Please note that this webpage will be updated as information becomes available
For GE courses, please check out our General Education Web page.
German 1101.01 • German I
4 credit units | Autumn Semester 2016
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 2016
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 978-3-468-96993-5 Berliner Platz 1 Neu: German for Beginners: Student Pack PLUS, English Edition; ISBN 978-3-468-96994-2 Berliner Platz 2 Neu: Deutsch im Alltag: Student Pack PLUS; and ISBN 978-0-934034-38-8 English Grammar for Students of German*, fifth edition.
German 1103.01 • German III
4 credit units | Autumn Semester 2016
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.
Texts: ISBN 978-3-468-96994-2 Berliner Platz 2 Neu: Deutsch im Alltag: Student Pack PLUS and ISBN 978-0-934034-38-8 English Grammar for Students of German, fifth edition.
German 1101.51 • 1102.51 • 1103.51 Self-paced Individualized
GE Foreign Language course
each course is 4 credit units | Autumn Semester 2016
German 2101 • Texts and Contexts I: Contemporary German Language, Culture and Society
Heck | 3 credit units | Autumn Semester 2016
Heck | 3 credit units | Autumn Semester 2016
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
Frazier | 3 credit units | Autumn Semester 2016
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.
Texts:
Deutsch als Fremdsprache, Hering, isbn: 9783190116577
Damals War Es Friedrich, Hans Peter Richter, isbn: 9783423078009
German 2250 • Berlin: Stories, Languages, and Ideas
Mergenthaler | 3 credit units | Autumn Semester 2016
Taught in English!
How did novelists, film makers, painters, and philosophers respond to the upheavals in Berlin’s history - From Napoleon entering Berlin to the Fall of the Wall, and the Refugee Crisis of 2015/16?
How did the history of Berlin & Germany influence them in return?
How does Berlin compare to Columbus, Ohio, or your home town?
GE lit and diversity global studies course.
German 2251 • German Science Fiction ~ German Literature and Popular Culture
Richards | 3 credit units |Autumn Semester 2016
In this course, we will examine how the scientific advances in physics, biology, chemistry and psychology that have changed our understanding of the physical world have been inspired by, as well as shaped, the ever changing depictions of that reality in the art, film and literature of German-speaking authors, directors and artists.
We will read the post-war prediction of a corporate Disneyocracy of clones, drones, spies and nanotechnology in The Glass Bees (1957), examine the evolution of today’s German security policy through the allegorical Intergalactic Empire of The Carpet Makers (1995), gasp in horror at the monolithic Kaiju – a towering amalgam of beasts, humans and plants - as it hulks its sentient mass menacingly towards Europe in Mountains, Seas and Giants (1924), and we’ll follow a family struggling to survive in the nuclear wasteland that was once Germany in The Last Children of Schewenborn (1983).
From Kepler to Kafka and Einstein to Emmerich, students will explore the theories, films, novels and short fiction that reflect the constant and vibrant engagement and interchange between science and the humanities while simultaneously tracking the common history of their social impact in Industrial Europe.
Taught in English. GE lit course.
German 2254 • Grimms' Fairy Tales and their Afterlives
Richards | 3 credit units | Autumn Semester 2016
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 2016
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 3101 • Texts and Contexts III: Historical Perspectives
Grotans | 3 credit units | Autumn Semester 2016
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.
Texts:
ISBN 978-3-19-011657-7 Hering, Matussek & Perlmann-Balme, Übungsgrammatik für die Mittelstufe.Hueber Verlag, 2009.
ISBN 978-3-12-676615-9 Mittelpunkt B2 + C1 Redemittelsammlung, Klett Verlag, 2008.
German 3252 • The Holocaust in Literature and Film
Reitter | 3 credit units | Autumn Semester 2016
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 399, or Yiddish 3399 (399). GE lit and diversity global studies course.
German 3253 • The German Experience in North America
CANCELLED! | 3 credit units | Autumn Semester 2016
GE Cultures and Ideas
Introduction to literature, culture, and history of German immigrants to North America, especially to the Midwest and Ohio, from the seventeenth century into the twenty-first.
