GERM 334
Playing with Language in Austrian Literature: Interpretation, Translation, Writing Spring 2020
Division I Writing Skills
This is not the current course catalog

In his Chandos-Brief, Hugo von Hofmannsthal famously details a writer’s crisis of language, in the process creating, ironically, a stunningly beautiful piece of linguistic art. Since 1902, when Hofmannsthal presented his paradoxical fictional manifesto, language has preoccupied many Austrian writers. This course will provide the opportunity to explore the intricacies of the German language via three routes: the study and interpretation of Austrian short stories from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, experiments with translating poetry and prose from German to English, and creative writing in German. The latter will take place in the context of workshops with the contemporary Austrian writer Gabriele Petricek, who will spend two weeks in Williamstown as a Writer-in Residence. In addition to Hofmannsthal, authors read might include Arthur Schnitzler, Joseph Roth, Franz Kafka, Ingeborg Bachmann, Ilse Aichinger, Ernst Jandl, Elisabeth Reichart, and Gerhard Roth.