Class Schedules

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

One often hears horror movies referred to as trash. Does horror necessarily deserve this condemnation (or plug)? Why does an occasional horror film like Get Out or The Silence of the Lambs win respectability or even a best-picture Oscar nomination? What are the criteria by which we decide whether any film or work of art is good, bad, or perhaps not art at all? The course will examine horror films from various eras and places, some of which were repudiated at their release only to be recuperated later as art-house classics. But all challenge cultural assumptions about art and horror as mutually exclusive categories, and all employ shock, horror, or the uncanny as compelling means of representing social anxieties and historical traumas. Our objective will be to reflect on questions of aesthetic value, and to explore the themes, narrative strategies, and audience effects of horror. We will draw on a variety of theoretical approaches like Freud’s description of the uncanny or Todorov’s concept of the fantastic. In some sense horror cinema was “born” in Weimar Germany, so we will begin with silent German films, but explore Universal Studio’s depression-era horror (which owed a debt to German expressionist cinema) and to modern horror from Hitchcock to Stanley Kubrick, Dario Argento, or Jordan Peele. Student obligations: several brief presentations, midterm exam, research paper + presentation.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

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

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 for those who want to have the course count toward their German-taught courses. In this case, students must do some reading and all writing assignments in German and participate in extra discussion sessions in German (format and frequency to be determined in collaboration between student and instructor).In this course we shall focus on the exchange and influences among French, German, and American cinematographers within the genre of road movies. We shall 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. 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 their American filmic counterparts. 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 history and culture of the countries involved.

General Education Requirements:
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

What made the Holocaust possible and how does it continue to shape the world we live in today? This course will explore one of the most transformative events of the 20th century from an historical and cultural perspective. Over the course of the module, we will ask: what factors shaped the way that people experienced the Holocaust? How do Holocaust survivors narrate and discuss the Holocaust in memoirs and other text forms? Why did so many people collaborate and how can we understand resistance and survival as complex and multi-faceted experiences? And finally, in what ways did the Holocaust bring about a revolution in the ways that we understand human rights and how do debates about the Holocaust and memorialization play out globally today? We will read a memoirs and other literary works about the Holocaust, and pair those texts with selected primary historical documents and secondary literature (articles/chapters). In addition to our common readings (and reflective writing on those readings), students will write a short final research paper based on a Holocaust narrative of their own selection. All readings and discussion will be in English; students with German reading knowledge will be able to read selected texts in German. We anticipate that this course will be designated as WA and INTL, and it counts towards the concentration in Human Rights and Humanitarianism.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

Although Donald Trump is, despite the many comparisons, a far cry from Hitler, examining how Nazism sold itself may help us understand the reasons for Trump’s political ascent, and for the far-right movements taking hold elsewhere. The Nazis were masters of propaganda, brilliant at mobilizing the modern media to disseminate their (ironically often anti-modern) worldview. Even before seizing power, they recognized the power of film in sustaining their imaginary, and created a film industry that rivaled (and resembled) Hollywood. What did Nazi movies look like? How did they balance film propaganda with film entertainment? Was resistance possible in this system? Instead of asking “What is a fascist film,” we’ll explore how film functions under fascism. Student obligations: several brief presentations, midterm exam, research paper + presentation.

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.

General Education Requirements:

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

Marx’s contribution to the theorization of the function of the imaginary in both the constitution of subjectivity and the mechanisms of politics and economy—usually referred to as ideology—cannot be overestimated. His conceptualization of the imaginary is gradually developed throughout several of his works, from his Critique of German Ideology to Capital, and is intrinsically intertwined with his discovery of three further crucial concepts: structure, the unconscious, and the symptom. All these concepts became instrumental in the development of psychoanalysis and new fields of knowledge, such as cultural analysis and the analysis of ideology. While also familiarizing ourselves with the basics of two of the most decisive influences on Marx, Hegel and Spinoza, in this course, we shall read excerpts from Marx’s work and pursue its further development in later influential thinkers and cultural critics, such as Louis Althusser, Étienne Balibar, and Slavoj Žižek. In this way the course will combine theoretical rigor with tangible analysis of media that range from verbal texts to the visual arts and film. The course will actually meet MWF 11:00-1:00 (not until 1:30), so students who want to take the course but have another course starting at 1:00 can ask professor Kordela whether she can give them permission to take the course as an independent study with her.

