Learning outcomes

The course aims at introducing the students to the most important periods and trends of German 19th Century literature: Romantic literature, “Vormärz”, “Biedermeier”, Realism, Naturalism.

At the end of the course students are required to possess a deep knowledge of the topics we dealt with, with regard to both the literature-historic aspects as well as the works in German; moreover they are required to be capable of analyzing and understanding these texts and to explain the knowledge acquired in proper German speech.

Program

The "Invention" of the Romantic love through German Romanticism
Through literary texts such as "Lucinde" (1799) a new form of love and marriage was introduced. The two lovers promote a new form of symbiotic marriage based on love and sexuality and opposed to the utilitarian logic that had dominated until then. The "love" marriage underwent many crisis but is still dominant in Occidental Culture.
Bibliography:
Monika Wienfort, Verliebt, verlobt, verheiratet. Eine Geschichte der Ehe seit der Romantik. München: C.H. Beck, 2014.
Karl Lenz, Soziologie der Zweierbeziehung. Eine Einführung. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, 2006.
Schenk, Herrad, Freie Liebe – wilde Ehe. Über die allmähliche Auflösung der Ehe durch die Liebe. München: C.H. Beck, 1988.
Albrecht Koschorke, Die Heilige Familie und ihre Folgen. Frankfurt/M.: Fischer Taschenbuch Wissenschaft,
2000.
A. Koschorke, Vor der Familie. Grenzbedingungen einer modernen Institution. Konstanz, 2010.
Eva Illouz, Perchè l’amore fa soffrire. Bologna: Il Mulino 2013.
Eva Illouz, Il romanzo rosa erotico. Cinquanta sfumature di grigio, i bestseller e la società, 2015.
Compulsory reading:
Wilhelm Busch, La pia Elena, Catania: Villaggio Maori Edizioni, 2016.

History of German literature, texts:
(Johann Gottlieb Fichte, Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling), the poetics of Novalis and Friedrich Schlegel (Brief über den Roman); Wilhelm Busch: Max&Moritz, La pia Elena; Clemens Brentano: Die Geschichte vom braven Kasperl und dem schönen Annerl; Paul Kluckhohn Die Auffassung der Liebe in der Literatur des 18. Jahrhunderts (selezione), Das Ideengut der deutschen Romantik (pp. 60-78), J.W.Goethe: Italienische Reise, Die Wahlverwandtschaften; Peter Rosegger.

Part of the texts will be handed out as photocopies. Further teaching material will be available on the e-learning platform related to the class.
Non-attending students are requested to agree with the docent upon part of the literature-history programme and to focus the second part of the programme on the study of works representative of the 19th Century literature.

Texts for non-attending students:
Paul Kluckhohn, Das Ideengut der deutschen Romantik (7-78) (Frinzi).
Interpretationen. Erzählungen und Novellen des 19. Jahrhunderts (Reclam), Gerhard Kluge: Clemens Brentano, Geschichte vom..(309-339). Erika und Ernst von Borries, Deutsche Literaturgeschichte Band V, Romantik, (Clemens Brentano, Geschichte vom..) 172-184.
Interpretationen. Romane des 19. Jahrhunderts (Reclam): Ernst Behler: Friedrich Schlegel, Lucinde (88-109).
Ladislao Mittner, Le affinitá elettive 956-963; G. Baioni, Le affinità elettive 9-93.
Simone Costagli/Matteo Galli, Deutsche Familienromane, pp. 1-58 (Frinzi).
Daniela Lombardi, La storia del matrimonio (Frinzi), pp. 1-30; 55-83; 202-250.

Examination Methods

The final exam will be oral and held in German. The oral exam will be on the whole program and it will consist in a conversation aimed at testing:
- the depth and the wideness of the acquired knowledges
- the ability to analyze and understand the literary texts in the program
- the argumentative ability and the ability to link knowledges in a historical-cultural and critical-literary reflection
- the ability to convey the related topics in German.
The final mark will be in 30ths.