German Electives
Course Descriptions
These courses provide the basis for communication in German and for understanding the cultures of the German-speaking world. Through first elements of the language, students learn aspects of history, geography, and culture. Structures and patterns are introduced and practiced.
These courses provide the basis for communication in German and for understanding the cultures of the German-speaking world. Through first elements of the language, students learn aspects of history, geography, and culture. Structures and patterns are introduced and practiced.
Communication on personal topics is fostered through continuing study of the structural and lexical features of the language. Emphasis is on the encounters of daily life--employment, leisure activities, living situations, family and friends.
Communication on personal topics is fostered through continuing study of the structural and lexical features of the language. Emphasis is on the encounters of daily life--employment, leisure activities, living situations, family and friends.
Emphasis on developing competancy in German as used in the public forum. Issues of politics and history could be included, but two more particular topics are readily subsumed under this heading. Two sample descriptions follow; these are aligned with best practices at other institutions.
Skill in communication on public topics and issues is gained through continuing in-depth study of German in its lexical, structural, and grammatical features. Conversations and written assignments draw on areas of public discourse- politics, social issues, religion, family, Germany, and the EU in a rapidly changing Europe.
Skill in communication on public topics and issues is gained through continuing in-depth study of German in its lexical, structural, and grammatical features. Conversations and written assignments draw on areas of public discourse- politics, social issues, religion, family, Germany, and the EU in a rapidly changing Europe.
Major themes of conflict and upheaval in German-language literature will be considered thematically. Examples include mental and physical illness; journeys into the unknown; Romanticism and its mystique; youthful rebellion and compliance; lyric poetry; the shock of Expressionism. Readigns and discussions in German.
Major themes of conflict and upheaval in German-language literature will be considered thematically. Examples include mental and physical illness; journeys into the unknown; Romanticism and its mystique; youthful rebellion and compliance; lyric poetry; the shock of Expressionism. Readigns and discussions in German.
The roles of perception and consciousness emerge in these courses dealing with cultural topics in the German-speaking world. Topics can include; film; music; drama; the visual arts; Freud and his followers; the fairy tale; the Golem and other hauntings.
The roles of perception and consciousness emerge in these courses dealing with cultural topics in the German-speaking world. Topics can include; film; music; drama; the visual arts; Freud and his followers; the fairy tale; the Golem and other hauntings.
This course focuses on the German language from its beginning to the present; particularly, the development of sounds, vocabulary, and the formation of standard High German.
This course examines the development of the ability to read texts in
German Script from mid-20th-century Europe to 18th-century America.
A brief history of German Script will be offered.
Literature in German from its beginnings, with the heroic saga of teh Song of Hildebrand, through the poetry of lyricists like Oswald vn Wolkenstein adn Walther von der Vogelweide and the great Arthurian cycles by Wolfram von Eschenbach and Goffried von Strasburg. Introduction to readings in Old and Middle High German.
The tensions of elaborate form in teh Baroque age were succeeded by simpliying impulse of teh rational Enlightenment and the triumph of scientific method, these in turn challenged by teh embrace of impulse and emotion in the age of Storm and Stress. Readings in poetry, drama, and fiction with relevant critical studies.
Eric Blackall argues that German emerged as a fully literary language in the age of Goethe and Schiller, still the benchmarks of all literature in German. Their work will be studied seperately and together, especially their writings on esthetics and their collaboration in the year of the Ballade, 1797. Individual projects and presentations.
Polarities have dominated German culture since the religious wars of the seventeenth century. The major form of that struggle in the nineteenth century was the question of whether to accept the status quo or to rebel and reject social complacency. Biedermeier, Realism, Naturalism in an age of censorship and other progressive and regressive political currents.
Well into the twenty-first century, literature and culture are torn between a need to belong, to find and maintain order in teh alrger society and a need to explore unfettered individuality, to strike out on new paths. Literature reflects the allure of both past-oriented traditionalism as renewal and resolute experimentalism in all forms of art. Authors can include Thomas Mann and Alfred Doblin; Rainer Maria Rilke and Goffried Benn; Odon von Horvath and Friedrich Durrenmatt in the twentieth century, along with later generations of experimentalists like Ernst Jandl, Ingeborg Bachmann, Reinhard Priessnitz, Gert Jonke, and Elfriede Jelinek.
Topics will vary from semester to semester. A single genre, movement, or author will be the focus of each seminar. Work on a seminar essay will be ongoing throughout the semester. Topics could include: teh novella; Franz Kafka; experimental lyric poetry; Brecht and drama; the Romantic movement; Hugo von Hofmannsthal; Arthur Schnitzler; second-gernation Holocaust survivors.
Topics of investigation vary from semester to semester. Readings, reports,
and discussion in a selected genre (novel, drama, lyric, short story) will
be offered. A seminar paper is expected.