GERM 204 From Goethe to Kafka (Not offered 1999-2000)
After centuries of dependence on foreign models, German writing emerged around 1790 as the most creative and powerful national literature in Europe. German authors continued to make widely influential contributions into the early decades of the twentieth century. The course will survey the major periods within this era: Storm and Stress, Classicism, Romanticism, Realism, and Modernism. We will read literary and theoretical texts by Goethe, Schiller, Kleist, Nietzsche, Thomas Mann, Rilke, and Kafka. All readings in English. Requirements: active class participation and two medium-length papers.