Efficient knowledge of a language is not limited to learning its grammatical rules and vocabulary lists. A given language is an expression of a particular way of thinking and culture, as well as of observing reality, which has developed over the course of history. This is what helps, for example, when choosing one or another word in a given context, thus avoiding possible misunderstandings. One of the functions of literature is precisely to transmit this cultural background to the native speakers of a language, in some cases giving an account of the origin of certain words and forms of behavior.

At the same time, knowledge of German literature from its beginnings greatly facilitates the interpretation and understanding of literary works from later periods. The works of later periods are often based on or have their starting point in literary works from past centuries, so that the knowledge of this literary background is essential.

-To know relevant authors and works of German literature, from the Middle Ages to the Enlightenment.

-To know the socio-historical and cultural context of German literature from the Middle Ages to the Enlightenment.

-Recognize and interpret traits of each literary period in the texts analyzed.

-Know and use literary terminology.

-Know and use auxiliary bibliographic resources of literature.

-Know and use academic journals on literature.

-Know and use digital resources about literature.

-Know and identify types of literary text editing.

-To know how to analyze a literary text orally and in writing.

-Express oneself correctly in Spanish or German, orally and in writing.

1. EARLY MEDIEVAL LITERATURE

-Sources of medieval German literature

-The question of writing. Orality vs. written transmission

-The concept of “Übersetzungsliteratur”.

-Biblical poetry in Otfrid von Weissenburg. The particular case of the “Heliand”.

-The heroic song. The so-called alliterative rhyme or “Stabreim”. The semantic alliteration or so-called "epithets"

-The pre-Christian Germanic worldview: “The poem of Wessobrunn” and the Norse “Prophecy of the Seer”.



2. LATE MEDIEVAL LITERATURE

-Pre-Cortesan literature

The shift of the center of literary production from the monastery to the court - The “Spielmannsepik”.

-The “Spielmannsepik”.

-The courtly-chivalric literature and its French influences.

-The concept of “Minnesang”: the most relevant movements and authors.

-Religious and didactic literature



3. LITERATURE OF HUMANISM AND THE REFORMATION

- “Renaissance” or “Humanism”? The preliminaries of a new epoch: a new vision of the world: “Der Ackermann und der Tod"”.

-The recovery of the classics. The printing press

Luther and the Protestant Reformation: the so-called “Reformliteratur”.

-Die Narrenliteratur or the critique of society.

-Das Volksbuch: “Till Eulenspiegel”.



4. BAROQUE LITERATURE

-Background: The Thirty Years' War; German society in the 17th century.

-Die Sprachgesellschaften” and its meaning; Latin and the German language.

-The systematization or reform of poetics: Martin Opitz.

-Baroque lyric poetry: Andreas Gryphius and the sonnet.

-Religious poetry: Angelus Silesius, “The Cherubic Pilgrim”.

-Satire: Hans J. Ch. von Grimmelshausen, ‘The Simplicissimus’.

-Jesuit drama: Jakob Bidermann, ‘Cenodoxus’.



4. ENLIGHTENMENT LITERATURE

-Kant and his concept of the Enlightenment

-The development of the book market

-The family as a literary theme

-Lessing and the comedy ‘Minna von Barnhelm’. The question of honour

-Lessing and his role in drama: ‘Emilia Galotti’ as a political drama.

The most appropriate way of getting to know literature consists, among other things, in reading its most representative texts, since they are the direct means of expression of an era, of a mentality, of a culture and of socio-historical circumstances. In other words, in order to get to know literature closely, it is essential to go to the sources themselves, to the texts that were composed by a specific author at a specific time. Hence the markedly practical nature of this subject, in which the reading of a selection of texts corresponding to the literary periods indicated in the previous section will play an important role.



Taking into account, on the one hand, the time span of German literature covered by this course and, on the other hand, the duration of the course, a selection of works considered representative of each period will be studied. Some will be read and analysed in their entirety, while others, due to their length, can only be read with reference to a selection of the most relevant chapters or sections.



As for the development of the classes themselves, the methodology will be as follows:



A) Theoretical presentations by the teacher, the aim of which is to introduce students to the main characteristics of each literary period, as well as to the most relevant movements, authors and works. The teacher will also introduce students to the techniques for analysing a literary text, depending on the period and kind of text.



B) Reading-analysis by students of the proposed literary works. Students will comment on their analysis through oral presentations in class, trying to clarify how the characteristics of each period and literary movement are manifested in the work analysed.

• Continuous Assessment System
• Final Assessment System
• Tools and qualification percentages:
  • Written test to be taken (%): 40
  • Exhibition of works, readings ... (%): 60

Mixed assessment:



Given the practical nature of the subject, as well as the prominence of literary texts, the assessment will consist of the following:



A) Oral presentations by students, individually, throughout the term: after each theoretical presentation by the teacher, students will make an oral presentation in class, which will consist of the analysis-commentary of texts provided for each literary period. Each oral presentation will be graded from 0 to 10 points and the final average mark for these presentations must be at least 7.5 points or higher for this type of assessment to be considered passed.



