GERM 301 - Senior Seminar

Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)

Topic for 2015/16a: Christa Wolf: Literature and Politics. Christa Wolf (1929-2011) was one of the most important figures of post-war literature in East and West Germany. With her specific perspective onto both the Nazi dictatorship and the “real existing socialism” in the GDR, her work continues to raise the question of the relationship between literature and politics, specifically the role of the artist and intellectual in a totalitarian state. In this course, we will gain an overview of the vast œuvre of this seminal and controversial author and discuss recurring questions in Wolf’s work, such as the role of the individual in society, gender roles, memory and remembrance, subjective authenticity and the constitution of the self, and ecology. The course will also offer a cursory overview of the GDR’s afterlife in literature and film after 1989. Ms. von der Emde.

Prerequisite: GERM 260 or GERM 270 or the equivalent.

Two 75-minute periods.