[German, Russian, and East Asian Languages and Literatures]

Cross-listed Courses. Note that unless otherwise specified, when a department/program references a course or unit in the department/program, it includes courses and units cross-listed with the department/program.

Major Requirements. The major consists of nine courses at the 200 level or above. Required are German 233, 234, and at least one course from each of the following four groups: 1) 241, 242, 301, 303; 2) 243, 244; 3) 357, 358; 4) 270, 356. In addition, majors must complete at least one of the following: History 227, 229, English 295, Philosophy 241, 273, Music 242, 243, 244. Majors also choose either to a) write a senior thesis or b) pass a series of comprehensive examinations in the second semester of the senior year. Students choosing to write a thesis must register for 457 or 458.

Pass/Fail Grading Option. Pass/fail grading may be elected for courses applied toward the major or secondary concentration.

Courses

GER 101-102. Fundamentals of German I and II. This course introduces students to the German language and its cultural contexts. By emphasizing communicative skills, students learn to speak, act out real-life situations, build vocabulary, and develop their listening comprehension. German 101 is not open to students who have had two or more years of German in secondary school. Normally offered every year. C. Decker.

GER 201-202. Intermediate German I and II. A continuation of German 101-102, with added emphasis on the development of reading strategies and composition skills. Open to first-year students who enter with at least two years of German. Prerequisite(s): German 102. Open to first-year students. Normally offered every year. D. Sweet, Staff.

GER 230. Individual and Society. This course explores the conflicts of women, Jews, artists, and revolutionaries as depicted in twentieth-century German literature. Students read prose, poetry, and drama, and view film versions of some works. Authors include Mann, Hesse, Keun, Brecht, Kafka, Lasker-Schüler, and Wolf. Topics include concepts and self-concepts of women; the artist in conflict with society; fascism, persecution, and the Holocaust; life in exile; resistance and heroism; and concern for the fate of the Earth. Conducted in English. Students of German are encouraged to read and discuss texts in German. Open to first-year students. Recommended background: some knowledge of European or German history. Open to first-year students. Offered with varying frequency. G. Neu-Sokol.

GER 233-234. German Composition and Conversation. Topical course designed to develop linguistic and cultural competency. Through reading and discussing a variety of texts, working with multimedia, and completing weekly writing assignments, students attain greater oral and written proficiency in German while deepening their understanding of the culture of German-speaking countries. Open to first-year students. Normally offered every year. D. Sweet, G. Neu-Sokol.

GER 241. German Literature of the Twentieth Century I. A study of German literature and society from 1890 through 1933, with emphasis on the aesthetic and sociohistorical underpinnings of Naturalism, Impressionism, Expressionism, and selected works of Mann, Kafka, and Brecht. Prerequisite(s): German 234. Open to first-year students. Offered with varying frequency. C. Decker.

GER 242. German Literature of the Twentieth Century II. A continuation of German 241, focusing on post-World War II literature and emphasizing such authors as Böll, Brecht, Frisch, Dürrenmatt, Bachmann, and Wolf. Attention is given to contemporary women writers and poets whose works center on utopian visions and the search for peace. Prerequisite(s): German 234. Offered with varying frequency. G. Neu-Sokol.

GER 243. Introduction to German Poetry. A study of poetry in German-speaking countries since 1800. The course focuses on four or five well-known poets, to be chosen from among the following: Hölderin, Novalis, Mörike, Heine, Droste-Hülshoff, Rilke, Trakl, Brecht, Celan, and Bachmann. Attention is also given to the poetry of Lasker-Schüler, Kolmar, Bobrowski, Lavant, Enzensberger, and Kirsch. Students make oral presentations, and write short interpretations or translations of poems. Prerequisite(s): German 234. Offered with varying frequency. G. Neu-Sokol.

GER 244. The Development of German Drama. A study of major issues in German dramaturgy from the Enlightenment to the present, explored through texts that dramatize problems relating to marriage. Authors include Lessing, Büchner, Brecht, Horváth, and Kroetz. Prerequisite(s): German 234. Offered with varying frequency. C. Decker.

GER 270. Living with the Nazi Legacy. A study of contemporary works from Austria and Germany that articulate the experiences of children of Nazis. Texts, which include autobiographical writings, novels, films, interviews, and essays, are analyzed in terms of their representation of the Nazi past and its continuing impact on the present. Prerequisite(s): German 234. Offered with varying frequency. C. Decker.

GER 290. Nietzsche, Kafka, Goethe. These three writers demarcate significant milestones on the road to modernity and beyond. Their ideas permeate even today's popular language: "Faustian" man, Nietzschean will to power, and the "death of God," Kafkaesque. With these writers as guides, this course undertakes a critical investigation of some of the way stations of modernity: the autonomy of the individual (Goethe); radical horizontality as a response to the crisis of culture (Nietzsche); dispossession and rootlessness, anonymity and the search for community as the fundamental characteristics of our age (Kafka). Class discussions are conducted in English; students may read texts either in German or in English translation. Recommended background: one course in literature, history, or philosophy. Open to first-year students. Offered with varying frequency. D. Sweet.

