GERMAN SCANDVN / SWEDISH YIDDISH
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German 2350 • Introduction to German Studies
Byram | 3 credit units | Autumn Semester 2024
GEN Foundation: Historical and Cultural Studies
GEL Cultures and Ideas
This course provides a broad introduction to German history and culture and to the field of German Studies. Taught in English, it is an ideal course for students considering a major or minor in German, or for those with a general interest in German-language history and culture.
The course will have four components
- lectures on history (social, cultural, political, and linguistic)
- lectures on contemporary German-language society and culture
- discussion about works of literature, film, philosophy, art, music, etc.
- introductions to methods for studying language and culture
In the end, students will have a broad overview of German-language history and culture and a catalog of questions that will include tools for analyzing everything from medieval sagas to television shows, political speeches to the words they use.
Taught in English.
Required books (in recommended English editions):
Das Niebelungenlied: The Lay of the Niebelungs. Oxford Classics, ISBN 978-0199238545
The Sorrows of Young Werther. Oxford Classics, ISBN: 978-0199583027
These books are also available as open-access editions, or contact instructor for information about German or German-English editions.
Recommended book:
Mary Fulbrook, A Concise History of Germany, ISBN: 978-0521540711
German 3250 • Citizenship in the Age of Technology: Exploring Social Justice through Science Fiction in Germany
Richards | 3 credit units | Autumn Semester 2024
GEN Theme: Citizenship for a Diverse & Just World
Investigating the promises & pitfalls that technologies once confined to the pages of science fiction pose to our relationships, our communities, and our world, with a specific focus on the challenges they will bring to our concept of citizenship. Recent German science fiction will illuminate the debate on the future of democracy as it unfolds in Germany, the USA & in a broader global context.
Taught in English. DL course.
German 3252.02 • The Holocaust in Literature and Film
Richards | 3 credit units | Autumn Semester 2024
GEN Theme: Citizenship for a Diverse & Just World
GEL Literature & GEL Diversity: Global Studies
Why, faced with a historical catastrophe of unimaginable proportions, would we devote a class to film and literature about it, rather than to “the facts”?
HOW YOU SAY THINGS MATTERS
Come find out why.
Taught in English.
Prereq: Not open to students with credit for 3252.01 or Yiddish 3399.
GE course
German 3254H • Representations and Memory of the Holocaust in Film
Reitter | 3 credit units | Autumn Semester 2024
GEN Theme: Citizenship for a Diverse & Just World, Honors Course
GEL Visual and Performing Arts & GEL Diversity: Global Studies
Students will view, discuss, and examine major filmic representations of the Holocaust from several countries from the 1940s through the 1990s. Students will learn how these films have contributed to our understanding of a complex phenomenon of WWII and how the directors have coped with the thorny issues of representing something that many people consider to be unrepresentable.
Taught in English.
Prereq: Honors, and Soph, Jr, or Sr standing, or permission of instructor.
German 3351 • Democracy, Fascism, and German Culture
Davidson | 3 credit units | Autumn Semester 2024
GEN Theme: Citizenship for a Diverse & Just World
GEL Culture and Ideas; Global Studies
Explore the history of the Weimar Republic and of Nazi Germany through the literature, film, music, visual arts and design produced between 1918 and 1945. We will be uncovering the roots of fascism and looking also at its echoes in works created in post-Nazi Germany. What can the cultural products tell us that the history books can’t? Were the 1920s really the golden age of German cinema? How did the arts change after the Nazis came to power in 1933? Why did the Nazis burn books and call certain artistic styles “degenerate”?
Taught in English. Meets Film Studies' Pre-1950s requirement.
German 3689 • Words Across the World
Babel | 3 credit units | Autumn Semester 2024
GEN Theme: Lived Environments
Language, at the heart of our social life, drives much of what humans do: converse, convey beliefs & views, label, categorize, include & exclude people. We'll critically examine how we use language to interact with our lived environments (LE) & analyze & discover ways in which words are used & manipulated to impact our LE & how changes & developments in our LE can have a direct effect on language.
Prereq: Not open to students with credit for NELC 3689 or Spanish 3689. GE theme lived environments course. Cross-listed in NELC and Spanish.
Scandinavian 3350 • Norse Mythology and Medieval Culture
Kaplan | 3 credit units | Autumn Semester 2024
GEN Theme: Traditions, Cultures, and Transformations
GEL Literature & GEL Diversity: Global Studies
What do we know about Thor and Odin, and how do we know it? This course examines the myths of the Old Norse gods and the sources in which those myths are recorded. Students will gain insight into the world view and beliefs of the medieval North by reading (in English translation) the most important textual sources on Scandinavia's pre-Christian mythology. Place-name, archaeological, and other evidence will also be discussed. Students intrigued by the Viking Age, medieval Northern Europe, or the interpretation of myth will find much of interest.
