Course Schedule and Catalog

Long Title: THE AGE OF GOETHE: POETRY AND TRUTH

Department: *Classical & European Studies*

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Language of Instruction:Taught in German

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: The "Age of Goethe" is generally referred to as the "classical" decade of German literature and culture. It was, however, by no means exclusively the age of Goethe and Schiller, but also of Kant and Herder, Holderlin and Kleist, and the beginning of the Romantic movement. While German intellectuals debated revolution in the lofty realm of letters, their French contemporaries took to the streets and staged a political revolution that culminated in the execution of their king. Germany as the "land of the poets and philosophers" is a myth indeed, and a rather ambivalent one, too. The course explores the age of Goethe, its "poetry" and its "truth," by way of reading key texts of that period in their intellectual, historical, and political contexts. Taught in German.