Pennsylvania State University-Penn State Berks · Courses
GER
77 courses with the subject GER, each shown exactly as we captured it from the college's catalog, with every element we hold. Where the wording looks broken, that is our reading of the catalog, not the college's text.
GER 100German Culture and Civilization3
German 100 provides a cultural history of Germany, Switzerland, and Austria from the Roman Empire to the Nazi defeat. Readings and discussions will be in English. The class examines the role of German tribes in the collapse of Rome, the emergence of a powerful medieval Empire, the architecture and devotions of Romanesque and Gothic cathedrals, the rise of manufacturing cities, the art of the Northern Renaissance, Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation, Catholic Responses, The Thirty Years War, the Absolute King and the ban on sectarian warfare, the Rise of Prussia as a military monarchy, the Enlightenment, Napoleon and the end of the Holy Roman Empire, German Romanticism and Nationalism, Industrialization, the 1848 Revolution, Unification, Ethnic nationalism in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, World War One, Empires collapse, the Weimar Republic, Inflation, the Versailles Treaty, Modern art, Nazi seizure dictatorship, racial policy and the Holocaust, World War Two, Nazi defeat. Readings will include historical documents and a history textbook. Short discussions of art, architecture, music, literature, and philosophy are included. The class is organized around lectures, with visual aids and class screenings of films. The course is designed to be suitable for all students generally interested in German, or interested in various fields of humanistic study, whether or not they have previously studied the culture of Germany. This course is designed to fulfill General Education GH "General Humanities," IL "International Cultures," and also BA requirements.
GER 115NScience, Humanity and Catastrophe: Scientific Discovery in Germany3
The 20th century was a time of great scientific advancement - advancements that were used both for good and for evil (and for other purposes that lie somewhere in between). Germany and German-speaking scientists played central roles in many of these discoveries. In this course we will take an interdisciplinary approach to discussing key scientific advancements, including the discovery of nuclear fission and the development of the nuclear bomb, the discovery of polymers and the invention of pain medicines such as morphine and oxycodone, learning about the science behind these discoveries alongside the social and historical contexts in which they occurred, and the impact these discoveries had on society. While a majority of the scientific discoveries that we will focus on took place in the first half of the 20th century, we will also discuss the ways in which the long-term consequences of these discoveries are still relevant today, especially as they relate to current issues on sustainability (e.g., the use of plastics) and the ethical considerations that arise more generally when thinking about the relationship between science, technology, engineering and society.
GER 123Genocide in Global perspectives: Twentieth Century and beyond3
The history and memory of the Holocaust, the Armenian, Cambodian and other forms of genocide are often taught separately in different disciplines. This course will examine them together through the various ways different societies dealt with, experienced and understood these. Using the extensive literature on the history of genocide this course further suggests ways in which these tragic events affected and were entangled by each other's. Specific content will vary according to individual instructor, but topics may include victim cultures, ethnic cleansing, trauma, human rights, dark tourism, memorials, architecture as well as the general impact of these tragedies on global politics, or the way the memories of the tragedies were entangled with the civil rights and other struggles in American and global history.
This class studies how art, literature, film, and other media can help us to gain a perspective on one of the most horrific events in human history, the Holocaust: the genocidal murder of more than six million men, women, and children (mostly Jewish) under the Nazi regime during World War II. We will also examine the theoretical questions involved in any attempt to capture what appears to be beyond our comprehension, in terms of moral outrage and the sheer scale, inhumanity, and bureaucratic efficiency. To this end we will study literary works, such as Primo Levi's Survival in Auschwitz, films such as Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List, Roman Polanski's The Pianist, and Roberto Benigni's Life is Beautiful, as well as photographs, poems, artworks, installations, museum architecture, the design of monuments and other artifacts. We will also examine questions of memorialization (Holocaust museums and memorials), national guilt, survivor's guilt, stigmatization, and the ethics of historical representation.
