Module: German Literature & Film

Latest Module Specifications

Current Academic Year 2025 - 2026

Module Title	German Literature & Film
Module Code	GER1013 (ITS: GE290)
Faculty	SALIS	School	Humanities & Social Sciences
NFQ level	8	Credit Rating	5

Description

This module will build on the foundation laid by German Culture & Society I to deepen the examination of German literature in its historical context, and to advance further the reading and analytic skills required to gain access to the foreign culture. The module is delivered through German/English. to widen and deepen the examination of ideas and movements in German Society offered in GCSI to advance further the reading and analytic skills required to conduct advance academic study of the foreign culture.

Learning Outcomes

1. Assess the value of literature and/or film in offering insight into the political, social and intellectual history of Germany & Austria in the 19th-21st centuries.
2. Identify ways in which the form & content of artistic works can help us compare cultural norms in different societies.
3. Discuss key experiences in modern German or Austrian history that have shaped culture and society in Germany or Austria today.
4. Enhance his/her command of the German language.

*Type*	*Hours*	*Description*
Workload	Full time hours per semester
Seminars	20	Each seminar topic will be introduced by a short lecture
Independent Study	105	Preparation & revision of classwork
Total Workload: 125

Section Breakdown
CRN	10758	Part of Term	Semester 1
Coursework	0%	Examination Weight	0%
Grade Scale	40PASS	Pass Both Elements	Y
Resit Category	RC1	Best Mark	N
Module Co-ordinator	Olga Springer	Module Teacher

Type	Description	% of total	Assessment Date
Assessment Breakdown
Essay	Two Essays	100%	n/a

Reassessment Requirement Type
Resit arrangements are explained by the following categories; RC1: A resit is available for both^* components of the module. RC2: No resit is available for a 100% coursework module. RC3: No resit is available for the coursework component where there is a coursework and summative examination element. ^* ‘Both’ is used in the context of the module having a coursework/summative examination split; where the module is 100% coursework, there will also be a resit of the assessment

Pre-requisite	None
Co-requisite	None
Compatibles	None
Incompatibles	None

All module information is indicative and subject to change. For further information,students are advised to refer to the University's Marks and Standards and Programme Specific Regulations at: http://www.dcu.ie/registry/examinations/index.shtml

Indicative Content and Learning Activities

General syllabus
The module will cover a range of 19th-21st century literature & film, discussed both as imaginative works in their own right and as representations of issues and movements introduced in GCSI. Each text/film will be preceded by a lecture giving the relevant cultural-historical context. Seminar discussion will be supplemented by group work in which students will make presentations on specific aspects of the texts. Discussion will centre on texts/films chosen from the following:

A. Schnitzler, Reigen

with Max von Ophuls film adaptation, La Ronde
Sexuality, morality and gender roles in Viennese society at the close of the Austro-Hungarian Empire

Expressionist poems, painting & film
The arts in urban-industrial society; isolation and alienation in the Big City; man and machine.

Ödön von Horváth, Jugend ohne Gott
National Socialism and the corruption of youth. Spiritual solidarity and resistance under dictatorship.

M. Walser, Ein Fliehendes Pferd
Emancipation and the quest for identity: social, emotional and gender relationships in the 1970s.

New German Cinema: Die Ehe der Maria Braun
Fassbinder's 'psychological history' of Germany. Renewal and restauration in postwar Germany.

B. Schlink, Der Vorleser
The trauma of the past. Reading the Holocaust and the issue of guilt in Germany today

J. Kerr, Als Hitler das rosa Kaninchen stahl
Experiences of a Jewish child refugee fleeing Nazi Germany

Indicative Reading List

Books:

W. Beutin et al.: 1993, A History of German Literature, Routledge, London/New York,
R. Burns (ed.): 1995, German Cultural Studies: an introduction, Oxford Univ. Pr., New York,
O. Durrani: 1994, Fictions of Germany: images of the German nation in the modern novel, Edinburgh Univ. Pr., Edinburgh,
R. Furness: 0, Literary History of Germany: The Twentieth Century, Croom Helm, London,
A. Kaes: 1989, From Hitler to Heimat: the return of history as film, Harvard Univ. Pr., Cambridge Mass.,
K.S. Parkes: 1986, Writers and Politics in West Germany, Croom Helm, London,
S. Taberner & K. Berger (eds.): 2009, Germans as victims in the literary fiction of the Berlin Republic, Camden House, Rochester N.Y.,
R. Taylor: 1980, Literature and Society in Germany 1918-1945, Harvester Press, Brighton,
J. Wharton (ed.): 1992, German politics and society from 1933 to the Wende, Nottingham Univ., Nottingham,
M. Minden: 2011, Modern German Literature, Polity Press, Cambridge,

Articles:
None

Other Resources

None