German literature

[Anonymous No.19518979]

Not philosophy, but novels/novellas/short stories/poetry. Any recommendations would be very much appreciated. My German is still kind of shit (2 years into learning) so I probably can’t read much anything of yet, but please give me something to look forward to reading in its original language.

[Anonymous No.19519005]

>>19518979
>My German is still kind of shit (2 years into learning)
I'll need more info here. What level, what kind of stuff can you already read, can you talk and can you write, if so, how well?
Also, what sort of stuff do you like to read? Or are you a stylefag?

[Anonymous No.19519175]

>>19519005
I'm probably only A2. I can have basic conversations over text and in person, but they're honestly mistake riddled, which I know because when I review what I said afterwards I can usually point out the mistakes myself.

I don't know if I have a specific kind of book that I like. I'm open to reading anything and tend to read a broad range of novels over the year. cringe incoming as I'll try and cover a broad range of stuff I've liked: victorian/regency English lit, latam novellas, french poetry, etc. I really liked reading stuff by O'Connor, Nabokov, Ngozi Adichie.

Cringe out of the way, I'm open to pretty much anything as long as its original language is German. thanks anon

[Anonymous No.19519206]

>>19518979
Tyll was originally written in German. I finished the English translation the other night. I really enjoyed it.

[Anonymous No.19519240]

>>19519175
>2 years
>A2
/lit/ consistently vastly understates the effort it takes to learn a language but this can't be right. You'd have to learn at a pace of 1 hour per week to only get to A2 in 2 years. Maybe you underestimated your level? Take a sample Goethe-Zertifikat B1 or B2 level test and check your results

[Anonymous No.19519472]

>>19519240
For the first year I was self-studying and honestly probably only doing an hour a week on bad weeks (and I had a lot of bad weeks), especially because it's my fourth language and I have to spend time every week keeping up with the three languages I'm fluent in. I took a couple of online tests just now and did tend to barely scrape by on a B1 level, and my online language exchange partners tend to put me at a B1 level too, but I just don't feel that confident with the language yet. Thanks for your help so far anon

[Anonymous No.19519628]

The German in Kafka's Metamorphosis seems very approachable to me.

Don't start with Mann.

[Anonymous No.19519641]

This is easy to read; you could probably get through it pretty quickly if you applied yourself.

[Anonymous No.19519659]

>>19519628
> The German in Kafka's Metamorphosis seems very approachable to me.
I've taken another look. Maybe not as easy as I remembered it.

But I stand by my advice of not starting with Mann.

[Anonymous No.19519698]

>>19519659
Yeah I only put a picture of Mann because I just read a translated version of Death in Venice for a class. Lol I definitely couldn't understand that in German.

I've read the Metamorphosis in English so it might not be too bad to read it in German (with a dictionary beside me of course) since I'm already familiar with the story.

[Anonymous No.19519735]

>>19519698
Yes, the syntax is straightforward, I just noticed some old fashioned words. But if you've already read it in English, that help, and you know that nothing in the story hinges on understanding every single word.

[Anonymous No.19520229]

Just in general, any favourite German literature (at any skill level)? Favourite authors?