Class Schedules

Vampires are cyclical. Just a few years ago you ran into them anytime you walked into a bookstore or turned on the TV-just like in Victorian times when Bram Stoker's famous work emerged from a vampire craze. Vampires have always been popular fodder and will continue to be so, even if and as the image of the vampire shifts dramatically over time. The popularity of vampires has waxed and waned for over a hundred years, partially because vampirism can be used as a metaphor for almost anything-from the plague to sexuality to addiction. We will juxtapose classic tales of vampires as monsters with the more recent generation of vampires. What happened to change our imagination of vampires from monsters into hip, outsider superheroes? And what can the examination of vampires tell us about the context in which they were created?

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

Readings and course in English. Today we have narrative philosophy, narrative psychology, narrative history, narrative anthropology, even narrative economics. If narrative and story-telling cut across virtually all disciplines (even the sciences), perhaps it is because narrative is the means by which we are able to understand things and events. It is how we take things that befall us, over which we have no control, and make them comprehensible. Narrative is accordingly fundamental to what it means to be a human being: to be a human being is to have a story; and to have a story, is to have a world and a place in that world. Narrative is fundamental to the constitution of society, and the formation of our own sense of selfhood. Yet, in our present age, story-telling is being increasingly undermined, subverted, co-opted, mimicked, monetized, alienated. What can we do to cultivate our own narrative culture, to protect it, to practice it? We will look at autobiographical works of film, literary classics, as well as classics of philosophy and sociology that reflect on, and revel in, narrative. Students will carry their understanding of narrative to a higher level by creating their own personal narrations.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WC

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.

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Course Materials

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 both on Spinoza’s ethical and political theory and on his role in environmental ethics and Deep Ecology. Counts as a core course for the Critical Theory concentration.

General Education Requirements:
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

This course prepares students with advanced intermediate German language skills for upper-level courses in German Studies through advanced language instruction combined with a critical investigation of important political, social and aesthetic topics in German cultural history from 1815-1933. Such topics include the tension between the German Kulturnation and the political nation, the revolutionary impact of industrialization, the economics and philosophical critique offered by socialism, imperialism as discourse and political tool, and the aesthetic revolution of modernism in the arts. In addition to historical sources, students read literary and autobiographical texts, view films, and investigate examples of material culture from a variety of periods. Conducted in German. Three hours per week plus one hour of intensive language practice. Prerequisite(s): GERM 204 or permission of instructor.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

"Spirit is a bone," wrote Hegel, exploding traditional logic and by extension the way we think about ethics, politics, and society. Hegel's discovery that consciousness is an historical artifact cleared the way for neo-Marxist social theory (Adorno), feminism (Beauvoir, Irigaray), constructivist gender theory (Butler), to mention just a few who moved in the "wake of Hegel." In this course, after familiarizing ourselves with relevant issues in Kant (Hegel's main foil), we will work through Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit with an eye to its significance for issues of critical and social theory. Discussion topics include: "human nature" as a product of history; narrative as a way of "doing" philosophy; the master-slave dialectic; how an historical event like the French Revolution is part of "philosophy"; gender theory and Hegel's reading of Sophocles' "Antigone." No prerequisites except a willingness to work through densely argued texts. Weekly reading responses, 3 mid-length papers. Counts as a core course for the Critical Theory concentration.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

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.

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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.

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This course focuses on the dialogue and mutual influence between the German- and French-speaking traditions of political economy and philosophical and theoretical thought, as it becomes evident in the relations among German Idealism, Phenomenology, Existentialism, Psychoanalysis, (post-)Structuralism, and their productive interconnections in the development of Critical Theory. While becoming familiar with the work of Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Jacque Lacan, as well as the work of relevant thinkers who influenced their thought, we shall be examining the structural and conceptual homologies and differences among political economy, abstract thought, and human subjectivity. The last part of the course will focus on the relation between these interconnections (among economy, ideas, culture, and the constitution of identities) and the exercise of power in the era of global capitalism, as theorized by thinkers who draw on this German-French-speaking line of thought. No pre-knowledge required; all readings in English. Counts as core course for Critical Theory concentration.

General Education Requirements:
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

"We are all cyborgs," Donna Haraway tells us: fabricated hybrids of machine and organism, and increasingly so in the digital age. In this course, we will explore the porous boundary between the human and the parahuman in literature, film, and popular culture. Robots and androids, puppets and marionettes, living statues and Doppelgänger, prosthetic devices from artificial limbs to canes and eyeglasses are just some of the phenomena that inhabit and traverse the border between wo/man and machine, the natural and the artificial. How does culture figure the border between the human and its others? How does this border shift through history? How are parahumans gendered? How natural and how artificial is gender? Texts by Goethe, E.T.A. Hoffmann, Tieck, and Heine; films and television series by Fritz Lang, Rainer Maria Fassbinder, and others. Taught in German Prerequisite(s): GERM 308 GERM 309, or study abroad, 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:

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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:

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Course Materials

This course prepares students with advanced intermediate German language skills for upper-level courses in German Studies through advanced language instruction combined with a critical investigation of important political, social and aesthetic topics in German cultural history from 1933 to the present. Such topics include the debacle of fascism, WWII and the Holocaust, the tension between consumer culture and Vergangenheitsbewältigung in the West Germany of the 1950s, the theory and practice of collectivism in East Germany, the significance of the Wall, political upheaval and terrorism in West Germany, German unification, multiculturalism, environmentalism, and sustainability. In addition to historical sources, students read literary and autobiographical texts, view films, and investigate examples of material culture from a variety of periods. Conducted in German. Three hours per week plus one hour of intensive language practice. Prerequisite(s): GERM 204 or permission of instructor.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

Taught in English with an optional German component. To receive credit toward the German major, students must do the reading and writing assignments in German and participate in two or more discussion sessions in German.Cinema Studies is a film course with a special emphasis on some aspect of German culture relating to cinema, such as German film production, film adaptations of German literary texts, or the representation of German history in world cinema. While familiarizing students with the methodologies of film analysis, the course focus may vary from a historical or genre survey to a particular concept (such as representations of gender, race, nationality) to a cross-section between film and other texts. Students will gain insight into film as an aesthetic, ideological, and political medium, and into specifics of German history and culture. Students may register more than once in this course, provided a different topic is offered. Prerequisite(s): For the optional German component: GERM 308 or GERM 309, or study abroad, or permission of instructor.

General Education Requirements:
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

This reading- and writing-intensive course will explore one of the most fundamental events of the 20th century from a global perspective. We will explore topics such as the global origins of European anti-Semitism, the rise of the Nazi state, the role of gender and sexuality, Holocaust denial, and the successes and failures of postwar efforts to come to grips with the horrors of racism and genocide. We will also consider the emergence of an international human rights regime as a result of the Holocaust. Whenever possible, we will explore these topics through the eyes of people who lived at the time. In addition to our common readings, students will engage in their own independent projects, which will culminate in a major (25-page) research paper.

General Education Requirements:

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.

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Course Materials

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” or punish or exclude (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; and the biopolitical constructions of race in its relation to social class and other forms of domination. All readings in English; no pre-knowledge required. Counts as a core course for the Critical Theory concentration.

General Education Requirements:
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

Designed as a capstone experience in German studies, the seminar brings together fundamental questions engaged by the field of German studies, 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 studies; 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; Radicalism and Conservatism in Modernism; Goethe's Faust ; Centrality and Marginality in German Culture; Translingual Interventions: Migration and Cultural Identity in Contemporary Germany, Stardom and Charisma. Taught in German. Prerequisite(s): GERM 308.

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Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

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.

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Course Materials