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| Unit name |
Culture of Classical Weimar |
| Unit code |
GERM32053 |
| Credit points |
20 |
| Level of study |
H/6
|
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12)
|
| Unit director |
Dr. Davies |
| Open unit status |
Not open |
| Pre-requisites |
None
|
| Co-requisites |
None
|
| School/department |
Department of German |
| Faculty |
Faculty of Arts |
Description including Unit Aims
This unit will examine the broad range of cultural life that Weimar experienced and promoted in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries; we will combine reading literary works with an inquiry into the context in which they were created. The relationship between Goethe and Schiller, and some of the literary works that emerged from that relationship, will be one major focus, but we will also consider other authors active in Weimar at the time, such as Herder and Wieland, and projects such as the production of literary journals. We will study the institutions which underpinned and expressed much of Weimar's cultural life as well as examining other forms of cultural activity in the town, such as music, theatre, and the production, collection and criticism of art. At the end of the unit we will consider the subsequent construction and use of an idealised Weimar in German national memory.
Aims:
- To introduce students to a significant body of knowledge of a complexity appropriate to final year level. The content matter will normally include one or more of the following: literature; social, cultural or political history; linguistics; cultural studies; film, television or other media.
- To facilitate students' engagement with a body of literature, including secondary literature, texts, including in non-print media, primary sources and ideas as a basis for their own analysis and development. Normally many or most of these sources will be in a language other than English and will enhance the development of their linguistic skills.
- To develop further skills of synthesis, analysis and independent research, building on the skills acquired in units at level I.
- To equip students with the skills to undertake postgraduate study in a relevant field.
Intended Learning Outcomes
Successful students will:
- be knowledgable about a significant cultural, historical or linguistic subject related to the language they are studying;
- will have advanced skills in the selection and synthesis of relevant material;
- be able to evaluate and analyse relevant material from a significant body of source materials, usually in a foreign language, at an advanced level;
- be able to respond to questions or problems by presenting their independent judgements in an appropriate style and at an advanced level of complexity;
- be able to transfer these skills to other working environments, including postgraduate study.
Teaching Information
1 x 2hr slot weekly
Assessment Information
2 essays 3000 words each 50%/50%
Reading and References
Recommended preliminary reading
- Goethe: Torquato Tasso, Iphigenie auf Tauris
- Schiller: Maria Stuart, Die Jungfrau von Orleans
- Georg Bollenbeck, 'Weimar', in Deutsche Erinnerungsorte, ed. by Etienne Franois and Hagen Schulze, 3 vols (Munich, 2001), vol. 1, pp. 207-24
- W.H. Bruford, Culture and Society in Classical Weimar, 1775-1806 (Cambridge, 1962), esp. 'Introduction', pp. 1-11
- T.J. Reed, The Classical Centre: Goethe and Weimar 1775-1832 (London, 1980; reprinted Oxford, 2001)
- Weimar Classicism: Goethe's alliance with Schiller', in The Cambridge Companion to Goethe, ed. by Lesley Sharpe (Cambridge, 2002), pp. 101-15
- Weimarer Klassik, 1759-1832: Wiederholte Spiegelungen. Ständige Ausstellung des Goethe-Nationalmuseums, ed. by Gerhard Schuster and Caroline Gille, 2 vols (Munich, 1999) - good to 'dip into' at this stage: short essays and rich illustrations introducing the themes, events and dramatis personae of the unit
