This paper is available for the academic year 2025-26.
*This paper also serves as Paper 10H of Part I of the English Tripos.
‘The making of German culture’ introduces you to the vibrant literary and intellectual culture of the German-speaking world in the medieval and early modern period. Through the study of core texts you will explore some of the most significant moments in the making of German culture: the bold experimentation of courtly literature; the creation of a heroic epic that went on to have national myth-making potential in the modern period; the emergence of women authors in the field of religious experience; the rise of narrative prose; the Protestant Reformation, and its changed attitudes to political authority as well as religion.
Each topic is approached through a core text, chosen for its richness and its importance: many of the texts have had a resonance in the German-speaking world—and sometimes well beyond it—down to the present day.
The topics with their core texts for 2025-26 are as follows:
- Courtly literature: complexity and experiment (Gottfried von Strassburg: Tristan und Isolde)
- Manufacturing heroism (Nibelungenlied)
- Female visionaries: authorship and authority (Mechthild von Magdeburg: Das fließende Licht der Gottheit)
- Melusine: minne, myth, and origin (Thüring von Ringoltingen: Melusine)
- Protestantism and power (Martin Luther: Von weltlicher Obrigkeit)
A complete reading list, tips on how to prepare in advance of the course, and past exam papers are available on the GE4 Moodle site (https://www.vle.cam.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=109382); you are welcome to enrol yourself to find out more.
In 2025-26, topics 1–3 are covered by lectures and supervisions in the Michaelmas Term, and Topics 5 and 4 (in that order) in the Lent Term, followed by three comparative seminars. There is also an introductory course of language classes in the first half of the Michaelmas Term where you can develop and practice your skills in reading medieval German.
You will have one supervision per topic, with an additional supervision on a topic of your choice at the end of term. In the Easter Term students opting for assessment by end of year examination will be able to access revision supervisions on their chosen topics.
For the GE4 Moodle site, please see here.
Assessment is either by long essay or end of year examination. For each of the two long essays, you will have a choice from the topics that have been covered in the two teaching terms. In the examination, you answer three questions, each one on a different topic: the exam paper will offer a choice of questions for each of the topics covered in the two teaching terms.
Dr Doriane Zerka |
