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DEPARTMENT OF GERMAN STUDIES

SPRING 2010 COURSES

 

GERMAN PLACEMENT EXAMS

Basic German Placement Exam
The German Placement exam is scheduled for Friday, January 22, at 11:00 a.m., in the computer language lab in Language Resource Center (near Beebe Lake).

The German placement make-up exam is scheduled for Thursday, January 28, at 7:00 p.m., in the computer language lab in Language Resource Center (near Beebe Lake).

German CASE Exam
By appointment: contact Gunhild Lischke via e-mail (gl15@cornell.edu) or phone 255-0725.

Please contact Gunhild Lischke (gl15@cornell.edu; 255-0725) with any questions.

 

SCROLL DOWN OR SELECT FROM THE FOLLOWING:


FIRST-YEAR WRITING SEMINARS.
3 credits. No knowledge of German is expected.


GERST 1106 MAPPING SPACE:PILGRIMS, EXPLORERS,ITINERANTS & ARMCHAIR TRAVELERS

B. McBride, Coordinator
TR 11:40-12:55, G. Gemmell
How do travel & transmission of knowledge contribute to the formation of spatial sensitivities? To what extent are travelersí experiences of space determined by familiar literary & visual sources? Is there a discernable impact of cartographic literacy upon extra-cartographic areas of spatial representation? Spatial revisioning has consequences for the promotion of commercial & national interests as well as for rhetorical & textual devices. This course will examine a variety of Medieval & Early Modern Germanic spatial practices -- pilgrimages, mercenary activity, travel guides; urban atlases; cabinets of curiosity; maps; globes; costume books. It will address medieval transmission & adaptation of classical space & examine Early Modern geographical texts that respond to the spatial hyperbole of the New World. Emphasis is on improvement of analytical writing skills.


GERST 1109 (formerly GERST 109) FROM FAIRY TALES TO THE UNCANNY: EXPLORING THE ROMANTIC CONSCIOUSNESS

B. McBride, Coordinator
Seminar 101, MWF 8:40-9:55am, K. Nousek
Seminar 102, MWF 11:15-12:05, J. Schellhammer
Seminar 103, MWF 12:20-1:10, B. McBride
This seminar explores various themes (doubles, madness, incest, alchemy, etc.) expressing a fascination with the paranormal, the supernatural, and the uncanny in the German fairy tale and its transformations in Romantic fiction and beyond. We will look at how literary texts not only reflect values and ideologies of the culture that produces them, but also serve to reinforce and perpetuate these values, helping to construct a certain way of looking at, judging and responding to the world. Reading assignments range from fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm and short narratives by Romantic writers (e.g., E. T. A. Hoffmann, Tieck, Kleist) to other traditions, such as tales of Edgar Allan Poe and modern cinematic works. The emphasis of the course is on improving writing skills.

GERST 1140 STRANGERS, EXILES, AND MIGRANTS
B. McBride , Coordinator
TR 10:10-11:25, A. Rotaru
The course will focus on the interplay between strangeness, exile and migration as existential but also social conditions. German literature provides a vast field of insight into strangeness, otherness, the motif of the decadent intellectual abroad and the intellectual in exile, homelessness and estrangement within language, whereas the German cinema and works by migrant authors reflect in a peculiar fashion the problematic of living in a multicultural world. Students will be provided with the opportunity of delving into three dimensions of identity, while reading and writing about a variety of texts and authors-from mystics (Angelus Silesius) to 20th century literary icons (Rilke, Mann, Christa Wolf), from poems to prose, and cinema. The emphasis of the course will be on the improvement of writing composition and analytical writing skills.


GERST 1170 (formerly GERST 170) MARX, NIETZSCHE, FREUD

B. McBride, Coordinator
MWF 1:25-2:15, P. Buchholz
To understand—and criticize—contemporary discourses in the core disciplines of the social sciences, the humanities, and even the natural sciences it is necessary to have a basic grasp of Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud. This seminar introduces: (1) these three revolutionaries who have exerted a massive influence globally on modern and postmodern thought and practice; and (2) key terms and analytic models of political economy, philosophy, and psychoanalysis, including the differences and intersection points among them. Focus is on short texts or short passages from longer texts, essential to understand their work and to produce a critical analysis of contemporary world society, politics and culture. The core problem: Do alternative ways of thinking and acting exist in opposition to how we always already think and act?


