OVERVIEW

Course title:  ‘Literature Goes to War’

This annual course provides 9 credits and consists of 54 hours of lessons (36 hours in the first semester and 18 in the second semester).

The 6 CFU course consists of 36 hours of lessons (first semester)

The course will be held in Italian.

18 hours of the course held in the first semester will be dedicated to a survey of literature from the 18th century to the present day (taught by Serena Spazzarini)*

AIMS AND CONTENT

LEARNING OUTCOMES

This course aims to study literary texts of the German-speaking region, in their inherent aesthetic character and as a privileged pathway to understanding German culture.

AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, the student shall:

• Know in depth the specific manifestations of Austrian and German War Propaganda during the first world war
• Be acquainted with basic critical tools
• Acquire an adequate sector-specific vocabulary of the intercultural communication
• Be familiar with the literary genres involved in War Propaganda
• Through all of the above, perform a competent critical review of a piece of war literature in relation to its historical-cultural and rhetorical-expressive specificities     

PREREQUISITES

Students are not required to have any specific prerequisite.

It goes without saying that good linguistic competence in spoken and written Italian, skills in expression, and the background required for understanding the Europen historical context (acquired through proper secondary school learning), are taken for granted.

TEACHING METHODS

Traditional lesson.

Teaching will be in Italian.

In the first semester, the course will be held remotely through the Teams and Aulaweb platforms. In the second semester, unless otherwise indicated due to the evolution of the health situation, the course will take place in traditional (in presence) mode.

During the lessons, constant feedback with the students is expected through verbal questions. The degree of maturity of the answers, their relevance and the use of adequate sector-specific terms will be considered for the outcome of the final test.

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

1) The course entitled ‘Literature Goes to War’ will focus on the shaping of the image of the enemy that took place in the Austro-German and German region during World War I.

The forms and themes of war propaganda, considered as cultural heritage and as a dynamic field of interactions, will be explored through the voices of the period's most representative authors.

The course will be structured as follows:

1. Ideology
2. The Austrian world and the German world
3. The enemy for the German region: Italy and France
4. Erich Maria Remarque, Im Westen nichts Neues
5. Ernst Jünger, In Stahlgewittern
6. Creation of a group identity
7. An example of propaganda: Austria's declaration of war against Italy
8. The fronts of writing and art
9. KPQ: a hotbed of persuasion
10. Rainer Maria Rilke
11. Egon Friedell
12.  Hugo von Hofmannsthal
13.  Robert Musil
14. War songs

2) Lessons taught by Serena Spazzarini.

Authors studied: Goethe – Heine – Fontane – Brecht – T. Mann – Kafka – Ch. Wolf

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

REFERENCES

• Alberto Destro, I Paesi di lingua tedesca, Il Mulino, 2004
• Robert Musil, L’ultimo giornale dell’Imperatore (a cura di M. Libardi e F. Orlandi), Reverdito, Trento, 2019

It will be the professor’s responsibility to provide the students, in each instance, with photocopies related to the documents studied during lessons and to prepare lecture notes at the end of the course.

A copy of the lecture notes will be filed at the Department Library.

NON-ATTENDING STUDENTS:

Non-attending students shall present the programme specified above, with the above cited critical literature and with the addition of the following textbook:

- Franz Blei, Bestiario letterario (a cura di L. Rega), Diabasis, Parma, 2019

Non-attending students are in any case kindly requested to contact the professor.

TEACHERS AND EXAM BOARD

Exam Board

NICOLETTA DACREMA (President)

SERENA SPAZZARINI (President)

RAMONA PELLEGRINO (Substitute)

LESSONS

Class schedule

GERMAN LITERATURE AND CULTURE II

EXAMS

EXAM DESCRIPTION

Written test.

ASSESSMENT METHODS

Learning assessment includes a written test.

Knowledge related to the course will be assessed via:

1. Yes-and-no questions, for which the student shall demonstrate knowledge of the main cultural foundations (literary, historical, geographical, political) related to the German world.

Reference textbook: Alberto Destro, I Paesi di lingua tedesca, Il Mulino, 2004 (Manual)

Constant updating on the part of the student on current German political topics (by reading newspapers, listening to TV and radio newscasts) is ‘welcome’.

2) Open-ended questions in which the student shall demonstrate knowledge of concepts related to the topic of the course.

The skills achieved by the student shall be evaluated through targeted exercises, in which the student shall demonstrate the ability to apply the tools provided during the lessons.

Textbooks in references + lecture notes

3) Open-ended questions about the themes dealt in classroom by Serena Spazzarini

Exam schedule

FURTHER INFORMATION

Criteria for assigning the final mark:

. skill in debate and summarisation.

. syntactically correct writing and use of the specific terminology of war literature

. capability to organise written text with clarity of thought