GRMN 441*

Masterpieces of Twentieth-Century German Narrative

Course Description:

BERLIN: Cultures of the European Capital. With the inauguration of the New Republic, Berlin is reclaiming its cosmolitan flair. This course studies the dance of capital and inhabitants through literature and film, envisioning German culture through urban space and time. Berlin's heterogeneous metropolitan fabric is woven of transnational migration, student protest and counter cultures, (post) Cold War trauma and change, and the upheavals of Weimar industrialization. Love and politics in concrete. A city is always more than just a city....

Literary Texts:

Emine Sevgi Özdamar Die Brücke vom goldenen Horn (1998);

Christa Wolf Der geteilte Himmel (1963);

Alfred Döblin Berlin Alexanderplatz (1929)

Filmic Texts:

Hito Steyerl Die leere Mitte (1998);

Hannes Stöhr Berlin is in Germany (2001)

Short Course Reader with historical and theoretical texts available at AMS Copy.

Marking Scheme:

Attendance and active participation in seminar discussion 15%;

oral class facilitation 15%;

2 essays in English or German (6 to 8 pages each) 70%

Due dates

The first essay is ca. February 27; the second ca. April 17.