MLT 237 - Of Ghosts and Demons: Encountering the Uncanny in German Literature

Course Units: 1.0

From ghost children, animated statues, ominous angels, and the walking dead to machine women, demons, and doppelgangers, German literature teems with things that go bump in the night. The course examines encounters with the supernatural as depicted throughout German literature, with special focus on Romanticism’s fascination with das Unheimliche (“the uncanny”), in order to sketch the history of this tradition of fantastic literature in German, trace its origins, and present its main authors and defining features. Readings include works by Goethe, Kleist, the Brothers Grimm, Hoffmann, Hauff, Schnitzler, Kafka, Rilke, and Bachmann, as well as films by Murnau, Lang, and von Sternberg. Cross-Listed: GER 341 Prerequisite(s): GER 201 or permission of the instructor. CC: HUL, HUM, LCC