German Department

Course Descriptions

Fall 2008

CPLT 351 (3)     Literary Theory                                                                  Ms. Voris
                             T & R 11:00-12:15 CAB 224
 

An introductory seminar for all students in Comparative Literature.  We will examine concepts and assumptions present in contemporary views of literature. Theory of meaning and interpretation (hermeneutics); questions of genre (with discussion of representative examples); a critical analysis of formalist, psychoanalytic, structuralist, poststructuralist (or rhetorical), Marxist, as well as "ethnic," "postcolonial," and "gendered" approaches to literature. The central ambition of the seminar will be to familiarize ourselves with a body of knowledge important in its own right and, moreover, indispensable for theoretically self-conscious work in what we call "the humanities."  There are no prerequisites except the love of reading.

YIDD 105 (3)     Elementary Yiddish Language and Culture
                          1100-1215  TR  CAB 432                                                              Mr. Finder 

To adapt a phrase from David G. Roskies, the preeminent scholar in this country of Yiddish literature, “Yiddish is dead.  Long live Yiddish!”  In his book The Jewish Search for a Usable Past (1999), Roskies writes: “The moment the past is finally laid to reset is the very moment that it reasserts its claim upon the living.”  If Yiddish was the language of the Jews of Eastern and Central Europe before the khurbn (“Holocaust” in Yiddish) and of Jewish immigrants from the “old country” to the “new world,” which they called the goldene medina (“the country made out of gold”), it is now being revived by thousands of enthusiasts who are interested in reclaiming this vibrant lost world of tradition and transformation, dreams and nightmares.  Yiddish is the key to the portal of this world.  Indeed, it is a vastly rich world unto itself. 

This course is designed to be an introduction to the fundamentals of the Yiddish language and to Yiddish culture in both Europe and America.  We will study Yiddish structure and syntax, acquire a basic vocabulary, and apply these skills to speaking, reading, and writing.  In the course of our exploration of the Yiddish world, we will watch Yiddish films and listen to Yiddish music. 

This is designed to be a year-long course.  Students are not required to take the second half of this course in the spring (YIDD 106), but it is strongly advised if they want to acquire proficiency in the language, not to mention a higher level of Yiddish cultural literacy. 

A student’s grade in this course will be determined on the basis of in-class quizzes, a cumulative final exam, and class participation.

 

 
GETR 170 (3)     German Culture 1900-1945
                             1400-1515 MW  CAB 432                                                               Mr. Stewart

Few, if any countries, have experienced as much political change as did Germany during the first half of the 20th century. From monarchy and World War I, through the failed Weimar Republic, and then 12 years of the Third Reich including World War II, Germany was at the center of an unusual array of forces that manifest themselves in art, literature, cinema, sculpture, architecture, and music. This course proceeds, with lectures and class discussions, chronologically through the period of 1900-1945 and with an emphasis on events and activities in Berlin.

Students can expect daily preparations, regular attendance, a project presented in class and then as a term paper, a midterm and a final examination. The course may be taken only on the graded basis (i.e. not CR/NC).

Among the assigned readings are:  Günter Grass, My Century, Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front, Hermann Hesse, Demian, Bertolt Brecht, The Threepenny Opera, George Mosse, Nazi Culture, Elie Wiesel, Night, Selections from Friedrich Nietzsche (Thus Spake Zarathustra), Adolf Hitler            (Mein Kampf), and numerous others.

