Module GERM2141: VIOLENCE IN GERMAN LITERATURE, FILM AND VISUAL ART

Department: Modern Language and Cultures (German)

GERM2141: VIOLENCE IN GERMAN LITERATURE, FILM AND VISUAL ART

Prerequisites

• German Language 1 (I) (GERM1011) or an equivalent to the satisfaction of the Chairman/woman of the Board of Studies of MLAC or his/her representative.

Corequisites

• Modern Languages, Combined Honours and all Joint and 'with' programmes: German Language 2 (GERM2021). Others: see Chairman/woman of the Board of Studies of MLAC or his/her representative.

Excluded Combination of Modules

• None.

Aims

• To prepare students for more specialised study in final year optional seminars by building strategically on knowledge and skills already mediated through Drama and Narrative GERM1031 and History and Culture GERM 1071.
• To focus on the multi-faceted topic of violence, which is exemplified in a wide range of texts, films, visual arts and mainstream traditions from various periods.
• To broaden students' reading and knowledge of German cultural history and to develop their understanding of the decisive role of art in society.

Content

• This module explores how individual and collective notions of violence are shaped and redefined by literature, film, and visual art over several periods of German cultural history.
• The module will focus on such topics as warfare, terrorism, familial power structures, domestic abuse, violence and the issue of corporeality in modernity, traumatic experience, memory and commemoration of conflict and aggression as part of a broader consideration of violence and aesthetics.
• Treatment of the theme will include analyses of aesthetic representations of violence and will explore past and present theories of violence.
• Areas covered may include the Age of the French Revolution, Modernity, Representations of the Holocaust, German and Austrian Cinema, Postcolonial Studies. These will be explored in a range of media (prose and lyric writing, visual art, and film).

Learning Outcomes

• Familiarity with a wide range of representative works in word and image which treat the problem of violence and its various interpretations over several periods of German cultural history.
• Knowledge of the methodologies appropriate to the analysis of works in these different genres.
• Enhanced knowledge of the specialised language required to talk and write about the problem of violence in both English and German.

• Analysing the means by which relevant works construct, reflect on and criticise notions of violence
• Applying appropriate methodologies in order to perform this analysis and interpretation.
• Independent research skills, developed through close reading, critical analysis of aesthetic and theoretical material, as well as through presenting a structured argument in both oral and written form.
• Enhanced comprehension skills in German, and enhanced range and fluency of expression in English and German.

• Enhanced skills in independent learning, rapid critical reading, synthesis, and analytic thinking.
• The coherent formulation of arguments and their presentation in written and oral form.

Modes of Teaching, Learning and Assessment and how these contribute to the learning outcomes of the module

• The course will consist of plenary sessions, seminars and tutorials.
• Plenary sessions will be based on both lectures and student presentations.
• Lectures will familiarise students with the relevant socio-historical context and introduce the key theoretical and critical issues raised by the texts under consideration.
• By preparing for presentations, students will develop skills in independent learning, rapid critical reading, synthesis and analytic thinking, all of which will be further promoted by preparation for seminars on a weekly basis, and by guided discussion in the seminars themselves.
• Through participation in classes, students will increase their oral proficiency in the target language.
• Students will produce two summatively assessed commentaries over the course of the year, which will train them to construct coherent, lucid arguments in syntactically and grammatically sound German.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment:

None

■ Attendance at all activities marked with this symbol will be monitored. Students who fail to attend these activities, or to complete the summative or formative assessment specified above, will be subject to the procedures defined in the University's General Regulation V, and may be required to leave the University