This module is not currently running in 2024 to 2025.
German cultural production since 1945 had been largely dominated by ideologies and politics, by the forced forty-year division into two republics in opposite camps in the Cold War, and by the legacy of National Socialism, which factors all contributed to the eruption of student unrest in the 1960s. The material studied on the module covers the problems of returning soldiers in 1945 and the hardships endured by the civilian population; the trauma of the Holocaust; the pioneering idealism in the foundational phase in the German Democratic Republic and a satirical take on that; the pain caused to ordinary individuals by the erection of the Berlin Wall; the significance of the Vietnam War to the Left in the 1960s and the turn to violence in the pursuit of political goals in the following decade; and the study of these materials will allow students to attain a well-grounded cultural and historical understanding of the period from 1945 to the present.
Total Contact Hours: 20
Private Study Hours: 130
Total Study Hours: 150
Main assessment methods
Essay 1 (1,500 words) – 50%
Essay 2 (1,500 words) – 50%
Reassessment methods
Reassessment Instrument: 100% Coursework
The University is committed to ensuring that core reading materials are in accessible electronic format in line with the Kent Inclusive Practices. The most up to date reading list for each module can be found on the university's reading list pages: https://kent.rl.talis.com/index.html
See the library reading list for this module (Canterbury)
The intended subject specific learning outcomes. On successfully completing the module students will be able to:
1 Demonstrate an appreciation of a range of cultural products originating in Germany and Austria since 1945 (plays, novels, poems, political documents and film, visual culture, and architecture);
2 Demonstrate analytical skills for the study of cultural products in a variety of forms and link them to their social, historical and political contexts;
3 Demonstrate skills relating to close reading and cultural analysis;
4 Plan and write an essay analysing cultural, historical and political questions as they are articulated in literary and cultural artefacts;
5 Demonstrate understanding of cultural production and its contexts.
The intended generic learning outcomes. On successfully completing the module students will be able to:
1 Demonstrate their communication skills, including the structuring of an original argument;
2 Read texts closely and critically and to apply a range of critical terms to literary texts as well as other cultural artefacts;
3 Demonstrate IT and library skills and engage in developing an independent learning style;
4 Reflect on their own learning and use of time in preparation and revision.
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