126-488 Jews in German Culture: 1749-1924

Usually 37.5 points of 2nd/3rd year subjects in German language.

This subject introduces students to some key German-language texts about Jews as well as to some important Jewish writers who explore the place of Jews in German culture. Taking examples from the Enlightenment through to Viennese and Prague modernism, the subject explores themes such as Jewish emancipation, anti-Semitism in literature and the characterisation of gender and sexuality of Jews in the German cultural context. Students will read literary texts by writers such as Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Moses Mendelssohn, Annette von Droste-Huelshoff, Arthur Schnitzler and Franz Kafka, as well as critical and other literature. This subject enables students to appreciate the Jewish presence in and influence on German culture from the Enlightenment to modernism.

• appreciate literary and other texts in their historical context;

• summarise and critically engage with texts in oral presentation;

• enhance their understanding of texts by referring to existing scholarship;

• identify and explore themes which connect texts from different time periods;

• interpret and appraise in writing the meaning of literature, with due attention to social context and to language.

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).

• Lessing, G E, Die Juden: Ein Lustspiel in einem Aufzuge. Reclam.
• Droste-Huelshoff, A von, Die Judenbuche: Ein Sittengemaelde aus dem gebirgigten Westfalen. Reclam.
• Schnitzler, A, Leutnant Gustl. Reclam.