Heinrich Böll: Short Stories, Novels, and Film • 6 two-hour sessions • Available by request

In this interactive seminar, we’ll explore selections from one of the most famous (West) German authors of the twentieth century. Heinrich Böll (1917-1985) became well known for his short stories and novels, examples of Trümmerliteratur (rubble literature), after World War II. Much of his writing in the immediate postwar years articulates graphically the wounding and trauma experienced during the war.

We’ll discuss three of Böll’s critically acclaimed short stories (1950s), as well as excerpts of his novels The Clown (1963) and The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum or: how violence develops and where it can lead (1974). We’ll watch Volker Schlöndorff’s and Margarethe von Trotta’s 1975 film adaptation of Böll’s latter novel, portraying the destructive power of the tabloid press during the political climate of panic over terrorism in 1970s West Germany. Böll received many prestigious awards, among them the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1972. His work has been translated into more than 30 languages.

Texts (in English translation) will be available electronically. Your participation in class discussions is highly encouraged.