Germanistenkanon

[zing_och]

This was linked in the comments of a blog post: It's 50 works of dramatic and epic literature everyone majoring in German Language and Literature should read (in the opinion of the Uni Bielefeld). I think I'll work on reading all of these, most of them seem interesting.


I've bolded the ones I've already read.

1. Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen (1621-1676): Der abenteuerliche Simplicissimus Teutsch

2. Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729-1781): Emilia Galotti

3. Gotthold Ephraim Lessing: Nathan der Weise

4. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832): Die Leiden des jungen Werthers

5. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: Faust I

6. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre

7. Jakob Michael Lenz (1751-1792): Der Hofmeister

8. Karl Philipp Moritz (1756-1793): Anton Reiser. Ein psychologischer Roman

9. Friedrich Schiller (1759-1805): Die Räuber

10. Friedrich Schiller: Kabale und Liebe

11. Novalis (Friedrich von Hardenberg) (1772- 1802): Heinrich von Ofterdingen

12. Ludwig Tieck: Der blonde Eckbert

13. Heinrich von Kleist (1777-1811): Der zerbrochene Krug

14. Heinrich von Kleist: Erzählungen

15. Jean Paul (1763-1825): Flegeljahre oder Siebenkäs oder Titan

16. Friedrich Hölderlin (1770-1843): Hyperion

17. E.T.A. Hoffmann (1776-1822): Der Sandmann

18. Joseph von Eichendorff (1788-1857): Aus dem Leben eines Taugenichts

19. Franz Grillparzer (1791-1872): Ein Bruderzwist in Habsburg

20. Heinrich Heine (1797-1856): Deutschland. Ein Wintermärchen

21. Georg Büchner (1813-1837): Woyzeck

22. Adalbert Stifter (1805-1868): Der Nachsommer

23. Gottfried Keller (1819-1890): Der grüne Heinrich (1. Fassung)

24. Theodor Storm (1817-1888): Der Schimmelreiter

25. Theodor Fontane (1819-1898): Effi Briest

26. Gerhart Hauptmann (1862-1946): Die Weber

27. Arthur Schnitzler (1862-1931): Leutnant Gustl

28. Hermann Hesse (1877-1963): Der Steppenwolf

29. Robert Musil (1880-1942): Die Verwirrungen des Zögling Törleß.

30. Franz Kafka (1883-1924): Der Prozeß

31. Franz Kafka: Erzählungen

32. Heinrich Mann (1871-1950): Der Untertan

33. Thomas Mann (1875-1955): Die Buddenbrooks

34. Thomas Mann: Der Zauberberg

35. Alfred Döblin (1878-1957): Berlin Alexanderplatz

36. Berthold Brecht (1898-1956): Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder

37. Berthold Brecht: Leben des Galilei

38. Anna Seghers (1900-1983): Der Ausflug der toten Mädchen

39. Max Frisch (1911-1991): Stiller

40. Wolfgang Borchert (1921-1947): Kurzgeschichten

41. Friedrich Dürrenmatt (1921-1990): Der Besuch der alten Dame

42. Wolfgang Koeppen (1906-1996): Jugend

43. Peter Weiss (1916-1982): Verfolgung und Ermordung des Jean Paul Marat

44. Heinrich Böll (1917-1985): Ansichten eines Clowns

45. Günther Grass (*1927): Die Blechtrommel

46. Uwe Johnson (1934-1984): Mutmaßungen über Jakob

47. Jurek Becker (1937-1997): Jakob der Lügner

48. Christa Wolf (*1929): Nachdenken über Christa T.

49. Thomas Bernhard (1931-1989): Auslöschung

50. Heiner Müller (1929-1995): Germania-Triologie


Since it's a Uni list there's almost no contemporary literature and - as seems common to book canons - too few women. Two? Seriously? Makes me want to make a list of women authors...

Still, it's stuff I've wanted to read for a while, so why not?

ETA: Nothing to do with reading, but since this is a German-centric entry, it's sort of fitting: Youtube in Deutschland: the reason I won't click on your Youtube links.

Comments

[frogspace.livejournal.com]

I would recommend Christa Wolf's "Kassandra". That book left a very strong impression when I first read it and the performance I later saw in theater was impressive as well. I've always kept this book close.

Youtube in Deutschland: the reason I won't click on your Youtube links.

That's the reason why I add the info "geoblocked in Germany" when a vid isn't available here. Maybe I should add a "NOT geoblocked in Germany" tag instead. *ponders* Anyway, there are ways around it and without them YouTube would be a very sad experience. :/

[zing_och]

Thanks for the rec! I've read Wolf's "Kindheitsmuster" and enjoyed it, so I'll check out "Kassandra".

Adding blocking information to YT links is a really great idea. Of course the people on my reading list (or my feed reader) who aren't in Germany can't actually tell if the video is blocked...

[torch]

I do love lists! But it's probably a good thing I'm not majoring in German lit, since I've read two of these, sort of speed-browsed through one, and... um, seen the opera version of one? *g*

Werther just would. not. die. I was ready to leap up on the stage and shoot him myself.

[zing_och]

Heh! I'm kind of glad that I didn't read Werther in school. I would have been very unsympathetic. (I'm mellowing with age... *g*) In fact, having to read "Tod in Venedig" in school made me hate Thomas Mann a lot. So whiny!

[rodo]

I'm a loser. I've read two.

Well, to be fair, I sometimes read excerpts, or a different work from the same author. (Schiller, Storm, Hesse, Kafka, T. Mann, Frisch, Borchert, Böll, Grass) Also, it's totally not my fault my teacher was to ill/busy/lazy to make us read the entirety of Faust in half a year.

I also noticed that I generally don't like works written before 1900 or so. Which reminds me - I still have the complete works of Borchert around here somewhere. Not sure I want to read them, though. Draußen vor der Tür was depressing enough.

[zing_och]

I'm wondering why they included Borchert's short stories, but not "Draußen vor der Tür" myself. (For what it's worth, they're at least as depressing as the play.)

I don't think this list is a measure of anything apart from "has read a lot of classic German literature" though. It's actually pretty useless if you're not studying German lit (which I'm not, but I like lists. *g*)

I generally do like old stuff, myself. (Well, I wouldn't have studied Ältere Deutsche Literatur otherwise. *g*)This wasn't necessarily true in school, though, and I suspect I'd have like Faust a lot less if I'd read it then.