Claire Scott

This is the first half of a yearlong 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 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. This course includes required practice sessions with an apprentice teacher (AT), which will be scheduled at the beginning of the semester. Students enrolled in this course will be automatically added to GERM 112Y for the spring semester. Offered every fall.

This is the second half of a yearlong 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 will develop reading skills through a variety of fictional and cultural texts, including a short book we will read in its entirety. This course includes required practice sessions with an apprentice teacher (AT), which will be scheduled at the beginning of the semester. At the end of the semester, the student will read their first book of fiction in German. Prerequisite: GERM 111Y or placement or permission of instructor. Offered every spring.

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 Daniel Kehlmann's historical novel "Die Vermessung der Welt." 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 excerpts from Jochen Schmidt's "Triumphgemüse." We will discuss at least one of the texts in connection with their adaptation to the screen. 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 above or permission of instructor. Generally offered every three years.