GE 340: Representations of Love and Intimacy in Contemporary German Fiction and Film

Week 1: Introduction: The Tradition of Love and Romance in German and European Literature and Culture: From Petrarch and Goethe to classical Hollywood and beyond. Text: Extract from Eva Illouz: Cold Intimacies (2007)

Week 2: Contemporary Social Theories of Love and Intimacy: Anthony Giddens, Eva Illouz and Zygmunt Bauman. Texts: Extracts from Anthony Giddens, The Transformation of Intimacy (1993) and Eva Illouz, Why Love Hurts (2012), and Zygmunt Bauman's Liquid Love (2003).

Week 3: The Literary Romance and its Ironic Deconstruction I: Hanns-Josef Ortheil's Die grosse Liebe (2003) and the Renaissance of the 'Liebesroman'.

Week 4: The Literary Romance and its Ironic Deconstruction II: Hans-Ulrich Treichel's Mein Sardinien (2014) as critical response to Ortheil.

Week 5: Post-Migrant Identities and Islamic Romance Traditions: Navid Kermani's Grosse Liebe (2014), Sufi Mysticism and masculine identities.

6: Reading Week

Week 7: Non-Heteronormativity I: Transgendered Intimacy and the Subversion of Heterosexual Romance Traditions in Antje Ravic Strubel's Kältere Schichten der Luft (2008).

Week 8: Non-Heteronormativity I: Transgendered Intimacy and the Subversion of Heterosexual Romance Traditions in Antje Ravic Strubel's Kältere Schichten der Luft (2008).

Week 9: Non-Heteronormativity II: The Representation of Male Homosexuality in Alain Claude Sulzer's, Ein perfekter Kellner (2006)

Week 10: Love, Class and Social Exclusion: Christian Petzold’s Dreileben (Film, 2011) and Thomas Stuber's, In den Gängen' (Film, 2018)