Spring Courses
COURSE DESCRIPTIONS- SPRING 2018
Language Courses:
German 1 (5) Elementary German I. Euba in charge.
Fall/Spring. Five units; classes meet two or five times a week. All four foreign language skills (reading, writing, speaking, and listening) are addressed to help students acquire communicative competence in the German language while being sensitized to the links between language and culture. German 1 is for students with no prior knowledge of German.
German 2 (5) Elementary German II. Euba in charge.
Fall/Spring. Five units; classes meet five times a week. In German 2, students will continue to develop communicative competence in the German language and expand their sensitivity toward the relationship between language and culture. While all language skills will be addressed, additional emphasis will be on the various styles of written and spoken German. Prerequisite: German 1 or equivalent.
German 3 (5) Intermediate German I. Topics in German Language and Cultural History. Euba in charge.
Fall/Spring. Five units; classes meet five times a week. While continuing to expand students’ communicative competence in German, this content-driven course will provide insights into postwar German history and cultural trends. The primary focus will be on the development of literacy skills (critical reading and writing), vocabulary expansion, and a thorough review of structural concepts. Students will be guided toward expressing themselves on more abstract topics, such as language and power in society, multiculturalism, rebellion and protest, and social justice, and toward drawing connections between texts and contexts by using a variety of text genres (journalistic, historical, short story, poetry, drama, advertising, film).
German 4 (5) Intermediate German II. Topics in German Language and Culture. Euba in charge.
Fall/Spring. Five units; classes meet five times a week. In this fourth-semester German language course, students work on strengthening their interpretative abilities as well as their written and oral forms of expression. While continuing the development of communicative competence and literacy skills, students will discuss a variety of texts and films and try to find innovative ways in which to engage with familiar presuppositions about who we are, about what determines our values and actions, and about the function and power of language.
German R5B- Reading and Composition Courses (4 units):
Readings and discussions in English. Fulfills the second half of the university’s Reading & Composition Requirement (equivalent to English 1B, Comp. Lit. 1B, etc.).
German R5B Section 1: Staff
TBA
German R5B Section 2: Staff
TBA
German R5B Section 3: Staff
TBA
German R5B Section 4: Staff
TBA
German R5B Section 5: Staff
TBA
Courses Taught in German:
German 100 (3) Introduction to Reading Culture. Dewulf
This course is intended to acquaint students with selected works from German cultural history and to familiarize them with various methods of interpretation and analysis. Required for all German majors. Fulfills the Letters & Science requirement in Arts and Literature or International Studies. Taught in German. Students with native fluency in German are not eligible to enroll. Prerequisite: German 4.
German 101 (3) Advanced German Conversation, Composition, and Style. Staff
Focusing on five central themes, this advanced-level language course will help students improve and expand on spoken and written language functions utilizing a variety of works from different genres in journalism, broadcasting, literature, fine arts, and cinema. The final goal is to enable students to participate in the academic discourse (written and spoken) to a linguistic and stylistic level appropriate for advanced students of German in upper division courses. Fulfills the Letters & Science breadth requirement in Arts and Literature or International Studies. Taught in German. Students with native fluency in German are not eligible to enroll. Prerequisite: German 4.
German 102A (3) Advanced Language Practice: German Performance. N. Euba
The analysis, discussion, adaptation and public performance of primarily poetic texts will advance students’ language and interpersonal competencies while providing unique access to a significant dimension of German popular culture as well as innovative approaches to reading and interpreting poetry. Students enrolled need to be available for some afternoon/evening performances April 18 through 21, 2018.
German 103 (3) Introduction to German Linguistics. T. Shannon
This course is designed to provide students with an overview of the major subfields of linguistics as they apply to the German language. It also serves as the gateway course for the further study of German linguistics at the undergraduate level. The first part of the course will focus on the synchronic description of contemporary German. The second part of the course will concern itself with variation in German. There are no prerequisites for this class and no prior experience with linguistics is presupposed. However, an advanced knowledge of German (at least German 4 level) is expected.
