Mar 29, 2024  
College Catalog 2019-2020 
    
College Catalog 2019-2020 [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

GERM 365 - Kafka: Gods, Animals, and Other Species of Modernity


This course approaches Kafka’s work both as a case for literary analysis and as a text that reveals insights into modernism-the historical era within secular capitalist modernity characterized by massive industrialization, increasing bureaucratization, the commodification and massive reproducibility of art, the destabilization of patriarchy, and the development of technology and media. In reading the works of this world-famous author we shall also try to grasp the meaning of the internationally (mis)used word, “kafkaesque.” In addition to reading closely a selection of Kafka’s short stories and excerpts from his novels, we shall also read Crumb and Mairowitz’s graphic version of Kafka’s life and work, and students will contribute with in-class presentations of their interpretations of Kafka’s work, short papers, and a graphic group project. Taught in German. Prerequisite(s):  , GERM 309  or the equivalent. Offered spring semester of even-numbered years. (4 Credits)