COURSES IN GERMAN.

 

GERST 1210 EXPLORING GERMAN CONTEXTS I 4 credits.
Intended for students with no prior experience in German or with an LPG score below 37 or an SAT II score below 370.
Lectures: R 11:15-12:05 or R 12:20-1:10, G. Matthias, Coordinator
Discussion 201 MTWF 10:10-11:00, A. Phillips
Discussion 202 MTWF 12:20-1:10, G. Matthias
Students develop basic abilities in listening, reading, writing and speaking German in meaningful contexts through interaction in small group activities. Course material including videos, short articles, poems, and songs provide students with varied perspectives on German language, culture and society.

GERST 1220 EXPLORING GERMAN CONTEXTS II 4 credits.
Prerequisite: German 1210 or an LPG score of 37-44 or an SAT II score of 370-450. Students who obtain an LPG score of 56 or above after German 121-122 attain qualification and may enter the 200-level sequence; otherwise successful completion of German 123 is required for qualification.
Lectures: T 11:15-12:05 or T 12:20-1:10, G. Lischke, Coordinator
Discussion 201 MWRF 10:10-11:00, M. Hayakawa
Discussion 202 MWRF 11:15-12:05, N. Rodriguez
Discussion 203 MWRF 12:20-1:10, G. Lischke
Students build on their basic knowledge of German by engaging in intensive and more sustained interaction in the language. Students learn more advanced language structures allowing them to express more complex ideas in German. Discussions, videos and group activities address topics of relevance to the contemporary German-speaking world.

GERST 1230 EXPANDING THE GERMAN DOSSIER 4 credits.
Limited to students who have previously studied German and have an LPG score of 45-55 or an SAT II score of 460-580. Satisfactory completion of German 1230 is qualification in German.
MTWF 11:15-12:05, A. Mascan
Students continue to develop their language skills by discussing a variety of cultural topics and themes in the German-speaking world. The focus of the course is on expanding vocabulary, reviewing major grammar topics, developing effective reading strategies, improving listening comprehension, and working on writing skills. Work in small groups increases each student's opportunity to speak in German and provides for greater feedback and individual help.

GERST 2000 GERMANY: INTERCULTURAL CONTEXT 3 credits. (CA)
Prerequisite: Qualification in German (GERST 1230, LPG scores of 56-64, or SAT II score of 580-670) or placement by examination. Successful completion of German 2000 fulfills the Arts and Sciences language proficiency requirement and counts toward the distribution requirement in the humanities.
Seminar 101, MWF 10:10-11:00, B. McBride
Seminar 102, MWF 12:20-1:10, P. Buchholz
A content-based language course on the intermediate level. Students examine important aspects of present-day German culture while expanding and strengthening their reading, writing and speaking skills in German. Materials for each topic are selected from a variety of sources (fiction, newspapers, magazines, and the Internet). Units address a variety of topics including studying at a German university, modern literature, Germany online, and Germany at the turn of the century. Oral and written work, individual and group presentations emphasize accurate and idiomatic expression in German. Successful completion of the course enables students to continue with more advanced courses in language, literature and culture.

GERST 2020 LITERARY CONTEXTS AND TEXTS 3 credits. (LA)
Prerequisite: GERST 2000, or equivalent or placement by examinatio. Taught in German. Can be used in partial fulfillment of the humanities distribution requirement. Satisfies Language Option 1

MWF 11:15-12:05, B. McBride
In this intermediate course, we will read and discuss a number of works belonging to different literary genres by major German-speaking authors, such as Kafka, Walser, Brecht, Mann, Frisch, Dürrenmatt, Bachmann, and others. We will explore questions of subjectivity and identity in modern society, of human existence as existence in language, and of the representation of history in literary texts. Activities and assignments in this course will focus on the development of reading competency in different literary genres, the improvement of writing skills including the accurate use of idiomatic expressions, the expansion of students' German vocabulary, and the systematic review of select topics in German grammar.

