German 580 A: Seminar in German Literature

The Wound: Violence, Trauma, Cure
German 580, English 552

Since antiquity, epic and tragic performance has been a therapeutic space. Poems and dramas represent violence and woundedness and they purportedly aim to help people cope with the inevitable afflictions of the human condition. How does the re-staging of brutal suffering figure as a hope for its cure? In this seminar, we will explore all three aspects of the wound: the violence that causes it; the trauma of its pain; and the possibility of treatment. To do so, we will read epic poems, tragedies, and an opera that rework myths from the Trojan War to represent wounds of battle, gender, slavery, displacement, and colonialism. We will investigate epic poetry and tragedy both as performative art and as texts. Authors include: Sophocles, Kleist, Derek Walcott, Anne Carson, and Ursula Krechel. We will also study theoretical interventions on violence and trauma by Walter Benjamin, Ruth Leys, Cathy Caruth, and others. Additionally, we’ll observe the recent use of Greek tragedy for PTSD therapy by the “Theater of War” project.
Discussions in English. Reading in original languages encouraged but not required: all texts are available in translation.

Images (clockwise from upper left): 
“The suicide of Ajax,” Etrurian red-figured calyx-krater (ca. 400–350 BCE)
“Penthesilea and Achilles,” Maurice Sendak (1998), illustration  for Kliest’s Penthesilea (1808)
“After Omeros 5,” Francesco Clamente (2016)
Photo from Norma Jean Baker of Troy, by Anne Carson, performed by Renee Fleming and Ben Wishow, The Shed, Los Angeles (2019)