Courses - Spring 2016

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 | Spring 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 978-3-468-96993-5  Berliner Platz 1 Neu: German for Beginners: Student Pack PLUS, English Edition

German 1102.01 • German II

4 credit units | Spring 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 | Spring 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 | Spring Semester 2016

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

Breyer | 3 credit units | Spring Semester 2016
Grzybowska | 3 credit units | Spring 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

Heck | 3 credit units | Spring 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:
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 2250 • Berlin: Stories, Languages, and Ideas

Mergenthaler | 3 credit units | Spring Semester 2016

Students will learn about the roles Berlin played in Europe's and the world's major upheavals, from the Thirty Years' War to the Fall of the Wall in 1990, and will gain insight into the increasing internationalization of Berlin from three perspectives: stories told by and about Berlin's citizens; philosophical & scientific ideas generated in Berlin; and multilingual dialects and variations.
GE lit course

German 2251 • German Literature and Popular Culture

• Vienna and Berlin as Cultural Capitals                 
  Owens | 3 credit units | Spring Semester 2016

Vienna and Berlin were not only seats of the two most powerful royal houses in German-speaking Europe, but were also European cultural capitals successively. Regarded through lenses of literature, music, art, architecture and later, film, this course looks to the last years of the Austrian Empire and the years preceding the so-called Third Reich and the changes in everyday life brought about thereby and via technology, reflected in art and literature. 
Taught in English. GE lit course.

• German Science Fiction
  Richards | 3 credit units | Spring Semester 2016

In this course, you will encounter many of the lesser known yet singularly outstanding works of speculative and critical fiction from the German-speaking world. 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 Hair 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). Through film, novels and an anthology of the best German Science Fiction, students will explore the theoretical and hypothetical underpinnings of our technologies while simultaneously tracking the history of their social impact in Industrial Europe.
Taught in English. GE lit course.
 

German 2253 • Magic, Murder, and Mayhem

Connolly | 3 credit units | Spring Semester 2016

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. You'll meet dragonslayers and come into contact with the Holy Grail, love potions, pirates, and the Thirty Years' War.
GE lit and diversity global studies course. Taught in English.

German 2367 • German Literature and American Culture

Revesz | 3 credit units | Spring Semester 2016

German perspectives on and in 20th-century American culture. Influence of German thought and writings on American culture; German views of American culture. Taught in English.
Prereq: English 1110.01, 1110.02, and 1110.03 or equiv. Not open to students with credit for 367. GE writing and comm course: level 2.

German 3101 • Texts and Contexts III: Historical Perspectives

Heck | 3 credit units | Spring 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.

German 3200 • Crises and Catastrophes (Krisen und Katastrophen) ~ Topics in German Literature, Art and Film

Byram | 3 credit units | Spring Semester 2016

In this course, we will explore literary history by examining how literary texts have represented and reflected on catastrophic experiences. These examinations will give us insight both into some of the many historical and cultural crises of the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries and into changing notions of the role literature should play in society. As we read, we will ask a range of questions to probe these worlds and relationships. What kinds of events have been perceived as catastrophic across time? How have they been explained or understood? How have people been understood to experience such events? How have the events been remembered and represented in their aftermath? What implications have crisis and catastrophic events had for individual and cultural identity?
Our readings, discussions, and assignments will also be designed to help you to increase your proficiency in German. We will focus on reading and listening strategies, linguistic and textual patterns, and grammar as a resource for expression and communication, among other topics.
Prereq: 2102 or equiv; or permission of instructor. Taught in German.
Texts recommended (not required):
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.
For more information, see the Carmen site or contact instructor.

German 3252 • The Holocaust in Literature and Film

Richards | 3 credit units | Spring Semester 2016

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 399, or Yiddish 3399 (399). GE lit and diversity global studies course.

German 3351 • Democracy, Fascism and German Culture

Davidson | 3 credit units | Spring Semester 2016

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.
Prereq: Not open to students with credit for 299. GE cultures and ideas and diversity global studies course. 

