GERMAN SCANDVN / SWEDISH YIDDISH
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For GE courses, please check out our General Education Webpage.
German 1101.01 • German I
4 credit units | Autumn Semester 2023
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 Levels A1.
Text: Impuls Deutsch 1
German 1102.01 • German II
4 credit units | Autumn Semester 2023
GEN World Languages
GEL 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 A1/A2
Text: Impuls Deutsch 1
Prereq: 1101.01, 1101.02 or 4 sem cr hrs of 1101.51
German 1103.01 • German III
4 credit units | Autumn Semester 2023
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 2023
German 2101 • Texts and Contexts I: Contemporary German Language, Culture and Society
Kischnick | 3 credit units | Autumn Semester 2023
Byram | 3 credit units | Autumn Semester 2023
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 2023
Heck | 3 credit units | Autumn Semester 2023
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 2254.02 • Grimms' Fairy Tales and their Afterlives
GEN Foundation: Literary, Visual & Performing Arts
GEL Literature
Richards | 3 credit units | Autumn Semester 2023
In the present DL 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.
German 2350 • Introduction to German Studies
Byram | 3 credit units | Autumn Semester 2023
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 3101 • Texts and Contexts III: Historical Perspectives
Heck | 3 credit units | Autumn Semester 2023
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 3200 • Afro-German History and Culture - Topics in German Literature, Art, and Film
Porter | 3 credit units | Autumn Semester 2023
German 3200 discusses the history of Afro-Germans in Europe and internationally (including, but not limited to, the US, France, Namibia, England, and South Africa). Conversations and questions thematized in this course pertain to identity formation and erasure; systemic racism; Westernization; xenophobia; and eugenics. The content discussed in this course is introductory for the study of race, ethnicity, gender performance, and discussions of sexuality as they intersect with discussions around Blackness in a German historical and cultural context. The content discussed over the course of the semester is presented through the structural adoption of a historical timeline that spans the 18th century to the present. This course discusses milestones in German history where we see significant and often detrimental interaction between the Black diaspora and German-speaking Europe.
Media explored in German 3200 include examples of literature, life writing, documentary and historical fiction film, historical documents, and social media. This course in facilitated in German.
Prereq: 2102 or equiv; or permission of instructor.
German 3252.02 • The Holocaust in Literature and Film
Richards | 3 credit units | Autumn Semester 2023
GEL Literature
GEL Diversity: Global Studies
GEN Theme: Citizenship for a Diverse & Just World
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
cancelled | will be offered in SP24 !
German 3253 • The German Experience in North America
Rocker | 3 credit units
GEL Cultures and Ideas
German-Americans comprise the largest ethnic group in North America. What brought these Germans to America? How did they establish themselves in the new country? What influences have they exerted in American history and culture? This course serves as an introduction to the history, culture, and literature of German immigrants to North America, from the 17th into the 21st century.
Class discussions and assignments will be in English.
German 3254H • Representations and Memory of the Holocaust in Film
Johnson | 3 credit units | Autumn Semester 2023
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 3603 • Translation 1
Reitter | 3 credit units | Autumn Semester 2023
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 4200 • Dark Romanticism: Ghosts, Witches, and Magic - Senior Seminar in German: Literature, Art and Film (German)
CANCELLED! | 3 credit units | Autumn Semester 2023
|
This course will explore Dark Romanticism in German literature, art, and music. We will study the representation of magic and the supernatural, madness and irrationality, good and evil, in select stories, novels, ballads, songs, and paintings by analyzing their narrative and poetic structures, character development, musical structures, and philosophical ideas. Students will also have a chance to engage creatively with these materials in various assignments like the writing of letters, dialogues, or film scripts, and the creation of a final research project of analog and digital formats of their own choice, including, but not limited to essay, audio, video, or webpage/blog. During their engagement with the materials and the completion of their assignments, students will review and expand their language skills in listening, speaking, and writing. |
Taught in German. Counts toward fulfillment of advanced requirement for the major.
Prereq: 3101 and one course at the 3000 level, and Sr standing, or permission of instructor.
German 4600 • German Language & Literature in (Post/De)Colonial Contexts - Senior Seminar in German: Topics in Linguistics / Language
Aupiais | 3 credit units | Autumn Semester 2023
This course will pursue two related clusters of questions in two periods of German cultural history:
1) An investigation of how German literature and theories of language represented, developed, and contested colonial culture in the early twentieth century. Topics include: the politics of race, class, and gender; forms and functions of the colonial novel; the interaction between colonial literary short forms and other media (esp. photography); the relationship between literary writing and colonial sciences (linguistics, ethnography, medicine etc.)
2) A survey of contemporary German revisitations of or responses to German colonialism and its legacies (in texts, films, and institutions), highlighting the stakes of post- and decolonial approaches for various contemporary social debates (on globalization, immigration, anti-racism etc.).
This class is taught in German.
Prereq: 3101 and one course at the 3X00 level taught in German, and Sr standing, or permission of instructor.
Scandinavian
Scandinavian 5251: Icelandic Saga
Kaplan | 3 credit units | Autumn Semester 2023
Revenge is the engine of Iceland’s most famous literature: the Sagas. These medieval texts describe a Viking Age society on the western edge of Europe, just beyond the reach of kings, in which honor is the main currency and insult can have deadly consequences. Unforgettable characters clash in these intricately plotted stories, and a pithy verse or a legal stratagem may overmatch even a steel axe. The class will consider the workings and failings of blood feud as a violence limiting system, the oblique influence of women in a male-dominated society, the lean literary art of Saga prose, and more. Students will get to know a distant society with unexpected relevance to our own and learn how to analyze, interpret, and enjoy Saga literature.
There are no prerequisites. Taught in English.
