Students can attend the course after the enrollment interview scheduled for June or September. Students who are completing their BA course may also attend the course after an admission interview.
Students who have attended the previous module, which is preparatory to this one, will have acquired critical and theoretical tools necessary to contextualize the novel that will be the main object of this module. The objective is to acquire critical skills in reading and interpreting the concluding novel of Dieter Forte’s trilogy, "In der Erinnerung" (1998). Stylistic, metaphorical and symbolic characteristics will be taken into consideration, developing the ability to explain the relationship between family systems, historical representation and memory discourse in the novel.
The purpose of this module is to explain the reasons why the year 1995 has been considered the most important turning point for German literature after the fall of the Berlin wall. 50 years after the end of the Second World War and 5 years after German reunification, a new trend of literary genre begins to take shape. It concerns the novel of memory, in which Familienroman and Generationenroman play a crucial role. The reading of two critical texts dedicated to the literature of Post-Wende-Zeit will be addressed in class, together with an introductory text to the novel by Dieter Forte "In der Erinnerung" (1998), to finally discuss and interpret this novel. Students are required to develop critical analysis skills that go beyond the mere reproduction of the plot of the work. They are also required to be able to critically comment on the relationships between fiction, history and memory.
In November a visiting professor of the University of Bielefeld (ERASMUS) will show and comment "Transit" (2018), a film of Christian Petzold based on the novel of the same title of Anna Seghers (1942), related to history and memory during the Nazi period.
1) Heribert Tommek: Wendejahr 1995 - Einführung, in: Heribert Tommek et al., Wendejahr 1995. Transformationen der deutschsprachigen Literatur, De Gruyter, Berlin/Boston 2015, pp. 1-7;
2) Heribert Tommek: Schreibweisen der Gegenwartsliteratur im Querschnitt des Jahres 1995, Heribert Tommek et al., Wendejahr 1995. Transformationen der deutschsprachigen Literatur, De Gruyter, Berlin/Boston 2015, pp. 8-25;
3) Achim Geisenhanslüke: In der Erinnerung. Gedächtnispolitik 1995, in: Heribert Tommek et al., Wendejahr 1995. Transformationen der deutschsprachigen Literatur, De Gruyter, Berlin/Boston 2015, pp. 31-33 e 36-40.
4) Dieter Forte, In der Erinnerung, Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1998.
Lectures will be held in German. Particular attention will be paid to confrontation and direct dialogue with students. They will have the possibility to formulate proposals for further study and discussion during the lessons. The passages selected from the texts will be analysed in the light of current theories concerning the novel of the Post-Wende-Zeit and the genre of the family and generational novel.
The exam will be oral. Three questions will be asked in German language and they will address: (1) a presentation of the historical and cultural context of the novel (2) the analysis of some passages of the novel with the request to find connections with the novel that has been the object of the first module (3) considerations on the relationship between history and memory.
To obtain a positive grade students must be able to place the texts analyzed during the course in their historical and cultural context, and know the main elements of the bibliographical material. To obtain a highly positive grade students have to show in-depth knowledge of the texts analyzed during the course, commenting them from a linguistic and a philological point of view, also on the basis of the bibliographical material. To obtain an excellent grade students have to show an organic view of the topics discussed in class, to be able to use sources and bibliographical material, link topics, and master expressive skills.
Erasmus students and Double degree students are kindly requested to contact the Professor at the beginning of the course to discuss how to prepare for the exam. Students who have not followed the lessons of this module can obtain supplementary support materials by contacting the lecturer during office hours. First-year students who intend to apply for the Double degree programme with Bochum, are expected to have successfully passed a 10 CFU exam by the closing date of the call for applications. This exam also refers to other courses that have been completed in December. Students attending the Double degree programme are strongly recommended to attend the course.
NB: students are required to take the texts and materials required by the course program to the exam.