GERST 2040 WORKING WITH TEXTS 3 credits. (CA)
Prerequisite: GERST 2000, or placement by examination (placement score and CASE). Satisfies Language Option 1

MWF 12:20-1:10, A. Schwarz
Emphasis on improving oral and written expression of idiomatic German. Enrichment of vocabulary and appropriate use of language in different conversational contexts and written genres. Material consists of readings in contemporary prose, articles on current events, videos and group projects. Topics include: awareness of culture, dependence of meaning on perspective, German news broadcasts, reading German newspapers on the Internet.

GERST 3080 GERMAN LIFE STYLE 2.0 4 credits. (CA)
Taught in German. Prerequisite:GERST 2020, 2040, 0r 2060 or equivalent or permission of instructor. This course may be counted towards the requirement for 3000-level language work in the major. Satisfies Language Option 1
MWF 1:25-2:15, G. Matthias
In this course, we will encounter German culture of today in and through Web 2.0. No technical knowledge is required since, in the process, a solid base of knowledge concerning the use of media will
be constructed. This knowledge will then be applied practically through discussing aspects of German culture visible in the WWW. The highlight of the course will be an intercultural encounter with a
German Class from the University of Osnabrück using Web 2.0 applications, e.g. Video-Podcasts. In the produced content, students will become part of the Web 2.0 in German through an intercultural
discussion of German life visible in the World Wide Web (WWW).

GERST 3220 GERMAN-JEWISH PERSPECTIVES IN THE EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY 4 credits. (CA) (also JWST 3920)
Prerequisites: any German course in the 3000-3200 level or by placement exam. Taught in German. Satisfies Option 1.
TR 11:40-12:55, A. Glazova
The term "modernism" is usually associated with projects of renewal, which "re-write" the world within their own, newly founded language. The early twentieth century, when European modernism was in bloom, was also a time of this renewal in the sphere of German-Jewish culture. Specifically Jewish themes -- such as Hassidic tales or kabbalistic knowledge -- become for the first time a part of the German literary tradition. While Martin Buber and Franz Rosenzweig's new translation of the Bible is symptomatic, their theological writings and efforts in re-defining Jewish learning are paradigmatic for this renewal. Simultaneously with Buber and Rosenzweig, Franz Kafka -- who, as Walter Benjamin once said, did not establish a new religion -- began the work of this renewal in his prose. We will begin this class by reading Buber's and Rosenzweig's essays on Judaism and then turn our attention to Kafka's narratives. Finally, we will proceed to Walter Benjamin and Gershom Scholem, in whose works the Jewish thought finds a new strength in face of the imminent catastrophe.

GERST 3530 19th- AND 20th-CENTURY EUROPEAN THOUGHT 4 credits. (also PHIL 2240)
MW 9:05-9:55 (Section TBA), M. Kosch
A survey of European philosophy of the 19th and 20th centuries. Figures may include Hegel, Marx, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Husserl, Heidegger, Horkheimer, Adorno, Habermas and Foucault.

GERST 3550 (formerly GERST 330) POLITICAL THEORY AND CINEMA 4 credits. (also COML 3300, FILM 3290, GOVT 3705) (CA)
TR 10:10-11:25, G. Waite
An introduction (without prerequisites) to fundamental problems of current political theory, filmmaking, and film analysis, along with their interrelationship. Particular emphasis on comparing and contrasting European and alternative cinema with Hollywood in terms of post-Marxist, psychoanalytic, postmodernist, and postcolonial types of interpretation. Filmmakers/theorists might include: David Cronenberg, Michael Curtiz, Kathryn Bigelow, Gilles Deleuze, Rainer Fassbinder, John Ford, Jean-Luc Godard, Marleen Gorris, Werner Herzog, Alfred Hitchcock, Allen & Albert Hughes, Stanley Kubrick, Fredric Jameson, Chris Marker, Pier-Paolo Pasolini, Gillo Pontecorvo, Robert Ray, Martin Scorsese, Ridley Scott, Oliver Stone, George Romero, Steven Shaviro, Kidlat Tahimik, Maurizio Viano, Slavoj Zizek. Although this is a lecture course, there will be ample time for class discussions.

