Draft: 9/25/24
Literary Theory, Methodology, and Bibliography (GERMAN 500)
Jason Groves (he/him)
jagroves@uw.edu
DESCRIPTION
This course has a double, if not triple focus. It introduces methods of research and bibliography, as well as theoretical and practical aspects of research and bibliography. It offers a snapshot of German Studies today, as an inter-discipline that is co-constituted by Gender Studies, Textual Studies, Ethnic Studies, and Global Literary Studies, among other contemporary fields of study. In order to give space to both literary theory and interpretation, we work with a core text, Kafka’s Das Urteil (The Judgment), and look at recent interpretations that give us insight into diverse methodologies in the humanities and beyond. All readings will be available in English and students outside of German Studies are welcome. Finally, this course also surveys several significant genres of professional writing and offers a primer on academic writing and style, while offering a forum for discussions of career objectives in and beyond the university.
While this course is a fixed part of the doctoral curriculum in German Studies at the UW, it is intended to integrate into, facilitate, and augment your existing areas of interest, particularly within the scope of departmental offerings and University of Washington initiatives and offerings. To that end, the reading schedule in this syllabus can be adjusted based on your individual interests and aspirations. We come to this group with different training and disciplinary interests, and this course will be most effective if your main areas of interest are represented in readings.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
Regular Attendance. This seminar will be conducted synchronously.
Active Participation. The work of this course consists in engaging in a discussion of ideas and methods, and the success of the seminar depends on everyone’s active engagement in these discussions. If you find yourself unengaged, let me know; this course is designed to be more flexible than most, and active communication will make the most out of this design.
Reading. You are expected to finish all of the assigned reading. We will read up to 100 pages a week. If you encounter difficulties completing the reading, please let me know.
ASSIGNMENTS (description at the end of the syllabus)
- 3 Presentations
- Annotation assignments on Perusall (** = Perusall assignment)
- Personal bibliography of an author (MLA format)
- Essay
POLICIES
Names and Pronouns: If you go by a different name or gender pronoun than the one under which you are officially enrolled, please inform me. Students are expected to refer to each other by preferred names and pronouns during class. My pronouns are he/his/him.
Inclusion Commitment: I seek to ensure all students are fully included in each course. If you find that there are aspects of course instruction, subject matter, or classroom environment that result in barriers to your inclusion, please contact your instructor or your departmental advisor.
ACCESS AND ACCOMMODATIONS
Your experience in this class is important to me. If you have already established accommodations with Disability Resources for Students (DRS), please communicate your approved accommodations to me at your earliest convenience so we can discuss your needs in this course. Questions? Start here: https://depts.washington.edu/uwdrs/
READING SCHEDULE
Week 1: September 25
Readings:
- David Gramling, “Dear Incoming Graduate Student Colleague”
Week 2: Oct 2: World Literature, Textual Studies, and Bibliography
*Second half of class: special session on bibliographies with Deb Raftus, German and French and Italian Librarian*
Readings:
- Venkat Mani, Recoding World Literature: Libraries, Print Culture, and Germany’s Pact with Books (Prologue, Introduction, Chapter 5)**
Suggested Readings:
- Hansel/Kaiser, “Einführung,” 21-27, “Bibliographische Hilfsmittel im Internet,” 29-45;
- Raabe, 1-30; Introduction to German Bibliographical Materials.