German 3600 •   News and Views: Current Issues in the German-Speaking World ~ Topics in German Linguistics/Language

Taleghani-Nikazam | 3 credit units | Spring Semester 2016   

This course will focus on German language development in the context of current events and public media (print and audiovisual news, online media, etc.) in the German-speaking world.  We will follow a variety of current issues in politics, entertainment, sports, and society and discuss them regularly while comparing them with issues in the US.  Students will practice analyzing, summarizing, reflecting and taking positions on German public discourse on a selection of current issues using different forms of public genres, such as podcasts, news blogs, social media, and twitter.
Prereq: 2102 or equiv; or permission of instructor. Taught in German.
Texts recommended (not required):
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.
For more information, see the Carmen site or contact instructor.

German 4300 •   Germany, the Wild Child? Protest, Rebellion, and Revolution ~ Senior Seminar in German Studies: Culture Studies, Social and Intellectual History (German)

Byram | 3 credit units | Spring Semester 2016 

German-speaking Europe may have a reputation for discipline and order, but it has a rich history of rebellious citizens, philosophers, and artists. The effects of their thought and action have continued to influence and shape the culture of Germany, Europe, and the world up to the present day. In fact, some of the last year’s biggest news headlines from Germany have been about protests. This course will explore historical and contemporary revolutionary movements in three areas of German cultural life: politics, philosophy, and popular culture and the fine arts. As they read and view work by rebellious Germans, students will 1) gain knowledge of a range of revolutionary cultural developments, their relationship to each other, and their continuing impact on contemporary culture in Germany and the world and 2) expand their ability to read, listen, think, discuss, and write critically in German. Assignments throughout the semester will guide students in investigating a revolutionary movement or moment of their choice and in and developing a sophisticated presentation about it. 

German 4350 •   Africans and African-Americans in Germany ~ Senior Seminar in German Studies: Culture Studies, Social and Intellectual History (English)

Owens | 3 credit units | Spring Semester 2016 

Journey with medieval princes from Africa to Germany.  Read of African-Americans coming to Germany with Hessian mercenaries at the end of the US Revolutionary War.  Learn how the 1884 Congress of Berlin unleashed the "Scramble for Africa" and led Africans (who often only came to consider themselves Togolese, Cameroonians, or, indeed, Africans) to Germany.  Consider the role of African/African-American French/U.S. soldiers in the shaping of Germans’ images of Blackness (spurred by press campaigns) and in the shaping of African independence and the US civil rights movement.  Chronicle the rise of Black German consciousness coming together in the years before German unification.   Follow these Black German voices into the present day.
Taught in English.
Prereq: Jr or Sr standing.

German 4603 • Translation II

Revesz | 3 credit units | Spring Semester 2016

German-English/English-German translation; focus on literary language; emphasis on improvement of style; discussion of major theories of translation.
Prereq: 2102 and 3603, or equiv, or permission of instructor.

German 6300 • Introduction to Intellectual History and Cultural Studies

Reitter | 3 credit units | Spring Semester 2016

The Idea of the University
In this course we will consider closely a series of seminal ideas about scholarship and the modern university, one of German culture’s greatest achievements and a topic of much debate these days, looking for patterns of conversation and lines of development.  We will also situate most of the works under discussion within larger institutional and historical frameworks.  In doing so we will lean occasionally on classic and recent secondary sources.
Readings will include:
Kant’s “The Conflict of the Faculties”
Schiller’s “What is Universal History and Why Do We Study It?”
W. v. Humboldt’s famous blueprint for the University of Berlin
Fichte’s competing plan
Schleiermacher’s “Occasional Thoughts on German Universities”
Nietzsche’s “On the Future of Our Educational Institutions”
Max Weber’s “Scholarship as a Vocation”
Karl Jaspers’s “The Idea of the University”

The instructor will provide PDF files of the German version of all primary sources.


Prereq: Grad standing, or permission of instructor. Not open to students with credit for 703.

German 8200 • Wendeliteratur ~ Seminar in Literature and Literary Culture

Revesz | 3 credit units | Spring Semester 2016

When Peter Schneider coined the expression “Die Mauer im Kopf” in his text Der Mauerspringer, published in 1982 seven years before the fall of the wall, he identified a phenomenon that persists to the present day. The extent to which the division between east and west continues to define the German nation has become the subject of an entire genre of literature, one that is deeply rooted in the notion that the personal is always already political. In this seminar, we will be looking at the different ways in which authors have thematized the demise of the GDR and German reunification. This will include a detailed look at the explosive Deutsch-deutscher Literaturstreit following the publication of Christa Wolf’s Was bleibt; representations of the Stasi; the wave of Ostalgie as well as Westalgie following the fall of the wall and the question of the extent to which these divisions continue to define the German national character.
Prereq: 6200, or Grad standing, or permission of instructor. Repeatable to a maximum of 30 cr hrs.

