Module GERM3291: Wanderlust and Fernweh: German Cultures of Mobility from Goethe to Wolfsburg

Department: Modern Languages and Cultures (German)

GERM3291: Wanderlust and Fernweh: German Cultures of Mobility from Goethe to Wolfsburg

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

• The module aims to introduce the students to key concepts of German Romanticism (Fernweh and Wanderlust), and to enable them to engage in close, critical and theoretically-led analyses of central works of German literary and film culture that engage with questions of mobility.

Content

• This module will examine the significance which the tropes of Wanderlust and Fernweh have had in German culture from the late eighteenth century to the present, by taking a series of works from literature and film and investigating the journeys they present in terms of, for example, a) the traveller and their mode of travel, b) the quest for, and experience of, happiness and pleasure, both material and spiritual and c) the encounter with the ‘other’. Examples of works that will be studied may include Goethe’s Italienische Reise, Heine’s Die Harzreise, Thomas Mann’s Der Tod in Venedig, Wim Wenders’s road movies of the 1970s and 1980s, Christian Petzold’s Wolfsburg and Angela Schanelec’s Orly.

Learning Outcomes

• By the end of this module, students will have acquired:
• Solid critical understanding of fundamental concepts and methodological approaches to the study of mobility in the German-speaking countries from 1770 onwards.
• The ability to analyse and define how leading writers and film-makers have investigated the journey, the figure of the traveller, the quest for happiness and the encounter with the other in literary and film works from 1770 onwards.

• By the end of this module, students will be expected to have
• The ability to interpret and contextualise literary and filmic works investigating mobility that were produced in the German-speaking countries from 1770 onwards.
• developed research and critical skills required by detailed reading, conceptual reasoning, textual analysis and analysis of visual objects
• the ability to analyse different text-types and visual artefacts in a historically and culturally situated way

• By the end of this module, students are expected to demonstrate:
• Writing, analytical and critical skills
• Research and time management skills
• Argumentation and presentation in German and English
• The capacity to conduct textual and visual analysis

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

• The module will consist of seminars structured around student presentations, and will involve weekly plenary sessions and a fortnightly seminar
• The module will be taught and assessed in German and in English
• All students will be required to prepare presentations and regular readings, and to participate actively in seminars
• Plenary sessions 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 the fortnightly seminar, which will alternate discussions with formative student presentations, students will develop skills in independent learning, rapid critical reading, synthesis, analytical thinking, and the presentation of coherent argument.
• Through reading and preparation of complex material in German, and formative class presentations in German, students will also further advance their proficiency in the target language.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment:

Formative assessment during seminars builds on independent study by students working individually or in pairs or small groups. In seminars, students are expected to give short oral presentations, based on a set of diversified questions (such as reflecting on theoretical challenges, analysing secondary materials, presenting primary work outside the syllabus etc.) and reading materials, and where appropriate accompanied by written handouts and/or other visual aids. Oral feedback is provided regularly in the course of the seminar discussion.

■ 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