Courses - Autumn 2019

For GE courses, please check out our General Education Web page.

German 1101.01 • German I

4 credit units | Autumn Semester 2019

GE 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 Levels A1/A2. Not open to native speakers of this language through regular course enrollment or EM credits, or to students with 2 or more years of study in this language in high school, except by permission of dept.
Text: ISBN 978-3-12-606128-5  Netzwerk A1: Deutsch als Fremdsprache

German 1102.01 • German II

4 credit units | Autumn Semester 2019

GE Foreign Language course
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 A2/B1. Not open to native speakers of this language.
Prereq: 1101.01, or 4 sem cr hrs of 1101.51.
Texts: ISBN 978-3-12-606128-5  Netzwerk A1: Deutsch als Fremdsprache;
    and ISBN 978-3-12-606998-4 Netzwerk A2: Deutsch als Fremdsprache

German 1103.01 • German III

4 credit units | Autumn Semester 2019

GE 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 B1. Not open to native speakers of this language through regular course enrollment or EM credit.
Prereq: 1102.01, or 4 sem cr hrs of 1102.51, or 1266.
Text: ISBN 978-3-12-606998-4 Netzwerk A2: Deutsch als Fremdsprache

German 1101.51 • 1102.51 • 1103.51  Self-paced Individualized

Distance Learning options - 1101.61 - 1102.61 - 1103.61
GE Foreign Language course
each course is 4 credit units | Autumn Semester 2019

German 2101 • Texts and Contexts I: Contemporary German Language, Culture and Society

Heck | 3 credit units | Autumn Semester 2019
tba | 3 credit units | Autumn Semester 2019

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 or 1103.51, or equiv, or permission of instructor. No audit. FL Admis Cond course.

German 2102 • Texts and Contexts II: 20th-Century German Language, History and Culture

Heck | 3 credit units | Autumn Semester 2019
Heck | 3 credit units | Autumn Semester 2019

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.
Text:
Damals war es Friedrich (Hans Peter Richter), ISBN: 978-3-423-07800-9.

German 2253 • Magic, Murder and Mayhem

Grotans | 3 credit units | Autumn Semester 2019

Origins and highlights of German culture and life to 1648 as reflected in literary and poetic works, Germanic mythology, religion, and the arts. Come explore the Middle Ages in German literature and culture. We’ll read about dragonslayers, strong women, knights in shining armor, mystics and pacts with the devil gone astray.

GE lit and diversity global studies course. Taught in English.

German 2254 • Grimms' Fairy Tales and their Afterlives

Birkhold | 3 credit units | Autumn Semester 2019

In the present course, we will be trying to understand the meaning and the enduring appeal of one of Germany’s greatest successes in the realm of cultural exportation—a book whose circulation figures are exceeded in Western culture only by those of the Bible, namely, Grimms’ fairy tales.  This will mean asking a series of interlocking questions.  How did the fairy tales come about?  What were the aims of their compilers?  How do the tales play to those aims?  How do they exceed them?  How do the tales tend to work structurally?  What have their social and psychological effects been?  How have they helped shape—and been reshaped by—popular cultures outside Germany, like popular culture in the U.S.  In reckoning with these questions, we will be enlisting the help of a parade of great critics, including Vladimir Propp, Bruno Bettelheim, Erich Auerbach, and Jack Zipes.
Required Texts:
Jack Zipes, The Complete Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm
Assigned films will be available at drm.osu.edu
Other readings will be posted on Carmen.
All works in English translation; taught in English.
Repeatable to a maximum of 9 cr hrs. GE lit course.

German 2350 • Introduction to German Studies

Byram | 3 credit units | Autumn Semester 2019

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. Taught in English.

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

By considering this broad spectrum of material, the class will explore how ideas have moved through different spheres of German-language society, affecting art, language, religious institutions, political events and principles, and more—all spheres of human activity and experience. 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.

German 2451 • Hollywood: Exiles and Émigrés

Richards | 3 credit units | Autumn Semester 2019

German cinema has played an influential role in the development of international film genres. In this class we look at examples of films made in Hollywood that bear the stamp of German influence. We also look at films made in Germany that show that influence flows in both directions. This course assumes no prior knowledge of German, German films, or film theory in general.
Taught in English. GE Visual and Performing Arts course.

German 3101 • Texts and Contexts III: Historical Perspectives

Grotans | 3 credit units | Autumn Semester 2019

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. FL Admis Cond course.
All texts will be provided by the instructor.

