Germanic Literature

1. MINISTRY OF HIGHER EDUCATION
KANDAHAR UNIVERSITY
FACULTY OF LANGUAGES AND
LITERATURE
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH
World Literature
Germanic Literature
Instructor: Teaching Assistant Rahmatullah Katawazai6/1/2020 1

2. German Literature:
 The Lutheranism and the beginning of the Germanic literature in 16th C.
 The old Germanic language is called Gothic and the literature written in that time
had been also called Gothic literature.
 The Reformation of the early 16th C. marks the beginning of German literature.

3.  This not only marks the beginning of the literature, but the linguistic changes as well,
which brought into existence the modern form of the German language,
 and on the invention of moveable-type printing, which made it desirable, and feasible, to
have a standard written language for the whole area across which German books might
circulate.

4.  Protestant princely states exercised a profound influence on German literature
and philosophy because of a individuality in Germany’s political and economic
development.
 Germany’s devastating religious civil war, the Thirty Years War from 1618 to
1648, closed their chance.
 Martin Luther King (1483–1546), the son of a miner, who first trained as a
lawyer and then became involved in church and saw all the things by himself.

5.  Luther’s teaching that God gave His heavenly rewards as a free gift in response to
faith alone took to an extreme the mystics’ dissociation of personal identity from the
world of work.
 His Ninety-Five Theses (95) (1517) against the papal practice of selling
‘indulgences’ – remission of the temporal punishment due to sin – were a passionate
defense of the improbable belief (still dominant today) that the soul is independent
of the economic process.
 His forceful yet divided personality marked all that he wrote, his pamphlets, lessons,
religious instruction, a handful of enormously influential hymns, and his translation
of the Bible (1522–34), which made him into one of the founders of the modern
German language.

6. The Authors of the German Language

7. Johan Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)
 Was born in Frankfurt in 1749. his father was an official of the government and
his mother was a mayor of the Frankfurt.
 In his childhood, was interested in theatre and in his youth he spent much of the
time writing and arranging plays.
 One of the greatest literary figure in German literature.
 His in-depth thought and beauty of poetry are recognized throughout the world.
 He not only worked in poetry, but in novel, and drama as well.
 Within that, he wrote ballads, scientific articles, literary criticism and
autobiography.

8.  His greatest work is Faust poetic drama.
 Whenever the Diwan of Hafiz translated into German, so Goethe read that.
 When he read the Diwan of Hfiz, really impressed him and stood against the theory
of Rudyard Kipling’s view (1865-1936) “East is east and West is west, and never the
twain shall meet.”

9. Franz Kafka (1883-1924)
 A famous author wrote novels and short stories.
 The most famous in them are Metamorphoses, Trail, The Great wall of China
(The collection of short stories) and the Castel.

10. Hermann Hesse (1877-1962)
 Another famous author of German literature.
 His novels and poems express his interest in eastern spiritual values.

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