Class Schedules

Emphasizing the active use of the language, this course focuses on vocabulary and structural acquisition as a way to develop elementary proficiency in speaking, reading, writing, and comprehension. Students both develop facility with German in highly structured contexts through work with authentic texts and become familiar with a variety of contemporary German-speaking cultures. Students will work with an open educational resource for this course: an interactive, online, and free textbook designed to meet the learning needs of Macalester students. For beginning students with no previous German language instruction. Three hours per week plus laboratory conversation hour.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

Emphasizing the active use of the language, this course focuses on vocabulary and structural acquisition as a way to develop elementary proficiency in speaking, reading, writing, and comprehension. Students both develop facility with German in highly structured contexts through work with authentic texts and become familiar with a variety of contemporary German-speaking cultures. Students will work with an open educational resource for this course: an interactive, online, and free textbook designed to meet the learning needs of Macalester students. For beginning students with no previous German language instruction. Three hours per week plus laboratory conversation hour.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

Emphasizing the active use of the language, this course focuses on vocabulary and structural acquisition as a way to develop elementary proficiency in speaking, reading, writing, and comprehension. Students both develop facility with German in highly structured contexts through work with authentic texts and become familiar with a variety of contemporary German-speaking cultures. Students will work with an open educational resource for this course: an interactive, online, and free textbook designed to meet the learning needs of Macalester students. For beginning students with no previous German language instruction. Three hours per week plus laboratory conversation hour.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

A five-credit accelerated course which covers the content and proficiency development normally covered in GERM 101 and GERM 102. The course, with a separate curriculum for easy independent work, is for students with prior experience with German who need a concentrated review or for students with previous other foreign language background who wish to work at an accelerated pace. Three hours per week plus two conversation laboratory hours. During Spring semester there will be an optional reading and translation lab.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

A five-credit accelerated course which covers the content and proficiency development normally covered in GERM 101 and GERM 102. The course, with a separate curriculum for easy independent work, is for students with prior experience with German who need a concentrated review or for students with previous other foreign language background who wish to work at an accelerated pace. Three hours per week plus two conversation laboratory hours. During Spring semester there will be an optional reading and translation lab.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

A five-credit accelerated course which covers the content and proficiency development normally covered in GERM 101 and GERM 102. The course, with a separate curriculum for easy independent work, is for students with prior experience with German who need a concentrated review or for students with previous other foreign language background who wish to work at an accelerated pace. Three hours per week plus two conversation laboratory hours. During Spring semester there will be an optional reading and translation lab.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

A five-credit accelerated course which covers the content and proficiency development normally covered in GERM 101 and GERM 102. The course, with a separate curriculum for easy independent work, is for students with prior experience with German who need a concentrated review or for students with previous other foreign language background who wish to work at an accelerated pace. Three hours per week plus two conversation laboratory hours. During Spring semester there will be an optional reading and translation lab.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

The first decades of the 20th century produced some of the most innovative works in literary history, permanently transforming the way in which we see, hear, and otherwise perceive the world around us. More than any aesthetic movement before or since, modernists including Virginia Woolf, Ezra Pound, Franz Kafka, Rainer Maria Rilke, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Gertrude Stein, Friedrich Nietzsche, James Joyce, T. S. Eliot, and Marcel Proust were keenly aware of both the limits of language and the inevitability of their transgression. They used words in ways that stretch sense to the point where it breaks, but with the aim of revealing a richer domain of finer-grained perception that is obscured by our everyday linguistic and intellectual habits. Over the course of the semester, we will read literary, philosophical, and theoretical accounts that both thematize and perform their own linguistic (in)capacities: to represent, to translate, to obscure, to estrange, to reveal. We will also examine some instances of modernist music, painting, and film. Our aim is to arrive at a nuanced understanding of how words work, contrasting linguistic phenomena with other forms of expressive media, and inquiring into the potential of language to articulate non-linguistic modes of experience. Meets requirements for argumentative writing, internationalism, and critical theory. All readings in English.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

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. Three hours per week plus conversation laboratory hour. Prerequisite(s): GERM 102 or GERM 110 with a grade of C- or better, or placement test, or consent of the instructor.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

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. Three hours per week plus conversation laboratory hour. Prerequisite(s): GERM 102 or GERM 110 with a grade of C- or better, or placement test, or consent of the instructor.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

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. Three hours per week plus conversation laboratory hour. Prerequisite(s): GERM 102 or GERM 110 with a grade of C- or better, or placement test, or consent of the instructor.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

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. Three hours per week plus laboratory conversation hour. Prerequisite(s): GERM 203 with a grade of C- or better, or placement test, or consent of the instructor.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

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. Three hours per week plus laboratory conversation hour. Prerequisite(s): GERM 203 with a grade of C- or better, or placement test, or consent of the instructor.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