GER 131Gender and Sexuality in Weimar Berlin, 1918 - 19333
This course engages with why Weimar Berlin was a unique and important moment in the Western history of gender and sexuality. This course introduces students to topics in gender and sexuality in media, literature, film and their cultural context in Weimar Berlin. Students will explore how gender was policed in Weimar Berlin and the ways in which medical, political, and artistic institutions became involved with people of diverse sexual orientations and gender identities. Students will discuss the ways in which certain behaviors or lifestyles were allowed to exist in public spaces for the first time, on the one hand, but also how this the Nazis used this knowledge in the following decades. Students will analyze how Berlin between 1918-1933 served as a significant hub for queer and gay subcultures and who the prominent figures in this cultural era were.
This course, which is cross-listed between Russian and German, aims to acquaint students with an important and troubling chapter of 20th-century culture. The regimes of Stalin and Hitler have had a decisive impact not only on life in Russia and Germany, but in much of Europe and the world at large. Espousing a comparative perspective, the course explores the culture produced by Stalinist Russia and Nazi Germany, considering both the culture of daily life and selected works of "high culture," including literature, the visual arts, architecture, music, and film. A knowledge of Russian or German is not required, as class lectures and discussions as well as all reading assignments are in English.
This course surveys the history, culture, religion, and society of the Amish and related Anabaptist sectarian groups in North America. The course focuses on basic human issues, such as family, community, and economy, and the values that inform the Amish approach to these issues. Students will gain an understanding of their beliefs and values, i.e., why they often travel by horse and buggy and generally do not have electricity in their homes. This course also cultivates students' knowledge about the social and religious identity of the Amish. This course is suitable for students interested in several diverse topics ranging from agriculture, anthropology, history, and religious studies.
In this course you will learn about three controversial thinkers of modern life. We will turn to German philosophy and psychology to examine basic questions that trouble us today. Karl Marx will help us understand: How does capitalism actually work? How are profits produced? What forms of exploitation are built into industrial labor? How did globalization begin? Sigmund Freud's invention of psychoanalysis will show us: How sexual drives shape our personalities? What is the unconscious and how does it appear in our daily lives? What do dreams tell us about ourselves? The radical ideas of Friedrich Nietzsche will challenge: What is truth? How does it serve power? What are the foundations of Christian morality? Does God exist? In this course you will learn how each thinker altered the course of modern history through their distinctive methods and questions. You will learn why they were each so revolutionary and how important they are for our own era. All texts and discussion are in English.
GER 175Germanic Heroic and Medieval Literature in English Translation3
In this course, students will become able to describe the complex cultural history of the German-speaking Middle Ages and its modern reception through analysis of literary and cultural production. The period between the Germanic migrations of the fourth century C.E. (Common Era) and the waning of the high Middle Ages around 1250 C.E. was shaped by a complex convergence of sociocultural, theological, and political forces. A shift from the agrarian society of early Germanic peoples with a minimal government structure, to the stratified socio-political system of the High Middle Ages is reflected in written documents and literary production of the time. Evolving and emerging value systems often clashed. For instance, knights were expected to be the warriors depicted in heroic epic and yet also to behave like the civilized courtiers of Arthurian Romance. Modern retellings of Arthurian and heroic stories are popular in modern film and literature. Newer scholarly approaches such as culture theory, gender studies, critical race theory, and post-colonial studies have expanded the available tools for analysis of Germanic medieval literature and culture. Students will examine historical documents, literary works, visual art, music, as well as secondary articles on history, culture, and literature and will discuss the complexity and diversity of this time period in German-speaking regions. Using modern tools of analysis, students will compare the medieval material with its reception in modern cultural production and will evaluate the relevance of medieval culture to modern society.
A survey of German film from its beginnings to the present, with emphasis on historical, political, and cultural contexts. The course also equips students with the basic tools of film criticism and engages salient questions related to visual cultures, past and present, to develop skills for critical spectatorship in a world dominated by images.
