German Culture I
A.Y. 2024/2025
Learning objectives
This course is designed as the first part of a pathway to be completed during Year II with the course German Culture II. For this first year, the course aims to provide an overview of the most important cultural features in German-speaking areas between the 17th and 18th century, when the great historical and social processes that marked the beginning of the modern era started to take shape. The course will explore different media (literature, painting, music), writing genres (novel, essay, reviews, lyric poem) and debates (on politics, economy, aesthetics, philosophy), to help students gain an understanding of how major historical events are intertwined with their representations in many areas of culture.
Expected learning outcomes
Students should be able to understand recurring elements in the cultural history of German-speaking territories, placing them in a diachronic perspective. Moreover, they should be able to identify the interrelations between these fundamental elements and the modernisation process of European society between the 1600s and 1700s. Students are expected to recognise a wide range of diverse writing genres and their key aspects, and to begin to navigate the world of bibliographic research on their own. They should also develop a rudimentary understanding of the major categories of public discourse in the history and society of German-speaking territories, to be perfected during the second-year course.
Lesson period: First semester
Assessment methods: Esame
Assessment result: voto verbalizzato in trentesimi
Single course
This course can be attended as a single course.
Course syllabus and organization
Single session
Responsible
Lesson period
First semester
Course syllabus
Fundamental processes in society and culture in Germany between the 18th and 20th centuries
Fundamental events in the political, social and economic history of the German-speaking countries in the period under consideration will be presented in their relationship to various areas of philosophical, aesthetic and historiographical production between Germany and Austria.
Fundamental events in the political, social and economic history of the German-speaking countries in the period under consideration will be presented in their relationship to various areas of philosophical, aesthetic and historiographical production between Germany and Austria.
Prerequisites for admission
A rudimentary knowledge of the broad categories and fundamental processes of modern European history
Teaching methods
Lectures.
Teaching Resources
Gustavo Corni, Storia della Germania. Da Bismarck a Merkel, Il Saggiatore, Milano
Max Weber, L'etica protestante e lo spirito del capitalismo, Rizzoli, Milano.
Hannah Arendt, La banalità del male. Eichmann a Gerusalemme, Feltrinelli, Milano.
Max Weber, L'etica protestante e lo spirito del capitalismo, Rizzoli, Milano.
Hannah Arendt, La banalità del male. Eichmann a Gerusalemme, Feltrinelli, Milano.
Assessment methods and Criteria
Oral exam for attending and non-attending students. Students will be asked to demonstrate the assimilation of the course contents, the understanding of the basic conceptual repertoire and the ability to argue independently on some topics proposed by the teacher. The final grade will be expressed out of thirty.
Professor(s)