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. Three hours per week plus laboratory conversation hour. Prerequisite(s): GERM 203 with a grade of C- or better, or placement test, or consent of the instructor.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

All readings and class taught in English; no pre-knowledge required. Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677) has been called the "savage anomaly" of the Enlightenment because his philosophy enables an alternative or 'hidden' modernity based on the interdependence of beings rather than their hierarchy. Ever more political theorists, environmentalists, and ecologists are turning to Spinoza's vision of a nonhierarchical union of nature and society that rejects anthropocentrism as the promise for a more equitable and sustainable life. In this course we shall focus on the foundation of Spinoza's unconventional thesis: his intertwined conceptions of the human being as part of nature-as opposed to the prevailing notion of the human as an autonomous "imperium" in, yet above, nature-and of society as a continuation of nature-as opposed to the dominant theories of the "social contract" that ground society on its break with, or repression of, nature (Grotius, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Kant). We shall examine Spinoza's entailed radical revision in understanding both the "political" and the "environment." Beyond Spinoza's Ethics and his Theologico-Political and Political treatises, we shall read major commentators on Spinoza's ethical and political theory and on his role in environmental ethics and Deep Ecology.

General Education Requirements:
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

This course prepares students with intermediate German language skills for upper-level courses in German Studies through advanced language instruction combined with the study of political, social, and aesthetic topics in the cultural history of Germany and related countries, from the cultural revolutions of the Enlightenment to the peaceful protests in East Germany and the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Major events in this itinerary include the Wars of Liberation against Napoleon (1813-1815); the 1848 European revolution; the industrial revolution; the unification of Germany (1870/1871); the economic and philosophical critiques offered by socialism and feminism; the modernist cultural and aesthetic revolution, and in particular the Jugendstil in Vienna at the turn of the 20th century;  imperialism and the two World Wars surrounding the rise and fall of the Weimar Republic (1918-1933) by Nazism; and the subsequent division of Germany into four zones and, later, two countries, up until its reunification. In addition to historical sources and visual art, we shall read a literary text and watch a film relating to the life on the East side of the Berlin Wall (1961-1989). Three hours per week plus one hour of intensive language practice. The course is conducted in German; all readings, writing, presentations, etc. are in German. Prerequisite(s): GERM 204 or permission of instructor.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

This course prepares students with intermediate German language skills for upper-level courses in German Studies through advanced language instruction combined with the study of political, social, and aesthetic topics in the cultural history of Germany and related countries, from the cultural revolutions of the Enlightenment to the peaceful protests in East Germany and the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Major events in this itinerary include the Wars of Liberation against Napoleon (1813-1815); the 1848 European revolution; the industrial revolution; the unification of Germany (1870/1871); the economic and philosophical critiques offered by socialism and feminism; the modernist cultural and aesthetic revolution, and in particular the Jugendstil in Vienna at the turn of the 20th century;  imperialism and the two World Wars surrounding the rise and fall of the Weimar Republic (1918-1933) by Nazism; and the subsequent division of Germany into four zones and, later, two countries, up until its reunification. In addition to historical sources and visual art, we shall read a literary text and watch a film relating to the life on the East side of the Berlin Wall (1961-1989). Three hours per week plus one hour of intensive language practice. The course is conducted in German; all readings, writing, presentations, etc. are in German. Prerequisite(s): GERM 204 or permission of instructor.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

For Marx, "philosophy" is really not a thing, since the world of ideas has no independent existence. And nevertheless, all Marx ever did was to write things, to do theory. In this course, we will come to know Marx’s theory as something that cannot be separated from the texts he wrote, texts that continue to challenge us in questioning the way we make sense of the world. We will read selections from Marx’s early writings on religion and alienation through the theory of ideology and commodity fetishism in tandem with texts by 20th-century thinkers and activists who critiqued and further developed Marx’s thought (Gramsci, Luxemburg, Du Bois, Angela Davis, Adorno). Requirements: Reading responses, problem sets, one short and one long paper. Core course for the Critical Theory Concentration. Taught in English.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

Deemed unsuitable for children (too gruesome!), the Grimm Brothers' original fairy tales have been revised to suit popular sensibilities ever since their first appearance in 1812. What hasn't changed is their ability to point up what is wrong with the "real" world and to gratify a simple but irrefutable sense of justice. Readings include both well-known and obscure tales from the Grimms; leftist and feminist fairy tales from the 20th century; films such as Into the Woods. Three papers and regular reading responses. Taught in German. Prerequisite(s): GERM 308 or GERM 309; or completion of Macalester's or another approved study abroad program; or permission of the instructor.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

