Lecture (LEC)

• COLL (CASE) A&H Breadth of Inq

• Topic: Time, Manner, Place
• COLL (CASE) A&H Breadth of Inquiry credit

Topic: Time, manner, place

GER-G415: Time, Manner, Place Sometimes fleeting moments conceal lasting insights. And sometimes, as Robert Musil once said, infinity flows in drops. We start reading works in some old forms -- the parable, the anecdote and the almanac-- in order to appreciate and understand writing that captures individual moments that stand out against the panorama of a society that is either emerging or collapsing. In a sense, these miniature forms contain in holographic form the epic of the German twentieth century with its punctured history, juxtaposing intimacy and violence, autobiography and anonymity. Exploring the form of the parable, anecdote, and almanac, we relate it to diaries, reportage, and short stories. Insight into the most particular of things¿obscure corners of childhood, certain streets, times of day, angles of light¿end up revealing the character also of some of the most general things. Indeed, the epiphanies we read suggest elements in a typology of literary revelation. Following our exploration of shorter forms, we conclude with a longer novel form, reading Jenny Erpenbeck's 2024 International Booker Prize-Winning novel, Kairos, evoking how an entire world, with its seemingly unbounded happiness and pain, can disappear in a single moment. Required books: Walter Benjamin, Berliner Kindheit um neunzehnhundert: Fassung letzter Hand. Suhrkamp Taschenbuch. ISBN-13: 9783518461976 Ernst Bloch, Spuren. Suhrkamp. ISBN-13: 9783518281505 Bertolt Brecht, Kalendergeschichten. Suhrkamp BasisBibliothek. ISBN-13: 9783518189313 Jenny Erpenbeck, Kairos. ISBN-13¿: ¿ 9783328109341 Franz Kafka, Zerstreutes Hinausschauen und andere Parabeln. ISBN-13: ¿ 9783596709656