Courses in English for Spring 2023

German R5B- Reading and Composition Courses (4 units): Feldman in charge
(Taught in English)

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 2: Hennessy, M.

“Looking for Work: Labor and Leisure in German Culture”

“Hustle culture,” “essential work,” “the gig economy,” “work-life balance,” “quiet quitting”—these are terms that have come to describe work in the twenty-first century. This R5B course focuses on German history and culture as fertile ground for understanding the nature, meaning, and depiction of work. We will consider how work is experienced and represented in contemporary society, how work is valued in relation to leisure, and how German writers, filmmakers, and critics have thought about work and workers. We will also explore how work has been perceived and contested in various historical, technological, and political contexts, in Germany and beyond. Roughly half the course focuses on reading, viewing, and discussing various sources, objects, and genres: fairy tales, film, literature, cultural history, and theoretical writing. The other half emphasizes practical writing instruction in the form of reading responses, drafting, peer review, instructor feedback, workshops, and independent projects. The main goal of the course is to strengthen your skills and build your confidence in college-level reading, writing, analysis, and argumentation. No German knowledge is required.

German R5B Section 3: Burko, A.

Comedy and “Jewish Humor”

This course will teach students how to write analytically, while examining the subject of
humor—first as a general human phenomenon, and then with particular focus on early Hollywood and Jews in American comedy. We will first consider larger questions about the purpose and types of humor. Why do humans laugh and what makes something funny? Is humor universal? What are the various kinds of humor, and how do humorists use irony, satire, sarcasm, and goofiness? How has humor responded to social, cultural, and technological change? Can a work be funny and critical at the same time? We will also then consider some specific examples of humor, focusing on the role of Jews in American comedy. We will ask: Why are some groups stereotypically considered funny and others unfunny? What does it mean to laugh at oneself? How were Jews significant for the development of the American entertainment industry? Why is the Yiddish language often thought to be inherently funny?

German R5B Section 4: Sacia-Bonicatto, L. 

“21st Century Challenges and their Impact on German Society”

This writing course will explore issues that are particularly relevant in the 21^st century. By examining narratives from a variety of sources, we will focus on a range of issues including gender equality and LGBTQ rights, racial equality, immigration, climate change, and activism and social movements.

German R5B Section 5: Hennessy, M.

“Looking for Work: Labor and Leisure in German Culture”

“Hustle culture,” “essential work,” “the gig economy,” “work-life balance,” “quiet quitting”—these are terms that have come to describe work in the twenty-first century. This R5B course focuses on German history and culture as fertile ground for understanding the nature, meaning, and depiction of work. We will consider how work is experienced and represented in contemporary society, how work is valued in relation to leisure, and how German writers, filmmakers, and critics have thought about work and workers. We will also explore how work has been perceived and contested in various historical, technological, and political contexts, in Germany and beyond. Roughly half the course focuses on reading, viewing, and discussing various sources, objects, and genres: fairy tales, film, literature, cultural history, and theoretical writing. The other half emphasizes practical writing instruction in the form of reading responses, drafting, peer review, instructor feedback, workshops, and independent projects. The main goal of the course is to strengthen your skills and build your confidence in college-level reading, writing, analysis, and argumentation. No German knowledge is required.

German R5B Section 6: Burko, A.

Comedy and “Jewish Humor”

This course will teach students how to write analytically, while examining the subject of
humor—first as a general human phenomenon, and then with particular focus on early Hollywood and Jews in American comedy. We will first consider larger questions about the purpose and types of humor. Why do humans laugh and what makes something funny? Is humor universal? What are the various kinds of humor, and how do humorists use irony, satire, sarcasm, and goofiness? How has humor responded to social, cultural, and technological change? Can a work be funny and critical at the same time? We will also then consider some specific examples of humor, focusing on the role of Jews in American comedy. We will ask: Why are some groups stereotypically considered funny and others unfunny? What does it mean to laugh at oneself? How were Jews significant for the development of the American entertainment industry? Why is the Yiddish language often thought to be inherently funny?

German C25 (4) Marx, Nietzsche, Freud. Feldman
(Taught in English)

Marx, Nietzsche and Freud revolutionized how western readers view truth, history and power. This course will investigate what made their thought so revolutionary, focusing on the following themes: truth, power, religion and critique of Enlightenment.

