This course features German culture, thought and history in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It was a period in which every form of thinking and writing was challenged in some way by progressive individuals, in which German culture began to acquire an international importance, and in which the idea of Germany as a nation was gradually turned into a political reality.

The paper is divided into two sections: (a) literature, and (b) thought, history and society. In the exam at least one question must be taken from each section, so in order to be fully prepared, you are advised to cover five topics (three from one section, and two from the other).

Section A ranges over major writers of the period, starting with Lessing, whose most famous bürgerliches Trauerspiel is paired with a nineteenth-century approach to the tyranny of middle-class values and the position of women in patriarchal society. Two of Goethe's works reveal the pressures of the individual under very different forces, while plays by Grillparzer and Büchner choose two contrasting eras to suggest the problems of power and its abuse. The nineteenth century saw the flowering of that characteristically German form, the Novelle, and one of its key issues, the relation between the individual and nature, is explored in an intriguingly ambiguous manner by three of the best known exponents, Droste-Hülshoff, Keller and Storm. Finally, the problems of a self-doubting, insecure society are probed in two novels by Fontane, who explores the search for fulfilment against a background of a weakening social order and the power of tradition.

In Section B you can explore the ways in which the German national idea developed from a cultural force into a political ideology of emancipation and revolution. The emergence of a lively public sphere was crucial to this development. Newspapers, journals and public associations flourished in this period. They paved the way for the dramatic modernisation of German society caused by rapid industrial development and the expansion of cities in the second half of the nineteenth century. You will be able to explore the profound impact of these developments on political, social and gender relationships in nineteenth-century Germany. You can also study attempts at a fundamental reassessment of the nature and purpose of human society and of the role and functions of the state. During the same period the nature and functions of religion were also radically challenged, with some beginning to deny the existence of God and the validity of any morals or laws based on traditional Christian beliefs. The systematic re-thinking of so much of the fabric of human existence gave a new significance to the intellectual, who was increasingly portrayed as having a central and leading role in society.

There will be twenty lectures in all, concentrated in the Michaelmas and Lent Terms. Two lectures will be devoted to each topic; those on Section A will alternate with those on Section B. Supervisions are given fortnightly. Attendance at lectures is essential for topics on which you wish to answer questions in the exam. However, attendance at all lectures is encouraged, since it will help you to understand the period as a whole - this applies particularly to the lectures for Section B.

• H. Watanabe-O'Kelly (ed.), The Cambridge History of German Literature (1997)
• Eda Sagarra, Germany in the Nineteenth Century. History and Literature (2001 edn.)
• Mary Fulbrook (ed.), German History since 1800 (1997)
• David Blackbourn, History of Germany, 1780-1918: The Long Nineteenth Century (Oxford, 1998)
• Jonathan Sperber (ed.), Germany 1800-1870 (Oxford, 2004)

1. Honour and class

• Lessing, Emilia Galotti
• Hebbel, Maria Magdalene

Background reading:

• F. Lamport, Lessing and the Drama
• S.G. Flygt, Friedrich Hebbel

2. Goethe's major social documents

• Die Leiden des jungen Werthers (ed. R.C. Paulin)
• Faust I

Background reading:

• M.W. Swales, The Sorrows of Young Werther (Landmarks of World Literature Series)
• N. Boyle, Faust. Part One (Landmarks of World Literature Series)

3. Politics and Power

• Grillparzer, König Ottokars Glück und Ende
• Büchner, Dantons Tod

Background reading:

• B. Thompson, Franz Grillparzer
• J. Reddick, Georg Büchner: The Shattered Whole

4. The Individual and Nature

• Droste-Hülshoff, Die Judenbuche (ed. P. Foulkes)
• Keller, Romeo und Julia auf dem Dorfe (eds. E. and M. Swales)
• Storm, Der Schimmelreiter (ed. by P. Bosworth)

Background reading:

• J. Guthrie, Annette von Droste-Hülshoff: A German Poet between Romanticism and Realism
• E. Swales, The Poetics of Scepticism: Gottfried Keller and 'Die Leute von Selwyla'
• A.D. White, Storm. 'Der Schimmelreiter'

5. Imperial Society

• Fontane, Irrungen Wirrungen; Effi Briest

Background reading:

• A. Bance, Theodor Fontane. The Major Novels
• H. Garland, The Berlin Novels of Theodor Fontane

N. B. Two mutually exclusive questions will be set on each topic in Section B of this paper.

6. Transformations of the German National Idea before 1871

• Hagen Schulze, The Course of German nationalism. From Frederick the Great to Bismarck (Cambridge, 1990), pp.33-101
• Stefan Berger, Inventing the Nation: Germany (2004)
• Mary Fulbrook (ed.), German History since 1800 (London, 1997) Part I, ch. 2,3,6 & 7
• Jonathan Sperber (ed.), Germany 1800-1870 (Oxford, 2004) ch. 10

7. Rethinking State and Society

• Kant: Zum ewigen Frieden (without the 'Anhang') (e.g. Werke ed. Weischedel XI, 195-228)
• Wilhelm von Humboldt: Versuch, die Grenzen der Wirksamkeit des Staats zu bestimmen, sections 1-8 (Reclam 1991-92, 13-115)
• Hegel: Enzyklopädie der philosophischen Wissenschaften §§535-552 (Theorie-Werkausgabe 10, 330-365)
• Marx: Deutsche Ideologie. 1. Teil. 'Feuerbach' (Die Frühschriften, Kröner ed. 341-417)

8. Rethinking Religion

• Kant: 'Mutmaßlicher Anfang der Menschengeschichte'; 'Das Ende aller Dinge'; Der Streit der Fakultäten, 'Der Streit mit der theologischen Fakultät' I-III (Werke ed. Weischedel VI, 85-102, 175-190, 300-315)
• Feuerbach: Das Wesen des Christentums, Einleitung (Reclam 4571-77, 37-79)
• Nietzsche: 'Der Antichrist'

9. The Role of the Intellectual

• Schiller: 'Was heißt und zu welchem Zwecke studiert man Universalgeschichte?'; 'Die Künstler'; 'Deutsche Größe'; Ästhetische Briefe 1-10
• Fichte: Einige Vorlesungen über die Bestimmung des Gelehrten (1794) lectures
1-4 (Deutscher Idealismus ed. R. Bubner, 172-219)
• Nietzsche: Unzeitgemäße Betrachtungen III: 'Schopenhauer als Erzieher'

10. Revolution in Germany, 1780-1848

• James Sheehan, German History 1770-1866 (Oxford, 1989) ch. 4-6
• Jonathan Sperber (ed.), Germany 1800-1870 (Oxford, 2004) ch. 2
• Michael Perraudin, Literature, the Volk and the Revolution in mid-nineteenth century Germany (New York/Oxford, 2000)

Course adviser