German 108 (3) Literary Translation. W. Kudszus
Our focus will be the practice and theory of literary translation, primarily from German to English. Following their particular interests, participants will choose a text or a constellation of texts for their individual semester projects. These projects will be introduced in an oral presentation (20-25 minutes) and develop into a semester paper, which typically will involve the translation of a text and reflections on your own translational stance.
German 152 (3) Modern Literature. W. Kudszus
Some of the most influential and thought-provoking literary works of the wider 20th century will be among our readings, including texts by Friedrich Nietzsche, Sigmund Freud, Rainer Maria Rilke, Franz Kafka, Else Lasker-Schüler, Elfriede Jelinek, and Herta Müller. In light of these texts, we will explore questions of identity, madness, and creativity. Readings in German. Lectures in German and English. Discussions and course work in English and/or German.
Courses Taught in English:
German 24 (1) Freshman Seminar. K. Feldman
“Germany Today”. This FSS will introduce students to the country of Germany–its political system, social issues, and significant cultural elements. We will discuss political parties, the election system, Angela Merkel, Turkish-German and migration issues, arts and literature, and more. No knowledge of the German language is required for this course.
German C25 (4)- Max, Nietzsche, Freud. K. Feldman
We will explore the ways in which Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud–three of the most important thinkers in modern Western thought–can be read as responding to the Enlightenment and its notions of reason and progress. We will consider how each remakes a scientific understanding of truth, knowledge, and subjectivity, such that rationality, logic, and the powers of human cognition are shown to be distorted, limited, and subject to forces outside our individual control. All lectures and readings in English.
German 160B (4) Fascism and Propaganda. I. Richter
This course will explore methods, effects and the history of propaganda using the example of National Socialism (1933-1945) and will focus on the relationship between politics, propaganda and public opinion. It will highlight practices of persuasion and manipulation and attempts to shape perceptions, and direct behavior to achieve responses intended by the National Socialists. We will discuss the role that propaganda played in the National Socialists’ rise to power. Central institutions, organizational structures and actors will be introduced as well as practices and media such as films, newspapers, posters, exhibitions, photos, commemoration days and speeches. Besides the methods and intended effects, we will also explore sources which provide insights into reactions of the public to the major themes and into the reception of campaigns by the State.
Graduate Courses:
German 201D (4) Classical German Literature and Contemporary Criticism C. Tang
This seminar studies classical German literature – broadly defined as the period from 1750 to 1900 – through the lens of current theoretical concerns and the latest criticism. Departing from traditional schemes of periodization (Enlightenment, Classicism, Romanticism, Realism etc.), we will revisit some seminal texts in German literature as test cases for alternative historical narratives and new critical idioms. The central concern will be to analyze literary forms in relation to historical processes such as the beginning of the Anthropocene, the rise of new models of emotion and affect in the emerging modern society, and profound political transformations. Primary texts by Lessing, Goethe, Schiller, Novalis, Schlegel, Büchner, Heine, Stifter, Sacher-Masoch, Wagner, Nietzsche, and Storm will be read alongside exemplary criticism.
German 214 (4) Room Share with Critical Theory (TBA) Studies in the 20th Century. D. Gokturk
“Media, Ecology, Migration”. This seminar will read theories of old and new media through the lens of two conceptual frameworks environmental criticism and migration studies. Tracing the effects of movement and stillness, interaction and connectivity from early cinema to social media and new forms of data visualizations, participants will develop their own research projects and methodologies by relating questions arising from theory to practice. Drawing on seminal literary and theoretical readings as well as film and multimedia examples, the seminar will test methodologies of critical digital humanities and urban studies, probing interfaces between social sciences and the humanities. NOTE: This class also meets on Thursday from
1-3pm in 282 Dwinelle Hall for film screenings!
