Terms offered: Fall 2018, Summer 2018 First 6 Week Session, Spring 2018
All four foreign language skills (reading, writing, speaking, and listening) are addressed to help students acquire communicative competence in the German language while being sensitized to the links between language and culture. This course is for students with no prior knowledge of German.
Elementary German 1: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2009, Fall 2008, Spring 2008
Students review and continue to develop the basic elements of communicative competence in both spoken and written language while being sensitized to the links between language and culture. This course covers the same material as 1 in a condensed way and at an accelerated speed. Upon completion of this course, students will qualify for enrollment in 2.
Accelerated Elementary German: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2016, Fall 2015, Fall 2014
Elementary German for graduate students preparing for reading examinations.
Elementary German for Graduate Students: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2018, Summer 2018 Second 6 Week Session, Spring 2018
In this course, students will continue to develop communicative competence in the German language and expand their sensitivity towards the relationship between language and culture. While all language skills will be addressed, additional emphasis will be on the various styles of written and spoken German.
Elementary German 2: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Fall 2016, Fall 2015
Elementary German for graduates preparing for reading examinations.
Elementary German for Graduate Students: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2018, Spring 2018, Summer 2017 First 6 Week Session
While continuing to expand students' communicative competence in German, this content-driven course will provide insights into postwar German history and cultural trends. Primary focus will be on the development of literacy skills (critical reading and writing), vocabulary expansion, and a thorough review of structural concepts. You will be guided towards expressing yourself on more abstract topics, such as language and power in society, multiculturalism, rebellion and protest, and social justice, and towards drawing connections between texts and contexts, using a variety of text genres (journalistic, historical, short story, poetry, drama, advertising, film).
Intermediate German I: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2018, Spring 2018, Summer 2017 Second 6 Week Session
In this fourth-semester German language course you will work on strengthening your interpretative abilities as well as your written and oral forms of expression. While continuing the development of communicative competence and literacy skills, students will discuss a variety of texts and films and try to find innovative ways in which to engage with familiar presuppositions about who we are, about what determines our values and actions, and about the function and power of language.
Intermediate German II: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2018, Fall 2016, Fall 2015
This course offers a survey of modern German literary, cultural, and intellectual currents, as well as an introduction to argumentation and analysis. Students will examine numerous issues and questions central to defining the complexity of modern German culture. R5A satisfies the first half of the Reading and Composition requirement, and R5B satisfies the second half.
Reading and Composition: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2018 Second 6 Week Session, Spring 2018, Summer 2017 Second 6 Week Session
This course offers a survey of modern German literary, cultural, and intellectual currents, as well as an introduction to argumentation and analysis. Students will examine numerous issues and questions central to defining the complexity of modern German culture. R5A satisfies the first half of the Reading and Composition requirement, and R5B satisfies the second half.
Reading and Composition: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2014
An introductory level exploration of a group of authors, works, themes, or literary movements from the history of German literature in a European context. Based on close readings of texts students will discuss ways in which literature has played (and continues to play) a crucial role in the relationship between different cultures, traditions, and languages. Readings and topics to vary from semester to semester.
German Literature in a European Context: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2018, Spring 2018, Spring 2017
The Freshman Seminar Program has been designed to provide new students with the opportunity to explore an intellectual topic with a faculty member in a small seminar setting. Freshman seminars are offered in all campus departments, and topics may vary from department to department and semester to semester. Enrollment limited to 15 freshmen.
Freshman Seminar: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2018, Fall 2015, Spring 2013
We will explore the ways in which Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud--three of the most important thinkers in modern Western thought--can be read as responding to the Enlightenment and its notions of reason and progress. We will consider how each remakes a scientific understanding of truth, knowledge, and subjectivity, such that rationality, logic, and the powers of human cognition are shown to be distorted, limited, and subject to forces outside our individual control. All lectures and readings in English.
Revolutionary Thinking: Marx, Nietzsche, Freud: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2012, Fall 2008, Fall 2003
No knowledge of German required.
Freshman Seminar: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2013, Spring 2012, Spring 2010
No knowledge of German required.
Freshman Seminar: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2012
No knowledge of German required.
Freshman Seminar: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2016
No knowledge of German required.
Freshman Seminar: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2016, Fall 2009, Spring 2009
Advanced German conversation course that includes discussions, debates, individual presentations, and one or two in-class movies in German. Most materials will be provided by the instructor but students will also be asked to use their own resources from printed or online media. Regular vocabulary quizzes will be part of the course grade. Taught in German.
German Conversation: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2007 Second 6 Week Session
Students will explore historical and contemporary aspects of German culture through readings, discussions, guided excursions in Berlin and Weimar, and individual research projects. The course will engage students to develop a deeper understanding of the specific ways in which cultural issues are respected and reflected in the German language, which they study concurrently. Topics include multiculturalism and minority experience; Berlin as divided city and capital; city planning and public discourse, past and present in German architecture; Berlin in popular literature, film, and theatre; the art scene in Berlin; and the Weimar classical period. Taught in German and English.
Exploring German Culture: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2018, Fall 2011
What or who decides whether something is beautiful or not? What purpose do beauty and art serve? Where do originality, genius, and inspiration come from? What do art and beauty have to do with freedom and human progress? We will examine primarily western European and North American approaches to beauty as presented in works of philosophy, literary theory, and theories of art and aesthetics, exploring key theoretical questions as they evolve among several intellectual arenas over many centuries.
What is Beauty?: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2018, Spring 2018, Fall 2017
Group study of selected topics not covered by regularly scheduled courses. Topics may be initiated by students under the sponsorship and direction of a member of the German Department's faculty.
Directed Group Study: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2018, Spring 2018, Fall 2017
Independent study and research by arrangement with faculty.
Supervised Independent Study: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2018, Spring 2018, Spring 2017
The course is intended to acquaint students with selected works from German cultural history and to familiarize them with various methods of interpretation and analysis. Required of all German majors.
Introduction to Reading Culture: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2018, Spring 2018, Spring 2017
Focusing on five central themes, this advanced-level language course will help students to improve and expand on spoken and written language functions utilizing a variety of works from different genres in journalism, broadcasting, literature, fine arts, and the cinema. The final goal is to enable students to participate in the academic discourse--written and spoken--at a linguistic and stylistic level appropriate for an advanced student of German in upper division courses.
Advanced German: Conversation, Composition and Style: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2018, Spring 2017, Spring 2016
Analysis, discussion, adaptation, and public performance of authentic texts from German Kabarett, such as comedic skits, political and social satire, parody, humorous poetry. Text selection will vary each semester.
Advanced Language Practice: German Performance: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2018, Fall 2016, Fall 2015
Focusing on popular culture in German speaking countries, this advanced level language course will help students to improve and expand on spoken and written language functions utilizing a variety of works from different genres in journalism, broadcasting, literature, fine arts, music, and the cinema. Readings, screenings, discussion, and writing assignments will advance students' language skills and further develop their communicative competencies in German at a linguistic and stylistic level appropriate for an advanced student.
Advanced Language Practice: Popular Culture in Germany: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2018, Spring 2018, Fall 2016
This course is designed to provide students with an overview of the major subfields of linguistics as they apply to the German language. It also serves as the gateway course for the further study of German linguistics at the undergraduate level. The first part of the course will focus on the synchronic description of contemporary German. The second part of the course will concern itself with variation in German. There are no prerequisties for this class and no prior experience with linguistics is presupposed. However, an advanced knowledge of German (at least German 4 level) is expected.
Introduction to German Linguistics: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2011, Fall 2005, Fall 1999
This course is intended for students who wish to improve their skills in reading, speaking, and writing German. We will work with texts that were particularly influential in Germany during the first decades of the 20th century, regardless of when they were written. Segments of philosophical writings (Schopenhauer, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, literary works (George, Rilke, Th. Mann) but also texts by scientists and journalists will be analyzed. Participants are expected to prepare several oral presentations and approximately one written assignment per week. No midterm or final examination.
Senior Colloquium: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2018, Fall 2016, Fall 2015
Students will learn the fundamentals of Middle High German grammar and will read selections from major narrative works of the High Middle Ages. Selections from major works from the 13th century.
Middle High German for Undergraduates: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2014, Fall 2010, Spring 2009, Fall 2002
Exploration of the role that literature can play in the acquisition of literacy in a first and second language. Linguistic and psycholinguistic issues: orality and literacy, discourse text, schema theory, and reading research. Literary issues: stylistics and critical reading, reader response, structure of narratives. Educational issues: the literary text in the social context of its production and reception by intended and non-intended readers.
Literacy through Literature: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2018 8 Week Session, Summer 2017 8 Week Session, Summer 2016 8 Week Session
This course is designed to prepare graduate students for translation/reading exams in German. Students who do not need to pass such an exam, but who wish to improve their reading and translation skills in academic German, are also welcome.
German for Reading Knowledge: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2018, Spring 2017, Spring 2016
This course introduces students to the problems of literary translation from German to English.
Literary Translation: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2016, Spring 2015, Spring 2014
Introduction in modern German or English translation to major literary monuments of the Hohenstaufen period. Intended for undergraduates with no knowledge of Middle High German.
The Literature of the Middle Ages: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2009, Fall 2003, Spring 2001
Major texts from the 15th through the 17th century.
Early Modern Literature: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2009, Spring 2007, Spring 2003
The course will focus on examples of mystical thought from the traditions of Christian and Jewish mysticism since the Middle Ages. In addition to the introduction of the students to basic texts and concepts we will discuss the effects of mystical thought on art and literature from the Middle Ages up to today.
Western Mysticism: Religion, Art, and Literature: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Prior to 2007
This undergraduate seminar offers an introduction to literary theory, mainly but not exclusively in the German tradition. We will examine a variety of theoretical approaches including reception theory, psychoanalysis, memory studies, trauma theory, feminist theory, queer theory, New Historicism, translation, and deconstruction; and with respect to drama, poetry and the novel. Formal analysis will be emphasized.
German Literary Theory: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2015, Fall 2014, Spring 2012
The social, political, and historical background to German literature since the French Revolution.
From 1800 to the Present: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2016, Spring 2015, Spring 2013
An introduction to Goethe's prose, drama, and poetry.
Goethe: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Fall 2009, Fall 2007
Literature, philosophy, and aesthetics of the Romantic period.
Romanticism: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2010
This course introduces students to the masterpieces of German drama and opera from the eighteenth to the twentieth century.
German Drama and Opera: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2016, Fall 2015, Fall 2013
Analysis of German narrative forms. Topic varies.
Topics in Narrative: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2012, Fall 2008, Fall 2004
Representative texts from 18th- to 21st-century German poetry will be studied closely. Methodological questions regarding the interpretation of poetry in general will also be discussed.
Eighteenth- to 21st-Century German Poetry: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2018, Spring 2017, Spring 2016
Introduction to philosophical, ideological, and aesthetic trends at the turn of the century. Analyses of literary texts by Th. Mann, F. Kafka, S. George, R. M. Rilke, G. Benn, B. Brecht.
Modern Literature: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2017, Spring 2015, Summer 2010 Second 6 Week Session
A careful study of Kafka's writings that will consider them in their social, historical, and cultural contexts and will focus on a number of significantly different interpretive approaches to his works.
Kafka and Modernism: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2018
This course examines the effects of the digital age on literature. Emphasis will be on themes, poetics, and media of digital writing; as well as on shifting notions of the literary itself. Topics include forms of microblogging such as Twitter and Instagram; aesthetic experimentation and/on social media; notions of digital authorship; practices of reading and viewing; literary scholarship and digital media. Readings, discussions, and coursework in German.
Literature in the Digital Age: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2017, Fall 2014, Fall 2012
Introduction to the intellectual history of Germany from the age of the Reformation to the period of Idealism. We will focus on three major thinkers--Martin Luther, Immanuel Kant, and G.W.F. Hegel--on key issues in their thought, and on the reception and discussion of some of these issues in 20th century theory. Lectures and readings in English.
German Intellectual History in a European Context: Historical Figures and Contemporary Reflections: Luther, Kant, Hegel: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2011, Spring 2009, Fall 2007
The aim of the course is to explore the central theoretical and philosophical premises of three of the most influential thinkers in the German-speaking world and to examine in detail several works in which problems of history, ideology, values, and methodology are considered. Lecture and readings in English.
German Intellectual History in a European Context: Historical Figures and Contemporary Reflections: Marx, Nietzsche, Freud: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2016, Fall 2013, Fall 2011
This course is an introduction to the work of Martin Heidegger and Hannah Arendt. We will begin with an investigation into Heidegger's conceptualiztions of language, time, and human dwelling. We will then move to an examination of Arendt's political philosophy, including her focus on the public/private distinction. Taught in English.
German Intellectual History in a European Context: Historical Figures and Contemporary Reflections: Heidegger and Arendt: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2018, Fall 2017, Spring 2014
This course examines the writings of the Frankfurt School of Critical Theory, a major branch of western Marxism. Focusing on confrontations with modernity, the lectures will deal with three seminal thinkers: Walter Benjamin, known for his genial insights into the culture of modernism; Theodor Adorno, the versatile philosopher and aesthetic theorist of the avant garde; and Jurgen Habermas, the most influential German intellectual after World War II.
German Intellectual History in a European Context: Historical Figures and Contemporary Reflections: Adorno, Benjamin, Habermas: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2013, Spring 2011, Fall 2009
The story of Germany in the 20th century is a dramatic one, comprising two world wars, genocide, Allied occupation, a division into two states on opposing sides of the Cold War, and recently an unexpected unification. This course offers an introduction to the history and culture of contemporary Germany. It aims at a systematic account of German history in the 20th century, and it intends to provide a better understanding of today's German culture and politics. In addition to following a chronological approach, we will frequently stop to explore issues that are crucial to providing insights into current developments.
Politics and Culture in 20th-Century Germany: A Century of Extremes: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2018, Fall 2016, Fall 2015
This course will focus on the theory and practice of propaganda during the 12 years of the Third Reich. It takes a close look at the ideology the Nazis tried to transmit, the techniques, organization, and effectiveness of their propaganda. Challenging the idea of the total power of propaganda, it looks for the limits of persuasion and possible other reasons for which Germans might have decided to follow Hitler. Sources will include the press, radio, film, photography, political posters, and a few literary works of the time.
Politics and Culture in 20th-Century Germany: Fascism and Propaganda: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2018, Fall 2017, Spring 2016
This course offers an introduction to the history and culture of divided Germany in the era of the Cold War. It will look at the different ways the two states dealt with the country's pre-1945 history, the relations to the Allied Powers, and the major cultural shifts which eventually created a watershed in the history of German mentalities. We will look at various kinds of sources, including literature and film. Major national debates will be touched upon, such as breaks and continuities within the national elites, re-armament and pacifism, the student movement, opposition and conformity under Socialism, and the rise of environmentalism. We will also discuss the problems and opportunities of re-unification.
Politics and Culture in 20th-Century Germany: A Divided Nation. Politics and Culture in Germany 1945-1990: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2015, Spring 2014, Spring 2012
This course will deal with the culture and politics of minorities in contemporary Germany. We will discuss how ethnic identities are perceived, constructed, and marketed. We also engage critically with such concepts as migration, assimilation, citizenship, diaspora, hybridity, and authenticity, as well as rhetorical strategies of "speaking back." We will focus on exemplary texts and films from Germany, but include comparisons with minority experiences in other countries.
Politics and Culture in 20th-Century Germany: Multicultural Germany: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2016, Fall 2013, Fall 2012
The history of Germany's first parliamentary democracy is a dramatic one, dominated by economic woes, political violence, and a general perception of crisis and decline. The ill-fated republic bore the burden of a devastating war and suffered from an increasing lack of popular support. Democratic procedures were constantly undermined by radical and reactionary forces. Cultural pessimism was nurtured by the overwhelming experience of historical contingency, i.e., a fundamental lack of confidence in the predictability of modern life.
Politics and Culture in 20th-Century Germany: The Weimar Republic: Politics and Culture in Germany 1918-1933: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2014
This course reflects on European cultures from a transnational perspective. It will explore tensions between traditional identity concepts based on the nation state model and other ways to define identity based on border crossings and intercultural connections. Special attention will be paid to Europe's multilingualism and its colonial legacy in the form of migration, diaspora, hybridity, and other social phenomena that challenge traditional boarders between cultures, languages, and people. We will discuss exemplary texts and films from German-speaking areas in Europe and beyond. The course syllabus will vary depending on the regional and thematic emphasis. All reading and discussion will be in English.
European Cultures: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2009, Fall 2008, Fall 2007
Designed for undergraduate and graduate students interested in the history of the language of the newly united Germanys, which transverses a rich linguistic legacy from the , through Luther and Grimm, to Grass and . Discussion, via linguistic principles, of language processes in the genetic development of the German language, as well as its interchange over time with closely and remotely related languages such as English and Russian.
History of the German Language: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2014, Fall 2013, Spring 2011
This course examines geographical and social variation within the German language. Among other things we will consider the differences between language and dialect, the division of German dialects and the history of German dialect study, various linguistic features (phonological, morphological, syntactic, and lexical) characteristic of the major German dialect areas, and issues involving the use of dialect versus standard language in contemporary society. Besides regular readings and written assignments, grades will be based on active participation and a paper or exam.
German Dialects: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2016, Spring 2013, Spring 2011
A course designed for undergraduates and graduates on the structure of modern German covering the fundamentals of German phonetics and phonology, with comparison to English. Some discussion of German dialect phonology.
The Phonetics and Phonology of Modern German: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2017, Spring 2015, Spring 2012
A course designed for undergraduates and graduates on the grammatical structure of modern German covering the fundamentals of German morphology, syntax and semantics, with comparison to English.
The Morphology and Syntax of Modern German: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2015, Spring 2012, Spring 2008
Analysis of various poetry from the beginning of the century to today, including works by Trakl, Benn, Bachmann, Sachs, Celan, and Brinkmann. A 20-page research paper will be part of the requirements for this course.
Undergraduate Seminars: 20th-Century Poetry: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2008
On the basis of literary texts (in translation) and films, we will examine major topics pertaining to the cultural identity of Switzerland. Special attention will be paid to the cultural history of Switerzland in a European context. Themes in discussion will be Swiss multiculturalism and multilingualism, the importance of the Alps for national self-identification, the origin and development of the Swiss model of direct democracy, and the Swiss policy of neutrality.
The Cultural History of Switzerland in Literature and Film: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2014, Spring 2012
This course introduces principal figures from the basic disciplines of philosophy, biology, and linguistics who are particularly influential in current trends in semiotic method. It undertakes to lay the foundation of a semiotic method distinct from monolithic traditional structuralism, so, e.g, it concentrates on anti-Saussurean thought. In presenting semiotic universals, the course pursues the formulation and the application of a theoretical construct valid for any and all semiotic modalities ranging from the literary text, to the language act as text, and to the human being as text.
Semiotics: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2018, Fall 2016, Fall 2015
Topics will vary from semester to semester. See departmental announcement for offerings. Additional screening time may be required for film topics.
Special Topics in German: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2014, Fall 2010, Fall 2000
The course will deal with the topic from various angles; a representative selection of American films noirs from the United States and some films (as forerunners) from the Weimar Republic will be shown and discussed in terms of their visuals and narratives. There will also be literary texts and cultural documents (articles on crime in the United States; on the working conditions in Hollywood) pertaining to the topic. Films have English subtitles.
German Cinema in Exile: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Spring 2016, Fall 2014
This course will explore how experiences of migration, dislocation, or exile are visualized in cinema, and how processes of internationalization in film production and distribution intersect with the projection of a transnational global imagery. Some examples of transnational cinematic connections will be analyzed in historical perspective as well as contemporary examples of "migrant cinema." We will investigate how these films engage with debates about multiculturalism and assimilation/segregation of minorities, as scenarios of itinerancy and mobility are often intertwined with representations of ethnicity and gender.
Transnational Cinemas: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2018, Spring 2018, Fall 2017
Supervised independent study and research course for honor students who are writing their theses for completion of the requirements for the Honors Program.
Honors Studies in German: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2017, Spring 2016, Spring 2015
Two-semester supervised independent study and research course in which honor students research their theses topic the first semester (H196A) and write their theses the second semester (H196B) for completion of the requirements for the honors program.
Honors Studies in German: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2017, Spring 2016, Spring 2015
Two-semester supervised independent study and research course in which honor students research their theses topic the first semester (H196A) and write their theses the second semester (H196B) for completion of the requirements for the honors program.
Honors Studies in German: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2018, Fall 2017, Spring 2017
Group study of selected topics which will vary from year to year.
Directed Group Study: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2018, Spring 2018, Fall 2017
Supervised independent study and research.
Supervised Independent Study and Research: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2015, Fall 2011, Spring 2010
Recommended for M.A. candidates.
Major Periods in German Literature: 16th and 17th Century: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2018, Spring 2015, Spring 2012
A study of pivotal literary texts, including works by Goethe, Novalis, Holderlin, Heine, and Nietzsche.
Major Periods in German Literature: 19th Century: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Not yet offered
This course provides an overview of major canonical works of Medieval and Early Modern German literature.


Early German Literature: Early German Literature, from the Middle Ages to the Baroque: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Not yet offered
Broadly defined as the period from 1750 to 1900 – through the lens of current theoretical concerns and the latest criticism. Departing from traditional schemes of periodization (Enlightenment, Classicism, Romanticism, Realism etc.) as well as from conventional analytical categories, we will revisit some of the most seminal texts in German literature as test cases for alternative historical narratives and new critical idioms. Canonical texts prove to be open to entirely new readings in light of contemporary theory. Conversely, they also help us elaborate, revise, and perhaps move beyond current theoretical paradigms. Critical texts are meant to showcase the state of the art and to inspire future research projects.


Classical German Literature: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Not yet offered
The seminar will focus on concentrated readings of selected passages from modernist German literature, ranging from Heinrich von Kleist, Robert Walser, Rainer Maria Rilke, Carl Einstein and Franz Kafka to Thomas Mann, Robert Musil, Ingeborg Bachmann, and Thomas Bernhard. Although the emphasis will be on fictional prose, we will also discuss theories of reading and modernist poetics. Our goals are to study the literary styles of modern German writers and to practice reading skills that draw equally on aesthetics, rhetoric, literary theory, and media history. The teaching will be explorative, interactive, non-hierarchical, and collaborative.
Modern German Literature: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2018, Spring 2017, Fall 2016
A compact seminar designed to feature distinguished short-term visitors from German-speaking countries who have expertise in German literature and culture to teach topics that complement regular departmental offerings. One short paper is required. Taught in German.
Compact Seminar: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2018, Spring 2017, Spring 2015
So-called ‘mystical’ forms of thought and experience have played a major role in the history of modern philosophy and literature from Hegel to Georg Lukàcs, Martin Heidegger, Georges Bataille, and Jacques Derrida, and from Novalis to Robert Musil, Paul Celan, Ingeborg Bachmann, Pierre Klossowski, and John Cage (to name just a few). In this seminar we will read and discuss key texts written by Eckhart of Hochheim (Meister Eckhart), Mechthild of Magdeburg, and Hadewijch of Antwerp, some of the most significant medieval figures in this tradition. During a second phase of the seminar we will turn our attention to baroque mysticism, especially Angelus Silesius and Jacob Böhme.
Studies in Medieval Literature: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2016, Spring 2009, Fall 2002
Survey of texts from the 15th and 16th centuries. A good reading knowledge of Middle High German is recommended.
Studies in the Early Modern: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2016, Fall 2015, Fall 2014
Drawing on a variety of literary texts, periods, and genres, this seminar will present and explore different ways of reading. Topics will include literary hermeneutics and textual deconstruction.
Methods: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2009, Fall 2003
. Literary texts will be studied as historical documents illuminating changes in literary theory and in religious and philosophical thought during the Enlightenment. Texts by Lessing, Herder, and Lenz, and some Storm and Stress plays.
Studies in the 18th Century: Age of Enlightenment: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2013, Fall 2008, Spring 2003
Major authors and texts of the romantic period will be discussed.
Studies in the 19th Century: Topics in Romanticism: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2018, Spring 2016, Fall 2015

Studies in the 20th Century: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2016, Fall 2010, Spring 2007

Interpretation and Criticism of Poetry: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2018, Spring 2017, Spring 2016
Topics vary from year to year. For current topic see the department's "Course Descriptions" booklet.
Problems of Literary Theory: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Not yet offered
Aesthetics is crucial to most of the humanities disciplines. This seminar studies the historical development as well as the key concerns of aesthetic theory from its eighteenth-century beginnings to the present day. The focus is on the classical age of aesthetics from Baumgarten to Nietzsche. We’ll first read the foundational texts by Kant, Schiller, the Romantics, and Hegel, among others. We then turn to the ramifications of, and challenges to, the theoretical positions developed in the classical age, exploring the scientific, sociological, and media-theoretical discourse of aesthetics in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, as well as the interventions of major philosophers such as Heidegger and Adorno.
Aesthetic Theory: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2018, Fall 2013, Fall 2012
This seminar examines the interrelationship of poetic and philosophical discourses, with an emphasis on roles and functions of language. Questions of style and writing will interrelate different genres of poetry and thought. The seminar will explore a tradition in which poetic thought and highly reflective poetry approach and at times merge with each other.
Poetry and Thought: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2018, Spring 2017, Fall 2016
This seminar will examine traditional and recent critical approaches to the study of film. Knowledge of German and background in literary theory required.
Film Theory: Historical and Systematic Perspectives: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 1996 10 Week Session, Summer 1995 10 Week Session, Summer 1994 10 Week Session
Consisting of reguar meetings and discussions as well as weekly lectues by distinguished speakers from various disciplines, the seminar will explore instuitutional, political, social, and cultural aspects of the former two Germanies grappling with an ambiguous heritage. Within this framework participants will pursue individual directions in research. Topic varies from year to year.
Interdisciplinary Summer Seminar in German Studies: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2013, Fall 2011, Spring 2011
A comparison of literary and cultural developments in Germany and the United States. Emphasis is placed on individual research designed to develop teaching materials.
Aspects of Literary and Cultural History: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2018, Fall 2016, Fall 2015
Designed for students interested in the history of the language and culture of united Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein, which transverses a rich legacy from the , through Luther and Grimm, to Grass and . Discussion, via linguistic principles, of language processes in the genetic development of the German language, as well as its interchange over time with closely and remotely related languages.
History of the German Language: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2015, Spring 2009, Spring 2004
Advanced topics in Germanic phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics. The principal Germanic dialects viewed within laryngeal theory and reconstruction.
Comparative Germanic: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2015, Fall 2012, Spring 2010
Study of the linguistic structures of the earliest Germanic dialect with a sizable corpus. Indo-European origins, Germanic relationships, and Gothic as a synchronic construct are considered.
Gothic: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2018, Fall 2014, Spring 2012
Reading of poetic and prose texts in Old High German. The synchronic and diachronic study of the dialects of the High German language from the eighth to the eleventh century within the framework of current linguistic method.
Old High German: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2018, Fall 2013, Fall 2010
Readings and discussion of poetic and prose texts in the Ingwaeonic languages (broadly construed) not covered elsewhere: Old Low Franconian, Middle Dutch, Old Frisian, Middle Low German.
North Sea Germanic: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2016, Spring 2013, Spring 2011
Study of the most provocative of the major Germanic languages in terms of structural identification. The literary and ethnographic setting of the and its shared isogrammar.
Old Saxon: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2018, Fall 2014, Fall 2011
A survey of relevant contemporary issues and topics in linguistic research on the structure of German.
Approaches and Issues in the Study of Modern German: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2018, Spring 2017, Spring 2016
Variable topic. For specific topic contact departmental office.
Seminar in German Linguistics: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2014, Fall 2008, Spring 2005
The seminar will deal with the methods and results of morphological analysis as applied to the German language. It will introduce basic concepts and means of morphological analyses, as well as study and apply various theories of word structure to German. The primary concern will be the synchronic analyses of modern German word formation, but questions of a diachronic nature as well as ones about inflection will also be discussed.
Methods and Issues in German Morphology: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2016, Spring 2012, Fall 2006
Discussion of current syntactic theories as applied to a number of issues in modern German syntax with an eye toward their description and explanatory potential. Typological comparison, especially with English.
German Syntax: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2016, Fall 2012, Spring 2009
Concentration on the essential categories of semantics via data from German and Germanic. Extensive discussion of semantic change, the semantics of prevarication, and the semantics of pathological language.
German Semantics: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2013, Fall 2010, Fall 2007
Theory and methods of contrastive linguistic analyses. Study of pairs of contrastive language sets in two time perspectives: Modern German with Modern English and Early New High German with Early New English.
Contrastive Grammars: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2010, Spring 2009, Spring 2008
Discussion of the principal figures from the basic disciplines of philosophy, biology, and linguistics influential in current trends in semiotics. Application of Peircean semiotics to a wide range of semiotic modalities.
Semiotics: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2018, Spring 2018, Fall 2017

Directed Group Study: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2018, Spring 2018, Fall 2017
Primarily for post-M.A. students engaged in exploration of a restricted field, involving writing of a report, and for students writing their doctoral dissertations.
Individual Study for Graduate Students in Literature and Linguistics: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2018, Fall 2016, Fall 2015
The course focuses on the theory and practice of foreign language pedagogy. It introduces students to second language acquisition research and its relationship to pedagogy, providing a basis for staying theoretically informed and for participating in professional discourse of the field throughout one's teaching career. It also emphasizes critical reflection on pedagogical practices. Includes a practical component dealing directly with the day-to-day challenges of teaching elementary German.
Seminar in Foreign Language Pedagogy: Teaching College German I: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2016, Spring 2015, Spring 2014
This course expands upon the basis of methodology and theory of language teaching covered in 350 and prepares students for teaching at the intermediate level. The theoretical and practical exploration of recent developments in second language teaching concentrates on instructional technology, teaching writing, teaching literary texts, and curriculum design. Students reflect on their development as teachers through a journal, video, and observation of their teaching, and the final portfolio.
Seminar in Foreign Language Pedagogy: Teaching College German II: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2018, Spring 2018, Fall 2017
Independent study in consultation with graduate adviser to provide an opportunity for Ph.D. students to prepare for the qualifying examination.
Individual Study for Doctoral Students: Read More [+]