Courses - Spring 2019

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 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

note: The section of German 1101.01 offered at 1:50pm only is a blended course and covers the same material presented in the German 1101.01 sections that meet Tuesdays through Fridays, but students attend the blended class three days/week and complete the rest of their work on-line. The 1:50pm blended course is not for everyone. The successful student is organized, self-motivated, able to learn grammar concepts on his/her own, and is comfortable with technology.

German 1102.01 • German II

4 credit units | Spring 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

note: The section of German 1102.01 offered at 1:50pm only is a blended course and covers the same material presented in the German 1102.01 sections that meet Tuesdays through Fridays, but students attend the blended class three days/week and complete the rest of their work on-line. The 1:50pm blended course is not for everyone. The successful student is organized, self-motivated, able to learn grammar concepts on his/her own, and is comfortable with technology.

German 1103.01 • German III

4 credit units | Spring 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

note: The section of German 1103.01 offered at 1:50pm only is a blended course and covers the same material presented in the German 1103.01 sections that meet Tuesdays through Fridays, but students attend the blended class three days/week and complete the rest of their work on-line. The 1:50pm blended course is not for everyone. The successful student is organized, self-motivated, able to learn grammar concepts on his/her own, and is comfortable with technology.

German 1101.51 • 1102.51 • 1103.51  Self-paced Individualized

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

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

  | 3 credit units | Spring Semester 2019
  | 3 credit units | Spring 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 | Spring 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 2250 • Berlin: Stories, Languages, and Ideas

Mergenthaler | 3 credit units | Spring Semester 2019

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 Science Fiction - German Literature and Popular Culture

Richards | 3 credit units | Spring Semester 2019

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. From Kepler to Kafka, Lasswitz to Lang, Hofmann to Herzog, prepare yourself for a journey through the cavalcade of theories, ideas, and technologies that have left an unmistakable impact on our 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 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 once was Germany in The Last Children of Schewenborn (1983).
Through film, novels and an anthology of some 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

Grotans | 3 credit units | Spring 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. You'll meet dragonslayers and come into contact with the Holy Grail, love potions, and pacts with the devil.
GE lit and diversity global studies course. Taught in English.

German 2254 •  Grimms' Fairy Tales and their Afterlives

Richards | 3 credit units | Spring 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 2256 • Fan Fiction: From Homer to Harry Potter

Birkhold | 3 credit units | Spring Semester 2019

Enthusiastic readers of Harry Potter write sequels, prequels, and spinoffs and post them online every day. But writing fan fiction is far from new. In this course, we will investigate the surprising history of this literary form. Beginning in classical antiquity and ending with J.K. Rowling, we'll analyze works of fan fiction, asking how ideas of originality, authorship, and intellectual property influence art and literature. Along the way, we'll study great works of German literature and philosophy, including texts by Goethe and Kant, whose ideas still shape thinking about fan fiction today. Do characters belong to the authors who create them? Or to the readers who love (or hate) them? We will work together to determine if certain narratives or characters lend themselves to fan fiction and we will examine how works of fan fiction successfully connect to the texts on which they are based. 

All works in English translation; taught in English. GE lit course.

German 3101 • Texts and Contexts III: Historical Perspectives

Grotans | 3 credit units | Spring 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.

German 3252 • The Holocaust in German Literature and Film

Reitter | 3 credit units | Spring Semester 2019

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 3200 •  Poetic Prose and Narrative Poetry ~ Topics in German Literature, Art, and Film

Fischer | 3 credit units | Spring Semester 2019

Students will explore well-crafted examples of poetic prose and narrative poetry. We will examine a variety of genres, such as, fairy tales, legends, fables, parables, aphorisms, satires, parodies, novellas, stories, ballads, mock-epics, songs, and slam poetry. The readings will be fairly slow and detailed with an eye on aesthetic peculiarities and an understanding of literary history and contemporary preferences. In addition, students will practice their grammar, develop their speaking and writing skills, and build their vocabulary.
Class discussions and all written assignments are in German.

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

German 3300 • Forests, Rivers, and Mountains in German Cultural History - Topics in German Culture Studies, Social and Intellectual History

Birkhold | 3 credit units | Spring Semester 2019

The forest has been the setting for countless works of German art and literature. It is a contested national symbol, the source of economic and environmental anxiety, and the origin for philosophical concepts like Waldeinsamkeit. The forest remains a popular destination for campers, mushroomers, and hikers alike. Perhaps unsurprisingly, a majority of Germans today conflate “nature” and “forest.” How has the concept of the forest changed in Germany over time? What does this tell us about evolving notions of nature, the Umwelt, and our relationship with it? For comparison, we’ll consider the place of rivers and mountains in German culture. In addition to studying famous works of art, music, literature, and philosophy, we’ll investigate historical and contemporary German practices. And we’ll explore some nature ourselves.
The class will be conducted in German. Prereq: 2102 or equiv; or permission of instructor.

German 3351 •  Democracy, Fascism and German Culture

Davidson | 3 credit units | Spring Semester 2019

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: GE cultures and ideas and diversity global studies course. 