GERST 3600 (formerly GERST 342) WORDS AND MUSIC 4 credits. (also MUSIC 3245) (LA)
Prerequisite: some ability to read music. Taught in English, with reading options in English or German. Students with no experience in reading music (playing an instrument) are encouraged to enroll concurrently in the one-credit course MUSIC 100
MWF 11:15-12:05, A. Groos (a section in German will be available for 1 extra credit GERST 3601, hour TBA)
This course surveys the evolution of texts set to music in German-speaking culture of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. A brief presentation of Luther and the Protestant hymn will introduce sessions on texted Baroque music, especially cantatas and oratorios by Bach. After tracing the emergence of a secular culture of sensibility in Mozart’s Abduction from the Seraglio and late eighteenth-century songs, readings and listening will explore Classicism and Romanticism, focusing on songs and song cycles by Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, and Brahms. A final segment will investigate the role of words and music in constructing a German national identity, especially folk songs and Wagner’s use of the past in operas such as Tannhäuser or Die Meistersinger.|

GERST 3770 THE ART OF THE HISTORICAL AVANT-GARDE 4 credits. (also ARTH 3672, COML 3840, ROMS 3770, VISST 3672) (LA)
Readings and discussion in English.
TR 1:25-2:40, P. McBride
At the height of modernism (1910-1930), avant-garde artists and intellectuals began arguing that art could be employed to "reconstruct the universe," as one Futurist manifesto put it. They joined forces with the most radical political movements of their day and created innovative artistic practices ranging from collage, montage, and the found object to the installation and the happening that continue to shape our perception of art and popular culture. This course will focus on strategies for politicizing art as well as formulating a new relation between high and popular culture in Germany, Italy, and France in the first half of the twentieth century. Our investigation of avant-garde art will include original documents of Italian Futurism, Expressionism, Dada, and Surrealism.

GERST 4060 INTRODUCTION TO MEDIEVAL GERMAN LITERATURE II 4 CREDITS. (LA)
Prerequisites:GERST 4050 or equivalent or permission of instructor. This is the anchor course for the medieval period
MWF 9:05-9:55, A. Groos
Political lyrics by Walther von der Vogelweide will introduce agendas of conflict in thirteenth-century German culture, ranging from crusades to civil war. Against this background, we will examine the utopian quest to win the Holy Grail and heal the Fisher King in Wolfram's Parzival, using Bakhtin's approach to pre-novelistic discourse. Readings from the love lyric trace representation of gender across emerging class differences, the increasing complexity of self, and instabilities of the performance text. Concluding topics may include women mystics and late medieval narratives of socio-sexual violence, anti-Semitism, and urban Angst.

GERST 4520 INDEPENDENT STUDY 1-4 credits each term.
Prerequisite: permission of instructor.
Hours to be arranged. Staff.

GERST 4540 HONORS RESEARCH 4 credits.
Prerequisite: GERST 4530 and permission of instructor.
Hours to be arranged. Staff.

GERST 4570 IMAGINING THE HOLOCAUST 4 CREDITS. (also ENGL 4550, JWST 4580)(LA)
R 12:20-2:15, D. Schwarz
What is the role of the literary imagination in keeping the memory of the Holocaust alive for our culture? We shall examine major and widely read Holocaust narratives which have shaped the way we understand and respond to the Holocaust. As we move further away from the original events, why do the kinds of narratives with which authors render the Holocaust horror evolve to include fantasy and parable? Employing both a chronological overview and a synchronic approach—which conceives of the authors having a conversation with one another—we shall discover recurring themes and structural patterns in the works we read. We shall begin with first-person reminiscences—Wiesel's Night, Levi's Survival at Auschwitz, and The Diary of Anne Frank—before turning to searingly realistic fictions such as Hersey's The Wall, Kosinski's The Painted Bird, and Ozick's The Shawl. In later weeks, we shall explore diverse kinds of fictions and discuss the mythopoeic vision of Schwarz-Bart's The Last of the Just, the illuminating distortions of Epstein's King of the Just, the Kafkaesque parable of Appelfeld's Badenheim 1939, and the fantastic cartoons of Spiegelman's Maus books. We shall also include Kineally's Schindler's List, which was the source of Spielberg's academy award-winning film, and compare the book with the film.

GERST 4715 CRITICAL REASON, THE BASICS 4 CREDITS. (also GOVT 4715)
W 10:10am-12:05pm Buck-Morss, S.
This course deals with basic concepts and methods of Critical Theoryfrom Kant to Adorno. Lectures will consider philosophy from the perspective of the political, demonstrating how autonomy, freedom, democracy, and law are approached by the following: critical reason, dialectics, materialist epistemology, and the socio-logics of non-identity. Students will tackle difficult primary texts in this tradition, with the goal of enhancing their own critical capacities to analyze political, social and economic life. We will read texts by Kant, Hegel, Marcuse (on Marx), and Adorno (PT)




COURSES IN DUTCH

DUTCH 1220 CONTINUING DUTCH 4 credits.
Prerequisite: Dutch 1210 or permission of instructor.
Will not fullfill Arts College Language requirements.
MTWF 11:15-12:05, C. Hosea
Intensive practice in listening, speaking, reading, and writing basic Dutch in meaningful contexts. The course, which is taught in Dutch, also offers insight into Netherlandic language, culture, and society worldwide.

DUTCH 3000 DIRECTED STUDIES 1-4 credits variable.
Prerequisite: permission of instructor.
TBA, C. Hosea
Individualized advanced Dutch studies. This course aims to provide students with individualized programs which can be anything from advanced mastery in any or all skills to the mastery of Dutch for research, literature and history in support of all disciplines. Taught in Dutch.

DUTCH 4500 INDEPENDENT STUDY 1-4 credits variable.
TBA, C. Hosea


COURSES IN SWEDISH

SWED 1220 CONTINUING SWEDISH 4 credits.
Prerequisite: Swedish 1210or permission of instructor.
Will not fullfill Arts College Language requirements.
MW 8:40-9:05 and F 9:05-9:55, C. Alm
Participants expand their proficiency in speaking, listening to, reading and writing Swedish by working with online resources, texts, media and cinema. The first part of the course is dedicated to topics such as leisure activities, education, government, community, seasonal festivities and traditions. During the second half of the course, participants read and converse about level-appropriate fiction and engage with complementary materials. Particular attention is paid to functional oral and written communication, enrichment of language structures and vocabulary (including developing an understanding of connotative meaning dimensions) and mastering authentic Swedish materials at the adequate proficiency level. The course continues to explore the culture and societal conditions of Swedish-speaking settings, while discovering the Swedish-American experience. All instruction is in Swedish.

SWED 2050 VIKINGS, SEX AND IKEA-SCANDINAVIAN SOCIETY AND CULTURE 3 credits. (CA)
MWF 1:25-2:15, C. Alm
In this course, which is taught entirely in English, students develop an insider perspective on the Scandinavian region of Northern Europe. Departing from core socio-cultural themes such as sexuality, migration, creative expression and art, environment, as well as science/technology and entrepreneurship etc., we will dig deeply, cross-temporally, and analytically into myths and realities shaping the historical legacy and current character of Scandinavia. Participants are expected to engage in interactive critical discussions on a variety of specific socio-cultural topics. For instance, we will contrast the discoveries, mythology and diasporas of the Viking Age with 21st-century pop-culture appropriation of the Viking image. As another example, we will examine Scandinavia's progressive stance to sexuality, body, and gender within the ongoing flux of the Nordic welfare state model. As a third illustration, we will explore cartoon controversies, and contrast intra-Scandinavian approaches to multicultural diversity. A part of the course will be dedicated to detailed case studies, for example how IKEA and NOKIA became international superbrands; the conflictive juxtaposition of Nobel's invention of the dynamite and his Nobel Prize; Scandinavian perspectives on banking crises; and how Sweden intends to end its dependency on oil by 2020 while Iceland is harnessing its volcanic power.
All materials for course discussion are in English, available online, and include for example visual and aural media, artistic and cinematic representations, Web 2.0 resources, written case studies, literary and academic texts as well as hot off-the-press news items.

SWED 4500 INDEPENDENT STUDY 1-4 credits variable
TBA, C. Alm


SPECIAL INTEREST COURSES FOR GRADUATE STUDENTS

GERST 6320 READING ACADEMIC GERMAN II 3 credits.
Limited to graduate students. Prerequisite: GERST 6310 or equivalent.
MWF 9:05-9:55, C. Gelderloos
Emphasis on development of the specialized vocabulary of student's field of study.


GRADUATE COURSES

GERST 6131 GERMAN PHILOSOPHICAL TEXTS (also PHIL 6030) 4 Credits (variable).
Prerequisites: Basic reading (not necessarily speaking) knowledge of German, and the permission of the instructor.
TBA, M. Kosch
Reading, translation, and English-language discussion of important texts in the German philosophical tradition. Readings for a given term are chosen in consultation with students.

GERST 6150 JEWS IN GERMAN CULTURE SINCE 1945
(also JWST 6150) 4 Credits
Required readings in German. Class discussion in English.
R 2:30-4:25, L. Adelson
Amidst widespread discussion of Holocaust memory as a "globalized" phenomenon, which becomes increasingly untethered from the historical referent, this seminar explores literature written in German since 1945, largely by Jewish authors, on the subject of Jewish life and German history. For these writers and their texts, the historical encounter with National Socialism remains pivotal to a broad range of aesthetic strategies for representing the complexity of Jewish life in West, East, and unified Germany. Readings include works by authors such as Elisabeth Langgässer, Nelly Sachs, Paul Celan, Hans Keilson, Peter Weiss, Edgar Hilsenrath, Grete Weil, Jeannette Lander, Esther Dischereit, Irene Dische, Rafael Seligmann, Maxim Biller, Barbara Honigmann, and others. This material will be considered against the larger background of postwar German attempts to represent both Jewish identity and the Holocaust. To this end the course will consider pivotal crises of representation such as those reflected in the Fassbinder scandal, the "Historians' Debate," the competition for a "German national monument to the murdered Jews of Europe," Daniel Goldhagen's reception in Germany, and recent debates about anti-Semitism. Additionally, we will consider how these literary works and cultural contexts are relevant to international cultural studies in memory, diaspora, "hybridity," and the aesthetics of representation.

GERST 6340 GERMAN ROMANTICISM 4 credits
Most readings in German (though some translations exist); discussion and papers in English. This is a German Department anchor course, but students from other disciplines are welcome.
T 2:30-4:25, G. Waite
This graduate seminar introduces major topics and texts in literature, art, criticism, political thought, and philosophy from ca. 1789 to 1830 in two basic contexts: Europe between two revolutions-in the aftermath of Enlightenment-and in subsequent critical theory. This legacy includes Marxists and philologists (on "the flight from reality" and "the German ideology"), Freud (on "the uncanny" in Hoffmann), Balibar (on "the internal border" in Fichte), Heidegger (on "the other beginning" in Hölderlin and "the essence of human freedom" in Schelling), Adorno (on "parataxis" in Hölderlin), De Man (on "the rhetoric of romanticism"), Lacoue-Labarthe & Nancy (on "the literary absolute," following W. Benjamin), "the absorption of the subject" (applying M. Fried to the paintings of Caspar David Friedrich), and Deleuze & Guattari (on "the war machine" in Kleist). Of particular interest is "the crisis of reproduction" (Althusser), involving both sexuality and social class, which entails the theme of "incest" in several forms. The primary focus will be on the close reading of texts.

GERST 6480 CRITICAL THEORY AND LITERATURE: LUKÁCS, BENJAMIN, ADORNO 4 credits (also COML 6891)
W 2:30-4:25, P.U. Hohendahl
In recent years the literary criticism of Lukács, Benjamin, and Adorno has received renewed attention, but in many instances this interest has remained abstract and without regard for the literary works that were the basis for their theoretical reflections. Instead, the seminar will focus on their contributions to literary criticism and literary theory in the context of modern literary history. The seminar will examine the aesthetic and methodological questions raised in Critical Theory by looking equally at the literary works and the interpretations offered by Lukács, Benjamin and Adorno. Special attention will be given to the period of German Classicism and European Modernism. Among the literary authors to be examined will be Goethe, George, Kafka, Brecht, Proust, and Beckett.

GERST 7540 INDEPENDENT STUDY 1-4 credits.
Prerequisite: permission of instructor.
Hours to be arranged. Staff

GERST 7541 COLLOQUIUM 1-4 credits.
F 3:00-5:00


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For more information, send e-mail to: germanic_studies@cornell.edu or visit the Cornell University home page. This site was created by M. Duncan. Last modified: 11/4/2009.