SELCS

Austrian Literature 1890-1938: from Empire to Republic


Course code: GERM4125 / GERMG012.
Course unit value: 0.5 / 30 MA credits

In Austria the period between approximately 1890 and 1938 was not only one of enormous political upheavals (the collapse of the Habsburg Empire, the founding of the First Austrian Republic, and its subsequent Anschluss to Nazi Germany), it was also a time of intense cultural and intellectual activity. Focusing on key works of the Viennese fin de siècle and of the interwar period, this course will explore some of the distinctive preoccupations of Viennese modernism — sexuality and the inner life, aestheticism and Sprachkrise — as well as examining literary responses to the issues of national identity and cultural tradition.

Assessment for GERM4125: one assessed 2 500 word essay (50%); and one unseen two-hour written examination (50%).

Assessment for GERMG012: one assessed 6 000 word essay (100%)

Tutor: Dr Judith Beniston.

Preparatory reading and set texts:

  • Arthur Schnitzler, Anatol (Reclam).
  • Reigen (Fischer Bücherei or Reclam).*
  • Leutnant Gustl (Fischer Bücherei).*
  • Robert Musil, Die Verwirrungen des Zöglings Törleß (rororo 300).
  • Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Der Schwierige (Fischer Bücherei, Reclam).*
  • Ödön von Horváth, Geschichten aus dem Wiener Wald (Suhrkamp).*
  • Joseph Roth, Radetzkymarsch (Kiepenheuer & Witsch).*

*For electronic versions of these texts, please click here.