German 3102 • News and Views: Conversations about Current Issues in the German-Speaking World

Mergenthaler | 3 credit units | Autumn Semester 2019

This course has a dual aim:
  1) to inform you about events, issues, and trends in the German-speaking world today and
  2) to increase your German reading, listening, speaking, and writing skills.

Topics covered will include Brexit and the European Union, German state elections, the rise of the far right, migration debates, US-German relations, and environmental policy debates.

The course is meant to help you expand your ability to gather information about these events from German-language sources (print, audio, and video) in various formats (news report, commentary, essay, interview, debate, cartoon, TV show); to summarize and analyze these sources; and to express your thoughts and opinions in a variety of oral and some written genres (e.g. interview, summary, commentary, and formal presentation). Special attention will also be given to German phonetics and pronunciation practice.

German 3200 • Developments in German novellas, short stories, novels and dramas ~ Topics in German Literature, Art, and Film

Fischer | 3 credit units | Autumn Semester 2019

The course introduces students to the pleasures and challenges of reading German novellas, short stories, short novels and dramas from three centuries. The reading will be slow and detailed with an eye on grammar and vocabulary building, as well as an understanding of historical developments. Class discussions and papers will be in German.

The class will be conducted in German. Prereq: 2102 or equiv; or permission of instructor.

German 3252 • The Holocaust in Literature and Film

Richards | 3 credit units | Autumn Semester 2019

Reading, analysis, and discussion of representative works pertaining to the Holocaust from the perspectives of the German and Ashkenazic traditions. Taught in English.
Prereq: Not open to students with credit for Yiddish 3399. GE lit and diversity global studies course.

German 3254H • Representations and Memory of the Holocaust in Film

Holub | 3 credit units | Autumn Semester 2019

GE Visual and Performing Arts, GE Diversity: Global Studies, Honors Course

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 3603 • Translation 1

Reitter | 3 credit units | Autumn Semester 2019

German-English/English-German translation; focus on everyday language; emphasis on improvement of grammar and development of vocabulary; discussion of common translation techniques, introduction to theories of translation.
Prereq: 2102 or equiv, or permission of instructor.

German 4300 • Senior Seminar in German: Culture Studies, Social and Intellectual History (German)

Byram | 3 credit units | Autumn Semester 2019

How have German speakers over time understood their place in nature—or outside it?

Today, human activity is affecting natural systems at every level, so understanding people’s answers to this question is crucially important. The question also leads to a fundamental question of the humanities: what it means to be human.

Our class will investigate evolving beliefs about the relationship between humanity and nature by analyzing German art, literature, film, philosophy, scientific statements, political manifestos, and social media. At the same time, students will be guided in developing a research project and presenting it for a public audience.

At the end of the semester, students will be familiar with the broad history of Western thinking about the relationship between humans and nature and will understand the questions being raised about this relationship today. They will also have learned methods for and practiced skills associated with research in the humanities.

Taught in German.

German 6200 • Introduction to German Literary History and Analysis from the Enlightenment to the Present

Fischer | 3 credit units | Autumn Semester 2019

The course introduces new graduate students to central texts, authors, periods, genres, and analytical tools relevant to the study of German literature. When possible, particular authors, genres, and periods will be introduced by guest lecturers from the Department’s faculty, offering students the opportunity to meet some of their future teachers.
Prereq: Grad standing, or permission of instructor.

German 6600 • Introduction to Teaching and Learning German at the College Level

Taleghani-Nikazm | 4 credit units | Mondays 1;00-3:30 pm | Autumn Semester 2019

Developing an understanding of communicative language teaching and second language acquisition as it applies to German. Overview of instructional strategies and techniques for various modalities.
Prereq: Open to Graduate Teaching Associates enrolled in the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures; all others by permission of instructor.

German 6601 • Teaching Practicum

Taleghani-Nikazm | 1 credit unit |  Autumn Semester 2019

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 8200 • German Opera, German Identity - Seminar in Literature and Literary Culture

Birkhold | 3 credit units | Wednesdays 4:00-6:30pm | Autumn Semester 2019

Every year, more operas are performed in Germany than any other country. In the past decade, no city has staged more operas than Vienna. In Switzerland, more than 800 opera performances take place annually. Why is opera so important in German-speaking Europe? How did this art form help forge a distinctive German identity? To answer these questions, we will study works by Mozart, Beethoven, Wagner, Strauss, and Berg, among others.