 
GETR 315/ (3)     Neighbors and Enemies in Germany
HIEU 315              1400-1515 MW CAB 241                                                         Ms. Achilles 
 

A biblical injunction, first articulated in Leviticus and then elaborated in the Christian teachings, stipulates that one should love one’s neighbor as oneself. This course explores the friend/enemy nexus in German history, literature and culture. Of particular interest is the figure of the neighbor as both an imagined extension of the self and as an object of fear or even hatred. We will examine the vulnerability and anxiety generated by Germany’s unstable and shifting territorial borders as well as the role that fantasies of foreign infiltration played in defining German national identity. We will also examine the racial and sexual politics manifested in Germany’s real or imagined encounters with various perceived “others”. Most importantly, this course investigates the tensions in German history and culture between a chauvinist belief in German racial or cultural superiority and moments of genuine openness to strangers. In the concluding part, we will examine the changing meanings of friendship and hospitality in a globalizing world. Course materials will draw on film, art, memoirs, novels, short theoretical texts and selections from scholarly literature. Authors will include Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud, Ernst Jünger, Erich Maria Remarque, Carl Schmitt, Immanuel Kant, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Primo Levi, Elie Wiesel and Jürgen Habermas. All texts will be read in English translation. Requirements include regular participation, a midterm and final examination. 

 

 
GETR 333 (3)    Introduction to German Studies 
                           1230-1345 TR   CLM 201                                                 Ms. Heins

                         Screening W 1900-2100 CLM 201

This course will provide a survey of major works of film, literature, drama, philosophy, painting, photography, and architecture by German-speaking authors, and will introduce students to Cultural Studies approaches to German culture from the Enlightenment to the present. We will investigate the German contributions to stylistic movements such as Romanticism, Naturalism, and Expressionism, and to theoretical developments such as Marxism, psychoanalysis, and Frankfurt School critical theory. The course will also introduce students to significant moments in German political history and investigate the exchange between art and literature and the larger social-historical context.


No German language skills are required; all materials will be available in English translation or with subtitles. Attendance at film screenings will be expected; students who are unable to attend screenings must watch the films on their own and submit additional written work to substitute for screening attendance. Further course requirements will include regular attendance and active participation in class discussions, bi-weekly short writing assignments (1-2 pages each), a midterm paper (5-6 pages), and a final paper (8-10 pages). This course fulfills the Second Writing Requirement.

GETR 334 (3)     Heroes in German Culture
                            1100-1150 MWF CAB 423                                        Mr. Best

 

Heroes in German Culture - A survey of German history focusing on key figures who changed Germany for better or worse, and an introduction to key German operas that portray revolutionary heroes.  Grades will be determined by a midterm essay and an essay final exam.  Videos will be shown.  

 


GETR 337 (3)  Death and Seduction
                          3:30-4:45 MW  CHEM BLD 303                                                   Ms. Baker

What is it that makes death and seduction such a fascinating topic? What do we gain from encountering this topos? Why are we engrossed by a romance than can never end well, the allure of a forbidden love, or the imminent demise of one or both of the protagonists? Or perhaps our interest is connected to Freud's theory about the intersection between Thanatos and Eros?
This course will explore how the concept of death and seduction has morphed through the ages and if it changes with genre. Beginning with mythology, we will examine death and seduction's changing meaning in numerous works ranging from Tristan and Venus in Furs to modern vampire fiction.
Readings may include: Sigmund Freud's "Beyond the Pleasure Principle," Gottfried von Strassburg's Tristan, Leopold von Sacher-Masoch's Venus in Furs, Thomas Mann's Death in Venice, and Bram Stoker's Dracula.
Requirements: Regular attendance is required. Students will give class presentations and write two papers (8-10 pages).  

 

GETR 340 (3)     Intellectual History I
                            1530-1800 M  CAB B026                                          Mr. Wellmon

 

In this seminar we will consider the history of aesthetics from Leibniz to Hegel as a history of two related and complex terms: perception and the senses. Our task, then, will be to read what is often referred to as aesthetic theory as a history of the senses and a history of perception. Another main goal will be to trace how a concept initially concerned with sense perception becomes, by the early 19th century, bound up with the work of art. Readings will include texts from: Leibniz, Spinoza, Diderot, Baumgarten, Winkelmann, Shaftesbury, Hume, Lessing, Kant, Schiller, Hegel, Friedrich Schlegel.

Requirements include active participation, brief presentations and a final seminar paper. 

