Unit information: Goethe's Faust I in 2008/09

Unit name	Goethe's Faust I
Unit code	GERM29005
Credit points	20
Level of study	I/5
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24)
Unit director	Dr. Davies
Open unit status	Not open
Pre-requisites	None
Co-requisites	None
School/department	Department of German
Faculty	Faculty of Arts

Description including Unit Aims

Faust is the most important of Goethe's literary works, and a project that occupied him throughout his life: he began it in his early twenties in 1773 but did not finish Faust II until 1831, the year before his death. This unit will focus on the best-known text to emerge from Goethe’s project, Faust I, and will concentrate on reading that text in close detail, but we will also look at forms in which the Faust legend existed before Goethe - the sixteenth-century Faustbuch and Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus -– and at the subsequent significance of Faust in German culture.

Aims:

• to give students a thorough knowledge of one of the most central works of German literature, from a number of important angles: the Faust tradition in which it stands, the genesis of the text, and the texts content, themes, language and structure

• to inspire students to work further, and independently, on this and other works

• to introduce students to important critical debates on Faust

• to enable students to develop their own critical interpretations of Faust

• to enhance language skills, close reading skills and powers of analysis, research and presentation.

Intended Learning Outcomes

The unit will develop:

• students knowledge, understanding and appreciation of a central text in modern German literature

• students experience of key areas of literary scholarship: textual and genetic criticism, close reading, assimilating and interpreting a range of diverse primary and secondary literature

• students skills in presenting information and arguments in a structured form, both orally and in writing.

The unit will complement other units taught in the German Department and will stretch and enhance students language skills.

Teaching Information

Weekly seminars, to consist of introductory talk by tutor and/or student presentation, followed by class discussion. Many seminars will focus on close analysis of parts of Faust I.

Assessment Information

• One essay of 3,000 words

• One two-hour examination

Reading and References

Set text, for purchase:

• Goethe, Faust, 2 part-volumes, ed. by Albrecht Sch�ne (Frankfurt a.M, 2005; ISBN 978-3-618-68001-7)

Secondary literature as directed.