GERM1121: Exploring German Culture

• Grade A in German at A level or an equivalent qualification

• Modern Languages, Combined Honours and all Joint and programmes: German Langauge 1A (post-A level) (GERM1011); Other: see Chairman/Chairwoman of the Board of Studies in MLAC or his/her representative.

• None

• This module aims to introduce students to some of the central concepts that have shaped writing and thinking in German from the age of Enlightenment to the present day.
• Studying landmark texts in their cultural context, we explore relationships between fiction and truth; imagination and history; reading and morality. As we read these writings, we ask: What does reading do to us? What can we learn from novels? Why do we derive pleasure from theatre, cinema, spectacle? How does the significance of a text change over time?The course stresses the fact that culture, literature, and thought are inseparably entwined.
• The other half of the module focuses on visual and material culture, setting out to examine the relationship that visual art, film, photography, memorial art, architecture, and other related media have to the past. What do pictures tell us about the past? Why should we employ visual and material culture to shed light on the past? How does visual culture reflect, illuminate, and interpret key events of the German past such as the various revolutions of the modern era, the World Wars, the Weimar republic, the catastrophe of National Socialism and the Holocaust, division and reunification, the fall of the Berlin wall? How are the legacies of the past represented and worked through in films, images, monuments, memorials? How do cultural artefacts shape the perception and understanding of the past?
• In attending to these questions, this course reflects on both the visualization of history and the history of visual culture in the German-speaking countries.

• This module, taught in English, is open to students taking German Language 1A and offers an introduction to the impact of German and Austrian culture beyond these countries shifting borders. Key figures in German cultural and intellectual history such as Hannah Arendt, Sigmund Freud, Franz Kafka, Rosa Luxemburg, Karl Marx, Friedrich Nietzsche, have offered provocative critiques and interpretations of core challenges that confront us in the modern world. This module aims to introduce students to some of the central concepts that have shaped writing and thinking in German from the Age of the Enlightenment to the present day. Studying landmark texts in their cultural context, we explore relationships between fiction and truth; imagination and history; genre and expression; writing and power. The course stresses the fact that culture, literature, and thought are inseparably entwined. Students will be introduced to relevant analytical methods and interpretative frameworks which will help them to engage critically with the texts and genres under consideration. This module has been designed to reflect a commitment to diversity in its resources and delivery, and will create opportunities for students to engage in critical analysis of different perspectives relevant to the study area
• The other half of the module looks at the following questions: What did the past look like? What do pictures tell us about the past? Why should we employ visual and material culture to shed light on the past? How does visual culture reflect, illuminate, and interpret key events of the German past such as the various revolutions of the modern era, the World Wars, the Weimar republic, the catastrophe of National Socialism and the Holocaust, division and reunification, and the fall of the Berlin wall? How are the legacies of the past represented and worked through in films, images, monuments, memorials? How do cultural artefacts shape the perception and understanding of the past, also with regard to an understanding of the legacies of race, class and gender experience? And how do these artefacts relate to cultural production and debate beyond the boundaries of Germany itself? In attending to these questions, this course equips students with the ability to engage critically with a range of theoretical and methodological approaches to both the visualization of history and the history of visual culture in the German-speaking countries. This module has been designed to reflect a commitment to diversity in its resources and delivery, and will create opportunities for students to engage in critical analysis of different perspectives relevant to the study area.

Subject-specific Knowledge:

• By the end of this module, student will develop:
• An understanding of key literary and intellectual developments in German culture, from 1750 to the present
• Specific and critical knowledge of landmark texts
• An understanding of how literature contributes and responds to wider cultural and intellectual trends
• An understanding of key concepts and debates (such as those around authorship and creativity, language and discourse, literature and morality) within literary and cultural studies.
• An understanding of the relationship between visual culture and its historical context
• Specific and critical knowledge of selected films, images, monuments, buildings, and other relevant artefacts
• An understanding of how visual and material culture responds to, and shapes perception of, historical and political issues
• An understanding of key concepts and debates such as those around memory and memorialisation, spectatorship and power, representation and visibility within the study of visual and material culture.

Subject-specific Skills:

• By the end of this module, students should have improved:
• Critical analysis and close readings of literary texts
• Ability to draw meaningful links between different periods in German cultural history
• Ability to situate textual studies in relation to broader cultural issues

Key Skills:

• By the end of this module, students should have improved:
• Critical and analytical thinking
• Ability to read and interpret complex texts written in German
• Essay-writing, commentary and oral communication skills
• Structuring of arguments
• Independent learning and research
• Ability to discuss topical or general issues with fluency

• Teaching will take the form of weekly lectures and fortnightly seminars.
• Lectures will familiarise students with the relevant socio-historical context and introduce the key theoretical and critical issues raised by the texts and visual materials under consideration.
• By preparing for the fortnightly seminar, which will alternate guided discussions with formative group presentations, students will develop skills in independent learning, rapid critical reading, synthesis, analytical thinking, and the presentation of coherent argument.
• Through reading and preparation of key texts and films in German, students will thus also increase their proficiency in the target language.

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