“Identity” here will be broadly construed to include race, gender, class, and nationality. In addition to examining the persistent fascination with strong women, we’ll investigate the role of exoticism and colonialism, nation-building, mythology, and more. We’ll study cutting-edge stagings and current controversies while situating works in their historical and theoretical contexts.

No knowledge of music or German required.
Prereq: 6200, or Grad standing, or permission of instructor.

German 8300 • Reading Marx’s Capital in the 21^st Century - Seminar in Intellectual History and Cultural Studies 

Reitter | 3 credit units | Mondays 4:00-6:30pm | Autumn Semester 2019

It’s often been stated that Capital, Marx’s magnum opus, is to a large extent a work of literature. Seldom, however, has there been much follow through in the sense of asking 1) what this statement implies for the truth claims of Marx’s book and 2) what exactly is literary about its language and design. In this course, we’ll be doing both things, which will entail reading closely sections of Capital Vol. 1 and also engaging critically with key secondary sources, from Edmund Wilson’s interpretation in To the Finland Station to recent analyses by Frederic Jameson and William Clare Roberts.

Prereq: 6200, or Grad standing, or permission of instructor.

German 8400 • Surveillance, Cinema, and Society - Seminar in Film, Visual Culture and the Performing Arts

Davidson | 3 credit units | Mondays 8:30-11:00am | Autumn Semester 2019

In the last three decades, “surveillance” as both an activity and a concept has become increasingly central to cultural, social, political, and economic theories. Writers often use examples from visual culture as illustrations (and even templates) for new models. One detects a tendency to treat this topic as having first arisen in the postmodern or even the digital age; however, it has a much deeper history. “Surveillance” has been a consistent element in German film, from Weimar “street films” and Fritz Lang’s “Mabuse” series to the contemporary Berlin School. At times it has been an instrumental part of the rationale for production and distribution, accompanied by admonitions such as the Nazis’ “Beware, the Enemy is Listening,” which had Cold War counterparts in both the East and the West. In a very different way, the New German Cinema was fundamentally concerned this idea. This seminar will explore the role that surveillance has played in German cinema and set it against contemporary deployments of the term. What insights can be gained from viewing this tradition in light of contemporary theorizations and, perhaps more importantly, what can an engagement with this visual tradition contribute to a historicization of the concept? The aim will be to resist the historical forgetting that is the often hidden accompaniment to ubiquitous surveilling and archiving in the digital world.

The class will be constructed and taught to accommodate non-German speakers. Previous familiarity with German film, film history, and/or film analysis are useful but not required.

Prereq: Grad standing, or permission of instructor.

German 8500 • Doctoral Colloquium

Reitter | 1 credit unit | ARR  Autumn Semester 2019

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.

Scandinavian 3350 • Norse Mythology and Medieval Culture

Kaplan | 3 credit units | Autumn Semester 2019

Swedish 1101 • Swedish I

Risko | 4 credit units | Autumn Semester 2019

GE Foreign Language course
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 credit for 101.01, or 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 2019

GE Foreign Language course
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 102. Not open to students with credit for 103.01, 104.01, or to native speakers of this language through regular course enrollment or EM credit. GE for lang course. FL Admis Cond course.
Text: Althén, Anette. Mål 2 Lärobok (textbook with CD); Althén, Anette. Mål Övningsbok (workbook). Both Stockholm: Natur och Kultur (2007 edition).

Yiddish 2241 • Yiddish Culture

Gollance | 3 credit units | Autumn Semester 2019

GE cultures and ideas and diversity global studies course
From Crackow to Columbus, from Brooklyn to Beechwood, the great majority of American Jews are heirs to the thousand-year old culture of Ashkenaz—the largest country in Europe. Yiddish 2241 explores the culture of Ashkenaz in its many forms of expression —literature, film, folklore, family life, food, politics, religion, academics, sports, entertainment, immigration, assimilation, self-assertion, marginality, subversion, and the "Jewishing" of the American dream.
GE cultures and ideas and diversity global studies course.

Yiddish 3399 • Holocaust in Yiddish and Ashkenazic Literature

Gollance | 3 credit units | Autumn Semester 2019

GE lit and diversity global studies course
Reading and analysis of texts, films and music pertaining to the topic of the Holocaust, the genocide perpetrated by Nazi Germany against European Jewry, and its impact on Ashkenazic-Jewish civilization.
Prereq: Not open to students with credit for German 3252. GE lit and diversity global studies course.