romantic period
-Musical themes in Hoffmann's literary works
-Ecocritical approaches to works of the period, such as Novalis's Die Lehrlinge zu Saïs, Bettina von Arnim's Der Königssohn, or Heinrich Heine's Die Harzreise
-The (re)-emergence of the female intellectual during German Romanticism (i.e., Karoline von Günderrode, Bettine von Arnim, Caroline Schlegel-Schelling, Dorothea Veit Schlegel, Sophie Mereau)
-Specific topics relevant to the work of other writers of the period, such as: Achim von Arnim, Clemens Brentano, Matthias Claudius, Joseph von Eichendorff, Friedrich Hölderlin, Novalis, Fr. Schlegel, Jean Paul Friedrich Richter, Ludwig Tieck
-Specific works of the period not read for class: Lessing's Nathan der Weise, Fr. Schlegel's Lucinde, Schiller's Kabale und Liebe, Eichendorff's Marmorbild, Hölderlin's Hyperion, Tieck's Der blonde Eckbert, and Hoffmann's Sandmann.
 
Please regard this syllabus as a contract and reread it frequently throughout the semester to remind yourself of what is coming up.
 

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 This page was last modified: 09 August 1998, 15:25 ET
Authors: Deborah Janson and A. David Roth
URL= http://www.as.wvu.edu/~djanson/ger-245-f98.htm