Fuuuuuuuuuck.

[feuervogel]

I got the syllabus for the literature seminar today.

I'm going to fail.

We have to read in their entirety 6 books, totalling 1660 pages, plus probably 500 more pages of excerpts and secondary literature. Here is the info from the syllabus:

Course Requirements
 Regular attendance
 Participation and careful preparation of all readings: Complete all of the readings on time
and come to class prepared, with questions, etc.
 Class presentations: Give a presentation on one primary text and author.
 Three response papers in German, the papers should be included a discussion of interesting
questions and present a first interpretation.
 Final research paper of 10-12 pages in English or German

Grade:
Response papers 20%
Class presentations 10%
Class participation (attendance, preparation) 30%
Final paper 40%

I will get at best a B- in this class. Because I can't read 2000 pages for one class, and I can't convincingly bullshit my way through something I've read a third of (which is apparently a thing you learn to do as a literature major??? I studied chemistry, y'all). In literature seminar last semester, we had to write comments on the course discussion forum about the texts, just a few sentences minimum, and I struggled to get a paragraph, so SURE YEAH 3 response papers will be g r e a t. And I'll totally be able to participate in class.

I am going to leave that class in tears every fucking week it'll be great.

OH AND FUN TIMES??? I've gotten 2 of the books for the class and neither of them is the first 2 books we need to read (by Feb 2 and 9). The library may have them but not 7 copies of it (because I doubt I'm the only person who hasn't received their books yet).

So I can't even get started on the 400 pages I need to read by Feb 9 because the books aren't here yet. Y a A A a A a Y

Comments

[caulkhead]

OK, which texts? I've still got most of mine from my degree umptysomething years ago, and there's a vague chance some of them might be the same.

[feuervogel]

This is a class on Berlin around 1900 in literature (and also Vienna briefly). One would think that this would be right up my alley, but here I sit in utter terror.

Primary Literary Texts

Fritz Mauther: Der neue Ahasver. Roman aus Jung-Berlin. Berlin, Wien 2001.

Theodor Fontane: Stine. Hrsg. v. Christine Hehle. Werkausgabe. Berlin 2000.

Arthur Schnitzler: Der Weg ins Freie. Frankfurt/Main 1990, 9. Aufl.

Walter Benjamin. Berliner Kindheit um 1900. Frankfurt/Main 2013, 4. Aufl.

Franz Hessel: Spazieren in Berlin. Berlin 2011.

Vicki Baum: Menschen im Hotel. Köln 2013, 6. Aufl.

Elektronische Bereitstellung:

Nicolai, Friedrich: Beschreibung der Königlichen Residenzstädte Berlin und Potsdam. Sämtliche Werke. Bd. 8. Teil I. Hrsg. v. P. M. u.a.. Bern u.a. 1995.

Herz, Henriette: Berliner Salon: Erinnerungen und Porträts. Berlin 1984.

Heine, Heinrich: Englische Fragmente. In: Heinrich Heine: Historisch-kritische Gesamtausgabe der Werke. Hrsg. v. Manfred Windfuhr. Bd. 1-16. Hamburg 1973-1997.

Georg Hermann: Jettchen Gebert. Berlin 1971.

Georg Simmel: Die Großstädte und das Geistesleben (1903). In: Die Berliner Moderne (1885-1914). Stuttgart 1987, S. 124-130.

Siegfried Kracauer: Essays, Feuilletons, Rezensionen. Bd. 5.3. (1928-1931). Hrsg. v. Inka Mülder-Bach. Frankfurt/Main 2011.

[caulkhead]

No, I'm sorry, don't have any of those... some of the authors, but different texts.

Best of luck with the course - I hope it's not as horrible as you are expecting.

[feuervogel]

Thanks for looking!

I found a copy of Stine in the library in a collected works of Fontane, so that's helpful until my copy shows up. It's also only about 80 pages, which is rather shorter than I expected. They don't have the first one at all.