German 39S (4) Freshman Seminar. Shannon
(Taught in English)

“Language Origins and Development”

It is often said that language is what makes humans human. In fact, it is practically impossible to imagine our society without language. Throughout history, the origins and development of language have engaged the minds and imaginations of myth-makers and scholars alike. And yet many of the basic questions surrounding our ability to communicate in such rich ways remain largely unanswered, or are at least controversial. In this seminar we will consider the long history of thought on this topic in the Western tradition, starting from the Bible and the Greeks, through modern thinkers such as Rousseau, Darwin, and Saussure, down to present-day scholars like Noam Chomsky and Steven Pinker.

Some of the issues that will interest us include the following. What is language? How and when did language emerge? In what steps or stages? Was there one (if so, which one?) or more than one original language? How can the great diversity of the ca. 7000 current-day languages be accounted for? What is the relation between language and thought? Is language a species-specific possession of humans and how does it compare to communication among other species? Is there a specific “faculty” or “organ” of language in the mind?

NB: Although this course is offered in the German Department, it not a course in or about German. All readings will be in English, as will classroom discussion.

German 109 (2) Compact Seminar. Ther
(Taught in English)

The seminar will introduce you to the rich musical history of the Habsburg Empire, which was essential for developing what we currently understand as “classical music”. However, the classical composers could not presage that they would be canonized one day in this peculiar way. At their time, they wrote music that was perceived as new, exciting, and sometimes even scandalous. Most of the music was highly popular, which puts into question the common distinction between high-brow and low-brow music. The contemporary music closely intersected with political ruptures and social changes which we will explore through musical sources. 

Note: This seminar only meets for 5 Fridays starting 01/20-02/17/2023.

German 130AC (4) Cultures of Migration.  Gokturk
(Taught in English)

Who is a migrant? Who claims belonging in a country as a native? Can migrants achieve the status of “native” through settlement and assimilation? And if so, why is settlement a condition for full membership and participation in society? Which environmental transformations are associated with migration? Is there any hope for solidarity? Does art hold any promise for imagining a more equitable future?

This course will stimulate students to question assumptions about collective identities based on remembrance and forgetting. We will think comparatively across space and time, considering the role that migration, border control, and structures of racial hierarchy have played in the cultural formation of societies. Focusing on both movement and entrapment, students will examine political rhetoric and policies regulating human mobility through the lens of creative interventions from literature, cinema, video, and music. Case studies from the US and Germany will convey a nuanced understanding of assigned and assumed identities that transcend census categories of diversity. This comparative perspective on race, ethnicity, and citizenship will enable students to recognize patterns and repetitions in common arguments brought forward against the presence of “foreigners.” Taught in English.

German 131 (4) Goethe. Tang

No other writer has shaped the self-understanding of German literature and culture more profoundly and more lastingly than Johan Wolfgang Goethe (1749-1832). Although the cult of Goethe, often associated with German nationalism, had long passed, his prodigious works continue to inspire, to delight, and to challenge readers and scholars, always offering guidance for understanding the human condition. Based on close readings of some of Goethe’s most beloved masterpieces, this course investigates three interrelated issues that are of particular relevance to our present age: the modern self as a desiring, entrepreneurial subject; the human relationship to the natural environment; migration and translation of cultures. At the same time, we will also learn to appreciate literary works of art by means of methodical textual analysis. Readings include Werther, Faust, Iphigenie, as well as selected lyric poetry and short prose. Lecture and discussions in English. Readings in either German or English. Students may use this course to fulfil the requirements of a German-taught cause by reading the texts in the German original.

German 160B (4) Fascism and Propaganda. Lenhard
(Taught in English)

This course will focus on the theory and practice of propaganda during the 12 years of the Third Reich. It takes a close look at the ideology the Nazis tried to transmit, the techniques, organization, and effectiveness of their propaganda. Challenging the idea of the total power of propaganda, it looks for the limits of persuasion and possible other reasons for which Germans might have decided to follow Hitler. Sources will include the press, radio, film, photography, political posters, and a few literary works of the time. Finally, it will also be discussed to what extent techniques of propaganda continued to be used globally after 1945. In particular, the fascism studies of the Frankfurt School, which dealt with anti-Semitic demagogy in 1940s U.S. society, will be examined more closely.

Important note about extremely disturbing course content: The course will include images, text, and film footage that are profoundly racist, misogynistic, anti-Semitic, anti-gay, and violence-glorifying. These images may be experienced by students as horrifying, frightening, thoroughly offensive, intimidating, and hurtful. It will nonetheless be our task in this course to understand and analyze the origins, strategies, and effects of these materials. Please consider whether you will be comfortable taking this course insofar as it requires viewing, reading, discussing, and writing about such shocking and execrable materials. This course is taught in English.