GERM 111Y Intensive Introductory German

Credit: 0.75

This is the first half of a year-long course for students who are beginning the study of German or who have had only minimal exposure to the language. The first semester introduces students to the German language in all four modalities: reading, writing, speaking, and listening. The work includes practice (in class, in scheduled review sessions with an apprentice teacher, and using an online workbook) in understanding and using the spoken language. Written exercises and elementary reading materials completed outside class serve as a basis for vocabulary-building and in-class discussion and role-plays. Students will also write four short essays on familiar topics over the course of the semester. During the second semester there is more advanced practice in the use of the spoken and written language, and we will use short fictional and authentic cultural texts in order to develop techniques of reading. The class meets four and one-half hours per week with the professor, and an additional three hours per week with an apprentice teacher. Offered every fall semester.

Instructor: Staff

GERM 112Y Intensive Introductory German

Credit: 0.75

This is the second half of a year-long course for students who are beginning the study of German or who have had only minimal exposure to the language. As in the first semester, the work includes practice of the German language in all four modalities--reading, writing, speaking, and listening--in class, in scheduled review sessions with an apprentice teacher, and using an online workbook. There will be more advanced practice in the use of the spoken and written language.We aim to develop reading skills through a variety of fictional and cultural texts, including a short book we will read in its entirety.The class meets four and one-half hours per week with the professor, and an additional three hours per week with an apprentice teacher. Prerequisite: GERM 111Y, placement, or permission of the instructor. Offered every spring semester.

Instructor: Staff

GERM 213Y Intermediate German Language

Credit: 0.5

This first-semester middle-level course is designed to develop German reading, writing, and speaking skills beyond GERM 111Y-112Y. A grammar text is used for reviewing and expanding upon aspects of German grammar from the first year. We will apply this review to the reading of short literary and journalistic texts, to gaining a basic understanding of films in the original German, and to conversation in German with a partner or in groups. These texts and films will serve as a point of departure for short compositions as well. Keeping a diary in German is also an integral component of the course. An apprentice teacher or language assistant will conduct a fourth weekly meeting, in addition to the three regular classes. Prerequisite: successful completion of GERM 111Y-112Y or equivalent. Offered every fall semester.

Instructor: Staff

GERM 214Y Intermediate German Language

Credit: 0.5

This second-semester middle-level course is designed to develop German reading, writing, and speaking skills beyond GERM 111Y-112Y. See course description for GERM 213Y. Offered every spring semester.

Instructor: Staff

GERM 321 Advanced Composition and Conversation

Credit: 0.5

In this course, we will explore a wide array of topics in contemporary German culture, in order to provide advanced students with the opportunity to strengthen their abilities to write, read, and speak German. Topics may include the impact of reunification on contemporary Germany; religious life and popular music. Material for conversation and composition may be provided by textbooks and/orarticles from the current press in German-speaking countries, films, other media, and Web sites. Students will develop fluency in German in order to perform linguistically and culturally appropriate tasks. The composition component will seek to improve the ability to write clearly and coherently in German. To foster these goals, the course will also provide a review of advanced grammatical structures. Prerequisite: completion of GERM 213Y-214Y or equivalent. Offered every fall semester.

Instructor: Staff

GERM 323 German Women Writers

Credit: 0.5

This course will examine texts written over the past two centuries by German women from a variety of ethnic, national, and social backgrounds. Incorporating both poetry and prose texts, the course will be organized around thematic blocks. Past themes have included: the critique of society in Nobel laureate Elfriede Jelinek (Austria) or Christa Wolf (the socialist GDR); father figures, family histories, and childhood in Birgit Vanderbeke's Das Muschelessen from 1990 and Annette von Droste-Hülshoff's Die Judenbuche from 1842; nineteenth-century social activism in Hedwig Dohm's Werde die du bist and the political pamphlets of Louise Otto; German-Jewish writing by Fanny Lewald in the early nineteenth century and Barbara Honigmann in the late twentieth century; women under the Nazis, including lesbians in the film Aimee and Jaguar and exiles such as Annah Seghers; and recent immigrant experiences as depicted in the works of Emine Özdamar and Yoko Tawada. Keeping in mind that women's creative energy has not always been fully recognized, the course will examine the social and literary context in which these women wrote, the constructions of gender in their societies, and the ways in which they reacted to this context. The course will be conducted in German, and will be suited for students who have completed GERM 325. Permission of instructor possible for students who have completed GERM 321. Normally offered every other year.

