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German and Russian StudiesCOURSES 101 ELEMENTARY GERMAN I Introduction to German language and culture. Emphasis on comprehension of oral and written contemporary German as well as developing elementary oral proficiency. The course emphasizes vocabulary recognition and acquisition within a variety of concrete contexts. Students develop facility with German within highly structured contexts. Contemporary culture in German-speaking countries provides the content of the course. For beginning students with no previous German language instruction. Three hours per week plus laboratory conversation hour. Every fall. (4 credits) 102 ELEMENTARY GERMAN II Continuation of introduction to German language and culture. Vocabulary acquisition continues within broader contexts. Emphasis on both oral and written production with continuing development of reading and listening skills. Students develop creativity and facility with the language using primarily concrete vocabulary within meaningful contexts. The course provides an introduction to extended reading in German as well. Three hours per week plus laboratory conversation hour. Prerequisite: German 101 with a grade of C– or better, or permission of instructor. Every spring. (4 credits) 110 ACCELERATED ELEMENTARY GERMAN An accelerated course which covers material and proficiency development normally covered in German Studies 101 and 102. The course is for students with prior experience with German who need a concentrated review or students with previous other foreign language background who wish to work at an accelerated pace. Three hours per week plus conversation laboratory hour. Every semester. (4 credits) 203 INTERMEDIATE GERMAN I This course is designed to help students increase their proficiency in the German language while emphasizing authentic cultural contexts. Through exposure to a variety of texts and text types, students develop oral and written proficiency in description and narration and develop tools and discourse strategies for culturally authentic interaction with native speakers. Cultural topics are expanded and deepened. Prerequisite: German Studies 102 or 110 with a grade of C– or better, or placement test, or consent of the instructor. Three hours per week plus conversation laboratory hour. Every semester. (4 credits) 204 INTERMEDIATE GERMAN II The course aims to help students attain a comfort level with extended discourse in German within culturally appropriate contexts. Students develop the ability to comprehend authentic spoken German on a variety of topics at length. They develop effective strategies for comprehending a variety of texts and text types. They gain increased facility with extended discourse, such as narrating and describing. Writing in German is also developed so that students can write extensively about familiar topics. Prerequisite: German Studies 203 with a grade of C– or better, or placement test, or consent of the instructor. Three hours per week plus laboratory conversation hour. Every semester. (4 credits) 223 CULTURE COMPONENT FOR STUDY ABROAD This course provides cultural preparation for students with advanced language skills who plan to study German language, literature and culture abroad. Emphasis on practical needs and everyday cultural understanding. Also an introduction to German cultural history. Taught in German. Every fall. (2 credits) 255 GERMAN CINEMA STUDIES Changing topics in German film. Possible titles include: Nazi Cinema; Film, Philosophy, Politics; Film and the Fantastic; Form and Gender in German and American Cinema; Cinema of the Weimar Republic; Where am I in the Film? Students may register up to two times for courses numbered 255, provided a different topic is offered. No prerequisites. Taught in English. Every year. (4 credits) 305 GERMAN THROUGH THE MEDIA Students continue enhancing their German language skills while exploring contemporary issues through media, ranging from television shows to commercials, films, magazines, newspapers and the internet. At the end of the course students should be able to converse and write on a relatively sophisticated level about a variety of social and academic topics, and be comfortable reading or listening to contemporary German. Excellent preparation for study abroad. Prerequisite: German Studies 204, placement test or permission of instructor. Taught in German. Three hours per week plus conversation laboratory hour. Every semester. (4 credits) 306 INTRODUCTION TO GERMAN STUDIES This course prepares students for upper-level courses in German Studies through the critical investigation of important political, social and aesthetic topics in the context of German cultural history. Such topics include the tension between the German Kulturnation and the political nation, the economic and philosophical critique offered by socialism, imperialism as discourse and political tool, the aesthetic revolution of modernism in the arts, and the debacle of fascism and the Holocaust. In addition to historical texts, students will read literary and autobiographical texts, view films, and examine a number of examples of material culture from a variety of periods. Conducted in German. Prerequisite: German Studies 305, placement test, or permission of instructor. Every semester. (4 credits) 327 DARWIN/NIETZSCHE/FREUD (Same as Philosophy 327) We all have values; but what are they based on? Perhaps no two thinkers have asked this question as persistently and approached it with such intrepid originality as Friedrich Nietzsche and Sigmund Freud. Writing in an age when religious belief had lost credence as a foundation for ethics, Nietzsche and Freud confronted the groundlessness of value systems while recognizing the impossibility of living without them. Both were reacting to Darwin’s discovery of natural selection, which dispelled nature’s divine aura and inaugurated what Nietzsche would call the “death of God.” The course explores the challenges to value judgments in the wake of Darwin and attempted solutions to