This course continues the development of listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills, with increasing emphasis on the practice of reading and writing. Students develop creativity and facility with the language using concrete vocabulary within meaningful contexts. Students also continue to explore contemporary German-speaking cultures. Students will work with an open educational resource for this course: an interactive, online, and free textbook designed to meet the learning needs of Macalester students. Three hours per week plus laboratory conversation hour. Prerequisite(s): GERM 101 with a grade of C- or better, or permission of instructor.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

This course continues the development of listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills, with increasing emphasis on the practice of reading and writing. Students develop creativity and facility with the language using concrete vocabulary within meaningful contexts. Students also continue to explore contemporary German-speaking cultures. Students will work with an open educational resource for this course: an interactive, online, and free textbook designed to meet the learning needs of Macalester students. Three hours per week plus laboratory conversation hour. Prerequisite(s): GERM 101 with a grade of C- or better, or permission of instructor.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

This course continues the development of listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills, with increasing emphasis on the practice of reading and writing. Students develop creativity and facility with the language using concrete vocabulary within meaningful contexts. Students also continue to explore contemporary German-speaking cultures. Students will work with an open educational resource for this course: an interactive, online, and free textbook designed to meet the learning needs of Macalester students. Three hours per week plus laboratory conversation hour. Prerequisite(s): GERM 101 with a grade of C- or better, or permission of instructor.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

A five-credit accelerated course which covers the content and proficiency development normally covered in GERM 101 and GERM 102. The course, with a separate curriculum for easy independent work, is for students with prior experience with German who need a concentrated review or for students with previous other foreign language background who wish to work at an accelerated pace. Three hours per week plus two conversation laboratory hours. During Spring semester there will be an optional reading and translation lab.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

A five-credit accelerated course which covers the content and proficiency development normally covered in GERM 101 and GERM 102. The course, with a separate curriculum for easy independent work, is for students with prior experience with German who need a concentrated review or for students with previous other foreign language background who wish to work at an accelerated pace. Three hours per week plus two conversation laboratory hours. During Spring semester there will be an optional reading and translation lab.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

A five-credit accelerated course which covers the content and proficiency development normally covered in GERM 101 and GERM 102. The course, with a separate curriculum for easy independent work, is for students with prior experience with German who need a concentrated review or for students with previous other foreign language background who wish to work at an accelerated pace. Three hours per week plus two conversation laboratory hours. During Spring semester there will be an optional reading and translation lab.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

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. Three hours per week plus conversation laboratory hour. Prerequisite(s): GERM 102 or GERM 110 with a grade of C- or better, or placement test, or consent of the instructor.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

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. Three hours per week plus conversation laboratory hour. Prerequisite(s): GERM 102 or GERM 110 with a grade of C- or better, or placement test, or consent of the instructor.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

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. Three hours per week plus conversation laboratory hour. Prerequisite(s): GERM 102 or GERM 110 with a grade of C- or better, or placement test, or consent of the instructor.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

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. Three hours per week plus laboratory conversation hour. Prerequisite(s): GERM 203 with a grade of C- or better, or placement test, or consent of the instructor.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

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. Three hours per week plus laboratory conversation hour. Prerequisite(s): GERM 203 with a grade of C- or better, or placement test, or consent of the instructor.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

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. Three hours per week plus laboratory conversation hour. Prerequisite(s): GERM 203 with a grade of C- or better, or placement test, or consent of the instructor.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

Germany has played a leading role in Europe’s transition to renewable energy. It also has a long history of organized opposition to vaccination. What connects these seemingly divergent attitudes toward science, technology, and the natural world? This course explores the intersections of ecology, esotericism, and conspiracy in German-speaking Europe, from Romantic nature philosophy to contemporary environmental activism and alternative health movements. Topics include Germany’s rejection of nuclear power, the institutional acceptance of homeopathy, and the political uses of ideals of natural purity. Through literature, visual art, film, board games, and scientific and philosophical writings, we will examine how appeals to nature have inspired projects of personal transformation, social emancipation, and racial exclusion. What does it mean to live naturally? Who can claim to speak for nature? And how do we distinguish the ecological insight that everything is connected from the suspicion that nothing happens by chance? Taught in English. No previous knowledge required.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

All readings and class taught in English; no pre-knowledge required. In this course we shall examine the relation of religion to both capital and the modern forms of political power (what Michel Foucault termed biopolitics or biopower), as well as the biopolitical formations of race and racism as means for sustaining power-while discovering the enduring pertinence of Marx's work in theorizing the above issues. Biopower emerges gradually in secular capitalist modernity as a form of power that legitimizes itself not through its right to "take life" (as in traditional forms of sovereignty) but through its obligation to protect and enhance life. Yet, albeit "secular," biopower is a form of "pastoral power" (Foucault). We shall explore: the interconnectedness of modern biopower and religion; Marx's critique of the dominant (Enlightenment) critique of religion and his thesis that the secular state presupposes religion; the colonial and racial constructions of religion; racial capitalism; the biopolitical constructions of race in its relation to social class and other forms of domination; and anti-racist criticisms of both Foucault and Marx.