In the presentations, special attention will be paid to the following criteria:

-Formal presentation: digital and textual resources used, spelling, order, clarity of exposition, mastery of the content presented by the students, correct expression, time of exposition used.

-Body language

-Appropriate use of literary terminology.

-Proper use of secondary bibliography

-Correct way of citing authors and works.

-Ability to analyse and critique

-Ability to identify in the text characteristics of the literary and historical period in which it is set.

-Correct formal analysis of the text presented.

-Documentation for the analysis and contextualisation of the work presented, bibliography consulted.

-Adequacy of the presentation to what is expected.



-Ability to respond appropriately to questions that may be asked after the presentation.



The presentations are equivalent to 60% of the overall mark for the subject.





B) A final written exam, in which students will demonstrate their mastery of the literary works provided (see ‘Basic Bibliography’ section below) throughout the course. Students will be presented with an extract from a literary text included in the basic bibliography. This text will have to be identified and commented on, taking into account especially its formal and content characteristics, as well as its relation to the literary and historical period in which it is framed, from a theoretical point of view.



The criteria to be taken into account for this modality are the following:

-Formal presentation: cleanliness, clarity of exposition, spelling, order, calligraphy.

-Use of literary terminology

-Mastery of literary genres.

-Correct analysis of the chosen text, from the formal point of view and its structure.

-Correct identification of the text, its author (except in the case of anonymous texts) and its period.

-Ability to analyse and critique

-Historical contextualisation of the text

-Contextualisation of the text within its literary period.



Failure to meet these criteria will result in a reduction of the mark.



The final written exam is equivalent to 40% of the overall mark for the course. Passing the written exam with a minimum mark of 5.0 points is a prerequisite for passing the course.



In the case of students who, within the period established by the current regulations, have opted for ‘Final Assessment’ (which also includes students who wish to change from ‘Mixed Assessment’ to ‘Final Assessment’), they will have to take a written exam consisting of two parts: one theoretical and the other practical. In the latter, they will be presented with two extracts from literary works included in the ‘Basic Bibliography’, which they will have to analyse, identifying the author (unless it is an anonymous work), the literary period to which it belongs, genre, content, literary and socio-historical aspects that it reflects, etc. In the analysis of both texts, a minimum mark of 5.0 out of 10 must be obtained for each text in order to obtain the average mark and for the practical part to be considered passed. The correction and evaluation criteria for the exam will be the same as for the written test within the ‘Mixed Evaluation’ modality. Both parts (theoretical and practical) must be passed separately with a minimum mark of 5.0 points for the written exam to be considered passed. The oral presentations that students may have given before the change of evaluation system will not be taken into account in the evaluation. Nor will students be entitled to continue giving oral presentations throughout the term.



The use of electronic devices is not allowed during the classes, except for the student's own laptop, as long as the use is limited exclusively to tasks directly related to the class (taking notes, consulting course materials available on the Internet).



The use of any electronic device is strictly forbidden during the exam. Any violation of this rule will lead to the suspension of the exam, which will be inexorably graded with ‘0’ points.

Students will be admitted to the extraordinary exam in one of the following cases:



A) Having obtained an average mark lower than 7.5 points in the oral presentations throughout the four-month period, having passed the written exam.



B) Having obtained a mark lower than 5.0 points in the final written exam of the ordinary exam, having previously obtained an average mark of 7.5 points or higher in the oral presentations throughout the four-month period.



C) Be in one of the situations listed in article 43 of the Management Regulations for Undergraduate and First and Second Cycle Degree Courses.



D) Having voluntarily waived the mixed assessment, in accordance with the regulatory procedure.



In cases C) and D), students will have to follow the official procedure and must inform the teacher within the period stipulated in the regulations in force.



The extraordinary exam will consist of the following: a written exam, which will consist of two compulsory parts for situations C) and D):



-A theoretical part in which students will have to give an account of questions related to the literary periods dealt with in the subject, concepts, literary terminology, authors and relevant works, also taking into account the historical-social context.



-A text analysis-commentary part: students will receive two extracts of literary texts, which they will have to analyse and comment on. They will have to identify them, as well as their respective authors (unless they are anonymous texts), highlight the characteristics of the literary period in which they are set, as well as the historical moment. You will also have to analyse the form and structure of both texts. The analysis of each text will be graded from 0 to 10 points, with a minimum of 5.0 points being required for each text in order to obtain the average mark.



Both parts (theoretical and practical) must be passed separately with a minimum mark of 5.0 points for the exam to be considered passed.



However, students in case A) will only have to take the analysis-commentary part of the written exam, analysing one of the two texts proposed, if the average mark for the oral presentations was higher than 5.0 points; otherwise, they will have to analyse both texts. If you are in case B), you will only have to take the theoretical part of the written exam. If you are in both cases A) and B) at the same time, you will have to take both parts, which must be passed separately with a minimum mark of 5.0 points.

