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For GE courses, please check out our General Education Webpage.
German 1101.01 • German I
4 credit units | Spring Semester 2021
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 | Spring Semester 2021
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 | Spring Semester 2021
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
Self-paced Individualized
Distance Learning options - 1101.61 - 1102.61 - 1103.61
GE Foreign Language course
each course is 4 credit units | Spring Semester 2021
German 2101 • Texts and Contexts I: Contemporary German Language, Culture and Society
Frazier | 3 credit units | Spring Semester 2021
Traylor | 3 credit units | Spring Semester 2021 W/F 12:45-2:05
-- Texts for the W/F 12:45 section are: Grammatik B1 (ISBN 978-3-12-675067-7); 100 Stunden Deutschland A2-B1 (ISBN 978-3-12-675229-9); and Mehr Schwarz als Lila, by Lena Gorelik (ISBN-13 978-3499218347).
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 1103.61, 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 | Spring Semester 2021
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. No audit.
Text:
Damals war es Friedrich (Hans Peter Richter), ISBN: 978-3-423-07800-9.
German 2251 • German Science Fiction - German Literature and Popular Culture
Richards | 3 credit units | Spring Semester 2021
In this course, you will encounter many of the lesser-known yet singularly outstanding works of speculative and critical science fiction from the German-speaking world. While looking towards the future and commenting on contemporary challenges, science fiction continues to offer us insight into what it means to be human in an ever more technological world.
Through your engagement with the literature and themes of the course, you will be asked to understand, analyze, and speculate on the future impact of technologies on your own discipline and creatively engage in conceptualizing your future.
From Kepler to Kafka, Lasswitz to Lang, Hofmann to Herzog, prepare yourself for a journey through a world of innovative theories, ideas, and concepts that have left an unmistakable impact on our world.
Study of popular culture forms in relation to the artistic, intellectual, historic, and literary traditions of the German-speaking world.
GE lit course. Taught in English.
German 2254 • Grimms' Fairy Tales and Their Afterlives
Richards | 3 credit units | Spring Semester 2021
In this course, you will explore the many sides of the Grimms’ fairy tales from the classics to the lesser-known, tracing their development from mythic, folkloric, Italian, and French sources up through their modern politicization and popularization by Disney in Germany and beyond.
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
CANCELLED! | 3 credit units |
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 2021
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 3252.02 • The Holocaust in Literature and Film
Reitter | 3 credit units | Spring Semester 2021
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 lit and diversity global studies course.
German 3300 • Forests, Rivers, Mountains in German Culture - Topics in German Culture Studies, Social and Intellectual History
Birkhold | 3 credit units | Spring Semester 2021
Course description forthcoming
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 3351 • Democracy, Fascism, and German Culture
Davidson | 3 credit units | Spring Semester 2021
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 3600 • The Structure and Organization of Spoken German - Topics in German Linguistics/Language
Taleghani-Nikazm | 3 credit units | Spring Semester 2021
The focus of this class is the structure or grammar of spoken German in various contexts. Students will learn how to analyze systematically the structure of spoken German by working with transcripts of recorded conversations. We will learn about the regional and social aspects, structural differences between written and spoken discourse, everyday and institutional talk (e.g. interviews), and non-verbal behavior (intonation and gesture). For example, through examining spoken language, students recognize how German speakers formulate requests and compliments, in other words, how speakers do things with words, grammar, and intonation in various contexts.
Taught in German.
Prereq: 2102 or equiv, or permission of instructor.
German 4600 • Using German - Senior Seminar in German: Topics in Linguistics / Language
Grotans | 3 credit units | Spring Semester 2021
In this seminar we will investigate the German language as it used today. We’ll begin with a brief review of some of the structural aspects of German, e.g., phonology (and pronunciation), morphology, syntax and lexicon. Next we'll move on to a look at the numerous varieties that make up the German language, including dialects, sociolects and technolects. Further topics to be investigated include:
- the German language online
- national varieties of German
- modern attitudes toward standardization and language change
- the role of German in the EU and the world
- minority and migrant languages in Germany, Austria and Switzerland
Students will be asked to complete a final project (video presentation and web page), short group projects and homework assignments.
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.
German 4602 • German for the Professions II
Heck | 3 credit units | Spring Semester 2021
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 8200 • Nineteenth Century (with emphasis on narrative realism)
- Seminar in Literature and Literary Culture
Holub | 3 credit units | Tuesdays 3:00-5:45p Spring Semester 2021
There are a great many interesting texts to read from the nineteenth century. I have selected some seminal works, keeping in mind that many of you are taking this course in order to get some overview of the century. I am listing below the works in the order we will read them. The general theme I will pursue is representation and its discontents. But we will also notice some recurring topics in the texts of realism. These topics relate to class structure in German society, the relationship between men and women, the victimization and powerlessness of women in a male-dominated society, and norms of bourgeois life.