GER 190Twentieth-Century German Literature in English Translation3
This course introduces students to literature written in German in the twentieth century, including by authors living in German-speaking countries such as Austria, Germany, and Switzerland, but also by writers in exile or from outside of these regions. Though organizing genres and/or topics may vary, students will learn to read texts in relation to (and as a way better to understand) the dramatically shifting social and political contexts of their production. All texts and discussions are in English.
How do we make sense of Germany, the country's history, culture, politics, and economics during the twentieth century? In modern German history, periods of impressive social, political, economic, cultural, and intellectual achievements alternated with times of violence, destruction, two world wars, genocide, and authoritarian structures in politics and society. This course helps students to understand Germany during the 20th century. The main focal points of this course include World War I, the 1918 revolution followed by the short history of the Weimar Republic, the rise of the Nazis and the Third Reich, World War II and the Holocaust, post-war reconstruction, the foundation of two German states in 1949, their development until (re-) unification in 1990, the development of Germany from unification to today, Germany's current dominant economic position within the EU, and the recent rise of radical right-wing politics in Germany for the first time since 1945. These focal areas will be approached from various perspectives: From historical (and historiographical) vantage points, from sociological and economic perspectives, and through the lenses of cultural productions such as novels, movies, and other works of art.
Continuation of GER 3. Developing reading, writing, listening and speaking skills in German through content-based tasks that focus on different aspects of German culture. Class and homework activities also provide additional practice and review of German grammar.
The Vikings will study the rise and proliferation of Viking culture and society during the Viking Age (c. 793 - c. 1066 CE). This course will examine Norse/Scandinavian culture including their social structure, political and economic systems, technology (especially shipbuilding and navigation), religion, literature, language and of course the raiding, trading and exploration traditionally associated with Vikings. As the course synthesizes and analyzes historical evidence, several themes will be of importance including: social and economic structures, religious belief systems, the place of women and marginalized groups in society, and cultural developments such as art and literature. The overall goal of this course is to use factual and thematic knowledge of this time period and these cultures to analyze and appreciate both change and continuity in the development of Viking history.
Formal courses given infrequently to explore, in depth, a comparatively narrow subject which may be topical or of special interest. This Special Topics is an Inter-Domain GenEd course
Continuation of oral and written practice in German with extensive work in composition. Fundamental to the course is a thorough review of basic and advanced grammatical situations, with the goal of improving students' grammatical and stylistic precision in written German discourse across a variety of genres.
This course provides an introduction to German, Austrian and Swiss business and economics. Students will read and respond to a variety of texts about topics, such as German economic practices and the German business world, Germany and the European Union, the German job market, as well as texts that introduce and describe more general economic principles and current events. Emphasis is also placed on expanding students' vocabulary and further developing their writing skills in German, especially with regards to economic and business terminology, and writing genres common in business contexts. This course is conducted primarily in German
An overview of German culture from the Middle Ages to the present. Conducted in German. GER 344 Intermediate German Culture (3) (IL) This course will be a comprehensive overview of major events and figures in German history that have influenced the development of German culture. This will be a foundational course that will enable students to better situate advanced courses in German literature and culture in the broader context of a cultural tradition that stretches from the Germanic migrations to the present. The course will be taught in German at the intermediate level and will be required of all German majors and minors. It will be a prerequisite for culture courses taught in German at the 400-level. Students will be evaluated on the basis of written tests, an oral presentation and essay on a major cultural figure or event, homework, and class participation. The course will be offered every semester. The enrollment for each section will be capped at approximately 22.
Advanced study of the German language with emphasis on complex grammatical structures, consolidation of vocabulary, cultural knowledge, and intensive practice of written communication skills.
GER 402Introduction to German Literature in Cultural Context3
In this course we will read and analyze an array of literary texts and visual media (e.g., art, films or other audio-visual media) to answer questions such as: 1) What are the key historical epochs, literary periods, and political organizations that define the history of the German-speaking world and who are some of its key figures and authors? 2) How do political events and trends create new genres? And how are politics, literary movements, and genres connected? 3) Through which historical processes did the modern German, Austrian and Swiss nations arise? In addition to learning how to interpret literary text and visual media in their cultural context, students will have the opportunity for intensive practice in spoken and written German. This course is taught primarily in German.