See ‘Basic Bibliography’. It is the students' responsibility to obtain copies of the basic bibliography in time, both for preparing their presentations and for private reading, as well as for the preparation of the written exam. Failure to do so will result in the non-assessment of the corresponding activity. For this reason, and in order to avoid unforeseen circumstances, it is recommended that you acquire them as soon as possible, as the Campus library stocks are very limited and are often on loan.

The use of photocopied literary material is not permitted, as it infringes the intellectual property rights of their respective authors.

Basic bibliography

Early Medieval Literature: Texts from the Old High German period (Althochdeutsche Literatur)

Anonymous, Das Hildebrandslied

Anonymous, Das Ludwigslied

Anonymous, Heliand (selection)

Anonymous, Merseburger Zaubersprüche

Anonymous, Muspilli

Weissenburg, Otfrid von, Evangelienbuch (selection)



Late Medieval Literature: Texts from the Middle High German period (Mittelhochdeutsche Literatur)

Anonymous, Das Nibelungenlied (selección)

Anonymous, Der Münchner Oswald

Aue, Hartman von, Erec (selección)

—, Der arme Heinrich

Several authors, Lyrical selection from the Minnesang

Several authors, selection of religious and didactic texts





Humanism

Anonymous, Till Eulenspiegel (selection)

Brant, Sebastian, Das Narrenschiff (selection)

Sachs, Hans, Fastnachtsspiele (selection)

Tepl, Johannes von, Der Ackermann aus Böhmen/Der Ackermann und der Tod.



Baroque

Grimmelshausen, Hans J. Ch. von, Der abentuerliche Simplicissimus Teutsch (selection)

Baroque poetry: Andreas Gryphius, Paul Fleming (selection)

Silesius, Angelus, Cherubinischer Wandersmann (selection)



Enlightenment

Lessing, Gotthold E., Minna von Barnhelm

—, Emilia Galotti

—, Fables in prose (selection)

Musäus, Johann K. A., Crónica de las tres hermanas

In-depth bibliography

-Alt, Peter-André (2007), Aufklärung. 3. Auflage. Stuttgart/Weimar: Metzler.
-Bahr, Ehrhard [Hg.] (1987), Geschichte der deutschen Literatur. 1 Vom Mittelalter bis zum Barock. Tubingia: Francke.
-Bergmann, Rolf [Hg.] (2013), Althochdeutsche und altsächsische Literatur. Berlín/Boston: de Gruyter.
-Beutin, Wolfgang [et al.] (1989), Historia de la literatura alemana. Madrid: Cátedra.
-Borges, Jorge L. (1999), Literaturas germánicas medievales. Madrid: Alianza.
-Borries, Erika und Ernst von (2000): Deutsche Literaturgeschichte. Band 1: Mittelalter. Humanismus.
Reformationszeit. Barock. Múnich: Deutscher Taschenbuch.
—, (2009): Deutsche Literaturgeschichte. Band 2: Aufklärung und Empfindsamkeit. Sturm und Drang. Múnich: Deutscher Taschenbuch.
-Boyles, Nicholas (2008), German literature. A very short introduction. Oxford: University Press.
-Brandt, Rüdiger (1999), Grundkurs germanistische Mediävistik / Literaturwissenschaft. Múnich: Wilhelm Fink.
-Buck, August [ed.] (1982), Literatura universal. Tomos 9/10: Renacimiento y Barroco. Versión española de Rafael de la Vega. Madrid: Gredos.
-Bumke, Joachim (2000), Courtly culture. Literature and society in the High Middle Ages. Woodstock & New York.
—. (2000), Geschichte der deutschen Literatur im hohen Mittelalter. Múnich: Deutscher Taschenbuch.
-Cramer, Thomas (2000), Geschichte der deutschen Literatur im späten Mittelalter. 3., aktualisierte Auflage. Múnich: Deutscher Taschenbuch.
-Flemming, Willi (1965), Das Ordensdrama. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft. (auf www.archive.org)
-Gnutzmann, Rita (1994), Teoría de la literatura alemana. Madrid: Síntesis.
-Hasty, Will [ed.] (2006), German Literature of the High Middle Ages. Rochester/Woodbridge: Camden House.

Journals

Amsterdamer Beiträge zur älteren Germanistik
Beiträge zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache und Literatur
German Quarterly
Jahrbuch für Internationale Germanistik
Mediaevistik: Internationale Zeitschrift für interdisziplinäre Mittelalterforschung
Neophilologus: An International Journal of Modern and Mediaeval Language and Literature
Revista de Filología Alemana
Zeitschrift für deutsche Philologie
Zeitschrift für deutsches Altertum und deutsche Literatur
Zeitschrift für Germanistik
Zeitschrift für Literaturwissenschaft und Linguistik (LiLi)

Web addresses

-Deutsches Textarchiv (DTA): https://www.deutsches-textarchiv.de/
-Germanistik im Netz: http://www.germanistik-im-netz.de/dbis/
-Mediaevum: http://www.mediaevum.de/haupt2.htm