Instructor: Staff

GERM 325 Survey: German Literature and Culture

Credit: 0.5

This course is designed as a first introduction to the study of German literature. It will provide an overview of different periods in the history of German, Swiss, and Austrian literature on the basis of representative textual and cinematic examples. Another central goal is gaining practice in the close reading of texts. We will read samples from various genres--an Enlightenment drama, prose from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, a post-war novel, and lyric poetry from various epochs of German literature. Authors to be studied may include Walther von der Vogelweide, Lessing, Tieck, Frisch, Schnitzler, Kafka, Ingeborg Bachmann, and Judith Hermann. Gaining a basic German vocabulary in order to engage in the criticism of German literature, and interacting with works of secondary literature, will also be important components of this course. Prerequisite: GERM 213Y-214Y or equivalent. Offered every spring semester.

Instructor: Staff

GERM 355 Jewish Writers in German Culture: Assimilation and its Discontents

Credit: 0.5

Heinrich Heine, Arthur Schnitzler, Franz Kafka, Paul Celan. These authors are considered among the greatest ever to have written in the German language--one might argue, in any language. And they were also all Jews. In this course, we will read short fictional texts and poems created over the last 250 years by these and other German-language Jewish artists. In addition, we will examine a variety of treatises surrounding the origins of Germany's so-called "Judenfrage" and the answers to the Jewish question given over time by important Jewish and non-Jewish thinkers such as G.E. Lessing, C.W. von Dohm, Karl Marx, Richard Wagner, Theodor Adorno, Jean Amery, and Gershom Scholem. Even as we consider the meaning of the Holocaust's unhealable rupture in the German-Jewish encounter, the primary focus of the course is on the continuity and vibrancy of German-Jewish life and on the variety of German-Jewish cultural expression during the period in question, including after the Shoah. Other possible authors include Moses Mendelssohn, Fanny Lewald, and Karl Emil Franzos in the late eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries; Theodor Herzl, Joseph Roth, and Else Lasker-Schuler in the early twentieth century; Ilse Aichinger in the immediate postwar period; and Jurek Becker, Andre Kaminski, Maxim Biller, and Doron Rabinovici in more recent times. Films by Ernst Lubitsch, Ruth Beckermann, and Dani Levy are also examined. Prerequisite: GERM 325 or permission of instructor.

Instructor: Staff

GERM 361 Images of the German Family

Credit: 0.5

Some of the greatest masterpieces of German literature thematically explore family relationships, harmonious or dysfunctional. In this course, we will look at images of the family in German and Austrian literature and film. Three masterworks from the Age of Goethe will be juxtaposed with novels, short fiction, and films from the early and late twentieth century. Schiller's Intrigue and Love, Goethe's Elective Affinities, and Heinrich von Kleist's Earthquake in Chile provide surprisingly different approaches to the family theme in the earlier period. Discussion of these works will provide a basis for exploring later texts, such as excerpts from Thomas Mann's Buddenbrooks, Kafka's shorter works The Metamorphosis and The Judgment, and Thomas Bernhard's 1986 novel Extinction, which shares with Kafka's texts the outsider status of its protagonist within his family. Films may include Fritz Lang's silent movies based on the Nibelungen myth, Margarethe von Trotta's Marianne and Juliane, and Tom Tykwer's The Princess and the Warrior. We will analyze these works from different perspectives--for example, family history as a mirror for economic development (Mann), the family in the face of terror (Schiller, Kleist, von Trotta), and the juxtaposition of family intimacy with totalitarian power (Schiller). We will trace connections between different family images while also exploring theoretical considerations, such as the influence of the family theme on narrative structure. All readings and discussion will be in German. Prerequisite: GERM 325 or equivalent. Permission of instructor possible for students who have completed GERM 321. Normally offered every other year.

