This paper is available for the academic year 2024-25.
*This paper also serves as Paper 10H of Part I of the English Tripos)
鈥淭he making of German culture鈥 introduces you to the vibrant literary and intellectual culture of the German-speaking world in the medieval and early modern period. Six topics explore important moments in German literary and intellectual history before the eighteenth century: the bold experimentation of courtly literature; the creation of a heroic epic that went on to have national myth-making potential in the modern period; the emergence of women authors in the field of religious experience; the rise of narrative prose; the Protestant Reformation, and its changed attitudes to political authority as well as religion; the stunningly varied and sophisticated poetry of the baroque era. Each topic is approached through a core text, chosen for its richness and important: many of the texts have had a resonance in the German-speaking world鈥攁nd in certain cases well beyond it鈥攄own to the present day.
The topics with their core texts for 2023-24听are as follows:
1. Manufacturing heroism (Nibelungenlied)
2. Female visionaries: authorship and authority (Mechthild von Magdeburg: Das flie脽ende Licht der Gottheit)
3. Courtly literature: complexity and experiment (Gottfried von Strassburg: Tristan und Isolde)
4. Melusine: minne, myth, and origin (Th眉ring von Ringoltingen: Melusine)
5. Protestantism and power (Martin Luther: Von weltlicher Obrigkeit)
6. War, love, religion, and hexameters: poetry of the baroque (anthology of poems downloadable from the Ge4 Moodle site)
A complete reading list, tips on how to prepare in advance of the course, and past exam papers are available on the GE4 Moodle site (); you are welcome to enrol yourself to find out more.
Topics 1鈥3 are covered by lectures and supervisions in the Michaelmas Term, and Topics 4鈥6 in the Lent Term. There is also an introductory course of language classes in the first half of the Michaelmas Term where you can develop and practice your skills in reading medieval German. In the Easter Term students opting for assessment by end of year examination will be able to access revision supervisions on their chosen topics.
For the GE4 Moodle site, please see .
Assessment is either by long essay or end of year examination. For each of the two long essays, you will have a choice from the three topics that have been covered in the two teaching terms. In the examination, you answer three questions, each one on a different topic: the exam paper will offer a choice of two questions on each of the six topics.
Dr Doriane Zerka |