German 4105 - Topics in German Studies:

Institution:

Washington University in St Louis

Subject:

Description:

Music has often been understood as "the most German of all arts," a cultural expression able to access the deepest layers of the individual's soul as much as to shape collective belonging. This course traces the intense relationship between German literature and music from the early 19th century to the post-unification period. Whereas 19th-century authors such as E.T.A. Hoffmann, Grillparzer, Kleist, and Schopenhauer often associated music with aesthetic genius, introversion, death, and redemption; and whereas the works of later writers such as Friedrich Nietzsche or Thomas Mann turned post-Romantic musical forms into sources of modernist experimentation; in very recent years pop authors such as Thomas Meinecke and Benjamin Stuckrad-Barre reference different aspects of contemporary music culture-e.g., Techno, Rap, and the figure of the DJ-to infuse German literature with new sensibilities and to transcend traditional boundaries between high culture and the popular. Discussing a wide range of novels, short stories, plays, essayistic texts, philosophical treatises, operas, and musical films from the past 200 years, this course is designed to explore the productive interaction between the literary and the musical, not only to understand how music has shaped and continues to shape cultural identities in Germany, but also to explore how literary expressions can borrow from highly diverse musical idioms in order to complicate their formal registers. All readings and discussions in German.

Credits:

3.00

Credit Hours:

Prerequisites:

Corequisites:

Exclusions:

Level:

Instructional Type:

Lecture

Notes:

Additional Information:

Historical Version(s):

Institution Website:

www.wustl.edu

Phone Number:

(314) 935-5000

Regional Accreditation:

North Central Association of Colleges and Schools

Calendar System:

Semester

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