Taught in English.
Scandvn 3350 counts towards the Scandinavian minor.
Required texts: Carolyn Larrington's Poetic Edda, 2nd edition; Anthony Faulkes’s translation of Snorri Sturluson’s Edda (any edition; 978-0460876162 is fine); John Lindow’s Norse Mythology: A Guide to Gods, Heroes, Rituals, and Beliefs (ISBN 0-195-153820); Optional: H. Mattingly and S. A. Handford’s translation of Tacitus, The Agricola and the Germania (again, any edition; 978-0140455403 is the most recent)
Yiddish 2241 • German-Jewish & Yiddish TV: Cultural Memory & Mass Media - Yiddish Culture
tba | 3 credit units | Autumn Semester 2024
T/R 12:45-2:05
GEN Foundation: Historical and Cultural Studies
GEL Cultures and Ideas
GEL Diversity: Global Studies
Taught in English.
In the aftermath of World War II, television played an outsized role in the representation, reassessment, and memorialization of German-Jewish and Yiddish culture and society.
In the first part of this course, we will watch and analyze broadcast news reports about postwar trials, miniseries such as Holocaust, and survivor testimonies and oral history interviews.
In the second part of this course, we will further consider how television became a tool to rethink Jewish culture, memory, and self-understanding in Europe, the United States, and Israel/Palestine. We will investigate how shows such as Transparent and Babylon Berlin represent and reimagine Jewish life in the Weimar Republic; how shows such as The Nanny, Seinfeld, and RuPaul’s Drag Race use comedy to contend with the impact of migration and acculturation on Jewish life in the United States; and how shows such as Shtisel and Unorthodox incorporate Yiddish dialogue and grapple with the tension between orthodox religion and the contemporary world.
In addition to serving as an introduction to German-Jewish and Yiddish culture and society, this course will equip students with the methodological tools to study media and culture more broadly.
No knowledge of German or Yiddish required.
Cross-listed in Jewish Studies.
GEN Foundation: Historical and Cultural Studies
GEL Cultures and Ideas / GEL Diversity: Global Studies
Yiddish 3399 • The Holocaust in Yiddish Writing and Film
tba | 4 credit units | Autumn Semester 2024
M 3:00-3:55 & T/R 3:50-5:10
4 credit course; GE Theme – Citizenship for a Just and Diverse World; Integrative Practice: Research and Creative Inquiry
Meets in-person 3x/week, 220 minutes total (two 80-minute sessions and one 60-minute session per week)
About six million Jews were murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators during World War II in a series of events that came to be known as the Holocaust or, in Yiddish, as the “khurbn” (“destruction”). Yiddish was the first language of millions of the victims, but the contributions of speakers of this language to the documentation and representation of the Holocaust have often been overlooked or effaced.
In this course, while we will learn about the systematic destruction of Yiddish culture and society, we will also consider how Yiddish-language writers, artists, intellectuals, and filmmakers documented and resisted that destruction. In class discussions and assignments, we will analyze texts, films, and other media produced during and after the Holocaust and consider how these materials, written in or incorporating a language that was itself victimized, open up different perspectives on a seemingly well-known history. We will also consider how these materials participate in ongoing debates about citizenship and minority rights, justice and restitution, the representation of violence, and cultural memory. In addition to providing an introduction to the academic study of the Holocaust and Yiddish culture, this course will familiarize students with cutting-edge research methods and techniques in the humanities and interpretive social sciences (e.g., close reading, archival research, oral history, etc.).
All readings and discussion in English. No knowledge of Yiddish is required.
German 1101.01 • German I
4 credit units | Autumn Semester 2024
GEN World Languages
GEL Foreign Language course
Introduction to language and culture of the German-speaking world, with emphasis placed on the acquisition of basic communication skills in cultural context. CEFR Level A1.
Text: Impuls Deutsch 1
German 1102.01 • German II
4 credit units | Autumn Semester 2024
GEN World Languages
GEL Foreign Language course
Text: Impuls Deutsch 1
Prereq: 1101.01, 1101.02 or 4 sem cr hrs of 1101.51
Continued development of German-language skills and cultural knowledge for effective communication. Emphasis on more advanced language structures, sustained interactions, reading and writing. CEFR Levels A1/A2
German 1103.01 • German III
4 credit units | Autumn Semester 2024
GEN World Languages
GEL Foreign Language course
Development of skills for independent use of German. Discussions, presentations, writing, & listening/viewing activities that address topics of contemporary German-speaking world. CEFR Level A2.
