Post ASL3f3Amfy7uUaS7aC by magnus@mastodon.world
(DIR) More posts by magnus@mastodon.world
(DIR) Post #ASKFzyJyujGHonXNRI by CitizenWald@historians.social
2023-02-04T05:15:04Z
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2 Feb. 1799: birthday of the German author, literary theorist Johann Christoph Gottsched.Students know him mainly as the target of Lessing's polemics for a more modern & German aesthetic theory in the Hamburgische Dramaturgie, but he deserves to be seen as more than that.His advocacy of a French-classical theatrical model failed but was in its own way an important step in the creation of a modern #German #literaturehttp://www.enlightenment-revolution.org/index.php/Gottsched%2C_Johann_Christophhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Christoph_Gottsched @germanistik 1/n
(DIR) Post #ASKJ1d4LCT42Lahfu4 by CitizenWald@historians.social
2023-02-04T05:48:59Z
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Do students of #German #literature today actually learn about figures such as Gottsched (b. 2 Feb. 1700)?Back in my day, undergrad & grad students at least read excerpts of his works on dramatic theory, whether in Reclam editions or more advanced anthologies. But, even though I think I read his Sterbender Cato (1732: once the most popular tragedy in Germany) only in grad school, as an undergrad at U. Wisconsin, I wrote a paper on his theory using an original edition.@germanistik 2/n
(DIR) Post #ASKKSjR1jvTVrbnnBg by CitizenWald@historians.social
2023-02-04T06:05:05Z
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I asked about familiarity with figures such as Gottsched and Lessing because I sense a sea change in #GermanistikSome years ago, when a distant relative who had just obtained a doctorate in #German studies from a major research university was visiting, I showed him my first commercial edition of Lessing's great drama, Nathan der Weise (Berlin: Christian Friedrich Voß und Sohn 1779), naturally thinking he might be interested. He had never heard of it. I was stunned.@germanistik 3/n
(DIR) Post #ASKM2r07BexDhy0CuW by CitizenWald@historians.social
2023-02-04T06:22:49Z
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Another example of the transformation of German departments: Many years ago (must be 2 decades+, because we all smoked 🚬 😉 ), we had a very smart colleague in our consortium: native speaker, too.Rather than coming up for #tenure, he quit his job & went back to #Germany to work in #television because he figured his research field would not justify promotion: the work of Friedrich Hölderlin, 1 of the greatest poets in German or any language (!) https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/friedrich-holderlinQED@germanistik4/n
(DIR) Post #ASKNanPH9lHIMRWHuy by CitizenWald@historians.social
2023-02-04T06:40:09Z
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To be clear: no one wants to be "that guy" complaining about the decline of civilization 🙃 + as a cultural #historian, I can of course only applaud the pivot of #German departments from only #literature (w #language teaching treated as an inferior activity) to "studies"+ I understand the bureaucratic-financial imperatives ("asses in seats")Yet I am struck by the disappearance of #literature courses:Offerings in our consortium (language classes omitted)#Germanistik@germanistik 5/n
(DIR) Post #ASKSGg8MzBzrmgq4LQ by Fischblog@chaos.social
2023-02-04T07:32:30Z
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@CitizenWald @germanistik Wait, what??? 😳🤯
(DIR) Post #ASKVqCPxFQZ7uMh2Vk by lavaeolus@mastodon.lol
2023-02-04T08:12:33Z
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@CitizenWald I did ✅ (HU Berlin, B.A.)
(DIR) Post #ASKW2U7BHAJcGnlo2a by CitizenWald@historians.social
2023-02-04T08:14:49Z
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@lavaeolus Freut mich!
(DIR) Post #ASKZs5L0wNHcLYXMHI by CitizenWald@historians.social
2023-02-04T08:57:45Z
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Finally (though it should not be necessary):When I ask, where has #German #literature gone in today's German studies: Advocating for a return to old conventional approaches is the furthest thing from my mind1) I was an undergraduate at U. Wisconsin, where my teachers were leftists and the department was known as "das rote Wisconsin"2) All the great leftists--e.g. Marx/Engels, Heine, Du Bois, Lenin, Lukàcs &c--valued canonical literature#German #literature #socialism @germanistik 6/n
(DIR) Post #ASKhzeDkRdRWC6Fu0u by DrNeustart@norden.social
2023-02-04T10:28:44Z
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@CitizenWald Thanks U 4 the interesting Insights into German lit/studies passt and present. As a linguist (WHO never really knew what to do w/literature) and a mildly educated native speaker, I figured that German studies must be the place to go if s.o. wishes a deep dive into the canon, including more apocryphical works (among which Gottsched and Nathan d. Weise should not be classified, imho). Also notice that students are missing a basis of general knowledge.
(DIR) Post #ASKyAxunA1zpj7o7pA by huss@mstdn.social
2023-02-04T13:30:04Z
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@CitizenWald @germanistik 👍 I agree completely. Being interested in canonical literature has nothing to do with being politically ‘conservative’. Unfortunately, even in Germany many students have no idea about the great and important texts of our literary history. At school they don’t teach knowledge but so-called ‘competence’
(DIR) Post #ASL2o877ZigST6VMrA by nobodysfool@historians.social
2023-02-04T14:21:59Z
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@CitizenWald @germanistik My alma mater eliminated its German department in the midst of its branding itself as the world's university. You prolly know who I am talking about.
(DIR) Post #ASL3f3Amfy7uUaS7aC by magnus@mastodon.world
2023-02-04T14:31:32Z
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@CitizenWald @germanistik My life has been full of people who did not know things, I thought other people should know, and it has been full of things I didn't know.A doctorate in German studies without knowing Lessing is quite something though. Are you sure they had not simply forgotten?I just checked my own old notes, and I knew of both Gottsched and Lessing in the past, but today, I would not be able to say anything about them.
(DIR) Post #ASLPaGRC82bhAxFePQ by CitizenWald@historians.social
2023-02-04T18:37:12Z
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@magnus @germanistik Yes, totally agree about knowing/not knowing, and how arbitrary those things can be.But this person was maybe in his late twenties at the time, recently graduated, so memory cannot have been the issue. It's just that the program of study seemed to be entirely contemporary, oriented toward film
(DIR) Post #ASLQUEAVkh4iM48KA4 by CitizenWald@historians.social
2023-02-04T18:47:18Z
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@huss @germanistik Yes, sad. The reduction of education to "competence" is contrary to the spirit of the humanities.Where I work, the curriculum has been reorganized around four "urgent questions." One of these is: "How can art and creative practices engage trauma?" It's philistine and idiotic. But as always, one teaches the way one wants to.
(DIR) Post #ASLR70Y2KKJ9PBd3aa by BioSchweiz@troet.cafe
2023-02-04T18:54:18Z
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@blume_bob
(DIR) Post #ASLRe8LIMsZD8TSstc by CitizenWald@historians.social
2023-02-04T19:00:16Z
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@DrNeustart Thank you! I am sure these things are still taught, for some of the newer colleagues in neighboring institutions are very well trained and have a broad knowledge of literature and culture. I just worry that students will get a very limited sense of the culture. There is a similar trend in history: a tendency to focus on the modern and recent at the expense of ancient, medieval, etc.