Vergangenheitsbewältigung: German Literature of Memory

Catalog description

This course will examine one of the most loaded terms in German Studies, "the coming to terms with the past" or rather "the mastering of the past", which concerns German strategies of dealing with the atrocities of World War II and the Holocaust. Thus, this course will focus on the literary engagements with issues of trauma, memory, and remembrance. Authors include Adorno, Celan, Klüger, Grass, Weiss, Wolf, Müller, Timm, Kluge, and Sebald. The course will also have a closer look at contemporary debates regarding "Vergangenheitsbewältigung" and the culture of memory in Germany itself. In German. Prerequisite GRMN 0600.