German 352 - Kafka, Brecht & T. Mann

(Offered as GERM 352 and EUST 342.) Representative works by each of the three contemporary authors will be read both for their intrinsic artistic merit and as expressions of the cultural, social, and political concerns of their time. Among these are such topics as the dehumanization of the individual by the state, people caught between conflicting ideologies, and literature as admonition, political statement, or escape. Readings of short stories and a novel by Kafka, including “The Judgment,” “The Metamorphosis,” and The Castle; poems, short prose, and plays by Brecht, e.g., The Three-Penny Opera, Mother Courage, and The Good Woman of Setzuan; fiction and essays by Mann, including “Death in Venice” and Buddenbrooks.  Conducted in English, with German majors required to do a substantial portion of the reading in German.

Spring semester. Professor Brandes.