48
German Literature
UNIVERSITÀ DEGLI STUDI DI NAPOLI "L'ORIENTALE"
Overview
Date/time interval
Syllabus
Course Objectives
The main training objective is to lead the students to read in the original language the scheduled texts by Uwe Timm, to reconstruct their themes and the context in which they originate. They will have to be able to identify the political discourse Timm proposes on Nazism and its elaboration in post-war German culture and society and in the youth protest culture of the 1960s, as well as the formal characteristics through which this discourse is literarily codified by Timm.
Autonomy of judgement
At the end of the course, students are expected to have a thorough knowledge of the texts on the syllabus, not only in order to be able to place them in the historical and cultural context in which they originated, but also to be able to describe their aesthetic quality (the particularity and quality of Timm's writing), developing a personal aesthetic judgement, which they must then be able to justify convincingly; they should acquire a critical method of reading the text, and be able to explicate (also in German) the thematic nodes and essential stylistic aspects of Timm's prose examined, using the critical tools provided during the course.
Communication skills:
Students should be able to produce (both in Italian and, at a level of medium complexity, in German) critical discourses on the topics covered during the course, using appropriate language and employing the technical terms (both Italian and German) of textual analysis and hermeneutic practice learned during the lectures.
Learning ability:
The course aims, thanks to the introductory reconstruction of both the epochal context referred to by Timm and his overall work, to lead students to appreciate the cultural and political significance of the textual aspects enunciated as salient.
Course Prerequisites
Students are expected to have a German language proficiency level of no less than B2, enabling them to construct speeches of medium complexity on literary and cultural topics. Having completed their three-year course, they are presumed to have a broad knowledge of the historical development and the main problems of German literature and culture, including the part relating to the second half of the twentieth century and the contemporary period. It is also essential that they possess the ability to understand and interpret complex literary texts and to contextualise them correctly, as well as the ability to describe them and to discursively present their most relevant structural, formal, genre and content characteristics.
GERMAN LITERATURE II ONLY:
Before taking the German Literature II examination, students must have passed German Language and Linguistics I (LM) (in its entirety) and German Literature I (LM).
Teaching Methods
The course will consist solely of face-to-face lectures in both Italian and German, which will propose both a reconstruction of the discursive contexts linked to the themes addressed by Timm, and a hermeneutic methodology that will pay particular attention to linguistic and textual aspects, with the aim of guiding students in the interpretation and critical evaluation of the selected passages. Considerable space will be ensured for classroom discussion: students will be invited to intervene both during the lesson, to ask questions or request further explanations on passages perceived as particularly complex, and at the end of the lesson, when it will be easier to open the debate (both in Italian and German).
Assessment Methods
The examination consists exclusively of an oral test lasting approximately 30 minutes; there are no end-of-course tests or other forms of assessment. No distinction will be made, either with regard to the syllabus or to the examination procedures, between attending and non-attending students.
The examination will take place both in Italian (for the introductory part on the historical period in question, as well as for the interpretation and textual analysis of individual passages) and in German (for the reconstruction of Timm's work, for the general discussion of the texts in the programme and their main themes). At the time of the examination, one or more excerpts from the texts in the syllabus will be read out in the original language, which the candidate will have to translate in a substantially correct manner (an aesthetically valid translation is not required, as this part of the examination is aimed at ascertaining that the text has been read in the original language and that it has been adequately understood).
In particular, not only knowledge of the contents of the lectures will be assessed, especially (but not exclusively) of those examined in the classroom, but also the ability to produce analytical and critical discourses on Timm's prose, with particular attention to the specifically literary characteristics of the passages on which the assessment will focus; equally important will be the ability to grasp their meaning within the discursive contexts in which they are inserted.
Texts
Uwe Timm, "Die Entdeckung der Currywurst" (1993), dtv, München 2000
Uwe Timm, "Am Beispiel meines Bruders" (2003), dtv, München 2010
Uwe Timm, "Der Freund und der Fremde" (2005), dtv, München 2007
ONLY for GERMAN LITERATURE AND CULTURE I (but NOT for GERMAN LITERATURE II, which borrows from the former):
4. Uwe Timm, "Mythos", in Friedhelm Marx (Hg.), "Erinnern, Vergessen, Erzählen. Beiträge zum Werk Uwe Timms", Wallstein, Göttingen 2007, pp. 13-26
Italian translations (AS AN ADDITIONAL)
1. Uwe Timm, "La scoperta della currywurst", a cura di di M. Galli, Sellerio, Palermo 2020
2. Uwe Timm, "Come mio fratello", trad it. di M. Carbonaro, Sellerio, Palermo 2023
3. Uwe Timm, "L’amico e lo straniero", trad it. di M. Carbonaro, Mondadori, Milano 2007
Further bibliography
(ATTENTION: The texts listed below do NOT constitute examination subject matter!)
1. Martin Hielscher, "Uwe Timm", dtv, Mnchen 2007
2. Friedhelm Marx (Hg.), „Erinnern, Vergessen, Erzählen. Beiträge zum Werk Uwe Timms“, Wallstein, Göttingen 2007
3. Frank Finlay, Ingo Cornils (Hg.), “(Un-)erfüllte Wirklichkeit. Neue Studien zu Uwe Timms Werk", Würzburg 2006
4. “Text+Kritik”, Heft 195, 2012: “Uwe Timm”, hrsg. v. Cristof Hamann
5. Sergio Corrado, „Dalla bottega al software. La storia tedesca e il lavoro nella scrittura artigianale di Uwe Timm”, in “Kritik. Rivista di letteratura e critica culturale” 2, 2023 (https://mimesisjournals.com/ojs/index.php/kritik/index)
6. Aleida Assmann, “Erinnerungsräume. Formen und Wandlungen des kulturellen Gedächtnisses” (1999), C.H. Beck, München 2018 (“Ricordare. Forme e mutamenti della memoria culturale”, il Mulino, Bologna 2022)
Contents
Course Title: "Uwe Timm’s poetics of memory"
Topics:
1. The discourse of memory in Germany
2. Critique of Wirtschaftswunder
3. Protests of 1968 in Germany
4. Timm’s works
5. Wartime economy: "Die Entdeckung der Currywurst"
6. Nazism and the family context: "Am Beispiel meines Bruders"
7. Between Bildungsroman and testimonial literature: "Der Freund und der Fremde"
Course Language
Partly in Italian, partly in German
More information
The course of GERMAN LITERATURE AND CULTURE I will last 54 hours (9 CFU); the last 6 hours will be devoted to the programme text 4. ‘Mythos’ by Uwe Timm. For students of GERMAN LITERATURE II the course will last 48 hours (8 CFU) and will include only 3 texts in the programme.