270: cross-listed with Women’s Studies 270: German Women Writers in Translation, 3 cr.
Open to Freshmen
Kaiser, Lec 1 MW 4:00-5:15 pm
The course is an introduction to aspects of the extensive history of women's writing in German-speaking countries. We begin with a contemporary focus, considering literary responses by women writers in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria to issues of ethnic diversity, racism, citizenship since the restructuring of Europe in 1989/90. Women writers in the united Germany receive particular attention in this section. Once our curiosity has been aroused by considering East-West tensions in Germany, we will trace the development of women's writing historically in the German Democratic Republic (former East Germany) and the Federal Republic of Germany. Issues of gender, sexuality, power are central themes in the socially critical literary
writings by women between 1945 and 1989, as is a strong strand of critical investigation of the Nazi past. The East German writer Christa Wolf and the Austrian writers Ingeborg Bachmann and Elfriede Jelinek (Nobel Prize 2004) will be key authors in our critical investigations.
The transition to a final segment of the course begins with the revived interest during the 1980s in women writers of the Romantic period around 1800. Asking why this renewed historical interest was a provocative challenge to the literary canon in the GDR, we will return to those Romantic writers themselves, contrasting their narrative strategies and choice of genre with more overtly political literary texts by women later in the 19th century.
Course requirements include a mid-term and final, two short interpretive papers, and participation in class discussion.
