Heinrich von Kleist's Prose Fiction

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.

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Heinrich von Kleist (1777-1811) was not only one of the greatest dramatists in German literature, but he also wrote a small body of short prose fiction that contains some of the most fascinating texts in German. The world of Kleist's stories is full of obscure implications which the characters struggle to decipher. Family relationships are fraught with latent violence; glimpses of a better world are fleeting or hedged with irony; circumstance and coincidence play an often cruel game with the fictional characters. Against this underlying grimness is the beauty and power of Kleist's literary technique. Students will undertake a close reading of Kleist's eight stories in order to both situate them in their historical context and relate them to paradigms of modern experience. Students who complete the subject should have an awareness of Kleist's place in the German literary tradition and an understanding of the problems posed by Kleist's experimental approach to writing.

This subject is not available as a breadth subject.

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

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

This subject is taught in German.