GERM489D

Cross-listed with GERM689D. Credit only granted for GERM489D or GERM689D. In her 2003 essay, On Regarding the Pain of Others, Susan Sontag writes that no "we" can be taken for granted when we are discussing pain. This course will explore this hypothesis by examining the literary representations of pain and bodily suffering in German literature. What are authors' ethical and artistic obligations when representing pain and suffering along lines of gender, race, or class? Authors surveyed include Susan Sontag, Clemens Brentano, Franz Kafka, Peter Weiss, Elfriede Jelinek, Ludwig Wittgenstein, and Elaine Scarry.