Prereq: Not open to students with credit for 360. GE cultures and ideas course.
German 3254H • Representations and Memory of the Holocaust in Film
Holub | 3 credit units | Autumn Semester 2016
GE Visual and Performing Arts and GE Diversity-Global Studies course.
The Holocaust has been a tremendously important topic in postwar cinema. There are major films in almost every major European country dealing with the Holocaust, directed by some of the foremost directors and featuring some of the greatest actors and actresses, and some of the most innovative filmic techniques. The Holocaust has been represented in various filmic forms: documentary, drama, comedy; indeed, there are probably more films on the Holocaust and more footage of the Holocaust placed in films than any other historical event outside of World War II. Yet the question of representation, in particular adequate representation is one that is continuously raised and debated. In this course we will identify the complex interplay between history and filmic representation in connection with a major event of the twentieth century. Through examining films along with historical documents, as well as cultural and theoretical writings this course aims at teaching students how film as a unique art form deals with intricate historical phenomena and substantive issues of ethics. Films will be screened outside of class.
Taught in English.
German 3300 • The United States through German Eyes, from the first Tea Party (Boston Harbor) to Today - Topics in German Culture Studies, Social and Intellectual History
Byram | 3 credit units | Autumn Semester 2016
Often, the way we respond to others reveals a lot about ourselves.
So, what do German-speakers’ responses to American culture and politics tell us about the way they understand themselves, their culture, and the world? To explore this question, we will read letters and stories, watch films and newsreels, listen to popular music and propaganda, look at photographs and artwork, surf the web, and follow social media. We will cover German reactions to the American Revolution, the Wild West, Henry Ford’s assembly line, American occupation of Germany after WWII—and, for a month in October and early November, to the American presidential race.
In the end—who knows what we might learn about U.S. culture and society looking through German eyes?
The class will be conducted in German. We will discuss and practice advanced topics in grammar and language, and the course will be structured to help students improve reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills.
German 3600 • Topics in German Linguistics/Language
Grotans | 3 credit units | Autumn Semester 2016
Understanding the German language in its historical development, standardization and its contemporary manifestations. Systematic overview of German phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, and varieties of modern German.
Prereq: 2102 or equiv, or permission of instructor.
Repeatable to a maximum of 6 cr hrs. FL Admis Cond course.
German 3602 • German for the Professions I
Heck | 3 credit units | Autumn Semester 2016
Development of cultural knowledge and communication skills for the professions; introduction to the world of German business through audio, video, print materials; CEFR level B1-B2.
Prereq: 2102 or equiv, or permission of instructor. Not open to students with credit for 202. No audit. Admis Cond course.
German 4300 • Thinking Beauty, Horror & Ugliness: Introduction to German Aesthetics ~ Senior Seminar in German: Culture Studies, Social and Intellectual History (German)
Mergenthaler | 3 credit units | Autumn Semester 2016
In this course, we will explore how German philosophers have understood the roles that beauty, horror, and ugliness, contained in art, literature, and film, play for our understanding, ethics, and politics.
Questions to be addressed include:
· Does the appreciation of art help us think?
· Can understanding beauty or horror, or ugliness make us better person?
· Can art, literature or film improve society?
· Why do human beings produce literature, art & film, in the first place?
Prereq: 3101, and one course at the 3000 level, and Sr standing; or permission of instructor
German 6200 • Introduction to German Literary History and Analysis
CANCELLED ! | 3 credit units | Autumn Semester 2016
The course is designed to introduce new graduate students to central authors, texts, periods, and analytical tools relevant to the study of German literature. The syllabus covers parts of the Department's mandatory MA reading list.
Prereq: Grad standing, or permission of instructor. Not open to students with credit for 702.
German 6400 • Introduction to German Film
Davidson | 3 credit units | Autumn Semester 2016
Taught in English!
Graduate introduction to German arts concentrating on moving images and non-text-based forms. Overview of visual-aesthetic movements and film history since 1900 in context. Fundamentals of analysis for film and visual media.