 

 
GETR 346 (3) Freud and Literature
                        1400-1515 TR CAB 215                                            Mr. Bennett

 

Reading and discussion of a number of important texts of Freud, both scientific and cultural, and of other texts in relation to Freudian thought and procedures.  Non-Freudian texts will include works of Goethe and Kafka, German expressionist plays, other twentieth-century plays from England and France (at least Beckett and Pinter will be included), and some poems.  The hypothesis that the theater represents a privileged and historically sanctioned instance of human interiority (in something like a Freudian sense) will be one of the matters discussed.

 

 

GETR 348/ (3)     Kafka and his Doubles                                           
CPLT 348            1100-1215 TR PAV 8, Room 103                             Ms. Martens

 

The course will introduce the enigmatic work of Franz Kafka:  stories including "The Judgment," "The Metamorphosis," "A Country Doctor," "A Report to an Academy," "A Hunger Artist," "The Burrow," and "Josephine the Singer, or the Mouse Folk"; one of his three unpublished novels (The Trial); The Letter to His Father; and some short parables.  But we will also look at Kafka's "doubles":  the literary tradition he works with and the way in which he, in turn, forms literary tradition.  Thus:  Kafka: Cervantes; Kafka: Bible, Kafka: Aesop; Kafka:  Dostoevsky; Kafka: Melville; Kafka: O'Connor; Kafka: Singer; Kafka: Calvino, Kafka: Borges.  Readings will center on four principal themes:  conflicts with others and the self (and Kafka's psychological vision);  the double; the play with paradox and infinity; and artists and animals.  Requirements include a short midterm paper (5-7 pages) and a longer final paper (10-12 pages).
 

 
GETR 349 (3)  Ibsen’s Plays
                        1230-1345 TR CAB 118                                                Mr. Best

 
A discussion of Henrik Ibsen's most popular plays and their philosophical message.  As an example of Ibsen's influence Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman will be included.  Grades will be determined by a midterm and a final essay exam. 

 

GETR 355/ (3) Faust Legend in Literature
CPLT 355        1530-1645 TR CAB 245                                            Mr. Grossman

 
Goethe's Faust has been called an "atlas of European modernity" and "one of the most recent columns for that bridge of spirit spanning the swamping of world history." The literary theorist Harold Bloom writes:  "As a sexual nightmare of erotic fantasy, [Faust] ... has no rival, and one understands why the shocked Coleridge declined to translate the poem. It is certainly a work about what, if anything, will suffice, and Goethe finds myriad ways of showing us that sexuality by itself will not.  Even more obsessively, Faust teaches that, without an active sexuality, absolutely nothing will suffice."  

Taking Goethe's Faust as its point of departure, this course will trace the emergence and various transformations of the Faust legend over the last 400 hundred years.  Retrospectively, we will explore precursors of Goethe's Faust in the form of the English Faust Book, Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus, and possibly one of the various other popular re-workings of the text.  We will then read Goethe's Faust in its entirety.  Although now viewed as central to the European canon, Goethe sought in his Faust to radically transform the central tenants of the legend and to challenge many conventions of European culture, politics and society.  Beyond Goethe, we will study Byron's melancholy attempt in Manfred to create a theater of the emotions that explores problems of power, sexuality and guilt.  And we will venture into the twentieth-century, reading texts that re-worked the Faust legend in response to authoritarian politics: Thomas Mann's Doctor Faustus, which wrestles with Nazism in the land of Goethe's Faust, and Mikhail Bulgakow's magical realist response to Stalinism in The Master and Margharita. We will also consider F.W. Murnau's film version of Faust, and may consider Faust works in other media (e.g. music, painting). 

Our aims will be to ask why writers repeatedly returned to the Faust legend and how, in re-working Faust, they sought to confront the political, social and cultural problems of their own times.  Requirements:  one short paper (5 pages), one long paper (10-12 pages), active class participation.

