BERGAMO
Overview
Date/time interval
Syllabus
Course Objectives
To understand twentieth-century German historical, cultural and, therefore, literary context. Students will acquire the knowledge necessary to read literary texts, some of which will be read in German. The course aims to provide the ability to analyse and interpret the texts dealt with and set them into context.
Course Prerequisites
The course is intended for students in the second year of “Modern Foreign Languages and Literatures”. The didactic unit may be attended by students as a free choice of their study plan.
Teaching Methods
Teaching will be based on lectures, yet directly involving the students in discussion and dialogue. Students’ proposals for further enquiries or debate will be welcome. The course is held in italian, bu part of the texts will be read and commented in German on the basis of the original text, in particular in the case of poems, because short texts can be easily handled according to the students’ language skills.
Assessment Methods
The final exam will consist of a written test in Italian meant to check the achievement of educational goals. The test will be divided into 3 questions and it will check:
- The knowledge of the principles of the poetics of the literary movements of the 20th Century analyzed, namely the historical and literary context of the period covered during the course.
- The ability to contextualize the works of primary literature considered during the course.
- The ability to analyze one texts from a stylistic point of view-formal, content and historical-critical.
Grading scale:
a.Outstanding (30 e lode ): excellent knowledge of all of the contents of the course. Excellent ability to analyze the texts and to contextualize them in an appropriate way. The student uses the academic writing register/style with appropriate linguistic terminologies. The translation is correct.
b. Very good (30 to 27): very good knowledge of all of the contents of the course. Very good ability to analyze the texts and to contextualize them in an appropriate way. The translation contains hardly any mistakes.
c. Good (26-24): Good knowledge of the contents of the course. Adequate ability to describe the texts. The language used is simple but correct. The translation is good.
d. Fair/sufficient (23-18): The work has sufficient knowledge, coherence, use of appropriate resources and quality of presentation to warrant a basic pass. The ability to analyze the texts is not wholly satisfactory. The work is very descriptive and does not fully address the issues raised by the question. The translation is not wholly satisfactory.
e. Fail (below 18): The student demonstrates only a basic awareness of the contents of the course. The work is frequently confused and incoherent. Both the essay and the translation contain inaccuracies and major errors.
Contents
"Twentieth-century German literature and the representation of conflicts".
The course offers an overview of the literary production of the three great centers of Austrian and German culture of the early twentieth century: Vienna, Berlin and Prague. The lessons focus on the analysis of the texts of the most significant authors of the period, thanks to which the ''classical modernity'' of Impressionism, Expressionism, the Fantastic School of Prague and the writing of Franz Kafka developed. A historical-cultural contextualization will therefore be followed by the reading and analysis of the primary literature texts indicated in the course bibliography, which also aims to discuss the ways of recovering the forms of writing of "classical modernity" in the German debate relating to literary representation of the Holocaust and the Second World War in post-war German literature. The aim of the course is, therefore, also to enable students to investigate the communicative and rhetorical strategies of direct and indirect witnesses of Jewish persecution and the Second World War in the act of aesthetic rendering of these events.
Online Resources
More information
Erasmus students are asked to contact the teacher.