Literary History and the Curriculum: How, What, and Why

Goethe, Romanticism, and the German Lied: Developing Historical and Transcultural Literacies in the Undergraduate Curriculum

“…It means not only discovering continuities between the present and past (no matter how remotely or proximately defined) but also unsettling the fixities, and exposing the contingency, of the present moment, since experiencing what one of my colleagues called “the strangeness of the past” also has the power to estrange the present. (Summit, , p. 147)…”

“…In responding to an invitation to think about the relationship between the goals and objectives of undergraduate majors in language and literature and those of a liberal education, the 2009 MLA Report to the Teagle Foundation on the Undergraduate Major in Language and Literature reframes the goals of the major in terms of developing a number of literacies, among them cross‐cultural, technological, historical, and information literacy (p. 2). As Jennifer Summit (, p. 141) points out, reconceiving what has traditionally been conceived of as literary history in terms of historical literacy “underscores the humanities’ traditional focus on ‘the value of considering the past,'” while fostering students’ ability to think historically:…”

“…Nice as it would be, I do not envision most of our students “trying this at home.” Nor is it my intention to oppose the current emphasis in many language classes on contemporary popular culture with a “high art” form that assumes, in some reactionary or elitist mode, an inherent superiority over other forms of creative or artistic expression. But neither should these works be offered up to our students as interesting “antiquarian objects” or “monuments to be revered” (Summit, , p.147), as is all too apt to happen in our classes. I am suggesting, rather, that this genre be taught as part of an integrated curriculum that systematically teaches the “cultural narratives” in a way that brings the past into productive relationship with the present, that teaches texts in the context of other texts and media, that sensitizes students to form‐meaning relationships and to the aesthetic and symbolic qualities of language, that develops their interpretative and creative capacities and awareness of interpretative and creative processes, and deepens their intercultural understandings.…”