Featured Courses
Interpretation of Poetry
(Taught in English)
In-depth readings of German-language poetry from the 18th to the 21st centuries. For their individual projects, participants will choose any text or constellation of texts corresponding with their intellectual interests. Our joint readings and reflections will involve both poetry per se and poetological statements mostly from writers themselves. Friedrich Hölderlin, Annette von Droste-Hülshoff, Friedrich Nietzsche, Rainer Maria Rilke, Georg Trakl, Gottfried Benn, Ingeborg Bachmann, Paul Celan, Herta Müller, and Uljana Wolf, among others, will animate our considerations.—Texts in German, lectures & discussions in English.
Literature in the Digital Age
(Taught in German)
The digital age has altered the way we read, write, think, spend time and money, experience the world, and relate to others. But how is literature affected by the profound changes that the digital era has ushered in? Asking this question, the course dedicates itself to the various effects of the digital age on literature and the literary field. The emphasis will be on themes, poetics, and media of digital writing; as well as on shifting notions of the literary itself. Topics include forms of microblogging such as Twitter and Instagram; aesthetic experimentation and/on social media; notions of digital authorship. In juxtaposing texts disseminated in various media and formats, the course also focuses on changing practices of reading and viewing. Finally, attention will be given to how digital communication affects non-digital literature. Most readings, assignments, and course discussions in German.
News & Announcements
Professor Claire Kramsch receives MLA’s Kenneth W. Mildenberger Prize
Professor Deniz Göktürk published a book on German film history: The German Cinema Book, co-edited with Tim Bergfelder, Erica Carter, & Claudia Sandberg
Professor Deniz Göktürk published a book on the social dynamics of humor: Komik der Integration. Grenzpraktiken und Identifikationen des Sozialen, co-edited with Uwe Wirth and Özkan Ezli
UC Berkeley’s 27th annual German Department Graduate Conference on the topic of “Affective Realisms” was organized by graduate students Caroline Durlacher, Molly Krueger, Landon Reitz, and Michael Sandberg.
Graduate students Jarrett Dury-Agri, Alicia Roy, Michael Sandberg, and Cara Tovey presented their work at the June 2019 BTWH (Berkeley-Tübingen-Wien-Harvard) international working group conference in Bale, Croatia, on the topic “Verdinglichung/Reification.”
Professor Anton Kaes published “Der Traum vom Kino: Zur Filmtheorie der Weimarer Republik,” which appears in the catalogue to the exhibition “Kino der Moderne: Film in der Weimarar Republik,” currently showing at the Kinemathek Berlin.
Upcoming Events
Revisiting the Economics of German Overseas Imperialism, 1884-1918
In the early 1900s, Germans discovered the richest diamond fields in history…
Marx and Philosophy (Day 1)
This is a multi-day conference (February 21-22, 10 am-4:30 pm) Speakers…
28th Annual Interdisciplinary German Studies Conference
Schul(d)en: Guilt, Debt, Education Stretching across 200,000 square feet in the heart…
Marx and Philosophy (Day 2)
This is a multi-day conference (February 21-22, 10 am-4:30 pm) Speakers…
European Disintegration? The Politics of Crisis in the European Union
The Eurozone, Ukraine, refugees and Brexit – the European Union has had…
Against the World: Deglobalization in Interwar Europe
For decades before the First World War, the world seemed to shrink.…
Goethe
Und grün des Lebens goldner Baum
Hegel
―
Kafka
Kafka
Goethe
Tawada
Goethe
Kafka
Brecht
Kafka
Herrndorf
Heine
Dann bin ich um den Schlaf gebracht,
Ich kann nicht die Augen schließen,
Und meine heissen Tränen fließen.
Hegel
Adorno
Musil
Kafka
Kafka
Bachmann
Freud
Goethe
Goethe
Kafka
Kafka
Goethe
Juristerei und Medizin
Und leider auch Theologie
Durchaus studiert mit heißem Bemühn.
Da steh ich nun, ich armer Tor!
Und bin so klug als wie zuvor.
Heidegger
Adorno
Van Hoddis
In allen Lüften hallt es wie Geschrei.
Dachdecker stürzen ab und gehn entzwei
Und an den Küsten —liest man — steigt die Flut.