them, centering on the four domains of ethics, subjectivity, aesthetics, and cultural value. Readings will include excerpts from Darwin’s The Origin of Species; Nietzsche’s The Genealogy of Morals, The Gay Science, and the texts posthumously published as The Will to Power; Freud’s Totem and Taboo, Civilization and Its Discontents, and Beyond the Pleasure Principle; as well as other works. Alternate years; next offered Spring 2010. (4 credits) 360 PROSEMINAR IN GERMAN STUDIES Changing German Studies topics such as: Desire, Reason and Power in Modernity; Modernity and the Unconscious; German Nationalism and its Legacy; Kafka and German Expressionism; Karl Marx and the Development of Communism; German Political Theater; Nietzsche: Romantic, Modern, Postmodern; The Comical Effects of Kafka and Kleist. Students may register up to two times for courses numbered 360, provided a different topic is offered. May be taught in German or in English. Prerequisite: German Studies 306. Every year. (4 credits) 363 ROMANTICISM Starting with Pre-romanticism and the Sturm und Drang, students in this course explore the writings of Goethe, Schiller, Hölderlin, Kleist and the members of the Romantic School (the Schlegels, Tieck, Clemens and Bettina Brentano, Karoline von Günderrode, Eichendorff and others). The course considers the effects of the Napoleonic wars on German literary culture as well as the influence of German Romanticism on the later romanticisms of France, England, Italy and on both the American transcendentalists and Edgar Allan Poe. Taught in German. Prerequisite: German 306 Or may be taken concurrently, study abroad, or permission of the instructor. Alternate years; next offered Fall 2010. (4 credits) 364 THE BIRTH OF MODERN GERMANY This course explores German literature and thought during the Industrial Revolution as well as concomitant social and political events—the creation of the customs union, the drive for national unity and for a constitutional guarantee of civil rights, the revolutions of 1848 and the Communist Manifesto by Marx and Engels. We will critique the concept of realism and the project of representing reality in the arts. Among the thinkers and writers considered are Nietzsche, Heine, Droste-Hülshoff, von Ebner Eschenbach, Mörike, Keller, Storm and Gerhart Hauptmann (whose play “The Weavers” dramatizes the social effects of automation in the 1840s). Taught in German. Prerequisite: German Studies 306. Alternate years; next offered Fall 2009. (4 credits) 365 MODERNISM AND THE AVANT-GARDE The course will be framed by an exploration of the terms modernism, avant garde and, implicitly, postmodernism, all of which reflect differing (though sometimes overlapping) understandings of the relation between “high” art and mass culture. Similarly all are intertwined with historical, political, and economic developments, whether a world war, totalitarianism, or the influence of consumer capitalism. Proceeding from this reciprocal relationship, we will explore various aspects of the cultures of modernism and the avant-garde in the German-speaking world. Topics will include: expressionism and Kafka, Dada and surrealism, the “New Objectivity” and rise of cinema in the Weimar Republic, Brecht’s epic theater, “high” modernism of figures like Thomas Mann, Hermann Hesse, Else Lasker Schüler, culture criticism (e.g., Theodor Adorno’s theory of modernism) and questions of canonization (the dominance of “high” culture in schools, universities, and museums). Taught in German. Prerequisite: German Studies 306. Alternate years; next offered Spring 2010. (4 credits) 366 POSTWAR GERMANY The course will begin with an overview of National Socialism as a basis for understanding the cultural leap that Germany undertook following World War II. It will examine issues of Vergangenheitsbewältigung (coming to terms with the past), the economic miracle in West Germany, and the evolution and collapse of the German Democratic Republic. The course will conclude with opportunities and problems generated by reunification. We will look at texts by writers such as Handke, Kroetz, Plenzdorf, Strauß, Rinser, Morgner, Bachmann, and Wolf, as well as films and other media. Taught in German. Prerequisite: German Studies 306. Alternate years; next offered Spring 2011. (4 credits) 488 SENIOR SEMINAR IN GERMAN STUDIES Designed as a capstone experience in German studies, the seminar brings together fundamental questions engaged by the field of German language, literature, and culture, and enhances students’ understanding of the theories and methodologies informing contemporary scholarship. Part of the seminar will be devoted to study of an aspect of German culture; students will then conduct independent research, which will serve as the basis of class discussions during the latter part of the semester. Changing topics may include: Constructing National Identity; Goethe’s Faust; Centrality and Marginality in German Culture; Translingual Interventions: Migration and Cultural Identity in Contemporary Germany, Charisma. Taught in German. Prerequisite: German Studies 306. Every spring. (4 credits) 604 TUTORIAL Prerequisite: permission of the instructor. Limit to be applied toward the major or will be determined in consultation with the department. Every semester. (4 credits) 614 INDEPENDENT PROJECT Prerequisite: permission of the instructor. Limit to be applied toward the major will be determined in consultation with the department. Every semester. (4 credits)
624 INTERNSHIP Prerequisite: permission of the instructor. Limit to be applied toward the major will be determined in consultation with the department. Every semester. (4 credits) 634 PRECEPTORSHIP Prerequisite: permission of the instructor. Limit to be applied toward the major will be determined in consultation with the department. Every semester. (4 credits) 644 HONORS INDEPENDENT Independent research, writing, or other preparation leading to the culmination of the senior honors project. Every semester. (1–4 credits)
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