delit1-10, Exercise 3: A reading plan

Model answer (one possible plan; check availability and which translation to choose):

1. The Nibelungenlied (Chapter 2): the great medieval epic. Look for a recent prose or verse translation with an introduction.
2. Goethe, Faust Part One (Chapter 5): the central modern drama. Compare two translations in a few passages before choosing.
3. Kafka, The Metamorphosis and other stories (Chapter 8): a short way into modernism. Recent translations differ in tone.
4. Celan, a selection of poems with the German facing (Chapter 9): the poetry after the camps. Bilingual editions let you see what translation does.
5. Sebald, The Emigrants or Austerlitz (Chapter 10): contemporary memory writing.

Justification: the list covers the medieval, the classical, the modern, the postwar and the contemporary, across about eight centuries, and mixes epic, drama, prose and poetry. Alternatives: Fontane's Effi Briest for realism, Mann's Buddenbrooks for the family novel, and a selection of the Grimms' tales for the folk tradition.