This paper offers a wide range of attractive options relating to Germany and the German-speaking world in the nineteenth century. You have considerable freedom to choose topics to study from the reading list, depending on your individual interests. Your supervisor, or the course co-ordinator, will be able to help you in making your choice.

The literature options have been selected in order to cover the main areas of literary activity (drama and music drama; lyric poetry; the Novelle, the novel), with one further option, for this century of great political debate and upheaval, on Literature and Revolution. Each topic describes a particular thematic context suggesting how the texts - or other texts chosen by you in consultation with your supervisor - might be approached.

The history options reflect the major issues of the period. In the first half of the century important developments include the emergence of German nationalism and the 1848 revolution, which was a major turning point in the history both of Germany and of Europe as a whole. The focus of interest in the second half of the century is the unification of Germany in 1871 and the history of the Second Empire, which were to be of such significance in the twentieth century.

Germany also boasted an unrivalled philosophical culture in the nineteenth century. The thought topics range from the apotheosis of Idealism in Hegel and its materialist appropriation in Marx to the cultural pessimism of Schopenhauer and Nietzsche and the early work of Freud. The influence of these thinkers upon subsequent developments across a large number of areas can hardly be exaggerated.

Course guidance

Reading List

Section A: Literature Topics

Section B: Thought and History

Section B of the exam paper will contain four sets of questions, two relating to the history, and two to the thought of the period. Only ONE question may be answered from each set, and candidates may answer UP TO TWO questions from Section B as a whole.

Section B: Topics in thought

The options available within each set of questions, with recommended reading, are given below. Apart from the core texts students are not expected to have read all the texts listed below for any given topic. Supervisors will give further guidance.

• German thought in the 19th century (1)

  Either

  a) Theories of Tragedy

  Core text:

  • Nietzsche, Die Geburt der Tragödie

  Recommended accompanying texts:

  • Hebbel, Mein Wort über das Drama; Vorwort zu Maria Magdalene
  • Hegel, Ästhetik, dritter Teil, dritter Abschnitt, drittes Kapitel. C.III: 'Die Arten der dramatischen Poesie und deren historische Hauptmomente'; 'Die dramatische Poesie'.
  • Schopenhauer, Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung I, §§ 33, 34, 49, 51, 52; II, §§ 30, 34, 37, 39
  • Wagner, Tristan und Isolde (Reclam)

  Suggested background reading:

  • Aristotle, Poetics
  • Schiller, 'Über den Gebrauch des Chors in der Tragödie'
  • MS Silk and JP Stern, Nietzsche on Tragedy (Cambridge, 1981)
  • S Bungay, Beauty and Truth; A Study of Hegel's Aesthetics (Oxford, 1984)
  • Henry Staten, 'The Birth of Tragedy Reconstructed', in Nietzsche's Voice (Ithaca, 1990)
  • Raymond Geuss, 'Art and Theodicy', in Morality, Culture, History (Cambridge, 1999)
  • Michael Tanner, Nietzsche(Oxford, 1994); Wagner (London, 1996)

  or

  b) Cultural pessimism: Schopenhauer & Nietzsche

  Core text:

  • Nietzsche, Also sprach Zarathustra, Book II

  Recommended accompanying texts:

  • Heine, Zur Geschichte der Religion und Philosophie in Deutschland
  • Nietzsche, Die fröhliche Wissenschaft, Also sprach Zarathustra, Books I & III, Zur Genealogie der Moral
  • Schopenhauer, Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung I, Book IV; II, §§ 41, 42, 46, 47

  Suggested background reading:

  • Patrick Gardiner, Schopenhauer (Harmondsworth, 1963)
  • Christopher Janaway (ed), The Cambridge Companion to Schopenhauer Cambridge, 2000)
  • Bryan Magee, The Philosophy of Schopenhauer (revised and enlarged edition, Oxford, 1997)
  • Bernd Magnus & Kathleen M. Higgins (eds), The Cambridge Companion to Nietzsche (Cambridge, 1996)
  • Stanley Rosen, The Mask of Enlightenment. Nietzsche's 'Zarathustra' (Cambridge, 1995)

• German thought in the 19th century (2)

  Either

  a) Hegel and Marx on politics

  Core text:

  • Hegel, Section 'Die Sittlichkeit', §§188-208, 230-329, from Grundlinien der Philosophie des Rechts (in: Hegel, Theorie-Werkausgabe, ed. E Moldenhauer and KM Michel, vol.7)

  Recommended accompanying texts:

  • Hegel, 'Die Sittlichkeit', §§142-187, 209-229, 330-360
  • Marx, 'Zur Kritik der Hegelschen Rechtsphilosophie. Einleitung', essays 'Zur Judenfrage', 'Manifest der kommunistischen Partei'(e.g. in Karl Marx, Die Frühschriften, ed. S Landshut, pp.207-224, 171-207, 525-560)

  Suggested background reading:

  • AW Wood, Introduction, Hegel, Elements of the Philosophy of Right, tr. HB Nisbet (Cambridge, 1991)
  • D.Forbes, Introduction, Hegel, Lectures on the Philosophy of World History: Introduction, tr. HB Nisbet (Cambridge, 1975)
  • Shlomo Avineri, Hegel's Theory of the Modern State (Cambridge, 1972)
  • Z Pelczynski, ed. Hegel's Political Philosophy: Problems and Perspectives (Cambridge, 1971)
  • D McLellan, Marx (London, 1975); The Young Hegelians and Karl Marx (London, 1969)

  or

  b) Gender and sexuality

  Core texts:

  • Freud, 'Bruchstück einer Hysterie-Analyse' (Dora); 'Psychoanalytische Bemerkungen über einen autobiographisch beschriebenen Fall von Paranoia' (Schreber); 'Analyse der Phobie eines fünfjährigen Knaben' (Der kleine Hans)

  Recommended accompanying texts:

  • Freud, Die Traumdeutung, II, 'Die Methode der Traumdeutung: Analyse eines Traummusters', VI, 'Die Traumarbeit', sections A-E; Drei Abhandlungen zur Sexualtheorie
  • Weininger, Geschlecht und Charakter, Chapter I iv-vi; Chapter II ix-xi, xiv
  • Lou Andreas-Salome, Die Erotik: vier Aufsätze ('Der Mensch als Weib'; 'Gedanken uber das Liebesproblem'; 'Die Erotik'; 'Psychosexualitat ') (ed. Pfeiffer, Munich, 1979)
  • Krafft-Ebing, Psychopathia Sexualis, Chapters I, IV

  Suggested background reading:

  • J. Laplanche & J.B.Pontalis, The Language of Psychoanalysis (London,1980)
  • Juliet Mitchell, Psychoanalysis and Feminism (Harmondsworth, 1975)
  • Gail Finney, Women in Modern Drama (esp the introductory chapter) (Ithaca, 1989)
  • Ruth-Ellen Joeres & Marianne Burkhard (eds.), Out of line/ 'Ausgefallen': the Paradox of Marginality in the Writings of Nineteenth-century German Women (Amsterdam, 1989)
  • Nancy A. Harrowitz & Barbara Hyams (eds.), Jews & Gender: Responses to Otto Weininger (Philadelphia, 1995)
  • Sander Gilman, Freud, Race and Gender (Princeton, 1993)
  • Eric Santner, My Own Private Germany: Daniel Paul Schreber's Secret History of Modernity (Princeton, 1996)

Section B: Topics in history

The options available within each set of questions, with recommended reading, are given below. Students are not expected to have read all the texts listed below for any given topic. Supervisors will give further guidance.

• German History in the 19th Century (1)

  Either

  a) Liberalism and Nationalism before 1848

  • H Schulze, The Course of German Nationalism (1991)
  • J Breuilly, The Formation of the First German Nation State, 1800-1871 (1996)
  • B Simms, The Struggle for Mastery in Germany, 1779-1850 (1998)
  • J Sheehan, German History, 1770-1866 (1989) Ch. 7-10
  • D Blackbourn, Germany 1780-1918 (1997) Ch. 2

  or

  b) Radicalism and the Revolutionary Tradition

  • E Kamenka and FB Smith (eds), Intellectuals and Revolution (1979)
  • J Chytry, The Aesthetic State (1989)
  • H Mah, 'The French Revolution and the Problem of German Modernity: Hegel, Heine, Marx', New German Critique (l990)
  • P Rose, Revolutionary Antisemitism in Germany from Kant to Wagner (1990)
  • S Barer, Doctors of Revolution (2000)
  • D Barclay and ED Weitz (eds), Between Reform and Revolution (1998)

  or

  c) The 1848 Revolution

  • J Sperber, The European Revolutions 1848-1851 (1994)
  • D Blackbourn, Germany 1780-1918 (1997) Ch. 3
  • J Sheehan, German History 1770-1866 (1989) Ch. 11
  • W Siemann, The German Revolutions of 1848 (1998)
  • T Nipperdey, Deutsche Geschichte, 1800-1866 (1983) Part V

  or

  d) The Transformation of German Politics 1850-1862

  • J Sheehan, German History, 1770-1866 (1989) Ch. 12
  • TS Hamerow, Restoration, Revolution, Reaction (1958)
  • T Nipperdey, Deutsche Geschichte, 1800-1866 (1983) Part VI
  • D Blackbourn, Germany 1780-1918 (1997) Ch. 4-5
  • D Barclay, Frederick William IV and the Prussian Monarchy (1995)

• German history in the 19th century (2)

  Either

  a) The Unification of Germany

  • J Breuilly, The Formation of the First German Nation State, 1800-1871 (1998)
  • W Carr, The Origins of the German Wars of Unification (1991)
  • O Pflanze, Bismarck and the Development of Germany (196l)
  • G Craig, Germany, 1866-1945 (1986)

  or

  b) Politics and Society in Germany under Bismarck

  • V Berghahn, Imperial Germany (1994)
  • WJ Mommsen, Imperial Germany (1995)
  • G Craig, Germany 1866-1945 (1986)
  • H-U Wehler, The German Empire 1871-1914 (1985)
  • G Eley, From Unification to Nationalism (1986)

  or

  c) Politics and Society in Germany after Bismarck

  • J Retallack, Germany in the Age of Kaiser Wilhelm II (1996)
  • C Clark, Kaiser Wilhelm (2000)
  • D Blackbourn, Germany 1780-1918 (1997)Ch. 7-9
  • WJ Mommsen, 'Kaiser Wilhelm II and German Politics', Jnl. Contemp, Hist. (1990)

  or

  d) Anti-Semitism and Jewish Emancipation

  • M Meyer (ed), German-Jewish History in Modern Times Vols.2-3 (1997)
  • P Pulzer, Jews and the German State (1992)
  • J Katz, From Prejudice to Destruction. Antisemitism, 1700-1933 (1980)
  • J Katz, Out of the Ghetto: The Social Background of Jewish Emancipation (1974)
  • J Wertheimer, Unwelcome Strangers. East European Jews in Imperial Germany (1991)

Course adviser