GERM 311(S) Telling Lives/Inventing Selves: Biography and Autobiography in the Two Germanies and Austria, 1915-Today
We will examine how contemporary writers in these societies describe and define men's and especially women's work, property, marriage, child-raising, their status as political subjects, as well as how they try to understand their families' past lives under Nazism, how they attempt to create a self through autobiography, examine the changing experience of women as writers, and experiment with language and narrative structure, and their efforts to create new models for female and male existence. Readings will be in a variety of genres ranging from the novel to the short story, interview, and diary, and will probably include: (from Wilheminian Germany) Adelheid Popp, Jugend einer Arbeiterin; (from Austria) Ingeborg Bachmann, Das drei#igste Jahr, Marlen Haushofer, Die Wand, Brigitte Schwaiger, Wie kommt das Salz ins Meer, Erich Hackl, Abschied von Sidonie; (from West Germany) Christoph Meckel, Suchbild, Peter Schneider, Vati, Erika Runge, Frauen (excerpts), Alice Schwarzer, Der kleine Unterschied und seine gro#en Folgen; (from the GDR) Karin Struck, Klassenliebe, Gerti Tetzner, Karen W., Christa Wolf, Nachdenken uber Christa T., Irmtraud Morgner, Trobadora Beatriz (excerpts). Readings in German. Requirements: active participation in discussions, group oral report, two 3-page papers, and one 10- to 15-page final paper.