 

 
GETR 360/ (3)     German Jewish Culture and History
HIEU 360              1230-1345 TR CAB 123                                            Mr. Grossman and  Mr. Finder

 

This course provides a wide-ranging exploration of the culture and history of German Jewry from 1750 to 1939.  It focuses especially on the Jewish response to modernity in Central Europe, a response that proved highly productive, giving rise to a range of lasting transformations in Jewish life in Europe and later North America, in particular, and in European culture and society, more generally.

Until the mid-eighteenth century, Jewish self-definition was relatively stable.  From that point on, it became increasingly contingent and open-ended.  Before the rise of Nazism in 1933, German Jewish life was characterized by a plethora of emerging possibilities.  This course explores this vibrant and dynamic process of change and self-definition. It traces the emergence of new forms of Jewish experience, and it shows their unfolding in a series of lively and poignant dramas of tradition and transformation, division and integration, dreams and nightmares.  The course seeks to grasp this world through the lenses of culture and history, and to explore the different ways in which these disciplines illuminate the past.  We will discuss processes of change that began with Jewish emancipation, the entry of Jews into European culture and society, and the acculturation (vs. assimilation) that ensued.  These processes released new energies and produced new challenges for Jewish life.  These energies led to the invention of the “Wissenschaft des Judentums” (the “science” or “academic study” of Judaism) and to various attempts to re-form traditional Jewish life for a modern world – resulting in the reform, conservative and modern Orthodox movements.  These newly released energies also gave rise to the literary salons of Berlin and Vienna, conducted by various independent Jewish women (e.g. Rahel Levin Varnhagen, Henrietta Herz) and serving as centers of German cultural activity.  Similarly, individual Jews made important contributions far in excess of their numbers to modern European culture and society – in literature and the press, politics, philosophy, the natural and the social sciences.  We will consider contributions by such figures as Marx, Freud, Walter Benjamin, Adorno, Kafka, Heine, Wittgenstein, Rosa Luxembourg, among others, and explore what, if any, relationship their works had to do with their Jewish background.  Finally, we will consider the various Jewish responses to modern politics of the left and right in Germany, including socialism, liberalism, the völkisch movements, political anti-Semitism and Zionism. 

This course is intended to acquaint students with the study of German Jewish culture and history and assumes no prior training in the subject.  Class meetings will combine lecture and discussion.  A large share of the reading assignments will come from primary sources – novels, short stories, poems, folktales, diaries, and memoirs.  In class we will also examine East European Jewish music and visual arts.  Course requirements will include two short essays (5 pages) and a 10-page term paper as well as conscientious participation in class discussion.  Readings will be drawn from both primary and secondary literature. Represented in the primary reading will be central figures in German-speaking Jewry, possibly including Moses Mendelssohn, Heinrich Heine, Rahel Varnhagen, Franz Kafka, Bertha Pappenheim, Martin Buber, Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud. The secondary literature may draw from Amos Elon, The Pity of It All, Jacob Katz, Out of the Ghetto; Michael Meyer, ed., German-Jewish History in Modern Times and Michael Brenner, The Jewish Renaissance in Weimer Germany.

  

GETR 371 (3)     Lyric Poetry
                            1100-1215 TR CAB 236                                                        Mr. Bennett

 
Discussion of the theory, history, and interpretation of lyric poetry.  The emphasis will be on German poetry since the eighteenth century, but poems in English and French, perhaps also in Italian, Dutch, and ancient Greek, will be included as well; and students in the course will have the opportunity to make their own suggestions.  Poems in languages other than English will be read in translation, but class time will be taken to explain in detail how those poems work in their original languages.  Reading for the course will consist mainly of individual poems, but students will be required to do a considerable amount of writing, mostly in the form of interpretations, some on assigned texts and some on texts of their own choosing.  The format of the course will be discussion, and grades will be based in part on the individual student’s contributions to class discussion.

