Spring 2008 - GER Seminar in Special Topics

GER 531. Seminar in Special Topics. Spring Semester 2008 Instructor: Professor Dagmar C. G. Lorenz Office Hours: Thursdays 2:00-5:00 pm 1500 University Hall Phone: 413-2376 Writing about the Nazi Era: Germans, Austrians, and Jews Coming to Terms with the Past In this course we explore strategies used by German and Austrian writers to come to terms with the Nazi past by developing positions and perspectives specific to their experience during the 1930s and 1940s. Our readings will reveal a broad spectrum of assessments ranging from views apologetic of the socalled “recent past” and the role played by the oftentimes autobiographic literary and film protagonists, to accusation, even satire. We will examine if there are specifically “German,” “Austrian,” and “Jewish” ways of confronting (or avoiding) issues like Nazi racism and anti-semitism and the Holocaust and of defining national and cultural identity. Requirements and Grading: One research paper (appr. 20 pages) due finals’ week Research abstract and rationale, complete with outline due week 8 Two presentations Participation (40%) (15%) (30%) (20%) Syllabus: Instruction begins January 14, 2008 Week I January 17: Introduction; From: Leni Riefenstahl, Triumph des Willens Alain Resnais, Night and Fog Read: Heinz Ludwig Arnold, ‘Ausgewählte Kapitel zur deutschsprachigen Literatur nach 1945. Zweite Vorlesung: Zur Literatur der 50er Jahre” http://www.etk-muenchen.de/sixcms/media.php/358/Heinz_Ludwig_Arnold_2.pdf Week II: January 24: Wolfgang Borchert, Drau8en vor der Tür Anna Seghers, “Ausflug der toten M≅dchen” Week III: January 31: Paul Celan, “Todesfuge” Ilse Aichinger, Die gr8ere Hoffnung Hans Weigel, “Das geschlossene Fenster” Essay Ilse Aichinger, “Aufruf zum Mi8trauen” Essay Week IV: February 7: Film: Wolfgang Staudte, Die Mrder sind unter uns Claudia Fritsch, “The War-Ravaged Metropolis as National Landscape of Crime and Repression: Wolfgang Staudte’s The Murderers Are Among Us (1946) Revisited” (Dissertation chapter). Week V: February 14: Veza Canetti, Die Schildkrten Jean Amery, “Ressentiments” in: Jenseits von Schuld und Sühne “Destruction of Synagogues on Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass, November 9, 1938”: http://fcit.usf.edu/holocaust/timeline/KMap.htm History Place: http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/holocaust/h-knacht.htm Angelika Schedel, “Vita Veza Canetti,” Veza Canetti. Text und Kritik 156, 10/2 (2002). Week VI: February 21: Heinrich Bll, Wo warst du, Adam? Eugen Kogon, Der SS-Staat (1948) Günter Anders, Wir Eichmannsshne About Anders: http://www.history.ucsb.edu/faculty/marcuse/anders.htm#publications http://www.weblexikon.de/G%c3%bcnther_Anders.html Week VII: February 28: Film: Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Die Ehe der Maria Braun Anton Kaes, “The Presence of the Past: Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s ‘The Marriage of Maria Braun’” in: From Hitler to Heimat. The Return of History as Film (Harvard UP, 1989). Week VIII: March 6: Günter Grass, Die Blechtrommel Dagmar C. G. Lorenz, “Teaching The Tin Drum from the Perspective of Cultural Studies and Holocaust Studies” (Blackboard) Jewish Volker Neuhaus, “Günter Grass: 'Auschwitz als Zäsur und unheilbarer Bruch der Zivilisationsgeschichte,” in: 'Eke, Norbert Otto (ed. and introd.); Steinecke, Hartmut (ed.). 2006. Shoah in der deutschsprachigen Literatur. (pp. 226-36). Berlin, Germany: Schmidt, 344 pp. Week IX March 20: Film: Helma Sanders-Brahms, Deutschland, bleiche Mutter Atina Grossman, Renate Bridenthal, Marion Kaplan, When Biology Became Destiny. Women in Weimar and Nazi Germany Laurel Cohen Pfister, “The Suffering of the Perpetrators,” http://fmls.