German Literature and Fascism, 1933-1945

3 units

German and Austrian Exile Literatures are the result of Hitler's racist and expansionist policy between 1933/38 and 1945. The leading figures of literary life in Berlin and Vienna fled to other countries, primarily of Europe and the Americas. We will read and discuss both examples of leading scholarship (in particular from a new handbook on the topic) as well as the primary sources: chapters from memoirs by Stefan Zweig, Hilde Spiel and Heinrich Mann, poems by Erich Fried, Nelly Sachs, Hilde Domin and Bertolt Brecht, essays by Hermann Broch, dramas by Bertolt Brecht, Carl Zuckmayer and Franz Werfel as well as novels by Klaus Mann, Irmgard Keun, Vicki Baum and Thomas Mann. In an interdisciplinary approach encompassing theories of aesthetics, gender, race and history we want to discuss the developments of literary genres under the challenging foreign conditions, as well as the anti-racist engagement of the writers in the defense of Human Dignity. The students do two in class presentations and write one semester paper. They are encouraged to draw on material from other areas of the humanities, the arts (including film) or the social sciences. The seminar meets twice a week: 3 credits. It is a graduate course but undergraduate seniors with German as their major can be permitted by the instructor.