LFU:online

Department of German Studies Department of German Studies

Priv.-Doz. Mag. Dr. Peter Pohl Priv.-Doz. Mag. Dr. Peter Pohl, +43 512 507 41389

608213

Modern literary history: Imagination and Property. Gottfried Keller's Green Henry and Modern Economies

PS 2

2,5

Block

annually

German

Ability to describe literary, historical and cultural contexts of representative authors,  works and genres of literature and their canonization; you can describe the interaction of social, literary and cultural history; interpretation of literary texts according to scientific standards.

 

To appoint craft, literary and cultural historical contexts the example of representative authors works and genres to describe canonization; they can describe developments the interaction of social, literary and cultural history (among other things gender-specific); they have the skill to interpret literary texts independently according to scientific standards.

 

Over the course of the semester, we will study the first version of Gottfried Keller's novel Green Henry (1854/55). In the words of the novel’s editors Böning and Kaiser, Keller’s text reflects "the basic ambiguity of bourgeois society, which consists in subjecting men to the postulate of self-realization while withholding the means of self-realization from them." (1013) The novel combines features of different genres like the Bildungsroman and the artist's novel. We will focus among other things on analyzing Keller’s depiction of the highly controversial relation of individual creativity and fundamental material needs, of artistic imagination and economic demands. Our discussion of the novel’s content and form will contextualize our findings with regard to the history of gender and to major cultural and economical developments of the time.

In order to facilitate discussion, we will use the thorough and reasonably priced edition Gottfried Keller: Der grüne Heinrich. Text und Kommentar. Hg. von Thomas Böning und Gerhard Kaiser, Frankfurt am Main: Deutscher Klassiker Verlag 2007.

 

Introduction to theories of the Bildungsroman given by the instructor, student presentations, assignments, plenary discussion

Course participation (knowledge of texts, assignments, contributions to discussions), presentation, written proseminar paper (12-15 pages)

Primary Texts:

Gottfried Keller: Der grüne Heinrich. Text und Kommentar. Hg. von Thomas Böning und Gerhard Kaiser, Frankfurt am Main: Deutscher Klassiker Verlag 2007.

07.10.2016