UNC German Studies Consortium

Fall 2005

German 3530 Quests: Medieval and Modern. MW 3:30-4:45 PM

Instructor: 

Alexandra Sterling-Hellenbrand,Associate Professor and Chair
Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures
Appalachian State University
Tel. (828) 262-3095
Fax.(828) 262-7079
hellenbranda@appstate.edu

   This is a course that will treat the quest generally (in concrete and metaphorical terms) as a search for identity:  cultural, social, linguistic, national.  This broad definition would enable us to talk both about knightly adventure and genre creation (bügerliches Trauerspiel) as quests, as well as the use of the medieval or ancient past as a basis to write about the concerns of the present searching for a future (Drachenblut and Medea).

Texts will tentatively include:

Hartmann von Aue Erec or Iwein (but NOT both; depends on the German translation available)

Nibelungelied (at least part 1)

Lessing Nathan der Weise

Schiller Kabale und Liebe (in honor of Schillerjahr 2005)

Selected Grimm’s Märchen

Christoph Hein Drachenblut

Christa Wolf Medea