| CODE | ENG5019 | ||||||
| TITLE | Literature and the German Aesthetic Tradition: From Kant to Adorno | ||||||
| UM LEVEL | 05 - Postgraduate Modular Diploma or Degree Course | ||||||
| MQF LEVEL | Not Applicable | ||||||
| ECTS CREDITS | 10 | ||||||
| DEPARTMENT | English | ||||||
| DESCRIPTION | This study-unit aims to familiarise students with key aspects of the German aesthetic tradition ranging from Kant to Adorno and to explore its far-reaching influence on literature and literary theory. Much of how we think about literature, whether from a ‘theoretical’ or so-called ‘traditional’ perspective, has been shaped by the development and exploration of aesthetics that has taken place in German thought over the last two and a half centuries. At a time when attention is increasingly being given to this aesthetic tradition in the context of literary studies, not least as a resource for re-thinking literary theory, this study-unit seeks to impart a sound understanding of what is a complex and varied area by examining seminal texts by thinkers such as Friedrich Nietzsche, Walter Benjamin and Martin Heidegger. Particular attention will be paid to the ways in which certain central issues such as beauty, truth, subjectivity, otherness, the uncanny and the sublime have been figured both by particular literary works and by the discourses of literary criticism and theory. Seminar discussion will aim to question and explore the various aesthetic commitments of romanticism, modernism and postmodernism. Learning Outcomes By the end of this study-unit: - students will be able to identify and compare key stages in the development of aesthetics in modern German and European thought, having been guided in close readings of landmark texts in this area. - students will be able to write a critical disquisition on the concept of aesthetics from a theoretical perspective by close examination of a selected number of texts in this area. - students will be able to identify and produce a written analysis of the implicit aesthetic commitments of various canonical literary texts, having developed the skills required for this in classroom discussions. - students will be able to apply in their written work particular aesthetic approaches to artworks of their choosing, showing how different aesthetic approaches alter the way those artworks are judged. Reading List: - Behler, Ernst, German Romantic Literary Theory (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993) - Beiser, Frederick, The Romantic Imperative: The Concept of Early German Romanticism (Cambridge MA and London: Harvard University Press, 2003) - Benjamin, Walter, ‘The Concept of Criticism in German Romanticism’ in Selected Writings: Volume 1, 1913-1926, ed. by Marcus Bullock and Michael W. Jennings (Cambridge MA and London: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1996) - Benjamin, Walter, ‘Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction’, in Illuminations (New York: Pimlico, 1999) - Bernstein, J. M., The Fate of Art: Aesthetic Alienation from Kant to Derrida and Adorno (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1992) - Bowie, Andrew, From Romanticism to Critical Theory: The Philosophy of German Literary Theory (London and New York: Routledge, 1997) - Critchley, Simon, Things Merely Are: Philosophy in the Poetry of Wallace Stevens (Oxon: Routledge, 2005) - Eldridge, Richard, The Persistence of Romanticism: Essays in Philosophy and Literature (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001) - Ellison, David, Ethics and Aesthetics in European Modernist Literature: From the Sublime to the Uncanny (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001) - Hammermeister, Kai, The German Aesthetic Tradition (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002) |
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| STUDY-UNIT TYPE | Seminar | ||||||
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| LECTURER/S | Ivan Callus James David Corby |
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The University makes every effort to ensure that the published Courses Plans, Programmes of Study and Study-Unit information are complete and up-to-date at the time of publication. The University reserves the right to make changes in case errors are detected after publication.
The availability of optional units may be subject to timetabling constraints. Units not attracting a sufficient number of registrations may be withdrawn without notice. It should be noted that all the information in the description above applies to study-units available during the academic year 2025/6. It may be subject to change in subsequent years. |
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