Module description
The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were formative for German culture and society: the period saw the religious and political upheavals of the Reformation in the early sixteenth century and the Thirty Years War, which ravaged German lands in the seventeenth century, but also witnessed a renewed interest in poetics, and significant developments in the novel and drama. Writers of the period were not afraid of the big issues: religion, sex and politics, and these headings structure the module.
The module opens with a background discussion of European Humanism and the key events and ideologies of the German Reformation. The literary part of the module begins with a discussion of religious poetry: the vanitas poems of Andreas Gryphius, devotional poetry (Paul Gerhardt, Catharina Regina von Greiffenberg, Friedrich Spee) and mystical poetry (Quirinus Kuhlmann and Angelus Silesius, the pseudonym of Johann Scheffler). Attention will then turn to more secular poetry; we shall discuss love poems by Martin Opitz, Paul Fleming, Christian Hofmann von Hofmannswaldau, Johann Christian Günther, and Sibylle Schwarz, setting these into the context of European Petrarchism. After this, the module will concentrate on women, sex and power in the early modern period. We shall discuss Luther’s writings about marriage and women, and read Paul Rebhun’s biblical drama Susanna, Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen’s riotous picaresque novel Courasche, and Andreas Gryphius’s martyr drama Catharina von Georgien, thus considering literary depictions of model wives, wicked women, and steadfast heroines. Gryphius will then lead us into the final part of the module, which focuses on power, politics and rebellion, with a discussion of another of his martyr dramas about the execution of England’s King Charles I, Carolus Stuardus. Christian Weise’s wily political drama, Masaniello, about a Neapolitan fisherman and rebel, will conclude the module.
Assessment details
One 4000 word essay
Educational aims & objectives
The module aims to give students an insight into German literature of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It is arranged thematically in order to enable students to explore key contemporary concerns and thus to gain a deeper understanding of these turbulent years and their impact on German culture. It will cover all three literary genres under the topic headings of religious poetry, love poetry, attitudes to women, sex and marriage, and political power. The individual lectures and seminars will provide background context and will also encourage close textual analysis. The students will, at the end of the module, be able to demonstrate a good understanding of early modern German culture, and will be able to translate this understanding into critical essays in assignments and examinations.
Learning outcomes
By the end of the module, students will be able to demonstrate a good understanding of the fundamental ideas and conflicts of the Reformation in Germany; demonstrate a familiarity with critical and stylistic terminology; demonstrate skills in the close reading and analysis of texts; be able better to appreciate the complex interplay between literature, society and culture;show a deeper understanding of the uses and conventions of the three literary genres in this period (poetry, prose and drama); show the capacity to analyse and critically examine diverse forms of discourse; read German from a period when the language differed in certain ways from modern standard German; present their views in class discussion, and in written form in response to essay topics; independently research a chosen topic, thus developing their skills at managing resources.
Teaching pattern
Two hours per week
Suggested reading list
- Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen, Lebensbeschreibung der Erzbetrügerin und Landstörtzerin Courasche (Stuttgart: Reclam, 2001)
- Andreas Gryphius, Gedichte (Stuttgart: Reclam, 1986)
- Andreas Gryphius, Carolus Stuardus (Stuttgart: Reclam, 1972)
- Andreas Gryphius, Catharina von Georgien. Oder bewehrete Beständigkeit (Stuttgart: Reclam, 1974)
- Helen Watanabe O’Kelly (ed.), ‘The early modern period (1450–1720)’, in The Cambridge History of German Literature (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), pp. 92–146 (There is no need to buy this as is available as an ebook from the library)
Please obtain your own copies of the following texts. Other primary texts (poems and short prose and drama extracts) will be handed out in class.
- Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen, Lebensbeschreibung der Erzbetrügerin und Landstörtzerin Courasche (Stuttgart: Reclam, 2001)
- Andreas Gryphius, Gedichte (Stuttgart: Reclam, 1986)
- Andreas Gryphius, Carolus Stuardus (Stuttgart: Reclam, 1972)
- Andreas Gryphius, Catharina von Georgien. Oder bewehrete Beständigkeit (Stuttgart: Reclam, 1974)