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/41/2/123.pdf Week X: March 13: Edgar Hilsenrath, Der Nazi und der Friseur Hans-Otto Horch, “Edgar Hilsenrath: Provokation der Erinnerungsrituale” in: 'Eke, Norbert Otto (ed. and introd.); Steinecke, Hartmut (ed.). 2006. Shoah in der deutschsprachigen Literatur (pp. 267-73). Susann Moeller, Politics to Pulp a Novel: The Fate of the First Edition of Edgar Hilsenrath's Novel Nacht. In: Lorenz, Dagmar C. G. (ed. & introd.); Weinberger, Gabriele (ed.). 1994. Insiders and Outsiders: Jewish and Gentile Culture in Germany and Austria. (pp. 224-34). Detroit: Wayne State UP, xii, 365 pp. Week XI: Alexander Kluge, Lebensl≅ufe (“Anita G.”) Ingeborg Bachmann, “Unter Mrdern und Irren” (Das 30. Jahr) John P Wilson; Zev Harel; Boaz Kahana, Human adaptation to extreme stress: from the Holocaust to Vietnam. Here: Robert J. Lifton, “Understanding the traumatized self: imagery, symolization, and transformation.” (not in UIC) Steven A Luel; Paul Marcus, Psychoanalytic reflections on the Holocaust D810.J4 P8 1984 Week XII: March 24-28: Spring Break Week XIII: April 3: Elfriede Jelinek, Die Ausgesperrten Dagmar C. G. Lorenz, „Ideology and Criticism in the Novel and the Film Die Ausgesperrten. An Ideology and Culture Critical post-Shoah Narrative,“ in: Matthias Konzett; Margarete Lamb-Faffelberger, Elfriede Jelinek : writing woman, nation, and identity : a critical anthology (Madison, [N.J.] : Fairleigh Dickinson UPress, 2007). David Schoneberger, „Effective Representation of the Holocaust” http://www.davidschoenberger.net/joy/career/Holocaust.html Week XIV: April 10: Film: Lilienthal/Becker, David Week XV: April 17: Film: Nadja Seelich, Kieselsteine Ruth Beckermann, “Jugend in Wien” (Unzugehrig) Week XVI: April 24: Bernhard Schlink, Der Vorleser Week XVII May 1: W. G. Sebald, Die Ausgewanderten Instruction ends May 2, 2008. Papers are due May 9, 2008 by e-mail. Texts: Wolfgang Borchert: Drau8 en vor der Tür Rororo Taschenbuch Amazon Ilse Aichinger, Die gr 8 ere Hoffnung Fischer Taschenbuch Amazon Hans Weigel, Das geschlossene Fenster (Blackboard) Aichinger, Aufruf zum Misstrauen (Blackboard) Jean Amery, Jenseits von Schuld und Sühne - Bewältigungsversuche eines Überwältigten Essays, 1966 (Blackboard) Günter Anders, Wir Eichmannss hne Amazon Heinrich Boell, Wo warst du, Adam? Amazon Alexander Kluge, Lebenslaeufe Anita K? Amazon W.G. Sebald, Die Ausgewanderten Amazon Günter Grass, Die Blechtrommel Amazon Edgar Hilsenrath, Der Nazi und der Friseur Amazon Anna Seghers, Ausflug der toten Maedchen Blackboard Ingeborg Bachmann, Unter Moerdern und Irren (Das dreissigste Jahr) Amazon Bernhard Schlink, Der Vorleser Amazon Veza Canetti, Die Schildkroeten Amazon Elfriede Jelinek, Die Ausgesperrten Amazon Films: Triumph des Willens Night and Fog David Kieselsteine Beckermann, Papierene Bruecke Die Ehe der Maria Braun Deutschland Bleiche Mutter Die Moerder sind unter uns Krausnick, Anatomie des SS-Staates Kurt Bartsch, Dietmar Goltschnigg, Österreichische Nachkriegsliteratur: Sozialgeschichtliche Vorrausetzungen und Literaturbetrieb. Modern Austrian Literature 17/3-4 (1984), 193-214. Stephan Braese, Deutsche Nachkriegsliteratur und der Holocaust (Frankfurt ; New York : Campus, 1998). PT405 .D464 1998 Dirk Niefanger and Erhart Walter, Zwei Wendezeiten: Blicke auf die deutsche Literatur 1945 und 1989 (Tübingen : Niemeyer, 1997). PT405 .Z93 1997