Students can attend the course after the enrollment interview scheduled on the website of ISLLI. Students who are completing their BA course may also attend the course.
MODULE A:
The main educational objective of the course is to introduce students to the knowledge of the post-World War II literary panorama of Austria, considering the relationship between war and trauma. The concept of literary experimentation in the second post-war period will then be investigated. Students will be able to culturally insert this literary phenomenon in the broader historical context of the 40s-80s of the twentieth century; they will be able to correlate the historical reconstruction of the facts with the narrative strategies of the texts, explaining the cultural and political importance of literary works after 1945. By this they will have become familiar in the German language with the style and narrative format of the works, - also thanks to examples of translation of some passages of the literary texts presented during the didactic module, - as well as with critical reflection on the most important concepts, such as that of the Shoah, of guilt, of memory and remembrance.
MODULE B of the course:
The students who attended the previous module, preparatory to the present, have acquired the critical-theoretical tools necessary to frame the novel that is analyzed in this module as the main text. The objective of this module is to learn to critically master the reading and interpretation of Ilse Aichinger's novel, Die größere Hoffnung (1948), grasping its stylistic, metaphorical and symbolic peculiarities and being able to explain how it develops in the novel. the relationship between the narrator's point of view, the historical scenario and the theme of "hope".
MODULE A:
The course opens with an overview of the most important cultural and literary perspectives of post-World War II Austria, extending to the early 1980s. With the help of a reference text, the work of Klaus Zeyringer and Hellmut Gollner. Eine Literaturgeschichte: Österreich seit 1650, the main thematic blocks deal with those concerning the "reconstruction from the rubble" and the "second Republic", the relationship between Vienna and the Austrian province and literary experiments. An important first step is made by examining the poetic objectives of the "Gruppe '47", to which authors such as Heinrich Böll, Günter Grass, Paul Celan, Ingeborg Bachmann and Ilse Aichinger and many others have joined. We then go on to define the characteristics of the "Anti-Heimat-Roman" and the "New subjectivity", defining the relationship with nature and with society outlined by the non-conformist Austrian literature, up to the provocative attitudes of Thomas Bernhard and Peter Handke .
MODULE B:
This didactic module aims to explain how the first literary phase following the end of the Second World War was characterized by a great human and cultural bewilderment, the result of the trauma which, in this case, especially concerns the relationship of Jews with the Shoah. This phase can be considered as that of the "epiphany of the modern word" in which the "fragmented" existence of the survivor is expressed with a pain wrapped in allusions and metaphors or tries to represent itself in allegorical form. Therefore, during the course - on the centenary of the birth of the writer Ilse Aichinger (1921-2016) - the great constellation of existential themes concerning her novel, written close to 1945, Die größere Hoffnung (1948), are created connections with his other writings and the peculiarity of his poetics is considered more closely, consisting mainly of aphorisms, stories and reflections on the word. of the Second World War was characterized by a great human and cultural bewilderment, the result of the trauma which, in this case, especially concerns the relationship of Jews with the Shoah. This phase can be considered as that of the "epiphany of the modern word" in which the "fragmented" existence of the survivor is expressed with a pain wrapped in allusions and metaphors or seeks the allegorical dimension of representation. Therefore, during the course - on the centenary of the birth of the writer Ilse Aichinger (1921-2016) - the great constellation of existential themes concerning her only novel, written close to 1945, Die größere Hoffnung (1948), is investigated. they create links with his other writings and the peculiarity of his poetics is considered more closely, consisting mainly of aphorisms, stories and reflections on the word.
The teaching takes place in German, through lectures but also in a seminar dimension, involving the students in reflecting on the topics covered and in the translation in the classroom of some selected passages of the texts in the program.
NB: If the teaching is given in mixed or remote mode, changes may be made to what is stated in the syllabus to make the course and exams usable also in these ways.
The exam will be taken by the students orally. There are three questions in German concerning:
1) the framing of the most important cultural perspectives of the literary panorama of Austria in the second post-war period;
2) the critical framework of the historical-cultural role of the writers presented in the course;
3) the analysis of the main concepts examined in the course.
To obtain a positive judgment, students must be able to functionally frame the critical material presented and must know the salient aspects of the bibliographic material. To obtain a good judgment, students must demonstrate that they have a thorough knowledge of the texts analyzed during the course, commenting on them from a historical-critical point of view and correlating them to the bibliographic material. To obtain an excellent judgment, students must demonstrate that they have a homogeneous vision of the topics discussed, that they have an in-depth mastery of bibliographic material, that they know how to link the topics together and that they have excellent expressive control.
Erasmus 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 related to the module can obtain support materials to integrate the course, after direct contact with the professor via mail.
FOR THE FINAL EXAM: Students are required to present themselves for the final exam with the texts and materials required by the program.
DOUBLE TITLE: First year students who intend to present themselves for the selection of the Double Title with Bochum, must have taken a 10 cfu exam by the end of the call in February. This examination is also intended for other courses that ended in December.
Double title candidates are recommended to attend the course.