Swedish
Swedish 1101 • Swedish I
Risko | 4 credit units | Autumn Semester 2023
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 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 2023
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 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).
Yiddish
Yiddish 1101 • Yiddish 1
Johnson | 4 credit units | Autumn Semester 2023
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 culture in Europe, Israel, and the United States.
Required Textbook
In eynem: a communicative approach to Yiddish. Authors: Asya Vaisman Schulman, Jordan Brown, Michael Yashinsky. (Accessed through Yiddish Book Center website.)
GEN World Languages
GEL Foreign Language
Yiddish 2241 • German-Jewish and Yiddish TV: Cultural Memory and Mass Media - Yiddish Culture
Johnson | 3 credit units | Autumn Semester 2023
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
cancelled |
Yiddish 3399 • Holocaust in Yiddish and Ashkenazic Literature
GEL Literature
GEL Diversity: Global Studies
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”). While Yiddish was the first language of millions of the victims, the contributions of Yiddish speakers to the documentation and representation of the Holocaust have often been forgotten or effaced. In this course, we will learn about the systematic destruction of Yiddish culture, but 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 might shed light on ongoing debates about justice and restitution, the representation of violence, and cultural memory. In addition to serving as an introduction to the academic study of the Holocaust and Yiddish culture, this course will familiarize students with research methods and techniques in the humanities.
All readings and discussion in English. No prior knowledge of the subject or language is expected or required.
Not open to students with credit for German 3252.01 or 3252.02.
GEL Literature / GEL Diversity: Global Studies
German 6601 • Teaching Practicum
Uskokovic | 1 credit unit | Autumn Semester 2023
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.
7301 in the FRIT department • Introduction to Teaching and Learning FL at the College Level
Prof. W. Wong | 3 credit units | Mondays 1:00-3:45 pm | Autumn Semester 2023
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 8200 • Fan Fiction: A Literary History - Seminar in Literature and Literary Culture
Birkhold | 3 cu | Thursdays 3:45-6:30pm - Autumn Semester 2023
Enthusiastic readers of Harry Potter write sequels, prequels, and spinoffs and post them online every day. But writing fan fiction is far from new. Beginning in classical antiquity and ending with J.K. Rowling, we’ll investigate the surprising history of this literary form, asking how ideas of originality, authorship, and intellectual property influence literature. Along the way, we’ll study great works of literature and philosophy, including texts by Goethe and Kant, whose ideas still shape thinking about fan fiction. Do characters belong to authors or readers? How can we define character? Why are so many women in China writing “slash”? Why do people write fan fiction?
ALL WORKS IN ENGLISH TRANSLATION; TAUGHT IN ENGLISH.
Prereq: Grad standing, or permission of instructor.
German 8300 • German Philosophy of Nature in Context - Seminar in Intellectual History and Cultural Studies
Mergenthaler | 3 credit units | Wednesdays 3:00-5:45pm | Autumn Semester 2023
This course will provide an in-depth introduction to 18th-century German Philosophy of Nature, in the contexts of European intellectual history, including Natural Theology and History of Nature. Among the author to be discussed are, from the German context, Georg Hamann, Johann Wilhelm Ritter, Goethe, Novalis, and Friedrich Wilhelm Schelling, as well as, from the historical and European context, Plato, Spinoza, and William Derham.
Readings will be made available in German and English, discussions in German and/or English, according to students’ interests. Graduate students from other departments are welcome to join!
Contact: mergenthaler.4@osu.edu
Prereq: Grad standing, or permission of instructor.
German 8400 • How German is it?
Davidson | 3 credit units | Mondays 3:45 - 6:30pm | Autumn Semester 2023
One could argue that the national-language department is a nineteenth-century project that has maintained itself into the twenty-first. Deploying two conceptual clusters that have found particular articulations within German intellectual traditions — obsolescence and negation — the AU23 version of German 8400 will probe the potential outmodedness of such undertakings. Our exploration will emphasize a medium that, since its inception, has fit uncomfortably within the project of German Studies: cinematic film. We will examine the aspects that have answered the institutional interrogatives “How German is it?” and “How is it German?” to see what that project excluded and what, if any, potential it held that remains unfulfilled in a world of cultural production and reception that is increasingly described as post- and/or trans-national. The resulting discussions should be relevant to Humanities disciplines beyond German Studies, which have always been steeped in creating new understandings as well as shaping and conserving tradition.
Among the material considered may texts by: T.W. Adorno, T. Arslan, W. Benjamin, H. Bitomsky, R. Halle, M. Hansen, B. Hein, W. Herzog, C. Hochhäusler, F. Khittl, A. Kluge, R. Krauss, A. Kuzniar, E. Lubitsch, B. Melhus, F.W. Murnau, U. Ottinger, C. Petzold, L. Powell, A. Schanelec, H. Stadler, R. Thiele.
Open to German and English Speakers.
Prereq: Grad standing, or permission of instructor.
German 8500 • Doctoral Colloquium
Mergenthaler | 1 credit unit | ARR - Autumn Semester 2023
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
Scandinavian 5251: Icelandic Saga
Kaplan | 3 credit units | Autumn Semester 2023
Revenge is the engine of Iceland’s most famous literature: the Sagas. These medieval texts describe a Viking Age society on the western edge of Europe, just beyond the reach of kings, in which honor is the main currency and insult can have deadly consequences. Unforgettable characters clash in these intricately plotted stories, and a pithy verse or a legal stratagem may overmatch even a steel axe. The class will consider the workings and failings of blood feud as a violence limiting system, the oblique influence of women in a male-dominated society, the lean literary art of Saga prose, and more. Students will get to know a distant society with unexpected relevance to our own and learn how to analyze, interpret, and enjoy Saga literature.
There are no prerequisites. Taught in English.