Text: Impuls Deutsch 2
Prereq: 1102.01, 1102.02 or 4 sem cr hrs of 1102.51
German 1101.02 • 1102.02 • 1103.02
Distance Learning option
GEN World Languages
GEL Foreign Language course
4 credit units | Autumn Semester 2024
German 2101 • Texts and Contexts I: Contemporary German Language, Culture and Society
| 3 credit units | Autumn Semester 2024
| 3 credit units | Autumn Semester 2024
Development of communication skills and knowledge about recent social, cultural, and political developments in German speaking countries through texts, media and film; CEFR level A2/B1. Closed to native speakers of this language.
Prereq: 1103.01, 1103.02, or 4 sem cr hrs of 1103.51, or equiv, or permission of instructor. No audit.
German 2102 • Texts and Contexts II: 20th-Century German Language, History and Culture
Heck | 3 credit units | Autumn Semester 2024
Heck | 3 credit units | Autumn Semester 2024
Continued development of communication skills; gain an understanding of major social and cultural developments in 20th century German history through texts, media, film. CEFR level B1/B2. Closed to native speakers of this language.
Prereq: 2101 or equiv, or permission of instructor. FL Admis Cond course.
German 3101 • Texts and Contexts III: Historical Perspectives
Heck | 3 credit units | Autumn Semester 2024
Development of intermediate/advanced communication skills; broadening of cultural and historical knowledge through interaction with literary and non-literary materials informed by historical perspective; CEFR level B2. Closed to to native speakers of this language.
Prereq: 2102 or equiv, or permission of instructor.
German 3102 • News and Views: Conversations about Current Issues in the German-Speaking World
tbd | 3 credit units | Autumn Semester 2024
course details tba
German Majors - note that you can take 3102 in autumn as one of your core 3000-level courses!
German 3200 • German Cinema: A Survey Course - Topics in German Literature, Art, and Film
Porter | 3 credit units | Autumn Semester 2024
This course is organized to guide students through close readings of a selection of German film, spanning from the Weimar Era to contemporary German cinema. The range of resources for this class provides students with both theoretical tools and stances in addition to historical contexts and frameworks from which our understandings on broader issues of gender, national identity, politics, and sexuality has been depicted on the German big screen. With this framework and foundation, students gain experience in media analysis to support their own research interests.
This course is taught in German.
Prereq: 2102 or equiv; or permission of instructor.
German 4300 • Ideas Made in Germany • Senior Seminar in German: Culture Studies, Social and Intellectual History (German)
Mergenthaler| 3 credit units | Autumn Semester 2024
Germany exports not only cars; many ideas that have helped shaped the world—for better or worse—have also origninated here, including ideals of rationality and freedom (Kant) to the notion of a world spirit (Hegel), an impending revolution (Marx), and an analysis of fascism (Arendt).
In this seminar, you will explore these and other groundbreaking ideas in their original German, in bite-size excerpts, understand their historical contexts and their current relevancy, for today’s global society, or your own life. At the same time, you will further refine your speaking, reading and writing skills.
Prereq: 2102 or equiv, or permission of instructor.
Explore topics while you improve your German language skills!
Taught in German.
Prereq: 2102 or equiv, or permission of instructor.
Swedish 1101 • Swedish I
Risko | 4 credit units | Autumn Semester 2024
GEN World Languages
GEL Foreign Language
Introduction to language and culture of Sweden with emphasis on the acquisition of basic communication skills in a cultural context. Closed to native speakers of this language.
Prereq: Not open to students with 2 or more years of study in this language in high school, except by permission of dept.
GE for lang course.
Text: Althén, Anette. Mål 1 Lärobok (textbook with CD); Althén, Anette. Mål Övningsbok (workbook). Both Stockholm: Natur och Kultur (2007 edition).
Swedish 1103 • Swedish III
Risko | 4 credit units | Autumn Semester 2024
GEN World Languages
GEL Foreign Language
Development of skills necessary for the independent use of Swedish. Discussions, presentations, writing and listening/viewing activities address topics of contemporary Sweden.
Prereq: Grade of C- or better in 1102.
GE for lang course.
