GE438 Professor Cosgrove: Boredom in the Literature and Film of the Berlin Republic
Seminar Plan: Week 1 – Boredom in Historical, Cultural and Sociological Perspective
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Introductory lecture and course outline
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Allocation of presentations
GE438 Professor Cosgrove: Boredom in the Literature and Film of the Berlin Republic
Seminar Plan: Week 2 – Boredom and Work
Primary text: Terezia Mora, Der einzige Mann auf dem Kontinent (2009)
Referat texts:

Richard Sennett, The Corrosion of Character: The Personal Consequences of Work
in the New Capitalism (New York, London: Norton, 1998), chapter 3 “Flexible” (pp.
46-63) and chapter 6 “The Work Ethic” (pp. 98-117).

Ulrich Bröckling, Das unternehmerische Selbst: Soziologie einer
Subjektivierungsform (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 2013), “Einleitung”, pp. 7-18.

Georg Simmel, “Die Groβstädte und das Geistesleben”, Projekt Gutenberg-De.:
http://gutenberg.spiegel.de/buch/die-grossstadte-und-das-geistesleben-7738/2
General questions to consider:
1. What kind of narrative structure does Mora use and why might this be significant
for the theme of boredom?
2. How would you describe narrative perspective and narrative voice in the novel?
Why do you think Mora has opted for this particular narrative technique?
3. What background do Kopp and his wife Flora have, and how does it affect them in
the present (or does it affect them)?
Text excerpts for class discussion:
p. 146-152: gives an account of the pre-history of Fidelis Wireless, Kopp’s global employer.
Why is the company ‘mythical’? And what has Kopp’s history been with them? What about
the company Opaco which Kopp’s former colleague, Aris Stavridis, mentions on p. 282285?
p. 152-162: a slice of Kopp’s working life on an average day in the office; how would you
characterise this working life? Where exactly does Kopp work? How does Mora narrate his
working rhythm - how does time go by and what does Kopp achieve? What is the ‘toter
Punkt’ Kopp mentions on p. 161?
p. 183: what do you make of Stavridis’s observation that ‘die Firma ist Geld’?
In sum: in what ways do the situations outlined in the above excerpts present a world in
which the individual ends up bored? Are there any moments which distract from this
boredom?
GE438 Professor Cosgrove: Boredom in the Literature and Film of the Berlin Republic
Seminar Plan: Week 3 – Boredom and Leisure
Primary text: Terezia Mora, Der einzige Mann auf dem Kontinent (2009)
Referat texts:

John Tomlinson, “The Condition of Immediacy” in The Culture of Speed: The
Coming of Immediacy (London: Sage, 2007), pp. 72-93.

Hubert L. Dreyfus, On the Internet (London: Routledge, 2008), chapter 4 “Nihilism
on the Information Highway: Anonymity versus Commitment”, pp. 72-88.

Jean Baudrillard, “The Drama of Leisure or the Impossibility of Wasting One’s
Time”, in The Consumer Society: Myths and Structures (London: Sage, 2012), pp.
151-58.
General questions to consider:
1. What is the significance of electronic technology in this novel, especially the
internet? How does it relate to boredom? [information overload, consumption,
entertainment, appetite, satisfaction / dissatisfaction ]
2. Alongside her focus on modern communications technologies, Mora invests quite
significantly in bodily descriptions (especially of Kopp). What do you think she is
trying to convey through these descriptions? [slowness, heaviness, sloth –
deceleration]
Text excerpts for class discussion:
p. 72-74: Kopp mentions boredom here; what is he convinced he will bored by, and why is
this the case?
p. 84-97: Describe this relaxing Saturday in the countryside.
p. 118-128: Likewise, describe how Sunday – the traditional day of rest – evolves for Kopp
and Flora.
p. 210-220: In this excerpt we encounter Kopp as a consumer. How might we connect this
scene to boredom? What role does the body play throughout this sequence?
In all of the above excerpts, how might we think about boredom, work and leisure time?
GE438 Professor Cosgrove: Boredom in the Literature and Film of the Berlin Republic
Seminar Plan: Week 4 – Boredom and Supermodernity
Primary text: Christian Petzold, Yella (2007)
Referat texts:
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Marc Augé, Non-Places: An Introduction to Supermodernity, trans. John Howe
(London, New York: Verso, 2008), chapter 2 “Anthropological Place”, pp. 35-59;
chapter 3 “From Places to Non-Places”, pp. 61-93.

