The Awful German Language

Catalog description

German (not unlike others) is a foreign language. As such, it embodies oddities and barbarisms, provoking both interest and fascination, trembling and fear, from “native“ speakers of other (foreign) languages. Yet, even for “native“ speakers of German the language is not simply a given, but (at times) a threat (and under threat), an infinite (historical) task, a political-linguistic phantasm, a projection screen, a love affair, a traumatic experience. The seminar will explore complaints and concerns, from inside as well as from outside the German language, by Tacitus, Kleist, Mark Twain, Hölderlin, Hebel, Kafka, Benjamin, Kurt M. Stein, Adorno, Jandl, Pastior, Uljana Wolf. Taught in English (some knowledge of German is highly appreciated).