| Unit name | Exiles and Migrants in German Literature |
|---|---|
| Unit code | GERM30058 |
| Credit points | 20 |
| Level of study | H/6 |
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12) |
| Unit director | Dr. Davies |
| Open unit status | Not open |
| Pre-requisites |
None |
| Co-requisites |
N/A |
| School/department | Department of German |
| Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
Germany’s history has consistently been one of population movements: of emigration and exile, of immigration and asylum. Emigration overseas was ever-present in German life in the nineteenth century just as the recruitment of immigrant workers by the Federal Republic has shaped German culture today. Thousands of Germans escaped into exile from the ‘Third Reich’, and political circumstances also drove Germans from their homes during the French Revolution, in the ‘Vormärz’ before 1848, under the anti-Socialist laws of the 1880s and during the forty-year division of Germany after 1949.
German Exilforschung has traditionally worked on literature between 1933 and 1945; this unit will place the study of that focal period into a wider context, from the 1790s to the present. We will first analyse a series of personal and theoretical reflections on exile: these form a background to the unit and are the subject of the first piece of assessed work. From this basis the unit will then focus on selected, longer literary texts in detail.
This unit gives a historical survey of Exilliteratur but also asks fundamental questions about the nature of literature and of literary authorship. Is there really such a genre as ‘exile literature’, and if there is, then what defines it? What are the connections, if any, between physical exile and the idea of the intellectual as a social critic and outsider? To what extent has exile in the present been articulated through models of exile from the past – extending back as far as Cicero and Ovid – and what marks out the writings of emigrants in German today? Students will be expected to be proficient in German as source material will be in German.
The unit thus aims:
By the end of this unit, students will be able to:
Teaching will be delivered through a combination of synchronous sessions and asynchronous activities, including seminars, lectures, and collaborative as well as self-directed learning opportunities supported by tutor consultation.
1 x 1500-word essay (30%). Testing ILOs 1-5.
1 x 3500-word essay (70%). Testing ILOs 1-5.
If this unit has a Resource List, you will normally find a link to it in the Blackboard area for the unit. Sometimes there will be a separate link for each weekly topic.
If you are unable to access a list through Blackboard, you can also find it via the Resource Lists homepage. Search for the list by the unit name or code (e.g. GERM30058).
How much time the unit requires
Each credit equates to 10 hours of total student input. For example a 20 credit unit will take you 200 hours
of study to complete. Your total learning time is made up of contact time, directed learning tasks,
independent learning and assessment activity.
See the Faculty workload statement relating to this unit for more information.
Assessment
The Board of Examiners will consider all cases where students have failed or not completed the assessments required for credit.
The Board considers each student's outcomes across all the units which contribute to each year's programme of study. If you have self-certificated your absence from an
assessment, you will normally be required to complete it the next time it runs (this is usually in the next assessment period).
The Board of Examiners will take into account any extenuating circumstances and operates
within the Regulations and Code of Practice for Taught Programmes.