Instructor: Gebhardt

GERM 362 Contemporary German Fiction

Credit: 0.5

In a special journal issue on emerging German writers, Frank Finley and Stuart Taberner write: "What is most immediately striking about the German literary market since unification, and in particular since the mid-1990s, is its sheer diversity." In this course, we will read and interpret exemplary works from the wealth of texts that form this new literature. Among the authors are emerging writers, as well as well-established writers such as Nobel Prize winner Günter Grass. Our focus for discussion will shift a number of times during the semester. We will explore issues of German history and German identity with respect to Grass's novel Im Krebsgang and Thomas Brussig's satirical alternative "history" of the fall of the Wall, Helden wie wir. More aesthetic and philosophical problems, such as intertextuality and memory, will guide our discussion of W.G. Sebald's Schwindel. Gefühle. Sebald's book is related to Judith Hermann's Nichts als Gespenster through the theme of the travelogue. Likewise, we will discuss the poetics and narrative strategies of Hermann's stories. We will investigate questions of popular literature, and generational issues ("Generation Golf") by looking at Christian Kracht's Faserland (which--like the Hermann and Sebald texts--can be read as a travelogue) and Benjamin von Stuckrad-Barre's Solo-Album. The novels Helden wie wir and Solo-Album will also be discussed in the context of their respective motion picture versions. The format of the course will be seminar-type discussion complemented by occasional presentations by students and the instructor. All readings and discussion are in German. Prerequisite: GERM 325 or equivalent. Permission of instructor possible for students who have completed GERM 321. Normally offered every two to three years.

Instructor: Gebhardt

GERM 363 From Nietzsche to Kafka

Credit: 0.5

Nietzsche and Kafka stand out as two of the most important prose stylists of the German language. At the same time, the period between the beginning of Nietzsche's productive career around 1870 and Kafka's death in 1924 is one of fundamental historical change: it starts with the rise of the German nation state and ends after the downfall of both the German and the Austro-Hungarian monarchies. Not surprisingly, the literature of this era in the German language is marked by similar radical transformations. We will attempt to trace these changes by beginning with a discussion of Nietzsche's Also sprach Zarathustra (1883-85) and concluding with Kafka's fragmentary novel Der Process. From the perspective of the changing role of literature in response to societal and historical realities, or as a depiction of states of human consciousness, we will investigate a number of additional works: for example, Hugo von Hofmannsthal's Ein Brief, Gerhart Hauptmann's Bahnwarter Thiel, Lou Andreas-Salome's Fenitschka, and Arthur Schnitzler's Leutnant Gustl, as well as poetry by Rilke, Trakl, and Benn. All readings and discussion are in German. Prerequisite: GERM 325 or equivalent. Permission of instructor possible for students who have completed GERM 321. This course will be offered every two or three years.

Instructor: Gebhardt

GERM 365 Politics and Gender in German Cinema

Credit: 0.5

Contemporary German cinema has been criticized for its presentation of "characters whose primary sense of person and place is rarely an overt function of their national identity or directly impacted by Germany's difficult past" (Eric Rentschler). Politics seem to disappear more and more from the German screen, whereas the New German Cinema from the 60s to the early 80s often used film explicitly as a means of coming to terms with the past. This course presents major trends in German film since 1989 (beginning with Heiner Carow's Coming Out, a queer movie and one of the last DEFA films). We will try to reassess the often repeated claim of the disappearance of the political. Indeed, we will look at a number of films dealing with gender and queer issues by directors such as Monika Treut (My Father is Coming) and Kutlug Ataman (Lola and Billy the Kid), among others. Moreover, Ataman, along with director Fatih Akin (In July, Head On), will serve as an example for a breakthrough in Turkish-German film production. Discussing the work of Tom Tykwer (Winter Sleepers, The Princess and the Warrior, and Perfume) will form one thematic block in this overview of the past eighteen years of German film. Another group of movies that deals with the German division and re-unification, such as The Promise, Good-Bye Lenin, and Go For Zucker, will be included, as well. The course also introduces students to the tools of film analysis. No previous knowledge of German or film is required. Taught in English. No prerequisites. May be taken for credit towards the German major; please consult with instructor regarding arrangements for German credit. Normally offered every two to three years.

Instructor: Gebhardt

GERM 374 Uncanny Love Stories: Theories of Love in German Literature from the Enlightenment to the Present

Credit: 0.5

The purpose of this course is twofold: to provide an overview of the development of German literature from the eighteenth century to the present; and to focus on the ways different writers and thinkers (and later, filmmakers) represent the fundamental human experience of love in exceptional or "uncanny" ways. The course begins with a consideration of the role of the emotions versus reason in the German Enlightenment. We then turn to the literary works from major German authors, from Goethe to Kleist, Kafka, and Thomas Mann, in which love is marked by loss, violence, and tragedy and/or elevated to the realm of the aesthetic. Freud's theory of love as outlined in his psychoanalytic writings informs the course in general. The course will conclude with a selection of films from the postwar era. Readings and discussion are in German. The course will be conducted in German. Prerequisite: GERM 325 or equivalent. Permission of instructor possible for students who have completed GERM 321.