German 256/Comp. Lit. 250 (4) Problems in Literary Theory. N. Largier
“Imagination, Fantasy, ‘Einbildungskraft'”. In this seminar we will discuss the significance of the notions and concepts of the imagination in philosophical and literary traditions. We will start with a discussion of basic texts by Plato and Aristotle; move on to the treatment of the imagination in classical rhetoric; and focus on four key areas where imagination, fantasy, and ‘Einbildungskraft’ play a significant role: the so-called mystical tradition up to Jacob Böhme; Baroque cultures of the imagination; poetic imagination in the 18th and 19th centuries; and 20th century philosophical approaches. The reading list will include texts by Plato, Aristotle, Quintilian, Ignatius of Loyola, Lohenstein, Böhme, Malebranche, Kant, Addison, Goethe, Moritz, Flaubert, Sartre, and Foucault.
German 263C (4) Poetry and Thought. K. Feldman
This graduate seminar will investigate conflicts and convergences between hermeneutics and deconstruction in the context of poetic language and poetry. The philosophical and literary-critical representations of Romanticism by Heidegger and de Man will be a centerpiece of this course. Heidegger’s thematization of language, poetry, earth and world will be examined in his “Origin of the work of art” essay and other works. We will also spend several weeks on de Man, focusing on his analyses of Romanticism and on his claims for its mischaracterizations in literary theory. In order to highlight the divergences between hermeneutic and deconstructive readings we will examine a series of interpretations of later works of Hölderlin by Heidegger, Adorno and de Man. Other authors to be discussed include Hegel, Schlegel, Gadamer, Staiger, Shklovsky, and Eichenbaum. German reading skills are helpful but not essential for this course.
German 276 (4) Old High German. I. Rauch
Reading of poetic and prose texts in Old High German; passages selected to represent a broad scope of chronology, geography, and genre in eighth- to eleventh-century German. Cultural dynamics of the Old High German period. The synchronic and diachronic study of phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics and pragmatics; linguistic method. Particular emphasis is placed on the structure of the several principal dialects of Old High German. No prerequisites.
German 280 (4) North Sea Germanic. T. Shannon
Readings and discussion of poetic and prose texts in the Ingwaeonic languages (broadly construed) not covered elsewhere: Old Low Franconian, Middle Dutch, Old Frisian, Middle Low German.
Dutch Courses:
Dutch 1 (5) Elementary Dutch. I. Van Der Hoeven
In this beginner’s course, students will familiarize themselves with the basics of Dutch: sounds and spelling, vocabulary, and grammar. Weekly themes form the basis of in-class conversations and write-ups. By the end of the semester, students will be able to express themselves in speaking and in writing about a variety of topics, including introducing yourself, time, living, studying, traveling, and talking about present and past situations.
Dutch 2 (5) Elementary Dutch. I. Van Der Hoeven
Dutch language course for beginners expanding on Dutch 1. The focus of the course is on acquiring basic communicative competence in the language. That is, developing the ability to appropriately use the language (spoken as well as written) in authentic situations.
Dutch 100 (3) Dutch for Reading and Translation Knowledge. I. Van Der Hoeven
This is a two-track course, designed for 1) research scholars/graduate students who need to learn how to translate Dutch texts in their area of expertise, and 2) Dutch Studies majors and minors who are interested in the professional field of translation (Dutch to English). While some knowledge of Dutch and/or German is required, a Dutch 1 class prior to this class is a prerequisite.
Dutch C164 (4) The Indonesian Connection. J. Dewulf
Literature and Film about the Dutch colonial history of Indonesia. Taught in English.
Yiddish Courses:
Yiddish 102 (5) Intermediate Yiddish. Y. Chaver
Further intensive study of Yiddish for advanced students, building on the foundation established in Yiddish 101; or equivalent knowledge. Advanced grammar and introduction to reading original texts as well as aspects of Yiddish culture.