This course provides more advanced engagement with topics related to German, Austrian and Swiss business. Topics may include German business organization, forms of business communication, German finance and the DAX and current events, especially as they relate to Germany in a global world. Emphasis is also placed on expanding students' vocabulary and writing skills in German, especially as they relate to business terminology and international business contexts. This course is conducted primarily in German.
This course is designed to foster an informed professional outlook on the teaching and learning of foreign languages in general and German in particular. Students will learn about common concepts and terminology within the field of second language acquisition, and how this area of research informs foreign language pedagogy and vice versa. Both during and outside of class, students will also learn about the practical side of foreign language teaching, including the development of lesson plans, writing and grading quizzes and exams, and evaluating oneself as a teacher. This course is conducted primarily in German
This course provides an overview of the structure of the German language from its sound system (phonetics and phonology) to word formation (morphology) and word order (syntax), to language variation (sociolinguistics) and language change (historical linguistics). The overview will include comparisons with other Germanic languages such as English. This course is taught in German.
Development of German from its earliest stages, including historical and cultural aspects. GER 430 History of the German Language (3) This course provides an overview of the history of the German language from its origins to the present. Historical changes and dialectal variation in phonology (sound system), morphology (word structure), syntax (sentence structure), lexicon (vocabulary), and semantics (word meaning) will be examined. Particular emphasis is placed on the impact of cultural and historical changes on the development of German, including its standardization. Students will be evaluated on the basis of homework, classroom participation, tests, and an in-class presentation with a written abstract. No prior knowledge of linguistics is required. The class is conducted in German.
GER 431Dragons, the Divine and the Demonic: German Literature, Culture and Media--Medieval to 17503
King Arthur's knights slaying dragons, medieval mystics' visions of the divine, and the demon, Mephistopheles' tempting of Dr. Faustus are well-known themes from pre-modern cultural production in German-speaking regions. Analysis of literary and cultural production in German-speaking regions of the pre-modern period reveals how these themes function within an underlying narrative and symbolic complexity that can in turn shed light on the diverse and ever-shifting social ideals, political forces, sex and gender expression, and worldviews during this time span. Students will examine historical documents, literary works, and artistic production, as well as secondary articles, to discuss the complexity and diversity of this time period in German-speaking regions. Students will compare the medieval material with its reception in modern cultural production and will evaluate the relevance of medieval culture to modern society. The primary language for reading and discussion in this course is German.
GER 432Worlds, Wars, and the Self: German Culture from the Enlightenment to the Present3
This course examines German literary texts and media from 1750 to the present across a wide array of genres, from short stories to dramas and even videos. Students survey seminal literary texts from the Enlightenment, like the genres of the bourgeois tragedy or the epistolary novel, before considering both canonical and lesser-known texts and visual media from the twentieth- and twenty-first centuries. While this course focuses on the German literary canon beginning in the Enlightenment, other literary works, such as those by Bertolt Brecht or Emine Sevgi Özdamar, may be discussed later in the semester in their historical context. In addition to literary texts, students may also engage with works of art, films, and other audio-visual media. The sequence of texts and media from 1750 to the present demonstrates the diverse and multicultural aspects of contemporary German culture. Ultimately, this course explores with the ways in which modern German-speaking subjects have participated in, rebelled against, or conformed to the worlds in which they live. This course is conducted primarily in German.
This course surveys the varieties, dialects, and flavors of German around the world. The class compares and contrasts traditional dialects of German (e.g., Hochdeutsch 'Standard German') with other varieties of German (e.g., Kiezdeutsch, Namdeutsch). Students will examine the structure of these language varieties across social, stylistic, and cultural spaces. Students will gain insight into ongoing changes in the language that extend beyond what is commonly taught in textbooks. Students will also explore how German dialects differ linguistically from another and how speakers use alternate forms of German for specific purposes, meanings, and functions. This course is conducted primarily in German.
