Undergraduate Course: The Cult of Feeling: Empfindsamkeit, Sturm und Drang and Early Romanticism (ELCG10013)
Course Outline
| School | School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Course type | Standard |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 4 Undergraduate) |
Credits | 20 |
| Home subject area | European Languages and Cultures - German |
Other subject area | None |
| Course website |
None |
Taught in Gaelic? | No |
| Course description | This seminar will focus on the development of the literary culture of feeling in Germany from the mid-eighteenth to the early nineteenth centuries, and the connections between the following literary movements: Empfindsamkeit, Sturm und Drang and early Romanticism. Empfindsamkeit or Sentimentalism, with its liberation of the senses and emotions, and its emphasis on the private expression of feeling and reflective inwardness, can be viewed culturally as a counter-discourse to the Enlightenment (rationalism). It was followed by the Sturm und Drang movement in the 1770s and 80s that ran parallel with the final stages of Sentimentalism, but gave voice to an externalized expression of the struggle of the self to achieve autonomy, which challenged social and political boundaries and introduced literary reforms. The 1790s saw the birth of German Romanticism, a movement that developed the philosophical understanding of the relationship between the self and the world, which foregrounded the aesthetic and spiritual aspects of the human experience.
This course examines the ways in which the concept of the hero changes from the 1770s to around 1800, and will cover topics such as the senses and the body, power and punishment, language and gesture, fathers and sons, and the Romantic new mythology project. The key texts will be: Goethe¿s Götz von Berlichingen (1773) and Die Leiden des jungen Werther (1774), Lenz¿s Der Hofmeister (1774) and Anmerkungen übers Theater (1774), Schiller¿s Die Räuber (1781) and Novalis¿ Heinrich von Ofterdingen (1802).
The course-specific learning goals are (1) to introduce you to the debates relating to the role of the emotions in the second half of the eighteenth century; (2) to explore the role of the autonomous individual in the selected plays and novels of this period; (3) to develop your skills in appreciating and discussing literary texts.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
Students MUST have passed:
German 2 (ELCG08006)
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | Honours entry. |
| Additional Costs | None |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes
An understanding of the development of writing in 18th and early 19th century Germany and of the key movements of Empfindsamkeit, Sturm und Drang and Romanticism.
Knowledge and understanding of a selection of texts by major writers of the period.
An understanding of the literary text as a source for the study of cultural and intellectual history.
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Assessment Information
Coursework essay (2-2,500 words) 50%, degree exam (1.5 hours) 50%. Students are normally asked to do a presentation in class.
2 copies of the coursework essay should be submitted to the essay submission box marked GERMAN in the corridor outside the Teaching Office, DHT 5.10.
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Special Arrangements
| None |
Additional Information
| Academic description |
Not entered |
| Syllabus |
Not entered |
| Transferable skills |
Not entered |
| Reading list |
Not entered |
| Study Abroad |
Not entered |
| Study Pattern |
Not entered |
| Keywords | Sentimentalism, Storm and Stress, Early Romanticism, Enlightenment |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Eleoma Bodammer
Tel: (0131 6)50 3627
Email: Eleoma.Bodammer@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Mrs Fiona Scanlon
Tel: (0131 6)50 3646
Email: Fiona.Scanlon@ed.ac.uk |
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