HUMS 368, Alienation, Reconciliation from Hegel to the Ecological Rift

Course Description:

The course discusses exemplary novels in German language after 1945 from West and East Germany and Germany after Reunification, as well as from Austria and Switzerland. Part I, “Zero Hour - or Not,” on the political critique of Nazi Germany and the attempt at an aesthetic clean break (e.g., Gunther Grass, Ingeborg Bachmann, Max Frisch); Part II “1968: Revolution or New Interiority,” on social protest versus aesthetic internationalism (e.g., Peter Handke, Christa Wolf, Hubert Fichte, Thomas Bernhard); Part III, “The Attempt at Being Contemporary,” on German and German speaking societies in the global world (e.g., Elfriede Jelinek, Yoko Tawada, Rainald Goetz). While “contemporaneity” is the particular mark of the last section, all works desire to critically intervene in their historical moment. Giving an account of this desire is the goal of the course. Contextualization as needed; close reading of selected passages as the mode of work in the course; all works are provided in English translation and German.

Led By:

Professor Rüdiger Campe In 2021-2022, Rüdiger Campe is finishing a book length study on the German scientist and philosopher, author of the Sudelbücher (waste books) Georg Christoph Lichtenberg. He teaches a graduate course on Robert Musil and the Proseminar in Comparative Literature, and an undergraduate course on German Novels after 1945.