This course explores the politics of migration, as well as the challenges and opportunities presented by monolingualism and multilingualism in German history and culture. We will examine writing, translation, and the global traffic of texts as they form and alter linguistic and cultural landscapes. We will address questions of migration and translation in different media, such as film, literature, music, and theater. Students will also have the chance to reflect on their potential of becoming multilingual. This course will be taught primarily in German.
This course will explore major themes of horror, terror, and fantasy in German literature and culture. What are the political and psychological meanings hidden in monster stories? What is the relationship between literary and historical accounts of horror? We will examine how fantastical, spectral, supernatural, monstrous, and demonic figures haunt visual representations, literary and cinematic narratives. Our discussions will focus on the impact of historical events, such as revolutions, epidemics, war, genocide, urban life, and modern anxieties, on art and media. This course is conducted primarily in German.
This course introduces students to topics in gender and sexuality in German media, literature, film, and their cultural contexts throughout various time periods. We will explore how gender has been constructed through media in the German-speaking world and how notions of gender and sexuality put different demands on people. Topics may include portrayals of femininity, masculinity, gender fluidity, and queerness in various media (e.g., literature, music, the arts, and digital media). Students will discuss the ways in which certain behaviors or lifestyles have been stigmatized or made taboo. Students will analyze how notions of gender and sexuality interact with virtual and physical spaces, the environment, and a multicultural world. This course is conducted primarily in German. This course is repeatable up to twice because different faculty members teach the course in rotation. Faculty members will address this broad topic during different historical periods with different primary and secondary literature. In other words, students will engage with entirely different historical periods, authors and artists, media, and literature if they repeat the course.
GER 459Forbidden Forests: Ecology and Storytelling3
This course examines various texts and visual media from the Middle Ages to the present in which the natural world plays a central role. From haunted forests to the Green Party, and from fairy tales to modern eco-thrillers, the dangers, wonders, and fragility of the environment remain critical to the German imagination. In this course we will link media (e.g., literature, music, the arts, and digital media) to topics including environmental catastrophe, climate change, sustainability and co-existing with nature.
GER 489Introduction to German Film History and Theory in Context3
Introduces films in German since the 1960s and addresses issues relevant to German and European cultures and politics. GER 489 Introduction to German Film History and Theory in Context (3) This course focuses on German cinema's development since the 1960s. The course situates the 'Young' and then 'New German Cinema' within contemporaneous European and U.S. film cultures. Thus the course will address the difference between the European cinematic culture of 'auteurs' versus the school of 'genres' in the U.S.The preceding traditions of Italian Neo-realism and of the Frenchnouvelle vagueare also engaged alongside a few Hungarian, Czech and/or Polish films. The students will have the opportunity to consider how these other national cinematic productions impacted the German filmmakers who were involved in the creation of a national German cinema that would critically engage Hollywood on the one hand, and distance itself from the Nazi past on the other.The course will be structured around questions about the grounds for a national cinema and its cultural and critical relevance both at the time these films were produced and today. Yet, the national question will not be the only focus of this class, in the course of which students will be able to discuss the historical, political and ethical questions raised by the directors selected. In addition, students in this course will learn about the specificity of cinematic language and will be exposed to some film theory. In conclusion, the course provides upper level undergraduate students with a basic knowledge of the most important New German films, with a confrontation with issues specifically relevant to a study of German culture, and with some familiarity with film theory.The evaluation methods for this course will be based on 1) participation [attendance; reports/worksheets, after each film and in class discussion]: 30%; 2) presentation 20%; 3) take-home mid term essay 20%; and 4) final paper 30%. The course is part of the German Program, in particular of the German Studies curriculum. It teaches students of German culture about German and European contemporary cinema, while situating the cinema within broader historical-political debates concerning Europe. It functions as an excellent complementary course to our GER LIT classes at the 400 level and offers an additional choice to pursue cultural studies to those who are more reticent about reading texts. Enrollment: 25. The course will be offered every other year.
