German
221-2-20: Introduction to Literature: 1900 - 1945 :

Instructor: Rainer Rumold
Office address: 2-103 Crowe Hall Evanston Campus 2203
Phone: 847-491-8294
E-mail: r-rumold@northwestern.edu
Office Hours:

Expected Enrollment: 20

COURSE DESCRIPTION: This course is designed to give students a basic understanding of the historical dimension of a literary era, the first half of 20th century marked by the demise of the German Empire in the course of the First World War, a short-lived democratic experiment, the Weimar Republic (1918-1933), and the Rise and Fall of the “Third Reich.”
The introductory course will approach the inherent cultural and political issues in the terms of three selective focal points: 1) the foundations of German Expressionism ( 1910-1920s), 2) selected short stories by Thomas Mann as highlights of critical narrative mastery during the Weimar Republic, and 3) an example of Bertolt Brecht’s political, “epic” theatre as a critique of authoritarian/totalitarian regimes.
The introductory course will also attempt to familiarize students from a variety of backgrounds with some basic approaches to the study of literary texts in socio-political contexts.
Furthermore, the course is to improve the students’ writing skills in terms of style and expression by way of three shorter essays ( 2-3 pp. each; thus there is much less emphasis on correct grammar and spelling, for example).
A secondary, yet strong emphasis is on making the students able and comfortable to conduct a discussion on fairly sophisticated issues in German. The students will thus present short papers for class discussion and form panels on certain topics of common interest.

READING: --Expressionist poetry selected from Menschheitsdämmerung
-- Thomas Mann, “Unordnung und Frühes Leid,” “Mario und der Zauberer”
--Bertolt Brecht, Leben des Galilei

[Course Descriptions for Spring 2009] [Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences] [GERMAN German]