The Schnitzler is still 300 pages though.

[caulkhead]

Gutenberg have got the Mauther, if you want to get a head start and the edition doesn't matter too much

http://gutenberg.spiegel.de/buch/der-neue-ahasver-3992/1

[feuervogel]

I had *just* remembered that PG exists and looked it up myself XD

The professor was very specific about ordering particular editions, but if my copy doesn't arrive until after we're supposed to talk about it in class, this is better than nothing.

[ratcreature]

If you are still looking for the Walter Benjamin one, I have that as an ebook and could mail you a copy? It's not long either, just 31000 words.

[eirias]

Do you have a mentor you can ask for tips on learning how to read grad-level texts quickly? I'm sure you're right that some of your peers with humanities backgrounds have already developed this skill, but probably the instructor's hoping that all of you will leave the class with it. (Or a competent graduate instructor would. I'm well aware that lots of professors aren't, and are happy with a sink-or-swim approach to grad ed.)

I don't have the skill either. I will say that I've learned how to read scientific papers in a way, in the sense that I know that after I read ten or fifteen in a narrow topic, the remainder come very quickly because I already know what literature the others are referencing. I assume that this dynamic is in play in the humanities too, but unfortunately the web of references is to texts that are much longer than the 10-15 pages you get for most psych experiments. :/

[feuervogel]

Unfortunately not. My classmates aren't really helpful on the matter, either. I don't know anything about this professor, because she's coming from Germany. And German professors aren't known for student friendliness...

I also don't want to go to the grad advisor and express my concerns, because I don't want to seem like a whiner or anything. So it sucks. I mean, I had a hard enough time submitting an application to the disability resource center for accommodations for migraine days.

So basically, I'm going to fail and alles Scheiße.

[eirias]

Oh yeah, I wasn't going to suggest complaining - that's never received well. I was suggesting sucking up, frankly, mixed with a genuine request for advice. "My background is in chemistry, and I don't have a lot of practice reading such long texts in such a short timeframe. Can you offer some tips? How did you learn when you were just starting out?" This is one part genuine advice-seeking and one part buying yourself time to learn through flattery. I guarantee you if you make them feel smarter than a scientist, they'll love you for that, and some of them may be more willing to cut you some slack.

I found this strategy absolutely essential when switching fields myself: I had to eat a lot of crow during my masters program because my math background was frankly a hell of a lot weaker than that of my classmates, most of whom majored in math or statistics in undergrad, and many of whom were PhD students who actually came in with MS degrees (so I was competing grade-wise with people who already knew everything that was being taught, essentially). The only thing that got me through it was being humble and asking for a lot of help -- remedial reading recs from the department chair, frequent visits to office hours, etc. I even got a ten-years-younger-than-me tutor. I got a couple of ABs (A-/B+ essentially; UW grades are weird) in courses where I was not sure I'd even earned a B (required to pass), and I think the fact that they knew just how hard I was trying earned me the benefit of the doubt. Another colleague who also came in with a psych PhD struggled just as I did, but couldn't swallow her pride, and she wound up leaving the program.

My 0.02 euros, anyway. Best of luck -- this is inherently hard and there's nothing wrong with you if you spend most of the semester swearing. Truly.

[feuervogel]

Complain isn't quite what I was going for; more like "help me i have no idea what i'm doing." I have so far negative results from doing that; last semester's literature professor said "your article reviews are fine, very clear, you'll do fine on the paper." -___- Being able to tell you what someone else said about a thing is not the same thing as coming up with a paper topic. (It's a necessary thing for writing the paper, but not sufficient.)

Right now I'm trying to write an abstract for a linguistics conference that's due by the 15th, which I also have no clue about, but the professor/my future thesis advisor is really helpful in directing what I need to fix (which is pretty much all of it, except the research idea). I'd rather do that than this.

(Though if it's accepted and I go, I am going to be SO slammed with work, because the conference is on 2 of the last 4 weekdays of the semester. Yaaaaaay.)