Prereq: Grad standing, or permission of instructor. Not open to students with credit for 672.
German 6600 • Introduction to Teaching and Learning German at the College Level
Taleghani-Nikazm | 4 credit units | Mon. 8:30-11:00 am Autumn Semester 2016
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. Not open to students with credit for 840.
German 8200 • Literature and the Law of War ~ Seminar in Literature and Literary Culture
Birkhold | 3 credit units | Mon. 1:00-3:30 pm Autumn Semester 2016
In this course, we will explore the relationship between literature and the international law of war. Despite its universal application, this law is beleaguered by ambiguities. For example, the principle of distinction prohibits the targeting of civilians unless they directly participate in hostilities. But there is no agreement about what constitutes “direct participation,” let alone when it begins or ends. If the law attempts to solve ambiguities by looking to case studies, how does literature supplement – and interrogate – this method? In addition to examining literary depictions of war, we will investigate the exchange of narrative forms and rhetorical figures between literary and juridical representations of the proper conduct of war. How has literary fiction engendered new interpretations of the international law of war?
Together we’ll closely read a range of literary texts, legal decisions, military manuals, and theoretical works. And we’ll study a number of cases, from torture in the 30 Years’ War to contemporary drone strikes.
Readings will include: Goethe, Kleist, Shakespeare, Tolstoy; Clausewitz, On War; Kant, Perpetual Peace; Prussian Kriegsspiel (1812 War Simulation Game); International Court of Justice, Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons
All readings will be available in English and German.
Prereq: 6200, or Grad standing, or permission of instructor. Repeatable to a maximum of 30 cr hrs. Admis Cond course.
German 8300 • future: History and Anatomy of a Concept - Seminar in Intellectual History and Cultural Studies
Malkmus | 3 credit units | Wed. 2:15-4:45 pm Autumn Semester 2016
This graduate seminar engages with the history of the concept ‘future’ in German and other European cultures, explores its specific importance in modernity and its fundamental transformations today. Readings range from Goethe to Frisch and Ferrari, and from Herder to Beck and Chakrabarty. Texts will be made available in the original language(s) and in English translation.
Prereq: 6200, or Grad standing, or permission of instructor. Repeatable to a maximum of 30 cr hrs. Admis Cond course.
German 8500 • Doctoral Colloquium
| 1 credit unit | ARR Autumn Semester 2016
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.
Scandinavian 3350 • Norse Mythology and Medieval Culture
Kaplan | 3 credit units | Autumn Semester 2016
GE lit and diversity global studies course
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 pagan 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 ( --as may bannermen of Houses Stark and Greyjoy).
Scandvn 3350 counts towards the Scandinavian minor.
Prereq: Not open to students with credit for Scandnav 222. GE lit and diversity global studies course.
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)
Swedish 1101 • Swedish I
Risko | 4 credit units | Autumn Semester 2016
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 2016
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
Miller | 3 credit units | Autumn Semester 2016
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.
Prereq: Not open to students with credit for 241. GE cultures and ideas and diversity global studies course.
Yiddish 2367 • Jewish-American Voices in U.S. Literature
| 3 credit units | Autumn Semester 2016
GE Cultures and Ideas, GE Writing and Communication: level 2
Introduction to Jewish-American literature; development of expository writing and argumentation skills through systematic and critical reflection upon their own country from the perspective of an ethnic community.
Prereq: English 1110 (110) or equiv. Not open to students with credit for 367. GE writing and comm: level 2 and cultures and ideas course.
Yiddish 3399 • Holocaust in Yiddish and Ashkenazic Literature
| 3 credit units | Autumn Semester 2016
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 399. GE lit and diversity global studies course.
Yiddish 4721 / 7721 • Studies in Yiddish Literature
Miller | 3 credit units | Autumn Semester 2016
Advanced study of specific literary periods, figures, and/or topics involving extensive reading and discussion of appropriate primary and secondary source materials.
Repeatable to a maximum of 9 cr. hrs.