German Culture I

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.

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.