126-463 Literary Controversies

This subject is taught in German. Formerly available as 126-078. Students who have completed 126-078 are not eligible to enrol in this subject.

37.5 points of second/third-year subjects in German language. European studies students wishing to enrol in this subject would normally have completed 37.5 points of European studies at second/third year, see Prerequisites.

This subject focuses on several controversies in recent German history: the debate over complicity and the Stasi surrounding East Germany's best known writer, Christa Wolf; the Walser-Bubis debate about the role of the Holocaust in collective German memory; the Historians' debates of the nineteen-eighties over the crimes of the Holocaust and Stalinism. In two of these disputes the key players were writers of literature. The controversies will be used to investigate the ways in which the meaning of the communist and fascist past is negotiated through critical public debate. The role of the concerned public intellectual, who is often also a writer, will be analysed in these debates. In particular, the subject will pursue the question of whether these debates - and the 'culture of disputation' (Streitkultur) which has become a hallmark of postwar German society - are indicative of Germans' repeated inability to deal with their troubled past or whether they are a sign of a functioning democracy. Students who complete this subject should be acquainted with the role that critical writers play in intellectual debates about history and politics, as well as have a good understanding of the main issues in the three debates under discussion, and of the importance of public debate in the continual renegotiation of public norms in the course of postwar German history.

• have acquired skills in research, critical thinking and contextualising information;

• have developed skills in communicating knowledge intelligibly through oral presentations and essays in German.

A 1000 word class paper 30% (due during the semester), and an essay of 3000 words for third year students, 4000 words for fourth year students 70% (due at the end of the semester).

To be supplied by the Department