Mastering the Past: Legacy of the Stasi

This subject is not offered in 2008.

For the purposes of considering request for Reasonable Adjustments under the Disability Standards for Education (Cwth 2005), and Student Support and Engagement Policy, academic requirements for this subject are articulated in the Subject Overview, Learning Outcomes, Assessment and Generic Skills sections of this entry.

It is University policy to take all reasonable steps to minimise the impact of disability upon academic study, and reasonable adjustments will be made to enhance a student's participation in the University's programs. Students who feel their disability may impact on meeting the requirements of this subject are encouraged to discuss this matter with a Faculty Student Adviser and Student Equity and Disability Support: http://services.unimelb.edu.au/disability

This subject will look at attempts to come to terms with the collapse of communism or 'really existing' socialism in post-unification Germany. For the second time in the space of 50 years Germans were forced to face up to a criminal past and revelations of wide-spread human rights abuse. Particularly shocking were allegations, made in 1990, of extensive collaboration with the secret police among artists, writers and professionals of all kinds. This subject will deal with a variety of genres of texts that address the question of the legacy of the Stasi and the East German past. The focus of the course will be on narratives and stories by the Stasi's victims and perpetrators and texts that tackle the issue of individual guilt and moral responsibility, collusion and complicity. The sorts of narratives studied will include first-person testimonials and narratives by victimised writers and informants, diaries, interviews with Stasi agents, films by dissident filmmakers as well as fictional works such as Christa Wolf's Was Bleibt that have as their theme secret police surveillance and its effects on the lives of ordinary citizens. On completion of the subject students should have gained a critical appreciation of the complex political, ethical, psychological and historical issues involved in 'coming to terms with the past' as well as the way in which gender has impacted on the process.

This subject is not available as a breadth subject.

• have gained generic skills in research, critical thinking and contextualising information;

• have developed skills in communicating knowledge intelligibly through oral presentations and essays in German.

This subject is taught in German.