Supervised off-campus, non-group instruction including individual field experiences, practicums, or internships. Written and oral critique of activity required.
Introduction to the major theoretical approaches to the contemporary study of culture (literature, film, art and politics). GER 510 Literary Theory: An Introduction (3) This seminar will introduce students to contemporary literary and cultural theory in an effort to provide them with the methodological tools they need to undertake cutting-edge literary and cultural analysis themselves. German Studies in the U.S. has at least two defining characteristics. First, though, at least for those of us in German Departments, its emphasis is mainly on culture, it is genuinely interdisciplinary, attempting to explore how cultural products and practices (defined as extending far beyond the traditional canon of German literature) are constituted by and help to constitute history and politics. And, secondly, it advances its interdisciplinary analyses by drawing increasingly on new methodologies elaborated by Anglo-American and foreign cultural theorists. Among the theoretical approaches we may focus on will be formalism and structuralism, psychoanalysis, Marxism, cultural studies, feminism, gender studies, and queer theory, and post-colonial theory. These new theories have profoundly transformed disciplines such as Anglo-American literary studies, comparative literature, women's studies, history, and anthropology, since the Seventies. In this course we shall find out if/how such theories could transform German Studies, too. The course is reading-intensive and students are expected to invest most of their time in reading and preparing for class discussions. Regular attendance and informed participation in class discussion will be required. This involves reading all assigned articles on a regular basis (20%); oral presentation of one weekly section (30%); second oral presentation that includes a sample analysis of the assigned texts (20%); and one 12-15 page paper due at the end of the semester (30%). German 51 0 will be the second unit in a three-course package intended to provide beginning graduate students with a set of correlated introductory courses. German 510 is the only wide-ranging course in theory offered by the Department for incoming students. This course will be offered once a year with 5 to 1 0 students (1 5 max) per offering.
Theory, methods, techniques, materials, bibliography contributions of linguistics and psychology to language learning; methods of teaching post- secondary German. GER 511 The Teaching of College German (3) German 511 introduces students to the theory and methods of teaching German at the college level. It deals not only with techniques, materials, and bibliography of the field but also evaluates the contributions of linguistics and psychology to college-level language pedagogy. German 511 familiarizes students with current theories of foreign language education as they relate to post-secondary language acquisition. This course further includes the practical aspects of college-level teaching with special reference to problems related specifically to the teaching and learning of German. Evaluation procedures include examinations, research papers, and the preparation of sample teaching materials. German 511 is a required course for all German graduate students both at the M.A. and Ph.D. level. It is offered every year.
This course examines German speech sounds and their organization into a linguistic system. GER 513 German Phonetics and Phonology (3)This course provides an overview of the major subfields of phonology as they apply to the German language. No prior knowledge of linguistics or phonology is assumed. Topics discussed include articulatory phonetics, the phoneme, distinctive features, and common phonological processes in German such as final devoicing, prosody, prosodic morphology and dialectal variation. The class will practice phonetic transcription of German and English. We will discuss common phonetic and phonological difficulties presented by German for native speakers of English. In addition to practical applications of phonetics, the class will investigate theoretical concepts such as the phoneme, distinctive features, lexical stress, the syllable and the prosodic foot. Reading assignments include scholarly articles employing different theoretical frameworks and excerpts from seminal works in the field. Frameworks to be discussed include derivational approaches and Optimality Theory. The class will also examine dialectal variation with a particular emphasis on differences between Low, Middle and Upper German dialects. Each students will make a presentation investigating the phonological system of a German dialect. Evaluation is based on problems, class presentations and a final research paper.
This course provides an overview of morphosyntactic processes in German. GER 514 German Syntax (3)This course provides an overview of the major components of morphology and syntax as they apply to the German language. No prior knowledge of linguistics or morphosyntax is assumed. Topics discussed include the basic syntactic constituents in German, the verbal bracket and movement rules, German argument structure, the tense/mood/aspect system for German verbs, the connection between pragmatics and word order in German, and dialectal variation as it relates to German syntax. Emphasis will also be placed on how these different areas of German syntax are related to descriptive grammar rules as presented in many German language classes. Reading assignments include scholarly articles employing different theoretical frameworks, including minimalism, and excerpts from seminal works in the field. Evaluation is based on problem sets, two take-home exams and a research paper.
In most university courses, the Holocaust is taught chronologically, beginning with the rise of the Nazi Party and then following the German armies through Europe and into the Soviet Union. The retreat of those same forces beginning in 1943 parallels the concentration and professionalization of the killing process which then begins to break down as the war comes to an end. This narrative is not incorrect, and certainly makes sense for introductory courses. Yet it also mirrors the perpetrators' perspective. A graduate course allows us to explore different perspectives on the war and genocide and how these affect both the periodization and the geography of the Holocaust. In this course we will examine a number of divergent historiographic trends regarding the origins, enactment, end, and aftermath of the Holocaust. These will help students to think more broadly about the place of the Holocaust in world history and how new theories, methods and questions can be applied to other historical events.
GER 530The Frankfurt School & the Politics of Visual Aesthetics3
The course examines the Frankfurt School's critical theories regarding visual strategies for representing and challenging urban consumer culture. The course will examine critical theories by members of the Frankfurt School regarding visual strategies for representing and challenging urban consumer culture. The course will center on German Marxist theories about how the rise of urban mass culture at the beginning of the twentieth century produced Modernist forms of visual representation. The course will examine how the spread of fashion-driven behavior had dramatic implications for aesthetic theory, film, architecture, and literature. The course will provide a survey of the most important works in the German critical tradition and the major thinkers associated with the Frankfurt School. These include Georg Simmel, Georg Lukacs, Siegfried Kracauer, Walter Benjamin, Theodor Adorno, and Jürgen Habermas, among others. Students will learn how these modern theories relate to the German Idealist tradition, particularly Kant, Hegel, and Nietzsche, as well as the history of German Marxism. Topics include the psychology of the metropolitan individual, the commodification of culture, money, and interpersonal relationships, the architecture of shopping, visual advertising through posters and photography, and cinema as a means of understanding social relations, as well as the role of visual media in public debate. The course will consider how modernist architecture, particularly from the Bauhaus school, redefined urban spaces and introduced new functionalist designs. The course will examine how Frankfurt School thinkers responded to the provocative design proposals presented by modernist architects. Students will examine specific modernist designs for consumer products to examine the relationship between the appearance of a commodity and its use, in order to understand how appearance and function are interdependent within modernism. In broad terms, class discussions will focus on such questions as: How does the relationship between the visual image and society change under industrial capitalism? What political functions do visual images have in consumer culture? What visual mechanisms does the "culture industry" deploy to organize public consciousness? What critical responses are available to visual artists within a mass-market economy? The course will provide students an historical understanding of early twentieth-century German consumer culture and its visual representation, while also offering them critical intellectual tools to understand the social and economic implications of visual images within consumer culture. The course will be taught in English with readings in both languages.
This course studies how art, literature, film, and other media can provide a perspective on one of the most horrific events in human history, the Holocaust: the genocidal murder of more than six million men, women, and children (mostly Jewish) under the Nazi regime during World War II. The course examines the theoretical questions involved in any attempt to capture what appears to be beyond comprehension in terms of moral outrage and the sheer scale, inhumanity, and bureaucratic efficiency of the violence perpetrated by the Nazis. This course examines formal approaches of depicting the Holocaust in literature and film, as well as photography, museum installations, and memorials. Topics to be discussed include include memorialization (Holocaust museums and memorials), mass murder of the disabled, national guilt, survivor's guilt, stigmatization, and the ethics of historical representation. The course will analyze cinematic strategies for representing the unrepresentable, dark humor about the Holocaust, the persistence of the past, Nazi propaganda, Holocaust photography, trauma theories, graphic novels, the Nuremberg trials, survivor memoirs, representations of the Nuremberg Code and the International Bill of Norms, and possibilities for art after Auschwitz.
This course will examine the history, theory, and practice of German photographic and moving picture technology from its origins to the digital age. The course will be structured around important innovations in visual technology, including: 1) the pre-history and invention of photography, 2) pre-cinematic moving pictures (Anschütz), 3) the invention of cinema (Skladanowsky Bros.), 4) sound and color innovations, 5) video, digital, and installation work. The aim of the course is to provide an historical overview of visual culture in which the radical shifts inaugurated by new technologies are examined in terms of their aesthetic, philosophical, and political impact. In the German context these shifts have been examined by important theoreticians of visual culture (most notably Arnheim, Balácz, Benjamin, Kracauer, and Flusser) whose work has changed the way we think about our relation to images. Practitioners in the German sphere have been no less influential: from Ottomar Anschütz's pre-cinematic experiments with moving pictures to the very first public demonstration of cinematic technology (the Skladanowskys' bioscope, one month before the Lumières' first show) to the avant-garde animation of the Weimar period; from the narrative and design innovations of the Expressionist filmmakers to the rich and varied independent films of the New German Cinema to the radical documentarians of the past decade. By providing students with an understanding of German innovations in and responses to new technologies this course will ground readings of particular works historically. In broad terms, class discussion will consider questions such as: What is the aesthetic status of the photographic image in relation to painting? What is the ontological status of the photograph as a chemical imprint of light? How do these new technologies lend themselves to political action? How is the spectator differently constructed by these technologies? In what way is the still image integral to the moving image-and what implications do these have for our perception of time? What is the new role of the image in mass, consumer culture (subversive or complicit)? How do the formal and technical affordances of the film-based image contribute to the construction of national, race, and gender identities, to spectator desires, and to new aesthetic categories? Readings will be available in German and in English. Class discussion will be in English.
This course explores the role of photography in the context of the racialized politics of genocides and their aftermaths. The course aims to critically examine photographic evidence of genocidal violence, revealing the long shadow of modern genocides from colonialism, to the Holocaust, the Armenian, Cambodian, Rwandan genocides, to the present. At the intersection of modern constructs of race as they culminate in genocidal violence, the course investigates the political and ethical potential of photography. Topics include: definitions of genocide; modern genocides; colonialism and the concept of race; the origins of photography; photography in literature and film; the civil contract of photography; the ethics of testimonies; atomic light; commemoration and the aftermath of genocides; race after technology.
GER 538German Expansionism, War & Violence: From the Seven Years' War to the War in Afghanistan3
The course explores the various intersections between domestic politics and sociocultural developments and policies of martial brinksmanship, spatial expansion, and policies of ethnic cleansing and genocide. The course traces change over time with respect to ideas and practices of ethnic cleansing and genocide from the seven Years' War and the division and absorption of large portions of the former Polish state by Prussia in the late eighteenth century all the way to today, when racist reverse-colonialist notions of "white genocide" are being promoted by terrorist (and only recently uncovered) subsections of the German armed forces. Topics include: Pre-nationalist expansion in the late eighteenth century; the beginnings of German nationalist and racist discourse; imperialist and racialist settlement policies within the German Empire in the second half of the nineteenth century; global racialized policies of space, expansion and genocide in Africa and Asia during the age of imperialism; genocide and mass death during the First World War; Nazi ideology and genocide; genocidal fantasies in post-1945 Germany.
GER 589Technology in Foreign Language Education: An Overview3
Approaches to the uses and research applications of multimedia and other educational technologies applied to the teaching of foreign languages. (also crosslisted with SPAN 589)
Formal courses given on a topical or special interest subject which may be offered infrequently; several different topics may be taught in one year or term.