Text: Althén, Anette. Mål 2 Lärobok (textbook with CD); Althén, Anette. Mål Övningsbok (workbook). Both Stockholm: Natur och Kultur (2007 edition).
note:
Yiddish 1101: “Elementary Yiddish Language” (offered every fall) – GE World Languages
Yiddish 1102, Yiddish 1103, and more advanced language courses will be offered on a regular basis either on campus or via CourseShare.
Yiddish 1101 • Yiddish 1
tba | 4 credit units | Autumn Semester 2024
W/F 11:10-12:30
GEN World Languages
GEL Foreign Language course
Yiddish 1101 is an introduction to the Yiddish language and Ashkenazic culture. The course is designed to help you learn to communicate in culturally appropriate ways in Yiddish. We aim to help you develop balanced skills in speaking, listening, reading, and writing. At the end of the semester you should be able to listen to simple conversations or stories and understand them, read and understand short texts, engage in brief conversations on everyday topics, and write short essays on familiar topics using the structures and vocabulary you have learned. In addition, you will learn about Ashkenazic cultural topics.
Yiddish 1102 • Yiddish 2
tba | 4 credit units | Autumn Semester 2024
Offered as a BTAA Courseshare course
GEN World Languages
GEL Foreign Language course
The course is designed to help you learn to communicate in culturally informed ways in Yiddish. It will help you develop balanced skills in speaking, listening, reading, and writing.
Prereq: 1101.
Yiddish 1103 • Yiddish 3
tba | 4 credit units | Autumn Semester 2024
Offered as a BTAA Courseshare course
GEN World Languages
GEL Foreign Language
Development of listening, reading, speaking, and writing skills. Reading of Yiddish short stories and poems.
Prereq: 1102.
German 6601 • Teaching Practicum
Uskokovic | 1 credit unit | ARR - Autumn Semester 2024
This course is for GTAs who are teaching a 1000-level German language class. The course provides graduate students with instruction and practice in designing and implementing instructional materials for their undergraduate classes. It offers best practices in creating tests, developing speaking portfolios, designing culture components, and becoming reflective practitioners.
Prereq: Grad standing, and permission of instructor. Repeatable to a maximum of 10 cr hrs. This course is graded S/U.
German 7600 • Teaching World Languages at the College Level
Taleghani-Nikazm | 3 credit units | Wednesdays 2:30 - 5:10pm | Autumn Semester 2024
This course examines theory and research that underlie contemporary approaches to communicative language teaching and includes work with the development of materials and activities for the classroom. We will consider and discuss a range of aspects of second language acquisition (SLA) theory and research that have implications for the L2 classroom. It will provide the graduate student with a theoretical and practical foundation.
cross-listed with FRIT 7600
German 8200 • Migration and Postmigration - Seminar in Literature and Literary Culture
Aupiais | 3 credit units | Tuesdays 9:10 - 11:50 am | Autumn Semester 2024
This course will address the construction and problematization of discourse around migration in Germany from the 19th century to the present. In the first half of the semester, we will first consider the articulation of pre- and transnational German identity categories in the 19th century before turning to the postwar context’s attempts to negotiate borders and identities while also facing the pressures of Cold War divisions and, simultaneously, promoting and participating in multiple globalization processes. The second half of the course will then turn to Germany’s shifting self-conception from Auswanderungs- to Einwanderungsland in the 21st century. In each context, literature will be foregrounded not only as a barometer of but also as a form of intervention in migration discourse. Authors may include: Aras Ören, Emine Sevgi Özdamar, Yoko Tawada, Ilija Trojanow, Saša Stanišić, Sharon Dodua Otoo, Olivia Wenzel, Ann Cotton, Fatma Aydemir, Mithu Sanyal, Sasha Marianna Salzmann.
Prereq: Grad standing, or permission of instructor.
German 8300 • Marx Capital - Seminar in Intellectual History and Cultural Studies
Reitter | 3 credit units | Thursdays 9:10-11:50 | Autumn Semester 2024
course description forthcoming!
Prereq: Grad standing, or permission of instructor.
German 8500 • Doctoral Colloquium
Mergenthaler | 1 credit unit | ARR - Autumn Semester 2024
Regular student-driven discussions of ongoing dissertations, current topics in the professional field, and new research approaches to Germanic Studies.
Prereq: Successful completion of Ph.D. candidacy exams or permission from Director of Graduate Studies and instructor. Repeatable to a maximum of 9 cr hrs. This course is graded S/U. Admis Cond course.
German 8600 • Topic tba! - Seminar in Linguistics and Applied Linguistics
Grotans | 3 credit units | Wednesdays 9:10 - 11:50 am | Autumn Semester 2024
Topic description forthcoming!
Prereq: Grad standing, or permission of instructor.