G577  Writerly Texts, Do-able: Kafka, Broch, Grass, Handke (3 cr.)
	I. Hoesterey
	sec. 2634
	4:00-5:15 p.m.
	TR, BH 664

“The writerly text is ourselves writing” (R. Barthes).
Intertextuality and cultural dialogism along with indeterminacy,
ambiguity and gaps may challenge the reader to become a producer of
the (literary) text rather than its consumer (assuming that the act
of reading is not wiped out by an all-consuming information age).
What, then, is the “Differenzqualitaet” of the aesthetic product that
makes it the Other of infotainment and the priorities of a
progressively homogenized high-tech society?  Wired as we are, we
will look at selected 20th-century German-language prose–two novels
and several shorter pieces–and determine whether the poetic dimension
of texts can still energize us to reflect productively upon the human
condition and to engage in a project of “life-writing” that
converts “Lust und Literatur” into political currency.

Readings:
Franz Kafka, 	Der Prozess Fischer Tb
Guenther Grass,	Die Blechtrommel Luchterhand Tb (selected chapters)
Christa Wolf,	Kein Ort.  Nirgends Luchterhand Tb
Peter Handke,	Versuch ueber die Jukebox Suhrkamp

Custom-made reader with excerpted texts: Hermann Broch, “Zerfall der
Werte” essays from Die Schalfwandler; the “Essayismus” chapter in
Robert Musil’s MoE, and selections from Handke’s Versuch ueber die
Muedigkeit.

Work load to be negotiated communally.