Germany's Ghosts

Catalog description

The figure of the ghost has a rich cultural life, manifesting for instance hauntings, displacement, and social justice. Little known, however, is how German ghost stories served as the source texts for the more familiar English Gothic which informs our perception of the ghost as a genre and symbol today. This course will focus on the German tradition through key literary texts from the nineteenth through twentieth centuries, including the collection of stories in the Gespensterbuch which went on to influence writers like Mary Shelley, as well as short novels such as Theodor Storm's Schimmelreiter. It will incorporate philosophical treatments (e.g. Immanuel Kant regarding subjective vs. objective realities, Gilbert Ryle's "ghost in the machine," Jacques Derrida's "Spectrality" as a contrasting model to Vergangenheitsbewaltigung) in addition to multimedia representations in spirit photography or Phantasmagoria, and its persistence in popular culture today (horror films like Paranormal Activity, "ghosting" as a term, etc.). Though based in the German tradition, through the spectacular figure of the ghost, students will develop their understanding of narrative conventions and cultural knowledge with relevance that extends beyond Germany.