Module GERM2121: SEX AND IDENTITY IN GERMANIC CULTURES

Department: Modern Languages and Cultures (German)

GERM2121: SEX AND IDENTITY IN GERMANIC CULTURES

Prerequisites

• German Language 1A (GERM1011) or German Langauge 1B (GERM1112) or an equivalent qualification to the satisfaction of the Chairman/woman of the Board of Studies of MLAC or his/her representative.

Corequisites

• Modern European Languages, Combined Honours and all Joint and 'with' programmes: German Language 2A (GERM2021) or German Langauge 2B (GERM2152). 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 GERM1081 Identity and Politics in the German-Speaking Countries / GERM 1101 Picturing the Past of the German-Speaking Countries / GERM 1091 Reading German Culture.
• It therefore focuses less on genre and more on a theme of general interest, which is exemplified in a wide range of texts and traditions from many epochs.
• Thus it will both broaden students' reading and informational base in German cultural history and develop understanding of a key function of literature, film, and other art forms in cultural life: their reflection and critique of gender identity and gender relations.
• Treatment of the theme will include contrastive analyses of how various authors construct the specifics of conventional, normative, oppositional or transgressive gender identity.
• The module will focus on such topics as ‘From Protest to Performance: Gender since 1945’; ‘Sex and Gender at the Fin de Siècle’; ‘Gender in Theory and Practice around 1800’.

Content

• This module explores one major social function of literature and other aesthetic discourses, namely how they both shape and subvert received notions of gender identity, over several epochs of German cultural history.
• Topics covered will include sexual orthodoxy, repression and emancipation, and lectures will draw on major theorists from Augustine to Humboldt, Freud, Weininger, de Beauvoir, and contemporary gender theory.
• The construction of gender identity, and the critique of sex-gender systems, will be explored in a range of texts, which may be selected from the works of Gottfried von Strassburg to Kleist, Wagner, Frieda von Bulow, Thomas Mann, Fritz Lang, Christa Wolf, Elfriede Jelinek, Ingeborg Bachmann, and others.
• This module is taught and examined in English and German.

Learning Outcomes

• By the end of the module, students will be familiar with a wide range of representative works in word and image which treat the problem of gender, sexuality and identity and its development over several epochs of German cultural history.

• Student will be able to analyse the means by which such works construct, reflect on and criticise notions of gender identity in German cultural history.
• Students will also develop key transferable skills of analytical thinking, synthesis, and increased proficiency in delivery of written commentary in English and oral presentation in German.
• Students will increase their proficiency in written argumentation in English, as well as presentation in the target language.

• Students will develop skills in independent learning, rapid critical reading, synthesis, and analytic thinking.

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

• The module will consist of plenary sessions, seminars and tutorials.
• 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 seminar 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.
• The module will be taught in both German and English.
• Through presentations in classes, students will thus also 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.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment:

10 minute presentation in German

■ 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