12 January - Start reading Bonaventura, Nachtwachen
19 January - Bonaventura, Nachtwachen
26 January - Heinrich von Kleist, Die Marquise von O . . .
2 February - Heinrich Heine, Ideen. Das Buch Le Grand
9 February - N O C L A S S: University Holiday
16 February - Joseph Freiherr von Eichendorff, Aus dem Leben eines Taugenichts
23 February - Georg Büchner, Lenz
2 March - Annette von Droste-Hülshoff, Die Judenbuche
9 March - Adalbert Stifter, Brigitta
16 March - Franz Grillparzer, Der arme Spielmann
23 March - Gottfried Keller, Romeo und Julia auf dem Dorfe
30 March - Theodor Storm, Aquis submersus
6 April - Conrad Ferdinand Meyer, Der Heilige
13 April - Theodor Fontane, L’Adultera
20 April - Gerhard Hauptmann, Bahnwärter Thiel
All of the texts you will be expected to read are available online.
Prereq: 6200, or Grad standing, or permission of instructor.
German 8200 • Selfhood - Seminar in Literature and Literary Culture
Byram | 3 credit units | Mondays 1:15-4:00p Spring Semester 2021
The rise of the novel roughly coincides with that of the conception of the liberal subject: of the idea that human individuals are (or should be) free and rational actors. This course will explore the development over time of Western narrative forms and ideas about the human self, combining readings of literary texts with an introduction to narrative theory. We will question whether and how literary devices have related to ideas about selfhood in contemporaneous philosophical thinking and in society more broadly. Beginning with Enlightenment-era texts and conceptions of selfhood, we will move through time by reading texts representing nineteenth-century realism, modernism, post-modernism, feminist and queer literature, migration literature, post-humanist literature, and digital representations of self. Along the way, students will learn about the basic tools and approaches of narrative theory, from classic structuralist categorizations of narrative stance and chronological structure to the interventions of “post-classical” approaches, such as cognitive, queer, and post-colonial.
Our literary corpus will consist primarily of texts from the German-language literary tradition; narrative theory texts will be in English. If students from outside the Germanic department would like to enroll in the course, translations can be made available and all discussions held in English.
Prereq: 6200, or Grad standing, or permission of instructor.
German 8300 • Translation Theories - Seminar in Intellectual History and Cultural Studies
Reitter | 3 credit units | Thursdays 3:00-5:45p Spring Semester 2021
In this course, we will analyze both classic and emerging theories of translation. We will also discuss the impact of digital humanities on translation studies. The German texts can (of course) can be read in translation, and the language of instruction is English. We will be discussing writings by: Friedrich Schleiermacher, Friedrich Schlegel, Friedrich Nietzsche, Friedrich Engels, Franz Rosenzweig, Hans-Georg Gadamer, Vladimir Nabokov, Esther Allen, Emily Wilson, David Bellos, Haun Saussy, Gayarti Spivak, Uganda Sze Pui Kwan, Rosalind Morris, and Jeff Jacobs.
Prereq: 6200, or Grad standing, or permission of instructor.
Scandinavian 5251 • Saga
Kaplan | 3 credit units | Spring Semester 2021
This course introduces students to the medieval literature of Iceland: the Sagas. We’ll read examples of the so-called “classical” sagas set in 10th- and 11th-century Iceland and Norway, which are full of blood feud, questionable legal tactics, and pithy dialogue. We’ll also engage with lesser-read narratives set in fantastical lands and alternate-history versions of Europe. (Islamic Germany, anyone?) We will learn about medieval Iceland, a unique society on the edge of Europe that was also interested in and connected to the wider world beyond the Nordic area. Most importantly, students will learn how to analyse, interpret, and enjoy saga prose, wherein can be found some of the noblest heroes, fiercest monsters, and most imperious and powerful women ever to grace the page.
There are no prerequisites. GE course. Taught in English.
Swedish 1102 • Swedish 2
Risko | 4 credit units | Spring Semester 2021
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).
Yiddish
Yiddish 1102 • Yiddish 2
Weinshel | 4 credit units | Spring Semester 2021
Development of listening, reading, speaking, and writing skills. Reading of simplified Yiddish texts about Yiddish culture.
Prereq: 1101. Not open to native speakers of this language through regular course enrollment or EM credit. This course is available for EM credit. GE for lang course.
Yiddish 2241 • Yiddish Culture
Weinshel | 3 credit units | Spring Semester 2021
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.