GER 301. The Enlightenment in Germany. The Enlightenment was a formative force of modernity. Its adherents promulgated tolerance and universality, new forms of education, and social utopias. This course is an interdisciplinary investigation of the movements, protagonists, and ideas of the Enlightenment in Germany and includes a postscript to the project of enlightenment at the beginning of the twenty-first century. Readings by Kant and Goethe, Lessing and Mendelssohn, Wieland and Herder. Contemporary writers include Horkheimer, Adorno, and Foucault. Prerequisite(s): one 200-level literature course taught in German. Offered with varying frequency. D. Sweet.

GER 303. German Romanticism. Profoundly affected by the French Revolution, Germany's young generation sought to create a philosophical literature (German Romanticism) to reform human consciousness. To achieve this, they posited new forms for sexuality and gender relations and sought to renew spirituality and consciousness of the supernatural. This course examines key philosophical and literary writings by the early German Romantics, including Schlegel, Novalis, Wackenroder, and Tieck. Prerequisite(s): one 200-level literature course taught in German. Offered with varying frequency. D. Sweet.

GER 356. Representing Austrian Fascism. Official state documents and popular historical imagination frequently present Austria as the "first victim of Nazi aggression," thus discounting the active role that Austrians played in the Anschluss and the Third Reich. This course explores the myth of Austria's victimization through analysis of government documents, literary texts, and documentary films that represent Austrian involvement in and response to the Nazi past. Prerequisite(s): one 200-level German literature course. Offered with varying frequency. C. Decker.

GER 357. Austrian Literature. A study of Austrian fiction that emerges from and responds to three important periods in Austrian political and cultural history: the restorative and revolutionary period of the mid-nineteenth century; fin-de-siècle Vienna and the impending collapse of the Habsburg Empire; and the post-World War II Second Austrian Republic. Prerequisite(s): one 200-level German literature course. Offered with varying frequency. C. Decker.

GER 358. Literature of the German Democratic Republic. Reading and discussion of selected prose and poetry of the German Democratic Republic. Topics include the theory of Socialist Realism, the role of the GDR Writers' Union, GDR authors who emigrated to the West, and the emergence of younger, independent writers. Works by Schneider, Becker, Wolf, Heym, and Wander are among those examined. Prerequisite(s): one 200-level German literature course. Recommended background: German 242. Offered with varying frequency. D. Sweet.

GER 360. Independent Study. Students, in consultation with a faculty advisor, individually design and plan a course of study or research not offered in the curriculum. Course work includes a reflective component, evaluation, and completion of an agreed-upon product. Sponsorship by a faculty member in the program/department, a course prospectus, and permission of the chair are required. Students may register for no more than one independent study per semester. Normally offered every semester. Staff.

GER 365. Special Topics. Designed for the small seminar group of students who may have particular interests in areas of study that go beyond the regular course offerings. Periodic conferences and papers are required. Permission of the department is required. Staff.

GER 457, 458. Senior Thesis. Research leading to writing of a senior thesis. Open to senior majors, including honors candidates. Students register for German 457 in the fall semester or for German 458 in the winter semester. Majors writing an honors thesis register for both German 457 and 458. Normally offered every year. Staff.

Short Term Units

GER s24. Monsters: Imagining the Other. This unit investigates the cultural functions of monsters, their significance as signifiers of the excluded, the absolute Other. Beginning with classical antiquity and proceeding to the present, students discuss texts by philosophers, historians, psychologists, a dictator, literary writers, and monster theorists in order to forge a historical and theoretical understanding of monsters, their messages, and their makers. Students view up to three monster movies each week. Conducted in English. Enrollment limited to 30. Offered with varying frequency. D. Sweet.

GER s25. The German Cinema. An introduction to methods of filmic analysis and to major issues in German film history from the 1920s to the present. Special attention is devoted to representations of the Nazi past in recent German films. Discussions and readings in English; films in German with English subtitles. Enrollment limited to 25. Offered with varying frequency. C. Decker.

GER s30. German Language in Germany. Intensive work for eight weeks at the Goethe Institute in Germany. This unit is offered at three levels: 1) for students who have had no German; 2) for students who have completed one year of college German; 3) for students who have completed two or more years of college German. Permission of the department is required. Enrollment limited to 4. Offered with varying frequency. Staff.

GER s50. Independent Study. Students, in consultation with a faculty advisor, individually design and plan a course of study or research not offered in the curriculum. Course work includes a reflective component, evaluation, and completion of an agreed-upon product. Sponsorship by a faculty member in the program/department, a course prospectus, and permission of the chair are required. Students may register for no more than one independent study during a Short Term. Normally offered every year. Staff.

[German, Russian, and East Asian Languages and Literatures]

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