  

GETR 373/ (3)   Literature and the Uncanny: On Haunted Writing             
CPLT 373          1400-1515 TR PAV 8, Room 108                                          Mr. Kaiser

 
In this seminar we will explore the relationship between literature, the various phenomena of the uncanny in literature (phobic figures like the double, the alien, death, technology, etc.), and the traces which it left in the field of literary criticism.  When Freud published his famous essay on “The Uncanny” in 1919, he was not only able to draw on a series of uncanny texts from the 19th century, but was also writing under the haunting, traumatic effects of the catastrophic first World War, thus giving a historical index to the phenomenon of the uncanny.  Using Freud as a pivotal analytical figure, we will first read texts from the 19th century (authors include Poe, Stoker, Wilde, ETA Hoffmann, Gotthelf, Nietzsche and others) and then contemplate upon the trajectory of the uncanny in 20th century art, film (among others Coppola’s “Dracula” and Lynch’s “Blue Velvet”), and criticism. 

There are no prerequisites for this course. Regular attendance is required. Students will give class presentations (group work is encouraged) and write two papers (8-10 pages).   

 

GERM 101G (3) German For Reading Knowledge
                           1200-1250  MWF  CAB 320                                               Ms. Schenberg

 
This course is intended for graduate students and advanced undergraduates who need to develop the skills necessary for reading and translating German. In the first semester, class time is devoted to grammar presentation and exercises, sight readings, developing of translation skills, and review of assigned material. The second semester is devoted to cursory grammar review and to reading and translation of unaltered German texts from a variety of academic disciplines.  After completion of this course and its continuation, German 102g, students should be able to read and translate German texts in their chosen fields, and to pass their German language exams.

            For graduate students, this is a no-credit course. Undergraduates may receive credit for the course, but this credit does not count toward the language requirement.

 

 

GERM 111 (3)    Intensive German
                           10:00-10:50  MWF Room PAV 8, room 108                      Ms. Schenberg
                                                  TR CAB 335

 
This is an accelerated course designed for mature and self-motivating undergraduates.  After completion of this course and its sequel, German 112, students are eligible to take GERM 201, or on the basis of the fall Placement Test, a higher level language course.  A traditional but fast-moving introduction to German grammar is combined with intensive practice in reading, writing, and speaking the language.

   

GERM 205 (3) German Express
                         1200-1250 MTWRF CAB B021                                        Mr. Boyd

 
This course aims to increase your proficiency in all four language skills: reading, writing, speaking and listening comprehension by offering a thorough and intense synthesis of both German 201 and 202 that meets five days a week.  Our compact schedule will provide you with daily practice improving your comprehension and speaking proficiency.  You will practice your writing skills by writing short essays on the readings, and you will be given the opportunity to re-write your work.  We will enrich your cultural perspective on German through multiple cultural and literary texts and additionally through songs and one film.  The course concludes with a more intense focus on German literature.  Ultimately the German Express should provide you the perfect springboard to a semester abroad at the university in Jena or an expeditious entry into a German Minor/Major. 

 

 
 GERM 300 (3)   Advanced German Grammar
                           1230-1345  TR  CAB 320                                                   Ms. Schenberg

 
German 300 is a required course for students wishing to pursue the study of German language, literature and culture, at higher levels. A comprehensive review of German grammar, the course will help students fine-tune their writing skills in German. Requirements include written exercises at home, active participation and regular attendance, quizzes, hour-long exams and essays.  Prerequisite:  German 202 or equivalent.  

 

GERM 300 (3)   Advanced German Grammar
                           1200-1250 MWF  CAB 242                                              Mr. Best

 
A review of German grammar using one standard text.  Grades will be determined by several hour quizzes, a comprehensive final exam, occasional essays in German, and class participation.  For the sake of clarity most explanations of grammar will be in English.   

 

GERM 301 (3)     Introduction to Literature
                            1400-1515  MW  CAB  330                                               Mr. Wellmon

 
This course will introduce students to key genres and texts of a German literary tradition. The course will be divided into genre- specific sections: poetry, drama and narrative. Our primary concern will be with the language of literature as manifest in both its generic forms and in particular texts. Special attention will be given to developing students’ written, oral and reading skills in German. We will also consider each text within a larger literary history. Readings may include: Goethe, Schiller, Kleist, Kafka, Hölderlin, Tieck, Kafka, Rilke, Mann and Hofmannsthal.  Requirements: brief oral presentations, several short written assignments.  Prerequisite:  German 300.