Week 3: October 9: Literary Theory, Critical Theory, and the Politics of Knowing
Readings:
- Max Horkheimer, “Traditional and Critical Theory”
- Shu-mei Shih and Françoise Lionnet, “The Creolization of Theory”**
Reference Works:
- Jeffrey R. Di Leo (ed.), The Bloomsbury Handbook of Literary and Cultural Theory
- Mary Klages, Key Terms in Literary Theory
- Jonathan Culler, Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction
Week 4: October 16: Ideology Critique; Sociological Approaches
Readings:
- Richard Gray, Stations of the Divided Subject: Contestation and Ideological Legitimation in German Bourgeois Literature, 1770-1914 (Introduction, Chapter 7)**
- Kafka, Das Urteil or The Judgment
**Thursday, Oct 17, 2024: Graduate Student Meet & Greet** 5 – 6:30 p.m. (CMU 204)
Week 5: October 23: Gender Studies; Feminist Theory
Readings:
- Christine Kanz, “Differente Männlichkeiten: Kafkas Das Urteil aus gendertheoretischer Perspektive”
- Judith Butler, “Performative Acts and Gender Constitution”**
- Vivian Namaste, “Undoing Theory: The ‘Transgender Question’ and the Epistemic Violence of Anglo-American Feminist Theory” (focus on p.15-21)
Suggested:
- Dagmar Lorenz, “Kafka and Gender”
- “Forum: Feminism in German Studies” (Edited by Elizabeth Loentz; With contributions by Monika Shafi, Faye Stewart, Tiffany Florvil, Kerry Wallach, Beverly Weber, Hester Baer, Carrie Smith, and Maria Stehle)]
Week 6: October 30: Black German Studies
Readings:
- Mark Thompson, “Introduction” and “Becoming Negro” in: Kafka’s Blues: Figurations of Racial Blackness in the Construction of an Aesthetic**
- Damana Partridge, Blackness as Universal Claim (Preface; Introduction; Chapter 1)
- Faitma El-Tayeb, “Blackness and its (Queer) Discontents”
Suggested:
- Jamele Watkins, “Antiblackness in German Studies”
- Rolf Goebel, “Kafka and Postcolonial Critique”
- Sara Lennox, “From Postcolonial to Transnational Approaches in German Studies”
See also:
- Priscilla Layne, “Decolonizing German Studies While Dissecting Race in the American Classroom” in Diversity and Decolonization in German Studies
Week 7: November 6: Translation Studies and Multilingualism
Readings:
- Patrick O’Neill, Transforming Kafka: Translation Effects (Introduction, Chapter 2)
- David Suchoff, Kafka’s Jewish Languages (Introduction, Chapter 2)**
- David Gramling, “Researching Multilingually in German Studies: A Brief Retrospective”
Suggested:
- Yoko Tawada, “Celan Reads Japanese”
- Yasemin Yildiz, Beyond The Mother Tongue: The Postmonolingual Condition (Introduction)
**Assignment Due: Bibliography**
Week 8: November 13: Digital Humanities, Public Humanities
Readings:
- Katherine Hayles, “How We Read: Close, Hyper, Machine”
- Hannes Bajohr, “On Artificial and Post-artificial Texts: Machine Learning and the Reader’s Expectations of Literary and Non-literary Writing”**
- Miriam Bartha and Bruce Burgett, “Why Public Scholarship Matters for Graduate Education”
Suggested:
- Self et al., “Kafka's Wound: A digital essay” https://thespace.lrb.co.uk
Week 9: November 20: The Activist Humanist: Form and Method in (a) Crisis
Readings:
- Caroline Levine, The Activist Humanist: Form and Method in the Climate Crisis (Preface,Introduction, Chapters 1-2)**
- Paul Reiter and Chad Wellmon, Permanent Crisis: The Humanities In a Disenchanted Age (Introduction)
Week 10: November 27 (asynchronous): TBD
Week 11: December 4: Concluding Discussion and Presentations
Suggested:
- Marc Bosquet, “The Waste Product of Graduate Education: Toward a Dictatorship of the Flexible”
**Essay: Due Wednesday, December 11**
ASSIGNMENT DESCRIPTIONS (ABRIDGED)
Perusall Annotation Assignment
- Post comments and questions in Perusall, an online collaborative annotation environment. Please post your annotations by 10a.m. on the morning of class.
Presentations
- Facilitate a discussion of one of our meeting topics and texts
- Facilitate a discussion on a professional topic of your choice (e.g. academic publishing, public scholarship, collaboration, citation tools, disciplinarity, inclusivity in the FL classroom, etc.)
- Informal presentation of final essay project
Bibliography Assignment
- Compile an author bio-bibliography (or of a collective)
Essay
- Option #1: A ca. 5,000-word paper that is on a topic of your choice and is relevant to course material, e.g. an intervention in a field of theoretical inquiry or a work of literary or cultural criticism that tests a theoretical position.
- Option #2: a thoroughly re-researched, re-documented, re-formatted, and revised essay, finished as a “manuscript” according to MLA (or journal-specific) specifications and ready to be submitted for publication