German studies
German is the academic discipline of the humanities, which explores the German language and literature in its historical and contemporary manifestations, documented and communicated. In a further understanding she has the task of investigating the Germanic languages and their literatures and cultures.
The modern German literature is made up of three sub- compartments, the German Linguistics, the specialist German Literature and the Germanistisches Medieval Studies. Since the 1980s, the German is divided German abroad in a domestic German and, in quite problematic ductus.
German Linguistics
The German Linguistics examines the German language both in its historical development ( diachronic ) as well as with respect to the synchronous function relationships of individual language systems. Its subject matter covers all stages of the German language, from Old High German (8th to 11th century ) over the medium ( 11th-14th centuries ) and Frühneuhochdeutsche ( 14th to 17th century ) to the NHG (from 17th century ). The Low German language research with their levels of language is part of the German.
In addition, it analyzes the German language among the various aspects ( Lautungen / spellings, inflections, words, sentences, texts, etc. ) and in its various manifestations, such as the language sociological stratification ( colloquial language, written language, etc.), or talked geographical breakdown ( dialects etc. ).
Germanic Literature
The Germanic literature is divided into a (formerly known as ) " Old section ", which deals with the German literature from its beginnings in the early Middle Ages to the transition to modern times (about 16th century ) and is now called the ( Germanic ) Medieval Studies, and a "new department ", dedicated to the so-called " German Literature " is concerned ( with the literature of the 16th century to the present). In Zurich, the boundary between Medieval and Modern German Literature is drawn differently: Baroque and Early Modern Times still be expected to medieval studies.
She studied German literature systematically into genres, forms, textures and motifs as well as historic by authors and eras. Central areas of work of German literature are the scholarly editing, the writing of literary history and the analysis of German-language literary texts. The relations of German literature on the literatures of foreign language countries ( reception and performance history ) and historical circumstances, such as in the European context, are also important areas of work of literature in its own understanding of science are part of the German German but often operated under central setting. Based in Germany German describes itself frequently as "general literature ". Other philologies be so designed implicitly as informants of their own, absolutely set science practices.
Low German Philology
At some universities in Northern Germany - Kiel, Hamburg, Münster, Bielefeld, Göttingen, Rostock and Greifswald - finds as well as in Zurich as part of the German Low German also held research and teaching.
Speech Science and Speech Training
In teacher training is mandatory at some universities the speech training for Students of German. Is unique in the Federal Republic of Germany that the universities in the German offer its own Master focus in speech science and speech training. However, currently a Master's program is offered German language with emphasis in speech science and speech training only at the University of Saarland in Saarbrücken.
Media Studies
In the media age, the German examines the link back to the communication, cultural and media studies. As a side branch also the film philology has established itself. Again, however, tends a " Germanistic " Media Studies, considers foreign cultural films without problems by the means of " general" to analyze set their own vested interests.
History of German Literature
As yet extremely low systematized area of interest of individual scholar can the German in the field of Germanic archeology traced back to Tacitus. This hinted at in his Annales that the Germans (without specifying the trunk) Arminius in the lookup into the events of 9 AD. would have sung about in their songs. However, in the sense of German Language and Literature customer it only starts with the study and publication of old law and history sources and medieval translations of the Bible at the time of humanism. As an independent science in addition to the classics and as a university discipline the German was founded in the early 19th century by Georg Friedrich Benecke, The Brothers Grimm and Karl Lachmann. Their scientific interest in the literary past was clearly influenced by the romantic aesthetic with its rediscovery of medieval poetry.
First associate professor of German literature since 1810 was Friedrich Heinrich von der Hagen in Berlin, during 1858 the " German - Philological Seminar " was created at the University of Rostock as the first Germanistic academic institution. The discussions revolved largely around the Nibelungenlied and the minstrelsy. Just like the works of Martin Luther, this should serve as proof of a specifically "German" culture tradition that did not need to fear comparison to other nations. Similarly as in the Italy of the Risorgimento this was done in Germany in the consciousness of a target, but for the time being failed unifications. The nation-state perspective - it was equally well in France, England and other countries - was certainly questionable from the approach because they were at risk, to reflect only their own chauvinism. After workup of the Middle Ages and the Reformation period by source editions and driven research debates in the 19th century, the "rediscovery" of the Baroque took place at the beginning of the 20th century.
The workup of the baroque poetry pointed to another problem: It was based on the image of the "great " genius creator of literature, an idea that came from the originality aesthetics of the 19th century. This concept of poetry had not given in the Baroque period, on the contrary, wanted and should be proved by the imitation of classical models of his art. It was also noticed not quite in the 19th century that the classical genre triad of epic, drama and poetry emanating from a predominantly oral tradition in ancient times and in the " literary " was only of limited use since the early modern period, despite facing after such it has been argued. This led to misunderstandings that are not resolved until today.
The German literature had become an instrument in many aspects of the objectives of the Prussian- Wilhelmine policy after the Franco-German War of 1870 /71. The dominance of the German cultural production over that of other nations should be proved and illustrated, although Paris, as Walter Benjamin pointed out later, still the cultural " capital of the 19th century " was. In this sense emerged selection issues and multi-volume literary history encyclopedias.
In the era of National Socialism, the National leaders of the German demanded ideological support and made their tendency to pan-Germanism, which dated from the time of sectionalism, advantage. The solution of ideological bias after the Second World War happened viscous. In the 1950s, the work-immanent interpretation method became popular, the strictly oriented to the text of a seal, rose motifs and metaphors illuminating interpretation of the paradigm and ausklammerte every interpretation in terms of external factors and circumstances of the time. Sometimes also found psychoanalytic methods use that tried to explain the standing behind the seal "personality" of the author.
Since the 1960s, established a differentiation of the methods used, which had an almost unüberblickbare methodological diversity result. Among the various approaches include, inter alia, ( along the lines of American Studies and Romance Studies ) structuralism, reception aesthetics and Narrativistik. In the 1970s, the range extended even to intertextuality and discourse analysis, post-structuralist, semiotic and deconstructivist, feminist and post-feminist and field - and system-theoretical perspectives. Overall, the Germany-based Germanic remains straight in their comparative currents and " world literature " interests of the national philological paradigm arrested ( cf. the term " foreign German " for international research and habitualised equating German literature with literature as such).
German foreign
Alois Wierlacher was at the beginning of the 1980s, one of the first scientists who began the discussion that the German had to be oriented differently in the German-speaking countries than in countries with a different mother tongue. He called for a German who should constitute itself as " comparative foreign cultural studies ". Although his thesis for a comprehensive reorientation of German literature and the compartment German as a Foreign Language ( GFL ) were very controversial, but the discussion of A. Wierlacher begun led in due time to a greater awareness of the differences between the German in the German speaking countries and the German abroad. As a result of this discussion, the term " foreign German ", which is now also used to refer to university institutions arose. From professional scientifically prestigious " German studies abroad ", this distinction is of course accepted only under the restriction that it primarily refers to the non-native teaching situation in teaching, Germanistic research in language and literature but wherever they happen. At most disponer foreign German there over major scientific neutrality, distance and objectivity, where the internal German individual research questions with national identity need treat biased. Overall, the mere notion of foreign German transporting a national claim to sole representation of the German German as a general and universal literature. Where the analytical projection -informed foreign descriptions is recognized in other cultural studies, scares the German German front phenomena such as " German Studies" still rather reserved and assigns them far as allegedly distant, seemingly just curious offshoot of its own central authority to interpret German literature and cultural phenomena of itself. This explains why it became internationally successful approaches germanistischer research often can be dismissed with the superior look of a " domestic German " as local aberrations there not make it to Germany or.