Peter Merriman, “Driving Places: Marc Augé, Non-Places and the Geographies of
England’s M1 Motorway”, Theory, Culture & Society 21:4-5 (2004): 145-167.
General questions to consider:
1. What kind of landscape imagery dominates in Christian Petzold’s film Yella?
2. What kind of indoor spaces dominate in Yella? How do they relate to the
external landscape?
3. How do internal and external spaces convey the sense of a boring or monotonous
existence? From another angle, what is the appeal in this monotony?
4. In what ways is this film a narrative about the end of the GDR?
5. Petzold states that in the context of modern finance capitalism “work has
disappeared. For that reason the number of phantoms has increased. The ghosts
that haunt employment agencies. Ghosts because they only provide services or sit
in front of computers.” In what ways might we consider Yella to be a ghost in
Petzold’s sense?
GE438 Professor Cosgrove: Boredom in the Literature and Film of the Berlin Republic
Seminar Plan: Week 5 – Boredom and the German Past I
Primary text: Julia Schoch, Mit der Geschwindigkeit des Sommers (2009)
Referat texts:

Seán Desmond Healy, Boredom, Self, and Culture (London & Toronto: Associated
University Presses, 1984), chapter 3 “The Nature of Hyperboredom”, pp. 59-73.

Peter Fritzsche, “1989 and the Chronological Imagination”, in Debating German
Cultural Identity since 1989, ed. Anne Fuchs, Kathleen James-Chakraborty and
Linda Shortt (Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2011), pp. 17-29.

Alison Pease, Modernism, Feminism and the Culture of Boredom (Cambridge:
Cambridge UP, 2012), chapter 1 “Boredom and Bored Women in the Early
Twentieth Century”, pp. 1-34.
General questions to consider:
1. How would you characterise the narrative perspective of this story? Why do you
think Schoch has opted for this first-person narrative?
2. What kind of a life does the narrator’s sister have, and what kind of a life does
the narrator herself have? How do their lives reflect on their GDR childhood?
3. What role does the ‘Soldat’ play for the sister? Why does she decide to start an
affair with him only after the Wende?
Text excerpts for class discussion:
pp. 10-11: the narrator capitalises the word DAS LEBEN. What does this represent? How
does it relate to her concept of an event / occurrence? And how does this relate to
boredom?
pp. 16-20: how does Schoch describe the landscape in which the narrator and her sister
grew up? In what ways do time and space intermingle in her description? What is the
overall effect? See also p. 24; the description of the lagoon on p. 26-27; p. 37.
p. 22-23: how does the narrator present the turning point of 1989 in her sister’s life? How
does she present its effects on women of the GDR from pp. 48-52? On p. 58 she describes
the ‘Ort’ 10 years after the Wende – what has changed?
Schoch often mentions the act of waiting. What kind of temporal experience is this, and
for whom? See p. 38-40, p. 66.
GE438 Professor Cosgrove: Boredom in the Literature and Film of the Berlin Republic
p. 53: The narrator gives us a particular view of history here; see also pp. 146-148 for a
similar view – how might this understanding of history and time connect to boredom?
How does the sister regard her body? See pp. 68-71, pp. 118-119, pp. 122-123.
WEEK 6: READING WEEK
GE438 Professor Cosgrove: Boredom in the Literature and Film of the Berlin Republic
Seminar Plan: Week 7 – Boredom and the German Past II
Primary text: Iris Hanika, Das Eigentliche (2010)
Referat texts:

Anton C. Zijderveld, On Clichés: The Supersedure of Meaning by Function in
Modernity (London, Boston: Routledge, 1979), chapter 4 “Clichés and Boredom:
The Supersedure of Meaning by Function in the Experience of Time”, pp. 75-87.
[clichés: pp. 48-49, Marschner’s memory politics speak – combines economic
interests with Holocaust memory; pp. 65-66 clichés on the national and
transnational levels – critique of normalization].