German 3353H • German Intellectual History: Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud

Reitter | 3 credit units | Spring Semester 2019

Karl Marx, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Sigmund Freud were the most important theorists of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century writing in German. They have had a lasting influence on economic, social, political, philosophical, and cultural thought for the past century.
This course deals with major dimensions of their writings, in particular how they viewed history and historical progress. Their thought is essential for anyone who wants to understand how we think about our society, our history, and ourselves.
GE cultures and ideas course.
Taught in English. All texts are in English.

German 4600 •  Multi-Kulti Deutsch - Senior Seminar in German: Topics in Linguistics / Language

Taleghani-Nikazm | 3 credit units | Spring Semester 2019

German 4602 • German for the Professions II

Heck | 3 credit units | Spring Semester 2019

4602 will continue to develop cultural and language skills in the business context. Particular areas of focus will be: issues involved in working in a team, e.g., clear communication and conflict, telephone etiquette, and developing strategies and techniques as well as the linguistic tools for writing an effective CV/resumé (Lebenslauf) in German and for interviewing. The final project for the class will be the submission of a cover letter and Lebenslauf for a job (of student’s choice) in Germany, followed by an interview.
CEFR level B1-B2.
Prereq: 3602 or equiv, or permission of instructor.

German 8300 • Light: Figures and Concepts, from Helios to Solar Power ~ Seminar in Intellectual History and Cultural Studies

Mergenthaler | M 8:30-11:00am | 3 credit units | Spring Semester 2019  

In this seminar, students will learn about the crucial role that light, in particular sunlight, played in German intellectual history and culture, from its cultural origins in Greek mythology and Biblical narrative to present view of the sun as both threat, overheating our greenhouse gas-filled atmosphere, and as source of clean, eco-friendly energy. - Readings include: Homer, the bible, Plato, Copernicus, Luther, Gryphius, Kepler, Carl Ignaz Geiger, Schiller, Goethe, Nietzsche, Einstein, Raoul Schrott, the German law concerning imissions, including sunlight (Bundes-Immissionsschutzgesetzes [BimSchG]).
 
Format: Lecture, discussion, presentation, seminar paper or midterm and final exam.
 
All reading will be made available on Canvas, in German and Enligsh; taught in German and/or English, depending on participants’ background; non-German speakers welcome.

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

German 8400 •  Holocaust and Film - Seminar in Film, Visual Culture and the Performing Arts

Holub | M 1:00-3:30pm | 3 credit units | Spring Semester 2019

This seminar will focus on representation and memory in films dealing with the Holocaust. The films will be drawn from different countries and different periods. The questions that will concern us most are whether it is possible to make a film about the Holocaust and, if so, how can this be accomplished without denigrating the victims and trivializing their experiences? How do films negotiate the need to represent what happened and the desire to make a film? Why do violations of history appear more offensive and problematic in films about the Holocaust? We will also want to examine questions regarding memory: how do we recall traumatic events, and how do films recall these events? Does our recollection of these events necessarily involve falsification or aestheticization? How are memories of the Holocaust captured in cinema?

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

German 8600 • Language and Society: An introduction to multilingualism - Seminar in Seminar in Linguistics and Applied Linguistics

Taleghani-Nikazm | W 3:00- 5:30pm | 3 credit units | Spring Semester 2019  

Multilingualism is the norm, not the exception. Individuals have a large number of linguistic resources at their disposal consisting of more than one variety of languages, styles, genres, and accents. This seminar offers an introduction to the many facets of multilingualism in a changing global world. In this seminar, we begin with the key question of what multilingualism actually is and examine the role that languages play in multilingual societies from a social and cultural perspective. We systematically explore multilingualism with respect to individual, institutions, cities, nations, and cyberspace and discuss how in each of these domains, the dynamics of language choice are undergoing changes as a result of economic, political, and cultural forces.  In addition, we examine research methods for investigating multilingualism and engage critically with questions and findings. Topics include language contact, maintenance and loss, endangered languages, language planning and politics, multilingual and heritage language education, urban youth language, and language and identities. We will explore these topics and phenomena based on examples form several language groups, including German language varieties, and you will be able to apply concepts to other languages and language varieties. 
Texts:
Weber, J.-J., & Horner, K. (2012). Introducing Multilingualism. A Social Approach. London: Routledge.
Coulmas, F. (2018). An Introduction to Multilingualism: Language in a Changing World. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
We will read selected chapters from these books. Each chapter and topic will be complemented with journal articles that include examples and cases from several languages.  Journal articles will be available on course’s Carmen site.
No knowledge of German required. Readings and Discussions are in English.
Prereq: 6600, Grad standing, or permission of instructor.

German 8500 • Doctoral Colloquium

Fischer | 1 credit unit | Spring 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. Admis Cond course.

Swedish 1102 • Swedish II

Risko | 4 credit units | Spring Semester 2019

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 native speakers of this language through regular course enrollment or EM credit. 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).

Swedish 2101 • Texts and Contexts: Contemporary Swedish Language, Culture, and Society

CANCELLED!

Development of communication skills and knowledge about recent social, political, and cultural developments in Sweden through texts, media, and film.  
Prereq: Grade of C- or better in Swedish 1103. GE for Lang Course.

Yiddish 2367 • Jewish-American Voices in U.S. Literature

Algar | 3 credit units | Spring Semester 2019

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.

Yiddish 3399 • Holocaust in Yiddish and Ashkenazic Literature

Hamblet | 3 credit units | Spring 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.