Instructor: Riegert

GERM 381 Faust and Faust Legends in Literature and Film

Credit: 0.5

This course presents a close examination of Faust and the Faust legend in German and European literature from the Renaissance to the present, with all its implications for modern times. The Faustian pact with the Devil, your heart's desire in exchange for your soul, has clear reference for modernism. The birth of the blues as well as fascism share in the myth. Reading in this class will trace the roots of this myth in the Volksbuch von Doktor Faust, Marlowe's Dr. Faustus, Goethe's Faust, and The Master and Margarita. The course will also include a number of films that deal with the Faust themes, such as Angelheart, Faust, Mephisto, andThe Last Temptation of Christ. Readings are in English. The course may be taken for credit toward the German major; students should consult with the instructor regarding requirements for German credit.

GERM 385 Weimar Film and Beyond

Credit: 0.5

This course will examine German film from its beginnings to the present. The films we will view and analyze in this represent four epochs of German film: (1) the Weimar era, which produced film classics such as Nosferatu, Metropolis, and The Golem; (2) examples of films produced during the Third Reich; (3) the films of the New German Cinema, which include such works as The Marriage of Maria Braun, by Rainer Maria Fassbinder, and Heart of Glass, by Werner Herzog, as well as films by directors such as Maragethe von Trotta and Wim Wenders; and (4) films produced in the last decade. The films shown in this class are in the original German. The course will be conducted as a seminar. The course may be taken for credit toward the German major; students should consult with the instructor regarding requirements for German credit.

GERM 387 Rilke, Celan, and Theory

Credit: 0.5

In this course, we will attempt to gain an understanding of some of the most complex poetry in German in the twentieth century. At least two of the poets we will study -- Rainer Maria Rilke and Paul Celan -- have made it into the canon of what some call "World Literature." Our approach will be theoretical in that we will start with a seminal work in German aesthetics, Nietzsche's Birth of Tragedy, and throughout the semester, we will discuss the poems side by side with philosophical and critical essays on the poems in question. German twentieth-century poetry has resonated in extraordinary ways with writers in theoretically and philosophically oriented criticism. Theoretical work we will discuss in this course will include Martin Heidegger's essays "What are Poets for?" and "Language," Hans Georg Gadamer's essays on Rilke and Celan, Werner Hamacher's "The Second of Inversion," Adorno's "The Lyric and Society," and Paul De Man's "Tropes (Rilke)." In addition to Rilke and Celan, we will study poems by Else Lasker-Schüler, Stefan George, Georg Trakl, Gertrud Kolmar, and Gottfried Benn. The readings will open up perspectives on the central aspects of criticism on poetry, namely the relationship between philosophical thought and poetry, the relationship between poetry and language, the problem of self-reference, and questions of history and memory. Open to students of all levels. No German language proficiency required, as all readings will be in English. Normally offered every two to three years.

Instructor: Gebhardt

GERM 395 Myth of Nation: German Film from Nosferatu to Hitler and Beyond

Credit: 0.5

This course will examine the construction of national identity through the medium of film. For Germany, which historically looked to its writers to define its national identity, film became a very important medium for expressing this goal. In addition to a basic understanding of the terms and methods used in the formal description of film, this course aims to provide students with the socio-historic background to be able to understand and evaluate the role that films played in both shaping and reflecting German cultural ideals from the early twentieth century through the present. The majority of films viewed in this course will represent three distinct historical epochs: (1) the Weimar period, which produced some of the greatest silent films ever made, such as Nosferatu, The Golem, Dr. Caligari, and Dr. Mabuse; (2) the Nazi period, which resulted in the artistically unequaled propaganda film The Triumph of the Will, as well as examples of Hollywood-inspired Nazi propaganda films such as Jew Süss; (3) the post-World War II period, for which we will view films made by members of the New German Cinema, like Fassbinder's The Marriage of Maria Braun, Werner Herzog's Aguirre: the Wrath of God, and Wings of Desire by Wim Wenders. Finally, we will view a number of films that represent a reaction of sorts to New German Cinema, such as the (anti-) war film Das Boot, as well as recent works by women filmakers such as Margarete von Trotta (Rosenstraße), Dorris Dörrie (Men), and Vaness Jopp (Forget America). No prerequisites. The course will be conducted in English. The course may be taken for credit toward the German major; students should consult with the instructor regarding requirements for German credit. Normally offered every two to three years.

Instructor: Riegert

GERM 493 Individual Study

Credit: 0.25-0.5

See description for MLL 493.