German 8400 • Vergangenheitsbewältigung ~ Seminar in Film, Visual Culture and the Performing Arts 

Holub | 3 credit units | Spring Semester 2016

No topic in postwar Germany has been more important than coming to terms with its legacy of fascism and the Holocaust. This topic has insinuated itself into all aspects of German life and culture, and in this course we will examine some of the various ways in which Germans have dealt with their infamous past.  We will focus on three areas:
(1) Philosophical and intellectual debates starting from the initial reactions—or lack of reaction—of older philosophers (Theodor Adorno, Martin Heidegger, Karl Jaspers) to more recent responses and debates (Jürgen Habermas, historians’ debate, Wehrmachtdebatte).  
(2) Literary texts in which the past plays a significant role (from Heinrich Böll, Günter Grass, Christa Wolf to Christoph Ranysmayr and Bernhard Schlink).  
(3) Films that thematize the past or try to assist us in understanding the past from Wolfgang Staudte’s Die Mörder sind unter uns Slatan Dudow’s Stärker als die Nacht, Frank Beyer’s Jakob der Lügner, and Helma Sanders-Brahms Deutschland, bleiche Mutter to Hans-Jürgen Syberberg’s Our Hitler, Edgar Reitz’s Heimat, Helke Sander’s BeFreier und BeFreite, Max Fäberböcke’s Eine Frau in Berlin.
Although we will examine materials from intellectual history and literature, since this course is given under the rubric 8400, we will pay special attention to films that deal with Vergangenheits­bewältigung. Students will be expected to make oral reports on various materials; a research paper or examination will be expected as a final exercise.
Prereq: 6200, or Grad standing, or permission of instructor. Repeatable to a maximum of 30 cr hrs.

German 8500 • Doctoral Colloquium

Mergenthaler | 1 credit unit | Spring 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.

German 8600 •   From Pragmatic Competence to Interactional Competence in a Second Language ~ Seminar in Linguistics and Applied Linguistics

Taleghani-Nikazm | 3 credit units | Spring Semester 2016     

This course may be counted towards the Graduate Interdisciplinary Specialization in Second Language Studies  

One important aspect of learning a second language is the ability to participate in social interactions in various contexts through the use of linguistic and other semiotic resources.  Therefore, language learners need to develop interactional competence in conjunction with other components such as pragmatic and communicative competencies.  The seminar offers an introduction to the fields of Second Language Pragmatics and Interactional Competence.  L2 pragmatics refers to the study of how learners come to know how-to-say-what-to-whom-when (Bardovi-Harlig, 2013).  Whereas, studies on interactional competence in a second language focus on not only what a L2 speakers knows (linguistic and pragmatic knowledge), but also the ability to participate and engage in social interactions (Kramsch 1986; Kasper 2006; Young, 2008).
The seminar will examine and discuss theories, research methods, and findings on L2 pragmatics and interactional competence.
We explore themes such as:
·    Relationship of pragmatic and grammatical development
·    Effects of instruction on L2 interactional competence
·    Interactional competence development in study abroad context
·    Computer-mediated communication and interactional competence development
·    Research design in the investigation of L2 pragmatics and interactional competence
·    Assessment of L2 pragmatics and interactional competence

Prereq: 6600. Repeatable to a maximum of 30 cr hrs. 

Swedish 1102 • Swedish II

Risko | 4 credit units | Spring Semester 2016

GE 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 1101. Not open to students with credit for 102.01, 103.01, 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 2367 • Jewish-American Voices in U.S. Literature

Algar | 3 credit units | Spring 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 3371 • Yiddish Literature in Translation

Miller | 3 credit units | Spring Semester 2016

GE lit and diversity global studies course
Reading, analysis, and discussion of representative works and of the development of major movements and genres in Yiddish literature.
Prereq: Not open to students with credit for 371 or JewshSt 3371. Cross-listed in JewshSt. 

Yiddish 3399 • Holocaust in Yiddish and Ashkenazic Literature

Hamblet | 3 credit units | Spring 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 | Spring 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.