Andrew S. Gross, “Holocaust Tourism in Berlin: Global Memory, Trauma and the
Negative Sublime”, Journeys 7:2 (year): 73-100.
http://courses.washington.edu/berlin07/Readings/AndyGross_HolocaustTourismInB
erlin.pdf

Henryk M. von Broder, “Das Shoah Business” Der Spiegel (16) 4 April 1993
http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-13680385.html
General questions to consider:
1. Hans Frambach works in the Institut für Vergangenheitsbewirtschaftung in Berlin.
How does the term “Vergangenheitsbewirtschaftung” compare with the classic
German term for postwar memory, “Vergangenheitsbewältigung”?
2. When were Frambach and Graziela born, and how does what Frambach terms “der
Gnade der späten Geburt” affect their relationship to the Nazi past?
3. Hanika often graphically interrupts the horizontal flow of sentences and leaves
pages blank or cuts them off before the end. She also includes excerpts from the
archival documents Frambach files (pp. 156-158), quotations from scholarly works
(pp. 96-98), the minutes of events that the Institute hosts (pp. 52-57) and excerpts
from poems or songs (pp. 58-60, p. 72, pp. 115-116, p. 169, p. 171). What are the
effects of this narrative technique?
Text excerpts for class discussion:
pp. 8-10: what role did an everyday U Bahn journey used to play for Hans Frambach and
his friend Graziela? What has changed in recent years?
GE438 Professor Cosgrove: Boredom in the Literature and Film of the Berlin Republic
pp. 12-16: Frambach’s basic condition is one of “Unglück”. What exactly is this “Unglück”,
and where are its origins? What is his view of his life in Germany today? How might we
connect his condition to boredom?
pp. 21-25: How does Hanika present the institute in which Frambach works? See also pp.
164-167 for references to the Holocaust memorial, the memorial to murdered homosexuals
under National Socialism and pp. 58-60 for a reflection on the nowadays nationwide
“Stolpersteine” project. Again, how might we connect these phenomena to Frambach’s
boredom?
pp. 64-66, pp. 72-73: What perspective on the broader political landscape of the Berlin
Republic do we get in these two excerpts (Frambach’s thoughts on Angela Merkel,
especially her hands, and his citation of the national anthem)?
The novel is called Das Eigentliche, which we could translate as The Quintessence. What is
Frambach’s idea of “das Eigentliche” (p. 24) and what is Graziela’s (p. 31)? How do both
compare with each other, and what is Hanika trying to get at in using this term? See also
p. 34 where we learn that the computer centre is “das Eigentliche” of the archive in the
Institut für Vergangenheitsbewirtschaftung. See also p. 166.
How do daily work and boredom connect in Das Eigentliche? See p. 38, p. 40-41. How does
Frambach react to the proposed trip to Shanghai (p. 50-51), and how does he describe this
potential trip to Graziela later that evening (p. 77-78)? See also pp. 152-155 for a central
passage on Frambach’s task of working through the materials in Wolkenkraut’s archive.
Give an account of how Hanika narrates a typical evening at home for Frambach. What
kind of boredom does he experience? See pp. 61-63, 69-71. How does it compare to the
boredom described on pp. 144-45.
GE438 Professor Cosgrove: Boredom in the Literature and Film of the Berlin Republic
Seminar Plan: Week 8 – Boredom and the German Past III
Primary text: Iris Hanika, Das Eigentliche (2010)
Referat texts:

Reinhard Kuhn, The Demon of Noontide: Ennui in Western Literature (Princeton:
Princeton University Press, 1976), chapter 2 “The Demon of Noontide”, pp. 39-64.
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Michael L. Raposa, Boredom and the Religious Imagination (Charlottesville, VA,
London: University Press of Virginia, 1999), chapter 1 “Portraying Acedia”, pp. 1140
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Peter Toohey, Boredom: A Lively History (New Haven, London: Yale UP, 2011),
chapter 4 “The Disease that Wasteth at Noonday”, pp. 107-142.
General questions to consider:
1. In what ways does Hanika suggest that commercial interests and political
correctness have defiled the memory of the Holocaust? How does she cast this in a
religious light?
2. How might we view Frambach as a fallen monk / hermit? What role does Graziela
play in this fallen world?
3. How does Hanika suggest that the Berlin Republic is a fallen nation?
Text excerpts for class discussion:
pp. 101-102: How does Hanika describe the Sühne-Christi-Kirche in Spandau – its physical
dimensions, its relationship to the immediate neighbourhood and residents, its memorial
artefacts? How does this description compare with the Institut für
Vergangenheitsbewirtschaftung? And how does boredom enter the frame here?
pp. 104-107: Why does Frambach have such a strong reaction to the materials available to
him in the Sühne-Christi-Kirche? How does Hanika weave the story of the Fall of man into
this excerpt?
pp. 111-112: Why does Frambach keep referring to the Biblical story of Cain?
pp. 116-119: What is Frambach’s objection to the way in which the Holocaust is
commemorated in the Berlin Republic? Again, how might we connect this to boredom?
GE438 Professor Cosgrove: Boredom in the Literature and Film of the Berlin Republic
pp. 120-127: Graziela and Frambach use the concept of acedia to describe what is wrong
with their lives. What has Frambach lost faith in? And how does Graziela’s situation
compare to his? How do we link this to boredom?
GE438 Professor Cosgrove: Boredom in the Literature and Film of the Berlin Republic
Seminar Plan: Week 9 – Boredom and Capitalism I
Primary text: Christoph Hochhäusler, Unter dir die Stadt (2010)
Referat texts:

