GERST 3290

Mean Streets: German Crime and Detective Fiction

Course Description

Course information provided by the 2014-2015 Catalog.

This class aims at surveying the history and contemporary developments of crime and detective fiction in German. In addition, we will read a number of theoretical reflections on the figure of the detective, the history of police detection, and the literary crime and detective genre(s). The historical development of, and theoretical reflections on, the crime genre in the Anglo-Saxon world will serve as points of comparison. Moreover, the class will also discuss a number of movies and radio plays, investigate their relation to "literature," and analyze the specificity of each medium as well as its representational affinity with crime and detection. The readings will for the most part be in German and may include such authors as Gilbert Adair, Richard Alewyn, Friedrich Ani, Jakob Arjouni, Ernst Bloch, Jorge Luis Borges, Kurt Bracharz, Raymond Chandler, Friedrich Dürrenmatt, Friedrich Glauser, Wolf Haas, Peter Handke, Heinz Werner Höber, Paulus Hochgatterer, Philip Kerr, Georg Klein, Alfred Komarek, Siegfried Kracauer. Cameron McCabe (Ernest Borneman), Georg M. Oswald, Astrid Paprotta, Thomas De Quincey, Ulrich Ritzel, Ferdinand von Schirach, Hansjörg Schneider, Martin Suter, Jan Costin Wagner.

Prerequisites/Corequisites Prerequisite: Any course at the 3000-3209-level in German or permission of instructor.

Language Requirement Satisfies Option 1.

Distribution Category (CA-AS)

When Offered Fall.

Comments Taught in German.

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