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GM2122 Death, Desire, Decline: Thomas Mann and Franz Kafka

Term 1-2

Assessment:

Essay: 30% (1500-2000 words), Written Examination: 70%

Overview:

This course introduces students of German and CLC to two key figures in twentieth-century German literature, Thomas Mann and Franz Kafka. Through an examination of the work of these writers, it explores such issues as the individual v. society, the role of the artist, and the nature of desire. Mann’s work evinces a fascination with disorder and decadence even as it remains bound to bourgeois ideals of respectability and sobriety. In Kafka’s work, the everyday world of bureaucracy and officialdom is invaded by fantastical and bizarre elements. The course focuses on the unsettling and disruptive elements of these writers’ works, asking what they tell us about life in the twentieth century.

Key Bibliography:

Block 1 

For this block, students of CLC should purchase:

Thomas Mann, ‘Death in Venice’ and Other Stories, trans. David Luke (Vintage)

Students of German should purchase:

Thomas Mann, Tristan (Reclam)

Thomas Mann, Tonio Kröger/Mario und der Zauberer (Fischer)

Thomas Mann, Der Tod in Venedig (Fischer)

Block 2

For this block, students of CLC should purchase:

Franz Kafka, ‘Metamorphosis’ and Other Stories, trans. Michael Hofmann (Penguin)

Franz Kafka, The Trial, trans. Idris Parry (Penguin)

Students of German should purchase:

Franz Kafka, Die Erzählungen (Fischer)

Franz Kafka, Der Process (Reclam).

  
 
 
 
 

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