Saskia Sassen, “The Global City: The De-Nationalizing of Time and Space”
http://90.146.8.18/en/archiv_files/20021/E2002_018.pdf

Roger Keil and Klaus Ronneberger, “The Globalization of Frankfurt am Main: Core
Periphery and Social Conflict”, in Globalizing Cities: A New Spatial Order, eds.
Peter Marcuse, Ronald Van Kempen (Oxford: Blackwell, 2000), pp. 228-248

Miles Glendinning, Architecture’s Evil Empire: The Triumph and Tragedy of Global
Modernism (London: Reaktion, 2010), chapter 1 “Architecture of Alienation”, pp.
7-18
General questions to consider:
1. How does Hochhäusler suggest that profound boredom is a problem for the two
principal characters in this film?
2. What does the film suggest as the cause (or causes) of this boredom?
3. In what ways might we consider Hochhäusler’s depictions of the city of Frankfurt am
Main as spatial images of supermodernity? What happens to the individual body within
these spaces?
GE438 Professor Cosgrove: Boredom in the Literature and Film of the Berlin Republic
Seminar Plan: Week 10 – Boredom and Capitalism II
Primary text: Wilhelm Genazino Wenn wir Tiere wären (2011)
Referat texts:

Friedrich Nietzsche, “Arbeit und Langeweile” in Die fröhliche Wissenschaft, Erstes
Buch, Absatz 42 [http://www.textlog.de/21209.html]

Siegfried Kracauer, “Langeweile” in Das Ornament der Masse (Frankfurt am Main:
Suhrkamp, 1963), 321-325.
Wilhelm Genazino, “Der Ernstfall der Langeweile”, in Idyllen in der Halbnatur
(Munich: DTV, 2012), 222-26.


Françoise Wemelsfelder, “Animal Boredom: Understanding the Tedium of Confined
Lives”, in Mental Health and Well-Being in Animals, ed. Franklin D. McMillan
(Oxford: Blackwell, 2005), 79-91.
General questions to consider:
1. How would you characterise the first-person protagonist? For example, what does
he do professionally, what kinds of relationships does he have, how does he spend
most days?
2. The narrator is often depicted observing individuals, animals and urban spaces.
What does this tell us about him, and why do you think the act of looking is so
important in this novel? See p. 47 for a possible motivation for looking (seep. 102);
see p. 75 for a sense of what the obstacles to the gaze might be.
3. Bearing in mind the title of the novel, what significance do animals (especially
birds) have in this work? See for example the duck he observes on p. 10/11. See
also his comment on p. 74.
4. Why does Genazino make the narrator, and his recently deceased colleague /
friend Michael Autz, into petty criminals?
5. The narrator considers himself to be a bore and tries not to speak too much, yet he
envies the composer Brahms for being boring during his lifetime. What can we say
about his position on boredom in general, then?
Text excerpts for class discussion:
10-11: what is so fascinating about the duck in this scene? How does it compare to the
depiction of the grasshopper on pp. 42-43?
GE438 Professor Cosgrove: Boredom in the Literature and Film of the Berlin Republic
31-33: consider the politics of consumption in the scene in Hertie (31-33). How does this
compare with his thoughts on the culture of mass consumption (see p. 18, also p. 99)?
30: the zoo and the cinema are singled out as places of mass entertainment in which
reigns the ‘elend der nicht vertriebenen Zeit’. What does the narrator mean by this?
52-54: this scene tells of the narrator’s first independent crime. Why do you think he does
this? Compare it to the crime he commits on p. 105. What has changed? See p. 133 for a
possible motivation.
62: the narrator describes himself as ‘lebensüberdrüssig’ – why is this the case? See also
his reflections on the ‘Gebrauchtheit der Welt’, p. 100, 103, 112, 117).
98: the narrator starts work in Autz’s former practice and is bored immediately – how is
this type of boredom connected to time? See p. 104 for comparison.
128: how does the boredom of the prison cell compare with boredom experienced on the
outside?