   

GERM 311 (3) Survey of German Literature II 
                        1200-1250 MWF  CAB 235                                                    Ms. Hudson

 
The course focuses on the literature of the twentieth century as viewed in its historical and cultural context.  It begins with turn-of-the-century authors in Vienna, such as Schnitzler and Hofmannsthal, followed by works of famous writers such as Kafka, Thomas Mann, and Brecht.  Postwar literature includes works by Böll and Bachmann as well as contemporary women authors writing just after the fall of the Wall.  Lectures on the sociopolitical background will complement the reading and discussion of texts, which is the primary focus.  Grading will be based on class participation, three short essays, and a final exam.  All work will be in German.  Prerequisite:  GERM 301 or consent of the instructor. 

 

GERM 323 (3) Composition & Conversation     
                        1000-1050 MWF  CAB 432                                                  Ms. Bjorklund

 
The goal of the course is to develop further the skills of speaking and writing in German.  Assuming mastery of the grammar, the course will focus on vocabulary-building and stylistic strategies in specific situations.  The focus on speaking means required attendance (no absences except for illness).  The focus on writing means that students will write a short essay each week, plus a rewrite of the essay from the previous week.  These essays will gradually become longer, as we deal with topics such as the recent socio-political developments in Germany and Europe.  Exams include a written and an oral mid-term and final, graded on the basis of verbal structures practiced in class, as well as on general expressive ability. 

GERM 325 (3)  German for Professionals (Berufsdeutsch)
                           1100-1150 MWF  CAB  331                                                 Ms. Achilles

 
In a globalizing world a positive attitude toward working in another country and communicating under different cultural conditions are important pre-requisites for professional success. In this course, you will learn how to communicate and interact appropriately and effectively in a German language environment. Readings and discussions will focus on a variety of professionally oriented subjects, ranging from the challenges of globalization to the essentials of German business etiquette. Requirements include brief oral presentations, two exams and a final group project. 

 

GERM 329 (1)     German House Conversation
                              1700-1800 W CAB 130                                                        Ms. Balint

 

This course is mandatory for the residents of the German House but open to other students as well.
 

GERM 331(1) Film and Literature
                         1530-1800 M CLM 322B                                                           Ms. Voris

                       Screenings:  1900-2100 M 322B

 
The seminar aims to help us understand better both FILM and LITERATURE (prose, plays, poetry). In so doing, we will attempt to bring to light new sources for the distinctiveness of each. The method guiding our enterprise will be both aesthetic (textFORM, filmFORM) and historical. Thematically, the course will be organized around varying figures of the MELODRAMATIC such as the mute, the mutilated, and the hysteric, etc., and the question of their impact on narrative structures (in film and in literature).  Selection includes Stanley Kubrick's EYES WIDE SHUT and Arthur Schnitzler's TRAUMNOVELLE; Eric Rohmer's/Heinrich von Kleist's MARQUISE VON O.; Werner Herzog's/Georg Buechner's WOYZECK; Wim Wenders' DER AMERIKANISCHE FREUND/Patricia Highsmith's RIPLEY'S GAME. Course will be taught mostly in GERMAN.

PREREQUISITES: Germ 301 (Introduction to Literature) and one of the Conversation and Composition Courses (323 or 325 etc.)
 

GERM 352 (3) Novelle
                         1300-1350 MWF CAB 335                                                   Ms. Bjorklund

 
“What’s new?” Responses to that question may well have been the origins of the form of the novella (the term coming from Latin novum, German  Neuigkeit). This course will focus on the 19th-century German Novelle, which one could view as a longer “short story” but with its own form and structure. Readings include Keller’s Romeo und Julia auf dem Dorfe, Droste’s Judenbuche, and Storm’s Schimmelreiter, as well as texts from early Modernism.

