GER 575

Spring 2021 Part of Term 1

Part of Term 1
Jan 25-May 5

20thC German Studies

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Credit: 4 hours.

Seminar in selected genres, themes, or authors of the twentieth century.

4 graduate hours. No professional credit. May be repeated in separate semesters to a maximum of 12 hours if topics vary.

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GER 575 class schedule data for spring 2021
	CRN	Type	Section	Time	Day	Location	Instructor	Section Details
	70150	Online	A	3:00PM -4:50PM	R	n.a.	Pinkert, A	Part of Term: 1 Date Range: 01/25/21-05/05/21 Section Title: Protest Memory: Post -1989 Section Info: Protest Memory: Post-1989 Literature, Film, and Theory. In this seminar we discuss a wide-ranging archive of post-1989 literature, film, and memorials in order to reexamine the so-called Peaceful Revolution and the interval year of ’89-90 which has been largely forgotten. More specifically, we ask what kind of cultural memories of street activism, resistance, and alternative social vision were left behind by the uprising in the GDR. Most scholarship in the last two decades has associated the legacies of 1989 with the fall of the Berlin Wall and Germany’s reunification, viewing this historical break in terms of trauma, defeat, and takeover. Instead, we take our cue from memory studies which is currently shifting from a focus on violence and trauma to hopeful legacies of social justice and political responsibility. Accordingly, in this course, we will explore how cultural archives (attuned to language, images, and so forth) render the protest memory of 1989. Reading post-1989 literature and film, alongside theory, we also move further back into the 20th century to trace the specters of earlier progressive movements and utopian ideas in ‘89-90. We conclude with the novel Gehen, Ging, Gegangen by Jenny Erpenbeck, which deals with the long aftermath of 1989 through the lens of memory and the protests during the so-called refugee crisis in 2015.