German 298A/C LIT 320A/LIT 298A
Modern German Prose: Travel and Narration
The fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989 signaled a new era of openness and global mobility. It spawned new forms of writing and reflection, which will be the focus of our discussion and inquiry. We will work mainly with prose texts and novels from the period between the end of the Cold War to the present, with an emphasis on transcultural writing from the last decade. Additionally, we will undertake some excursions into earlier 19th and 20th century travel writing. Some questions that we will examine: How are recent travel and migration experiences narrated by a diverse group of German-speaking writers? Whose voices do we hear in their stories? What are the scenarios they represent? How are they framing mobilities and stasis? Texts by Alina Bronsky, Abbas Khider, Saša Stanišić, Yoko Tawada, Adalbert Stifter, Annemarie Schwarzenbach, Judith Hermann, and others. All texts in English translation. Format: Brief lecture and discussion. Requirements: Journals, class projects, midterm, take-home final.