German Literature 3: Modernity and the Unspeakable

Masterpieces of German literature, drama, and film from the first half of the 20th century. Particular focus on modernism and the crisis of language. What urgent truths (whether psychological, political, spiritual, or sexual) cannot be expressed, and how do art and dreams attempt to speak the unspeakable? Readings and viewings include works by Hofmannsthal, Schnitzler, Freud, Wedekind, Mann, Musil, Kafka, Toller, Höch, Rilke, Schoenberg, Riefensthal, Benjamin, and Brecht. Taught in English.