German- A good topic/reading for individualized study?

Question

I am taking a college course in German, which is an individualized study course. In other words, I choose what I want to study and then write about it. An obvious literary topic would be to read some Goethe or Böll but can anyone suggested some other (perhaps more modern) writers or completely different topics that might make for interesting study?

Answer 1

Try the short stories of Brecht or post DDR lit like Brussig. Benn is a poet. Choose prose and it will be easier to research. Find an anthology and choose an author. Or choose a topic and find authors who deal with the topic. Love, for example, crime. You also might see if film can be brought in.

Answer 2

I can warmly recommend "Der Vorleser" by Bernhard Schlink. He's a very modern writer, but extremely readable. The book (like most of his works) deals with post-war happenings and the lives of Nazis that didn't get convicted.



He has an amazing way of creating characters that you will feel sorry for even though you know you should despise them. He uses simple prose, but creates a lot of turmoil, not in the story, but in the reader.



The book is also course material here in Germany, so you should be able to find a lot of additional material online for your studies.

Answer 3

yes they are Taught about WW2 and the Holocaust just like any other nation only 17% of the Germans are over 65 and WW2 ended 65 years ago so to have had any input they would need to be over 90 that makes them 20 in 1939 and leaves only about 3% of the German people i was in germany after WW2 and they were in denial ashamed and some were arrogant but all aware of what their country Did i went to berlin for the First time in 2007 and again in 2009 and the new Germans don't care but they have made monuments to the Valkyrie General named a street after him and they are Building a Museum of Terrors which covers the period from 1933 to 1945 outside some Stations in Berlin is a sign that says " here are the places of terror that we must never forget" and Lists places like Auschwitz Chełmno Bełżec Majdanek Sobibór Treblinka Bergen-Belsen Börgermoor Buchenwald Dieburg Esterwegen Flossenburg Gundelsheim Neuengamme Papenburg Ravensbruck Sachsenhausen Sachsenbu so as you can see they have made no attempt to hid what their parents Grand parents and Great Grand parents did

Answer 4

I recommend, in modern German prose, Gottfried Benn. He is somewhat obscure, but I adore his work. In the ways of poetry, Schille is the easiest to understand. Oh yes, and there's always Kafka. Or Heinrich Heine, his "Morphine" is worth study...



By the way, Benn IS a prose author, and has written many essays, some on art under Nazi rule. They're good.

Answer 5

How about 1999 Nobel Prize winner Guenter Grass?