            Major discussion topics include the ways in which literary works configure various crises of social relations (for example, between socio-economic classes, around  ethnic or religious groups, or in regard to struggles for power and authority). The course will view the works in their historical and social contexts and also study the aesthetic issues that the genre itself brings up and responds to.

            Requirements include two written essays, one class presentation, and a comprehensive final exam. Prerequisites: GERM  301 and 323, or consent of the instructor.

 

GERM 361 (3) Ausländer & Deutsche Literatur
                         1230-1345 TR  CAB 331                                                      Ms. Dietze

 
The course deals with the figure of the “foreigner” and the experience of “foreignness” in present-day society, as portrayed in literature, film, and public discourse. Guest workers, immigrants, and young people whose parents are immigrants often encounter prejudice and discrimination in daily life. Special consideration will be given to gender-linked issues such as the “head scarf” in the socio-politics of Germany and the European Union.

GERM 547 (3)   Turn-of-the-Century Literature
                          1400-1515 TR  CAB 225                                                     Ms. Martens 

 
The course will provide expectable quotas of aesthetes, hysterics, dreamers, obsessives, and sickly artists, but the focus will be less on themes than on strategies:  recurrent strategies for explaining the nature of things and the psyche; strategies of interpretation, representation, and textual construction; and strategies for conceptualizing the functioning of language and the role of art.  The syllabus will emphasize Austrian (Austro-Hungarian) authors--in particular Freud, Schnitzler, Hofmannsthal, Musil, Rilke, Kafka, and Wittgenstein--though others may be considered as well.  Brief oral reports, midterm and final paper. 

 
GERM 549 (3) Fascist Aesthetics
                          1530-1800 W CLM 322A                                                    Ms. Heins

                         Screening:  1900-2200 T CLM 201

 
This course will examine works of Nazi literature, film, television, painting, sculpture, and architecture, and will also analyze the post-war legacy of fascist aesthetics. In the first ten weeks of the course, we will seek to define and interrogate fascist language in its verbal and visual forms, while investigating (and questioning) the origins of fascist culture in neoclassical aesthetics and describing its distinction from (and occasional incorporation of) modernist aesthetics. Examples will be drawn from works by Ernst Jünger, Leni Riefenstahl, Veit Harlan, Arno Breker, and Albert Speer, with critical / theoretical texts by Benjamin, Marcuse, Sontag, and others. Some consideration will also be given to comparable works produced under the Italian Fascist regime. The last five weeks of the course will be devoted to an investigation of the postwar renegotiations of fascist aesthetics in literature and film, and may include works by Adorno, Grass, Jelinek, Fassbinder, Visconti, Syberberg, and others.

 

GERM 740 (3)   Intellectual History I
                         1530-1800 M CAB B026                                                  Mr. Wellmon

 
In this seminar we will consider the history of aesthetics from Leibniz to Hegel as a history of two related and complex terms: perception and the senses. Our task, then, will be to read what is often referred to as aesthetic theory as a history of the senses and a history of perception. Another main goal will be to trace how a concept initially concerned with sense perception becomes, by the early 19th century, bound up with the work of art. Readings will include texts from: Leibniz, Spinoza, Diderot, Baumgarten, Winkelmann, Shaftesbury, Hume, Lessing, Kant, Schiller, Hegel, Friedrich Schlegel.

Requirements include active participation, brief presentations and a final seminar paper. 

 

GERM 751 (3)   Geschlechterfragen
                          1530-1800 T  CAB 247                                                        Ms. Dietze

Der Kurs untersucht eine deutsche Traditionslinie des Antifeminismus (Fichte, Humboldt, Weiniger) und der Geschlechtersoziologie (Simmel u.a.). Die Untersuchung geht in die zweite Frauenbewegung hinein und die Entwicklung akademischer Gender-Studies and ihrer Schwerpunkte. Sie verfolgt auch den Re-Aktionen wie von Eva Hermann und die Neo-Con Feminismus (Thea Dorn) bis in die Gegenwart.