Module GERM3221: LIFE-WRITING, WRITING LIVES: BIOGRAPHY AND LITERATURE

Department: Modern Languages and Cultures (German)

GERM3221: LIFE-WRITING, WRITING LIVES: BIOGRAPHY AND LITERATURE

Prerequisites

• German Language 2A (GERM2021), or German Language 2B (GERM2152) or an equivalent qualification to the satisfaction of the Chairman/Chairwoman of the Board of Studies in MLAC or his/her representative.

Corequisites

• Modern Languages, Combined Honours and all Joint and 'with' programmes: German Language 4 (GERM3071). Other: see Chairman/Chairwoman of the Board of Studies in MLAC or his/her representative.

Excluded Combination of Modules

• None.

Aims

• To broaden students' understanding of biography as a cultural practice
• To acquaint students with the theory and practice of literary biography and with the debates surrounding the relationship between biography and the interpretation of literature
• To familiarise students with representative examples of German literary biography, past and present, and with authors represented therein
• To encourage critical engagement with the foundational assumptions of the genre
• To develop students' independent research skills

Content

• Extracts from significant literary biographies will be studied in detail and read in conjunction with literary texts by the relevant authors (e.g. Bertram/Nietzsche, Kutscher/Wedekind, Weigel/Bachmann, Karlauf/George). Texts studied will encompass a range of periods and methods, with a view to demonstrating the diversity of approaches to biography and to fostering a deeper understanding of the biographical research and of its controversial status within the broader field of literary study. Theoretical questions to be considered include: biographical fallacy, Biographismus, New Criticism, biographical sources, life traces/Hinterlassenschaften, ego-documents, life writing, narrative forms and techniques of biography.

Learning Outcomes

• Overview of debates about, and theories of, biography
• Knowledge of outstanding examples of literary biography
• Insights into the strengths and weakness of biography as an approach to literature
• Familiarity with salient examples of the literary transformation of biographical experience

• Ability to analyse biographical texts and to identify the processes of selection, construction and manipulation underlying them
• Ability to compare and evaluate a rage of biographical approaches, applying theoretical concepts studied in the module
• Independent research skills, developed through a research project focussing on two biographical case-studies
• Enhanced ability to talk and write about literary texts and biographical representation, in both German and English

• Enhanced range of fluency and expression in English and German
• Ability to formulate arguments coherently and to present them in written and oral form
• Ability to pursue a guided programme of self-directed study, leading to the production of an extended piece of written work

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

• The module will be taught by means of a) expository lectures introducing key concepts and demonstrating sample analyses b) seminars featuring student presentations, in which the theoretical concepts are applied to a range of reading material c) supervisions in which plans for the independent research project are discussed.
• The weekly reading programme will foster the acquisition of the relevant subject-specific knowledge, and this knowledge will be further enhanced as students debate issues surrounding biographical evidence and representation.
• Through in-depth scrutiny of literary transformations of biographical experience, and comparative analysis of subsequent accounts of this transformation process, students will develop their analytical skills and become familiar with a range of methodological approaches to biography, both as a product of scholarship and as an object of criticism.
• Conducting lectures and seminars largely in the target language will aid acquisition of the relevant critical vocabulary and discursive register: through oral presentaitons student will develop their ability to structure arguments and present them fluently.
• Supervisions will foster students' ability to plan and carry out a programme of independent research.
• Summative assessment will consist of a 1500-word commentary on a chosen biographical text as it relates to a literary text; and a 3500-word research project featuring two case studies in literary biography. Both exercises are designed to test students' subject-specific knowledge and their ability to use their subject-specific skills in order to evaluate this knowledge. The research project will also test students' independent research skills.

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