Unit name | Performing Germany: National Identity in Changing Times |
---|---|
Unit code | GERM30075 |
Credit points | 20 |
Level of study | H/6 |
Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12) |
Unit director | Dr. Debbie Pinfold |
Open unit status | Not open |
Pre-requisites |
None |
Co-requisites |
None |
School/department | Department of German |
Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
This unit will be taught by Dr Richard McClelland
What role does performance play in shaping a nation’s self-image? To what extent is ‘Germanness’ performative? How do democracies and dictatorships employ performance – and do they do so to different ends? How do Germans perform national identity when not in Germany? These are some of the questions that student will investigate in this unit, which addresses the concept of ‘performance’ as it relates to the deliberate and public shaping of Germany’s national image. Here, performance is understood as a ‘broad spectrum’ of practices that allow us to assess ‘historical, social and cultural processes’ (R. Schechner, 1988). At the same time, it allows us to evaluate a broad range of cultural practices that respond to historical, geographical, social and technological change. Beginning with the late nineteenth century, students will assess the divergent ways in which performance has been employed by the German state(s). At the same time, we will interrogate the impact that this has on the individual. In the course of the unit, students will engage with a series of key performance events that allow us to question how and why German national identity has changed in the last 150 years. Topics of study include: 1. Imperial modernity in the German Kaiserreich; 2. Performing ‘Germanness’ in the colonies; 3. Speed and excess in the Weimar Republic; 4. National Socialism and the performing Volk; 5. The Berlin Olympics; 6. After Heimat – German expellees and the performance of identity; 7. Creating Utopia – Performing the GDR; 8. 1968 and the protest movement; 9. Reunification and its aftermath; 10. Germany and the shadow of the past.
The Unit Aims:
By the end of the unit, successful students will be able to:
1 weekly lecture
1 weekly seminar
1. ONE assessed presentation (40% of total mark) consisting of THREE components:
a. 10%: Individual portfolio of materials used in presentation (e.g. PPT file and/or Handout)
b. 20%: Presentation (delivery, detail clarity etc. as outlined in SML’s criteria for marking presentations)
c. 10% Reflective re-assessment of presentation (500 words) to be submitted on BB within 1 week of the presentation.
Depending on group size the presentation might be individual or joint with other students. Marks for 1(a) and 1(c) are individual; the mark for 1(b) is for all members of the group. (Testing ILOs 1-3, 5)
2. ONE 3,000-word project essay devised by students on a topic of their choice in consultation with the unit director (60% of total mark). (Testing ILOs 1-5)
Erika Fischer-Lichte, The Routledge Introduction to Theatre and Performance Studies (Routledge: London, 2014)
Neil MacGregor, Germany. Memories of a Nation (Allen Lane: London, 2014).
Richard Schechner, ‘Performance Studies: The Broad Spectrum Approach’ TDR, 32:3 (1988), pp. 4-6.
Richard Schechner, Performance Studies: An Introduction (Routledge: London and New York, 2002)