Introductory description

N/A

Module web page

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

Texts you should study include:
Heinrich Böll, Das Brot der frühen Jahre; Peter Weiss, Die Ermittlung; Bernhard Schlink, Der Vorleser, Elfriede Jelinek, Die Liebhaberinnen .
Films you should study include:
Die Ehe der Maria Braun (Fassbinder); Die verlorene Ehre der Katharina Blum (Schlöndorff & von Trotta); Das schreckliche Mädchen (Verhoeven), Kurz und Schmerzlos (Akin).
Topics for study and texts/films may be subject to revision.

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• Developing awareness of the history and culture of post-Second World War Germany, building on students' critical and analytical skills, and furthering their ability to express themselves accurately and concisely.

Indicative reading list

Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Die Ehe der Maria Braun (1978)
Heinrich Böll, Das Brot der frühen Jahre (1955)
Peter Weiss, Die Ermittlung (1965)
Bernhard Wicki, Die Brücke (1959)
Michael Verhoeven, Das schreckliche Mädchen (1987)
Bernhard Schlink, Der Vorleser (1995)
Heinrich Böll, Die verlorene Ehre der Katharina Blum (1974)
Volker Schlöndorff/Margarethe von Trotta, Die verlorene Ehre der Katharina Blum (1975)
Elfriede Jelinek, Die Liebhaberinnen (1975) Fatih Akın, Kurz und schmerzlos (1998) Renan Demirkan, Schwarzer Tee mit drei Stück Zucker (1990) Ulrich Plenzdorf, Die neuen Leiden des jungen W. (1973) Konrad Wolf, SOLO SUNNY (1980)

View reading list on Talis Aspire

International

All modules delivered in SMLC are necessarily international. Students engage with themes and ideas from a culture other than that of the UK and employ their linguistic skills in the analysis of primary materials from a non-Anglophone context. Students will also be encouraged to draw on the experiences of visiting exchange students in the classroom and will frequently engage with theoretical and critical frameworks from across the world.

Subject specific skills

This module will develop students’ linguistic skills through engaging with primary materials in the target language. It will build students’ capacity to engage with aspects of German culture through analysis of this primary material and through seminar discussion aimed at deeper critical thinking. In particular, students’ awareness of the changing depiction of Germany in film and text will be enhanced through lectures and seminars which engage in scholarship in the field.

Transferable skills

All SMLC culture modules demand critical and analytical engagement with artefacts from target-language cultures. In the course of independent study, class work and assessment students will develop the following skills: written and oral communication, creative and critical thinking, problem solving and analysis, time management and organisation, independent research in both English and their target language(s), intercultural understanding and the ability to mediate between languages and cultures, ICT literacy in both English and the target language(s), personal responsibility and the exercise of initiative.