# Topics in German Literature: Radical Trans-: Drifts, Rifts and Shifts in Literature and the Arts

**Source**: https://german.princeton.edu/whats-on/courses/graduate/2025-26-spring/ger-526
**Parent**: https://german.princeton.edu/whats-on/courses/current?t=graduate

GER 526

# Topics in German Literature: Radical Trans-: Drifts, Rifts and Shifts in Literature and the Arts

Spring 2026

Tu

1:30p - 4:20p

<https://registrar.princeton.edu/course-offerings/course-details?term=1264&courseid=003213>

What does it mean to think *trans-* not as a marker of identity or political stance, but as an impulse toward crossing and altering form(s)? This course is an introduction to a generative principle of literature and art, expressed metaphorically by the prefix *trans-* (“across, beyond”). How does *trans-* operate in poetic language and other forms of art resisting stability to bring about “the new“? *Trans-* points to processes and mutations, as suggested by its iterations. While “transgression” peaked in theory around 2000, “translingualism” is still flourishing. We will engage with the potential of *trans-* from “translation“ to “corecore“. Seminar discussions in English.

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