Courses

Introduction to German Studies, with emphasis on research methodology, theoretical approaches, coverage of major currents in German intellectual and literary history from 1750-present, and exposure to fields interrelated with German Studies. Includes training in the use of electronic databases and archives and an introduction to online publication. Required of all graduate students. Prereq., graduate standing or instructor consent. Prerequisites: Restricted to Graduate Students only.

Required of all graduate teaching assistants, this course provides a knowledge of the aspects of German linguistics that are important for teaching German and a survey of foreign language teaching methods and second language acquisition research. Prereq., graduate standing or instructor consent. Prerequisites: Restricted to Graduate Students only.

An introductory study of nineteenth-century German philosophy (especially Kant, Hegel, and Marx). Required course for the graduate certificate in Critical Theory. GRMN 5030 and COML 5030 are the same course.

Examines the influence of the emerging middle class on the transformation of aesthetic and societal values. Major works of theory, philosophy, literature, and criticism by Lessing, Herder, Kant, J. E. Schlegel, and others. Examines major literary and cultural influences from France and Great Britain. Prereq., graduate standing or instructor consent.

Examines various aspects of German-speaking society from the 1770s to 1830s. Topics may include Sturm und Drang as social commentary; romantic theory in the wake of the French Revolution; romantic nationalism; the Faust theme; Weimar as a cultural center; and others. May be repeated up to 6 total credit hours when topic varies. Prereq., graduate standing or instructor consent. Prerequisites: Restricted to Graduate Students only.

Introduces students to debates surrounding migration and race in contemporary Germany. Emphasis on reading texts in context using tools of cultural studies, integrating analyses of gender, race, nation, and sexuality. Texts may include film, literature, television, magazine images, etc. Topics include: questioning "multiculturalism," self-representation, integration, Islam, citizenship, violence, public space, youth culture, racism and nationalism. Taught in English. Same as GRMN 4301.

Examines the transformation of realism from Buechner to Gerhart Hauptmann. Topics may include literary responses to the Restoration; intellectuals and the Revolution of 1848; philosophy and literature; theatrical representations of woman, family, and gender; and others. May be repeated up to 6 total credit hours when topic varies. Prereq., graduate standing or instructor consent. Prerequisites: Restricted to Graduate Students only.

Beginning with T. Mann's Buddenbrooks, charts the rise of the German novel in the early 20th century and examines such topics as Wilhelminian society; intellectuals and World War I; dehumanization and alienation; national socialism and literary exile; and others. Authors include T. Mann, H. Hesse, R. Rilke, F. Kafka, A. Seghers, and A. Zweig. Prereq., graduate standing or instructor consent.

Examines the period of social crisis and the intellectual responses to the collapse of the prewar order. Gives attention to the antidemocratic thought of Spengler, Juenger, Stefan George and his circle, to the emergence of existentialism with Scheler and Heidegger, and to the search for a new political humanism as evidenced by the work of Thomas Mann. Prereq., graduate standing or instructor consent.

Focuses on major issues, events, movements, and figures prior to World War II. Topics may include the ontology of lyric poetry; Berlin in the 1920s; exiles, their communities, and their writings; women writers from Andreas-Salome to Anna Seghers; topics in German film; and others. May be repeated up to 6 total credit hours when topic varies. Prereq., graduate standing or instructor consent. Prerequisites: Restricted to Graduate Students only.

Analyzes major currents and events such as the Holocaust, coming to terms with the past (Vergangenheitsbewaeltigung), German Democratic Republic (GDR) literature, and responses to the reunification. Topics may include the Austrians from Anschluss to Haider; Paul Celan; East German writers between Wolf Biermann and Christa Wolf; topics in German film; and others. May be repeated up to 6 total credit hours when topic varies. Prereq., graduate standing or instructor consent.

Systematic study of the Faust motif in Western literature, with major emphasis on Faust I and II by Goethe and Thomas Mann's Doctor Faustus. Taught in English. Same as GRMN 4504 and COML 5504. Prerequisites: Restricted to Graduate Students only.

Focuses on cultural issues that cross lines of literary periodization. Topics may include the theater as social criticism from Lessing to Handke; forms of German protest from Luther to Thomas Mann; nihilism from Bonaventura to Thomas Bernhard; topics in German film; and others. May be repeated up to 6 total credit hours when topic varies. Prereq., graduate standing or instructor consent.

Examines issues pervading contemporary German literature and media, such as concerns of youth, xenophobia, stereotyping as it affects women and men in their relations, work experience, feminism, problems connected with the reunification, and other issues. Prereq., graduate standing or instructor consent.

May be repeated up to 6 total credit hours. Prereq., graduate standing or instructor consent. Prerequisites: Restricted to Graduate Students only.

May be repeated up to 6 total credit hours. Prereq., graduate standing or instructor consent. Prerequisites: Restricted to Graduate Students only.