General Education Requirements:
Internationalism

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.

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

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

Varies by semester. Consult the department or class schedule for current listing.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

The writings of Karl Marx revolutionized how we think about issues of power and how we understand the structural workings of global capitalism. But what is the role of art for Marx and for other Marxist thinkers? What is art's revolutionary potential? Should art be political, and if so, how? And what happens when art is instrumentalized? Artists and intellectuals such as Charlie Chaplin, Angela Davis, Banksy, and Diego Rivera have grappled with these issues. In this course, we will explore the intersection of politics and aesthetics by focusing on significant ideas, artworks, and debates in the history of Marxist thought. Guided by our readings in Marxist philosophy and art theory, we will critically examine a variety of artworks, art movements (Futurism, DADA, Socialist Realism, Situationist International), and artforms (fairy tales, film, painting, photography, poetry, theater). We will also discuss broader issues at the intersection of art and politics such as: perception and the politics of the senses; labor and technological reproduction; commercialization and the culture industry; epistemic violence and language; global capitalism and colonialism. Key thinkers and artists to be discussed include Adorno, Benjamin, Brecht, Davis, Fanon, Lenin, Lorde, Kracauer, Spivak, and others.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA

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

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

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

A widespread tendency in contemporary Western societies is to associate metaphysics with religion, if not with what is often dismissively called the "irrational." This course will dismantle this myth by reading closely European philosophy and political theory, mostly since the seventeenth century, in their relation to theology and their reception by twentieth-century critical theory. This will allow us to examine the ways in which secular thought emerges not as an alternative to metaphysics-something which thought cannot supersede anyway-but rather as a different way of dealing with the very same metaphysical questions and issues that concern religion, from the meaning of life to the imminence of death, and from (actual or imagined) guilt to the hope for redemption. We shall endeavor to identify the similarities and differences between the 'secular' and the 'religious' ways, including their respective relations to rationality. Readings may include: Aristotle, Talal Asad, George Bataille, Walter Benjamin, Kenneth Burke, Richard Dienst, Emile Durkheim, Michel Foucault, Sigmund Freud, Peter Harrison, Jacques Lacan, Karl Marx, Marcel Mauss, Carl Schmitt, Baruch Spinoza, Alberto Toscano, Max Weber, Slavoj Zizek. Prerequisite(s): All readings in English. No pre-knowledge required.

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

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:

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:

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

Like few other countries, Germany exemplifies how the migrant is the political figure of our time (Thomas Nail), exploding our image of "national" culture and putting flight and movement, rather than citizens and the state, in the focus of cultural scholarship. In this course, we will explore the political reality and the cultural imaginary of migration both to and from Germany and Austria in the 20th- and 21st centuries. Topics may include: refugees from National Socialism; Hannah Arendt and the figure of the exile; flight from the GDR; guest workers during the post-war economic boom; "second generation" immigrants in contemporary society, culture, and politics; reactions to and depictions of the refugee crisis in 2015 and its aftermath. Taught in German. Prerequisite(s): GERM 308 or GERM 309, or study abroad, or permission of instructor.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

The senior seminar is designed to allow students to bring together the full range of skills, theories, and methodologies they have acquired in their study of German and to create a capstone project chosen to suit their individual interests. The overall topic is charisma—from stardom and fame to qualities of leadership, persuasiveness, magnetism, and personal charm. The topic provides coherence to the course while allowing for almost endless possibilities for individual projects such as case studies. The primary focus of the seminar will be the student projects, which can be in the form of a senior thesis or combine a shorter thesis with a creative work such as a video, a short story, or an exposition. At the end of the semester, the projects are all featured at the capstone presentation event. Open to German majors and minors in their Senior or Junior year, and to others with permission of the instructor.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials