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Reading Modern Novels
Course code: GERM4133 / GERMG028.
Course unit value: 0.5 / 30 MA credits
This course looks at three major twentieth-century novels in detail. All three books explore the problem of interpretation and raise questions about how reality can be understood and represented. In each novel the narrative technique is a crucial tool for undermining the reader’s expectations, both in relation to specific historical events and in relation to the process of textual interpretation itself. The books challenge our desire for clarity and explanation in an era when the category of truth has been profoundly relativized.
Assessment for GERM4133: one assessed 2,500 word essay (50%); and one unseen two-hour written examination (50%).
Assessment for GERMG028: one assessed 6,000 word essay (100%).
Tutor: Dr Ernest Schonfield
Preparatory Reading and Set Texts
Please buy and read the following three set texts before the autumn term begins:
- Thomas Mann, Buddenbrooks. Edition: Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag. ISBN: 978-3-596-29431-2.
- Franz Kafka, Das Schloß. Edition: Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag [NOT Suhrkamp]. ISBN: 978-3-596-18116-2
- Ingeborg Bachmann, Malina. Edition: Suhrkamp. ISBN: 978-3-518-37141-1.
