German Literature and Critical Thought 1750-1832 (401-0-1)

Instructors

Jorg Kreienbrock
847/491-5788
1880 Campus Drive, Kresge Hall, Rm 3323
Office Hours: Mon, 12-1 PM or by appointment

Meeting Info

Kresge 3354 German Seminar Rm.: Wed 2:00PM - 4:50PM

Overview of class

Friedrich Schlegel famously claimed that the French Revolution, Goethe's Wilhelm Meister, and Fichte's Foundations of the Science of Knowledge represent the great trends of his age. Another term for this age is modernity. This class will follow Schlegel's intuition and reconstruct the precarious relationship between politics, philosophy, and literature which marks a specific notion of revolutionary modernity, i.e. the interruption of historical time in the name of something radically new and different. Paradigmatic for such a rupture is the French Revolution. Its literary representations and philosophical descriptions will be the topic of our discussions. A tentative reading list includes (but is not limited to): Friedrich Schlegel, Friedrich Hölderlin, Friedrich Schiller, Heinrich von Kleist, Heinrich Heine, Georg Büchner, Karl Marx, Walter Benjamin, Bertolt Brecht, Hannah Arendt. Although the class will focus mostly on the German tradition it is possible to include other texts, images, films, etc. depending on the particular interests and backgrounds of the participants.

Learning Objectives

Knowledge of German Literature and Critical Thought

Class Materials (Required)

all on canvas