Germanic Languages & Literatures

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. We will also read and discuss Sholem Aleichem’s classic novel Tevye the Dairyman in English.

This is designed to be a year-long course.  Students are not required to take the second half of this course in the spring, 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.

Introduction to German Studies: The Promises of Culture

 This course introduces students to some of the major historical and conceptual problems of the German intellectual tradition from the Reformation to the present. We will pay particular attention to the intersection of works of art (literature, film and painting) and philosophy and their social and historical contexts. Our guiding question will be “What is Enlightenment?” We shall concern ourselves with the histories of a number of key concepts: humanity, progress, culture, freedom and democracy. Requirements include regular attendance, Collab discussion, and two take-home essay exams. This course is taught in English and all materials will be taught in translation. The texts will be available in German for those interested.

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3:30-4:45 MW

 TBA

GETR 3590

 
Description to follow

In this course we study the encounter between the Third Reich and Europe’s Jews between 1933 and 1945. This encounter resulted in the deaths of almost 6 million Jews.  The course aims to clarify basic facts and explore competing explanations for the origins and unfolding of the Holocaust—in Hebrew, Shoah. We also explore the fate of persecuted non-Jewish groups under Nazism, survivors’ memories after the Holocaust, and the universal implications of the Holocaust.

This course is intended to acquaint students with the historical study of the Holocaust and assumes no prior training in the subject.  We will read studies by important historians, including Saul Friedländer and Christopher Browning, contemporary documents, and memoirs, including Primo Levi’s Survival in Auschwitz. Class meetings will combine lecture and discussion. Course requirements include three written assignments and conscientious participation in class discussion.

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 1025, 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.

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.

  This course builds on the first year and second year German courses and seeks to increase the students' level of competence in both grammar and vocabulary. In this class, students are expected to produce more accurate and complex language, a broader range of vocabulary and begin to discuss issues from a diverse thematical syllabus. These might include political, social, cultural and educational issues as well as everyday life topics and current events in the German speaking countries. Students learn to participate in discussions of such issues creating group presentations and arguing a stance. Depending on competence levels, students can venture into a broad range of topics that they are interested in. A variety of grammatical issues will be reviewed on the basis of the topics discussed. Grammatical accuracy will be a central focus but also register appropriacy, and fluency. Prerequisite is GERM 2020.  The Textbook for this course is:

Anne Buscha, Susanne Raven & Gisela Linthout. 2009. Erkundungen C1. Leipzig: Schubert Verlag.

The course focuses on German-language literature of the twentieth century as viewed in its historical and cultural contexts. It begins with turn-of-the century authors, such as Hofmannsthal, Schnitzler, Rilke, and Mann, followed by works of famous writers such as Kafka and Brecht.  Postwar literature includes works by Böll and Bachmann as well as women writers from the GDR.  Some prominent themes are the essential nature of man (and woman) and human psychology generally; and the role of language in shaping consciousness, politics, and gender.   Requirements:  active participation in seminar discussion, oral presentations, two essays, final examination.  All work will be in German.  Prerequisite:  GERM 3010.

Prerequisite: GERM 3000, or permission of Instructor.

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

In fairy tales, everything is possible: throw a frog against the wall, it may well turn out to be a prince in disguise; go visit your grandmother and you may realize that she has been eaten and replaced by a wolf; and if you have plans for the next hundred years, you better beware of being pricked by a spindle. Entering the world of fairy tales often feels like passing into an elaborate dream: it is a world teeming with sorcerers, dwarves, wondrous objects, and animals that speak. In this seminar, we focus on fairy tales and dream narratives from the Romantic period. Why did the Grimm brothers bother to collect fairy tales? Why did Hoffmann, Tieck, and others choose to transform the fairy tale into a genuine literary art form? What does all this have to do with Germany’s emergence as a nation? – These are some of the questions that our seminar addresses. To understand the semiotics of this charming literary genre, we will also acquaint ourselves with various theoretical approaches to literature, such as structuralism and psychoanalysis. Authors to be discussed include: Goethe, the brothers Grimm, von Arnim, Brentano, Tieck, Hoffmann, Schnitzler, Freud, and others. All texts, assignments, and discussion in German.

An overview of works from the Early Modern period in Germany, 1450-1700, drawing on three movements and intellectual spheres:  Humanism, Reformation, and Baroque. Among the authors and works treated are Tepl’s  Plowman of Bohemia, Brant’s Ship of Fools,  Luther, Hans Sachs, the Historia von D. Johann Fausten,  Fleming, Gryphius, and  Hofmannsswaldau.  Open to graduate students and advanced undergraduates of all disciplines. Oral reports and a final project. Discussion in English. 

Description to follow

Introduction to major poets: Goethe, Brentano, Heine, Mörike, Rilke, Brecht, Kirsch, possibly 1-2 others. Verse forms. Some theory. Oral reports.  Three seven-page papers. It is preferable to purchase the specified editions so that we are all looking at the same text. Instructor permission required. German Department graduate students, for whom the course is designed, will be automatically given permission.

 This seminar is conceived on the model of the “Grundkurs” (as basis for the “Literaturwissenschaft” program), as, for example, taught at the Universities of Berlin and Munich.  We will focus especially on different ways to define and what constitutes a “text” (e.g. hermeneutics, psychoanalysis, semiology, discourse analysis and historical criticism) while also attending to problems of genre (drama, lyric, prose). The seminar is principally designed for graduate students or, with instructor approval, advanced undergraduates.

Requirements: several short oral presentations and short papers, weekly contributions to the online discussion group and/or response papers; take home final.

As in the usual seminar setting, class participation and attendance are essential and may affect the final grade.

Books on order at the UVA Bookstore:

Roland Barthes, The Pleasure of the Text
Critical Theory Since 1965, ed. H. Adams and L. Searle

Richard Lanham, A Handlist of Rhetorical Terms

Students should procure the following books on their own:

Kleist, Das Erdbeben in Chili

Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own

Recommended (as a guide to research format and formal matters in writing):

The MLA Style Manual (make sure to purchase the latest edition) or MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers (again, latest edition)