126-467 German Poetry Today: Serious to Slam

This subject is taught in German.

37.5 points of second/third year German subjects.

Who are the big names in German poetry today? What do they write about? Which elements, concerning both content and form, of the German poetic tradition do these poets keep alive, which ones do they revive, copy, change or destroy? Which taboos do they tackle, and from which ones do they shy away? What are the poetics behind their writing? Are they willing and able to open new poetic horizons? How do they touch upon the concepts of contextualization, subversion and escapism? This subject will answer all these questions and shed light on the vast area of modern German poetry, starting in the 1980s and extending to texts written in the new millennium, and including poems from the high end of the lyric spectrum as well as the "underground" (eg slam poetry). A set of tools for a detailed analysis of poetry will be developed and various literary theories will be used to analyse the texts (psychoanalytical, feminist, structuralist approaches).

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

• also 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).

• T Elm (ed), Lyrik der neunziger Jahre. Stuttgart Reclam 2000.