General Education Requirements:
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

The big city is a relatively new phenomenon. Made possible by electricity, the automobile, and rapid industrialization, it introduced a shock into modern life that continues to resonate through literature, painting, dance, music, architecture, art, and film. This course invites students with intermediate German-language skills to examine two major capitals and the culture they engender. On the one hand Vienna, the epicenter of not one but two former empires, steeped in decadence and decay. On the other hand Berlin, a city that has always been defined by division: between socialists and fascists, between the Soviet east and American west, and now between the bike-riding center and car-centric periphery. The course is designed to prepare students for advanced German study, by focusing on original German-language documents written in and about these twin metropoles. Themes will range from the coffee house to the cabaret, from urban anonymity to the 'new woman,' from the shock of city dwelling to DADA. Three hours per week plus one hour of intensive language practice. The course is conducted in German; all readings, writing, presentations, etc. are in German. Prerequisite(s): GERM 204 or permission of instructor.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

The big city is a relatively new phenomenon. Made possible by electricity, the automobile, and rapid industrialization, it introduced a shock into modern life that continues to resonate through literature, painting, dance, music, architecture, art, and film. This course invites students with intermediate German-language skills to examine two major capitals and the culture they engender. On the one hand Vienna, the epicenter of not one but two former empires, steeped in decadence and decay. On the other hand Berlin, a city that has always been defined by division: between socialists and fascists, between the Soviet east and American west, and now between the bike-riding center and car-centric periphery. The course is designed to prepare students for advanced German study, by focusing on original German-language documents written in and about these twin metropoles. Themes will range from the coffee house to the cabaret, from urban anonymity to the 'new woman,' from the shock of city dwelling to DADA. Three hours per week plus one hour of intensive language practice. The course is conducted in German; all readings, writing, presentations, etc. are in German. Prerequisite(s): GERM 204 or permission of instructor.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

The big city is a relatively new phenomenon. Made possible by electricity, the automobile, and rapid industrialization, it introduced a shock into modern life that continues to resonate through literature, painting, dance, music, architecture, art, and film. This course invites students with intermediate German-language skills to examine two major capitals and the culture they engender. On the one hand Vienna, the epicenter of not one but two former empires, steeped in decadence and decay. On the other hand Berlin, a city that has always been defined by division: between socialists and fascists, between the Soviet east and American west, and now between the bike-riding center and car-centric periphery. The course is designed to prepare students for advanced German study, by focusing on original German-language documents written in and about these twin metropoles. Themes will range from the coffee house to the cabaret, from urban anonymity to the 'new woman,' from the shock of city dwelling to DADA. Three hours per week plus one hour of intensive language practice. The course is conducted in German; all readings, writing, presentations, etc. are in German. Prerequisite(s): GERM 204 or permission of instructor.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

Taught in English; there is an optional German component for those who want to have the course count toward their German-taught courses. In this case, students must do the reading and writing assignments and some of their oral presentations in German.In this course we focus on the exchanges and influences among French, German, and American cinematographers within the genre of road movies. We begin with a couple of 1940s-1950 American films that cut across the genres of road movie and film-noir and had an impact on the French nouvelle-vague director Jean-Luc Godard, whose films, in turn, inspired American road movies during their acme in the 1960s-1970s (Dennis Hopper, Bob Rafelson). We shall then turn to the German director Wim Wenders to focus on the relation of his 1970s-1980s road movies to both the German literary canon and American cinematography, notably Jim Jarmusch. The course will conclude with the German director of Turkish descent, Fatih Akin, who complicates the above exchanges by intertwining them with the significant German-Turkish cultural exchange. Students will gain insight into film as an aesthetic, ideological, and political medium, and into specifics of the culture of the countries involved. No pre-knowledge required; appropriate for all students.

General Education Requirements:
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

Designed as a capstone experience in German studies, the senior seminar guides students through the process of developing and executing a highly individual project on a self-chosen topic. While this can take the form of a traditional research paper, students are invited to develop creative projects as well-for example, a story, video, or comic-combined with a shorter accompanying paper. Over the course of the semester, students will brainstorm ideas, learn about the fundamental questions of German studies, receive instruction in the theories and methodologies that inform contemporary scholarship, and gain practice communicating the results of their research to their peers. (Furthermore, given the wide range of majors and minors paired with German, students will gain familiarity with the methodologies of disciplines beyond German Studies.) The seminar will culminate in a public event, in which participants showcase their projects to the rest of the Macalester German community. Taught in German. Prerequisite(s): One of the following: GERM 308 or GERM 309 or GERM 363 or GERM 364 or GERM 365 or GERM 366, or Study Abroad

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials