German Courses Fall 2022

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GERMAN 101 – First Semester German

(4 credits)

  • Section 001: MTWRF 9:55-10:45 am
  • Section 002: MTWRF 11:00-11:50 am
  • Section 003: MTWRF 12:05-12:55 pm
  • Section 004: MTWRF 1:20-2:10 pm
  • Section 005: MWR 3:30-4:50 pm

Course Description: German 101/401 is an introductory course designed for beginners in German who have no previous knowledge of the German language. By the end of the first semester, you should be able to communicate effective with others in German on a variety of topics, such as personal and public identity, family, education, career goals, and sport culture. This class will expose you to authentic texts from a variety of sources in different genres and modes, for you to develop your reading, viewing, and listening skills and engage in critical thinking. Grammar and vocabulary will be introduced in context. Assessments focus on all skills (reading, writing, speaking, and listening). Throughout the semester, you will learn more about yourself and deepen your linguistic and culture knowledge of the German-speaking world. You will also improve your language-learning strategies. To be successful and achieve course learning outcomes, you will be expected to complete homework on time and participate in class. Attendance is required. This course cannot be audited. The textbook, Augenblicke: German through Film, Media, and Texts, is available at the UW Book Store for $40 and is used in first-, second-, and third-semester German. Contact the course supervisor, Dr. Jeanne Schueller (jmschuel@wisc.edu), with any questions about the course or appropriate placement.

Prerequisites: None.

(This course is also offered to graduate students for 3 credits as GERMAN 401.)

GERMAN 102 – Second Semester German

(4 credits)

  • Section 001: MTWRF 12:05-12:55 pm
  • Section 002: MWR 3:30-4:50 pm

Course Description: German 102/402 is a continuation of German 101. Students need to have completed German 101 or achieve an appropriate score on the placement exam to enroll. By the end of the second semester, you should be able to communicate effective with others in German on a variety of topics, such as sport and fitness culture, travel, technological innovations, and migration. This class will expose you to authentic texts from a variety of sources in different genres and modes, for you to develop your reading, viewing, and listening skills and engage in critical thinking. Grammar and vocabulary will be introduced in context. Assessments focus on all skills (reading, writing, speaking, and listening). Throughout the semester, you will learn more about yourself and deepen your linguistic and culture knowledge of the German-speaking world. You will also improve your language-learning strategies. To be successful and achieve course learning outcomes, you will be expected to complete homework on time and participate in class. Attendance is required. This course cannot be audited. The textbook, Augenblicke: German through Film, Media, and Texts, is available at the UW Book Store for $40 and is used in first-, second-, and third-semester German. Contact the course supervisor, Dr. Jeanne Schueller (jmschuel@wisc.edu), with any questions about the course or appropriate placement.

Prerequisites: GERMAN 101 or appropriate score on the placement exam. Open to first-year students.

(This course is also offered to graduate students for 3 credits as GERMAN 402.)

GERMAN 111 – First Semester Dutch

(4 credits)

  • MTWR 9:55-10:45 am

Course Description: Coming Soon!

Prerequisites: None

(This course is also offered to graduate students for 3 credits as GERMAN 311.)

GERMAN 203 – Third Semester German

(4 credits)

  • Section 001: MTWR 9:55-10:45 am
  • Section 002: MTWR 11:00-11:50 am
  • Section 003: MTWR 12:05-12:55 pm
  • Section 004: MW 3:30-5:10 pm

Course Description: German 203/403 is a continuation of German 102. Students need to have completed German 102 or achieve an appropriate score on the placement exam to enroll. By the end of the third semester, you should be able to communicate effective with others in German on a variety of topics, such as traditions and celebrations, city and rural life, the concept of home, and migration, immigration, and integration. This class will expose you to authentic texts from a variety of sources in different genres and modes, for you to develop your reading, viewing, and listening skills and engage in critical thinking. Grammar and vocabulary will be introduced in context. Assessments focus on all skills (reading, writing, speaking, and listening). Throughout the semester, you will learn more about yourself and deepen your linguistic and culture knowledge of the German-speaking world. You will also improve your language-learning strategies. To be successful and achieve course learning outcomes, you will be expected to complete homework on time and participate in class. Attendance is required. This course cannot be audited. The textbook, Augenblicke: German through Film, Media, and Texts, is available at the UW Book Store for $40 and is used in first-, second-, and third-semester German. Contact the course supervisor, Dr. Jeanne Schueller (jmschuel@wisc.edu), with any questions about the course or appropriate placement.

Prerequisites: GERMAN 102 or appropriate score on the placement exam. Open to First-Year Students.

(This course is also offered to graduate students for 3 credits as GERMAN 403.)

GERMAN 204 – Fourth Semester German

(4 credits)

  • Section 001: MTWR 11:00-11:50 am
  • Section 002: MW 3:30-5:10 pm

Course Description: German 204/404 is a continuation of German 203. You need to have completed German 203 or achieve an appropriate score on the placement exam to enroll. This course reviews German grammar but prior knowledge of these concepts is assumed. The course is designed to give you the opportunity to explore language as it is embedded in the culture. You will explore mostly contemporary but also historical aspects of the cultures of the German-speaking world through a journey through major cities and regions of Austria, Germany, or Switzerland. Testing consists of chapter quizzes – there is no midterm or traditional final exam. You will complete writing and reading assessments, as well as oral projects. During the second half of the semester, you will sign up for a “mini- seminar” of your choice. These weeklong seminars substitute for regular class meetings and permit students to explore specific interests in German language, linguistics, literature, and culture/history. Class participation is expected, and attendance is required. This course cannot be audited. See the UW Book Store for required materials (Stationen, 4th edition with access to MindTap). Contact the course supervisor, Dr. Jeanne Schueller (jmschuel@wisc.edu), with any questions about the course or appropriate placement.

Prerequisites: GERMAN 203 or appropriate score on placement exam. Open to First-Year Students.

(This course is also offered to graduate students for 3 credits as GERMAN 404.)

GERMAN 213 – Third Semester Dutch

(4 credits)

  • MTWR 12:05-12:55 pm

Course Description: Coming Soon!

Prerequisites: GERMAN 112 or appropriate score on placement exam. Open to First-Year Students.

(This course is also offered for graduate students as GERMAN 313.)

GERMAN 236 – Extreme Stories: Case Studies

(3 credits)

  • TR 2:30 – 3:45 pm          Instructor: Oksana Stoychuk

Course Description: The extremes of human experience fascinate us: faced with stories of illnesses that seem to move between mind and body, devastating plagues, or gruesome crimes, we look for explanations that make sense of how and why such events take place. But often enough, attempts to rationalize frightening or confusing events reveal how hard it is to draw the boundaries between “extreme” and “normal,” showing just how slippery our categories of sickness and health, guilt and innocence are. This course looks at fictional texts (including films and plays) and legal, psychological, and medical cases to examine critically the different ways we try to make sense of these experiences. In paying special attention to the way writers, scientists, lawyers, psychologists, and filmmakers are challenged, inspired, or confounded by these extreme stories, we will: look at early case studies published in pedagogical journals and magazines in the eighteenth century, watch as practitioners try to explain mental illness at the birth of psychoanalysis (including Freud’s famous case study “The Wolf Man”), debate the use of cases in establishing mental categories (for example in the discovery and history of Dissociative Identity Disorder), and consider criminal cases (e.g. Leopold and Loeb). We will look further at fictionalized ‘cases,’ such as Nunally Johnson’s film The Three Faces of Eve, Friedrich Schiller’s adaptation of a legal case, “The Criminal of Lost Honour,” and Edgar Allen Poe’s short story “The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar” to see what these stories about the extremes of the human condition can tell us about what it means to be human and healthy.

Prerequisites: Satisfied Communications A requirement.

GERMAN 249 – Intermediate German: Speaking and Listening

(3 credits)

  • Section 001: MWF 8:50-9:40 am              Instructor: Julie Larson-Guenette      
  • Section 002: MWF 11:00-11:50 am           Instructor: Julie Larson-Guenette
  • Section 003: MWF 1:20-2:10 pm

Course Description: Drawing mainly on contemporary audio and video materials from Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, students will explore linguistic and cultural variation of German by learning how native speakers vary their use of sound structures, vocabulary, and grammar according to speech situation.

Learning Outcomes: By the end of the course, the aim is for students to:

  • improve their comprehension and production of spoken German via exposure to the language in use in audio and video formats and through use of the International Phonetic Alphabet;
  • develop communication strategies to increase oral fluency;
  • promote their awareness of how spoken German varies according to speech situation and region mainly in terms of sound structures, vocabulary, and pragmatics of speech;
  • enhance their understanding of contemporary German-speaking cultures in Europe and the central role that language plays in shaping these cultures.

Prerequisites: GERMAN 204 or appropriate score on placement exam or consent of the course supervisor. This course can be taken subsequent to, prior to, or concurrent with GERMAN 262, GERMAN 258, and GERMAN 285. Open to first-year students.

GERMAN 258 – Intermediate German: Reading

(3 credits)

  • Section 001: MWF 9:55-10:45 am
  • Section 002: MWF 11:00-11:50 am          Instructor: Jeanne Schueller

Course Description: This course is designed to acquaint you with German literary, cultural, and historical texts and provide an overview of cultural developments in German-speaking countries. An important goal of this course is to offer explicit instruction on reading strategies to help students improve their comprehension of a range of texts. In German 258, you will recognize different genres (text types) and identify applicable reading strategies; implement critical reading skills for reading and comprehending different genres and written registers; identify, define, and implement vocabulary related to the topics covered in class; situate a text within its cultural and historical contexts in the German-speaking world; demonstrate the ability to read autonomously; and select and interpret a text based on individual academic interests. Two books and a course pack are required and can be purchased at the UW Book Store. All other materials will be available on Canvas.

Prerequisites: GERMAN 204 or consent of instructor. This course can be taken subsequent to, prior to, or concurrent with GERMAN 249 and GERMAN 262. Open to First-year Students.

GERMAN 262 – Intermediate German: Writing

(3 credits)

  • Section 001: TR 9:30-10:45 am                   Instructor: Melissa Sheedy
  • Section 002: TR 11:00 am-12:15 pm          Instructor: Melissa Sheedy
  • Section 003: TR 1:00-2:15 pm                     Instructor: Hannah Vandegrift Eldridge

Course Description: Fairytales, murder mysteries, film reviews, and … resumes? Welcome to Intermediate German Writing! In this class, students will expand and enhance their writing skills in German by exploring a variety of different text types and genres reflecting the diversity of the German-speaking world. Daily course participation will involve active in-class discussion as well as collaborative and individual writing activities. Learners will work with authentic texts, music, and film, and they will also engage with synonyms, regional variations, and register to develop the skills to express themselves effectively and creatively in German. Through the composition of a variety of text types, from the practical to the fanciful, course participants will expand their individual comfort zone and improve their own communication skills as well as comprehension of written texts. Materials and in-class discussions will be in German.

Prerequisites: GERMAN 204 or appropriate score on placement exam or consent of instructor. This course can be taken subsequent to, prior to, or concurrent with GERMAN 249 and GERMAN 258.

GERMAN 267 – Yiddish Song and the Jewish Experience

(3-4 credits)

  • Lecture 001 (LEC only): M 1:20-2:10 pm          Instructor: Pamela Potter
  • Lecture 002: M 1:20-2:10 pm                                Instructor: Pamela Potter
    • DIS 301: W 1:20-2:10 pm
    • DIS 302: F 1:20-2:10 pm

Course Description: Using the medium of Yiddish song to explore the culture and history of Jews in the diaspora, we will focus on their experience as a minority first in Europe and then in the United States. Facing discrimination, oppression, and marginalization on both sides of the Atlantic, Jews used Yiddish song as a vehicle to express their pain as well as their pride. The goals of this course are to increase students’ capacity to value the unique qualities of Yiddish song as a reflection of the Jewish experience by appreciating the depth of expression conveyed in its sounds and its lyrics, as well as to gain insight into the process of immigration and acculturation in the United States from the perspective of a persecuted group, the challenges it faced in confrontation with new forms of discrimination and marginalization, and the outlet this group found in the performing arts for documenting their struggles and for finding a creative niche in their new surroundings. The experiences of the Jews in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries are then used as a basis for comparison for the experiences of migrants and the state of antisemitism in America today. The format of this course is blended/flipped: students will work through on-line modules and assessments on their own and meet once a week for in-class activities in the multifunctional WisCEL classroom. Those who opt for Comm-B will attend an additional section once a week and receive an additional credit. There is no text required for purchase for this course.

Prerequisites: None

GERMAN 269 – Yiddish Literature and Culture in Europe

(3 credits)

  • TR 9:30-10:45 am                   Instructor: Sunny Yudkoff

Course Description: In the American cultural imagination, European Jewish life is often represented by the image of Jewish men. What happens to that image when women’s stories are placed at the center? In the following course, we will examine the literature and culture of European Jewry considering texts produced in Yiddish from the seventeenth century until today. We will focus on the representation of Jewish women in major writing of the period, including material created by women writers in such genres as memoirs, prayers, short stories, poetry, and visual art. How, we will ask, did Jewish women narrate their lives and artistic visions in a language sometimes both praised and derided as mame-loshn, or “mother tongue”? How, moreover, did women respond to the major historical events of European Jewish history, including messianic movements; the Jewish Enlightenment; the rise of Zionism, socialism, and communism; the Russian Revolution, and the Holocaust? We will examine a range of realist and modernist texts written across what is today Germany, Poland, Ukraine, and Lithuania, as well as selections from the post-war Ashkenazi diaspora. This discussion-based course presumes no previous knowledge of Yiddish literature or language, or Jewish cultural literacy.

Prerequisites: None

GERMAN 276 – Reading the Barbarians

(3 credits)

  • TR 4:00 – 5:15 pm          Instructor: Katerina Somers

Course Description: This course is about barbarians real and imagined and their portrayal in literature. We will begin by learning about the Germanic barbarians of Late Antiquity: a linguistically diverse, geographically scattered constellation of tribes with no sense whatsoever of a common identity. But contemporary Roman authors, such as Tacitus and Julius Caesar, already imagined the barbarians, with whom their empire had extensive contact, as something different: an uncivilized, undifferentiated and racially uniform Other, collectively referred to as the Germani ‘the Germans.’ We will analyze how subsequent generations of German speakers appropriated and rehabilitated the barbarian, transforming the primitive horde into the courageous and noble forefathers of a great German nation. The nineteenth and early twentieth centuries see the barbarian reimagined yet again and turned into a racial phenotype, which those interested in asserting their supremacy over other peoples used as a model for the “best” or even “purest” type of European. Finally, we will discuss how this deadly ideal influences the formation of national identity in Germany and the United States. This course is taught in English and has no prerequisites.

Prerequisites: Satisfied Communications A requirement.

GERMAN 278 – Istanbul-Berlin Connections: Reimagining Germany 

(3 credits)

  • MW 2:30 – 3:45 pm          Instructor:Nâlân Erbil Erkan

Course Description: Love Berlin and Istanbul but cannot travel? Here is a course for you! This course is about two great cities: one entirely in Europe and one half in Europe and half in Asia. Berlin and Istanbul are connected by histories of political power, cultural exchange, and in the twentieth century by Turkish migration into Germany. The course starts with post WWII guest worker movement into West Germany and spans what is now the fourth generation of Turkish-Germans making Berlin the third largest Turkish city in the world after Ankara and Istanbul.

We will focus on Turkish-German food such as Döner kebab, Turkish-German rap and hip-hop, films, literature, sports (soccer), and social media influencers from the Turkish-German community. The course will offer students the opportunity to understand how the Turkish presence has influenced and transformed the German-speaking world and more generally how migration from outside Europe shapes the cultures of European cities.

To this end, we will watch and discuss films like Kebab Connection, artists such as Eko Fresh, film makers such as Fatih Ak n, controversial soccer players such as Mesut Özil and many more. Berlin and Istanbul will form the backdrop of our course, and guest speakers (virtual) from Germany will enrich our discussion.

All materials will either be in English translations or with English subtitles. Lectures and discussions will be in English. Prior knowledge of German and Turkish appreciated but not required. This course may be counted as a cognate toward the German major. It satisfies Humanities Credit and counts towards European Studies Certificate and Middle East Studies Certificate.

Prerequisites: None.

GERMAN 325/GERMAN 625 – Anne Frank

(3-4 credits)

  • T 1:00 – 2:15 pm and ONLINE R 1:00 – 2:15 pm          Instructor: Jolanda Vanderwal Taylor
    • DIS 301: W 1:20-2:10 pm (Discussion section is for GERMAN 625)

Course Description: Anne Frank counts as one of the most widely read writers in recent world history, and yet some wonder whether she should be called a writer. Her work is widely loved. It has been the inspiration for many other cultural artifacts and institutions: editions; biographies; works of fiction and non-fiction; plays; autobiographies (e.g. by friends of Anne Frank); scholarly research: literary-, cultural-, historical-, as well as research in the various sciences of manuscript authentication; exhibitions; museums; foundations. In this course we will study the context in which the Diaries were written and consider the various ways in which they were received. We will look at what was done with the Diaries and with Anne Frank: how they have been read, interpreted, used, and argued about. We will engage in critical thinking, asking not just: what? but also: why? We will consider what her work and life have to say to us as we face the legacy and continued scourge of racism. We will certainly consider some of her laments as we consider out own, somewhat confined, existence. We will take Anne seriously as a writer by reading her works (the Diaries and other short texts) attentively. And then we will also think about the nature of literature: is what Ms. Frank wrote literature? Why, or why not?

Prerequisites:
– GERMAN 325 = GERMAN 214
– GERMAN 625 = GERMAN 314

GERMAN 337 – Advanced Composition and Conversation

(3 credits)

  • MW 2:30 – 3:45 pm          Instructor: Sabine Mödersheim

Course Description: Dieser Kurs setzt fortgeschrittene Kenntnisse voraus. Ziel ist es, das Schreiben, Sprechen,  Lesen und Hören in unterschiedlichen Situationen und Kontexten zu trainieren. Dazu dienen Diskussionen über aktuelle Themen, deutsche Kultur, Literatur und Film sowie Schreibprojekte, gezielte Stilübungen, Wortschatzübungen und Wiederholung wichtiger  Grammatikkapitel. 

Prerequisites: (GERMAN 249, 258, and 262) or (GERMAN 249 and 285)

GERMAN 351 – Intro to German Linguistics

(3 credits)

  • MWF 1:20-2:10 pm          Instructor: Mark Louden

Course Description: In GERMAN 351 you will learn to analyze how sounds, words, and sentences are formed in German and how these structures vary regionally. The focus in the first half of the course will be mainly on the sounds of German: how they are produced and how we transcribe them. We then consider how these sounds have changed over the history of German as reflected in both the standard language and modern dialects. This half of the course will wrap up with a discussion of where German personal, family, and place names come from.

In the second half of the course we will look at a number of productive processes involved with forming German words. Many of the examples we will consider are words that have entered the language in the last twenty years. We will then look at how words are combined to form phrases and sentences in German. The course will conclude by examining topics broadly dealing with contact between the German and English languages, including youth speech, what is popularly known as “Denglisch” (English-influenced German), and German varieties spoken in the United States.

Prerequisites: (GERMAN 249, 258, and 262) or (GERMAN 249 and 285)

GERMAN 372 – Oesterreich: Natur als Kultur

(3 credits)

  • TR 1:00 – 2:15 pm          Instructor: Monika Chavez

Course Description: All too often, Austria has been characterized – and hence, perceived – as a quaint little country in the vicinity of the much larger Germany. In fact, modern-day Austria is the inheritor of a long history of migratory movements, occupations, and expansions & contractions. While often characterized as a ‘German-speaking country’, it is multilingual (and multi-cultural) in a number of regards. Vienna is closer to Venice than it is to Berlin; it practically is twinned with Bratislava; and shares its architecture with Prague and Budapest. Germany has obtained its national anthem from an Austrian (Joseph Haydn) who composed it for an Austrian emperor (Franz II.) with lyrics available in eleven different languages. Whether you see contradictions or diversity, Austria is cutting-edge technology, arts, science, and quaint (if you will) tradition; and it houses historic and contemporary conflicts that nevertheless have yielded a unique self-understanding.  What has shaped this self-understanding are Austria’s peoples across time and they, in turn, took their cues from natural features, such as rivers, forests, high plateaus, mountains, valleys, caves, lakes, and the plains of the East. This course will take us on journey through all nine Austrian states. We will connect natural features and cultural practices & perspectives across regions and across time. Students will complete regular exploratory homework assignments, take short quizzes that indicate the progress of their knowledge, and complete several group projects, including an end-of-semester presentation.

Prerequisites: (GERMAN 249, 258, and 262) or (GERMAN 249 and 285)

GERMAN 372 – Theater auf Deutsch

(3 credits)

  • T 5:30 – 8:00 pm         Instructor: Sabine Gross

Course Description: This course allows you to use and improve your German in a variety of performance-centered activities, and to discover new dimensions of German. Explore the theatricality of language! We will play with sounds, movements, and rhythms. You will read (excerpts from) plays and perform individual scenes. While there will be occasional mini-lectures (in German) and periods of discussion, this is a highly interactive class that includes regular group work. Most of our sessions will have workshop character. No acting or theater background is required. Participants should bring an interest in performance and in exploring text and language in a new way. Expect to experiment, to laugh, and to approach language as an adventure as well as a medium of communication. 

Prerequisites: (GERMAN 249, 258, and 262) or (GERMAN 249 and 285).

GERMAN 391– German for Graduate Reading Knowledge I

(3 credits)

  • TR 11:00 am-12:15 pm            Instructor: Salvatore Calomino

Course Description: This course is intended for those who wish to develop primarily reading skills in German.  A thorough presentation of German grammar will be coupled, from the start, with regular practice in reading and translation.  Various levels of academic prose will be covered with a twofold goal: (1) participants will develop skills at comprehension in reading expository German in general; and (2) individuals will have the opportunity to begin reading German in their own research areas as well. 

Prerequisites: Senior standing.

GERMAN 676/GERMAN 683 – Romantic Trajectories in Contemporary Literature

(3 credits)

  • M 2:25 – 5:25 pm            Instructor: Melisa Sheedy

Course Description: From felines to fairytales, Grimm to Goethe, and magic to marionettes, the literatures, cultures, and philosophies of the German Romantic movement have maintained an enduring influence into the twenty-first century. Contemporary fascination with princesses, witches, and heroes is deeply indebted to thinkers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In literature, television, film, and other artefacts of popular culture, legacies of the Romantic movement continue to enchant and allure. Beyond the worldwide interest in these Romantic remnants, there also exists a specifically German preoccupation with the nineteenth century, and in particular its engagements with concepts of gender, nationalism, religion, nature, and power. With an eye to these depictions, we will critically engage with nineteenth-century and contemporary texts and contextualize them within the social and political landscapes that shaped them.

Looking back on 19th-century discourses reminds us of the enduring need to engage with underlying cultural structures of power and oppression. Examining these through the philosophies and literatures of Romanticism and the Enlightenment sheds light on contemporary tendencies and concerns: in short, traditions that have developed since the mid-eighteenth century help us understand the present.

This seminar will be conducted in German.

Prerequisites:
– GERMAN 676 = Senior standing and GERMAN 337
– GERMAN 683 = GERMAN 385 and declared in an Honors program.

GERMAN 720 – College Teaching of German

(1 credits)

  • F 9:55 – 10:45 am          Instructor: Jeanne Schueller

Course Description: This course works in tandem with German 722 by providing a forum for discussing German-language specific instruction. Praxis-oriented tasks build on assignments and projects assigned in German 722. Emphasis is on teaching German and developing your identity as a language instructor. 

Prerequisites: Declared in German MA or PHD.

GERMAN 722 – Theory of Teaching German

(2 credits)

  • MW 9:55 – 10:45 am          Instructor: Jeanne Schueller

Course Description: This course offers an introduction to principles and theories of second language acquisition as well as foreign language pedagogy. It is intended for instructors of beginning – and intermediate-level collegiate German courses. The goal is to help you understand key concepts of communicative, literacy-oriented language teaching and related techniques for classroom instruction. This course will provide the foundation for success in teaching language courses. Course participants will demonstrate understanding of key concepts of communicative, literacy-oriented language teaching and classroom techniques for communicative, literacy-oriented language teaching; how to design instructional materials, lessons, and assessment tools related to communicative, literacy-oriented language teaching; and the ability to engage in pedagogical discourse on collegiate language teaching and learning. You will be encouraged to explore yourself as a teacher, to get to know the UW–Madison language programs and the Language Institute, and to familiarize yourself with the profession at large. Assessments will be assignment- and project- rather than exam-based. The overall theoretical nature of the course is complemented by practice-oriented work. Journal articles and accompanying reading guides to be downloaded from the course website. Required textbook TBD.

Prerequisites: Graduate or professional standing.

GERMAN 755 – Readings in Middle High German :13th & 14th Centuries

(3 credits)

  • TR  1:00-2:15 pm            Instructor: Salvatore Calomino

Course Description: The focus of this course is the development of the language based on readings of Middle High German texts from the twelfth through the fourteenth centuries. A developing language of the court will first be considered in discussions of Heinrich von Veldeke’s Eneas. Subsequent stages of a courtly language and aesthetic will be the focus of reading from Hartmann von Aue’s Erec and Gottfried von Stassburg’s Tristan. Late survival of heroic narrative and language will be the emphasis of sessions on the Kudrun. Shorter narrative forms and relevant linguistic developments will be treated in discussions of works by Der Stricker. A final segment of the course will consider the development of prose in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Students will complete a research topic based on these or related readings.

Prerequisites: Graduate or professional standing.

GERMAN 758 – Orality and Literacy

(3 credits)

  • TR  2:30 – 3:45 pm           Instructor: Katerina Somers

Course Description: In this course, which will be taught in English and geared to students working with diverse languages, we will explore orality and literacy as historical, sociocultural, linguistic and literary phenomena that shape the texts we’re interested in. Our approach to the topic will be interdisciplinary, both in terms of the readings, which will include selections in medieval studies, linguistics, Native American studies and African American literary criticism, and in terms of the work students will do for the course. That is, the course will support students in their exploration of how orality and literacy connect to their own areas of interest.

Prerequisites: Graduate or professional standing.

GERMAN 804 – Teaching and Writing About Nazi Germany

(3 credits)

  • M 4:45 – 7:15 pm            Instructor: Pam Potter

Course Description: With the recent upsurge of Holocaust denial, the newly passed law in Wisconsin to require Holocaust education in public schools, and the threat of a reemergence of autocracies, we are challenged to rethink how we communicate to our students and to the public the complexities of understanding the Nazi phenomenon.  More than other chapters in our history, this episode has been subjected to distortion as well as minimization and, above all, continues to be exploited across the political spectrum to compare one’s adversaries to “the Nazis.”  This course will approach these challenges by focusing on how we can write about and teach the history of the Third Reich more effectively and accurately, focusing not so much on the Holocaust but on the lives and experiences of ordinary Germans, to sharpen our skills in recognizing similar patterns in today’s world.  For the writing part of the course, we will use my book Art of Suppression as a basis for analyzing the historiography of Nazi Germany, with a particular focus on culture and the arts, examining how misconceptions about the rigidity of Nazi cultural life hinder an understanding of the choices and opportunities available to the many willing to work with the system.  For the teaching part of the course, we will examine syllabi, texts, and media resources available to reconstruct the lives, attitudes, behaviors, and choices of Germans, including German Jews, living in Hitler’s Germany.  All required readings will be in English, with the possibility of optional readings in other languages.  Students will be required to present on and submit a final project, which can take the form of a research paper or a syllabus.

Prerequisites: Graduate or professional standing.

GERMAN 947 – Berlin erinnern: (Contested) Memories

(3 credits)

  • M 2:00 – 4:30 pm            Instructor: Sonja Klocke

Course Description: From the late nineteenth century until today, Berlin and Berlin life have been at the center of German literature, film, art, and photography. In this graduate class, we will focus on portrayals of Berlin in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. We will analyze how the city’s identity developed and changed over the decades; how it is and has been remembered; which role contested memories play; which influence immigrants from around the world had on Berlin for centuries and how this contributes to *contested* memories; and what role Berlin plays in today’s cultural life – not only for Germany, but also internationally. We will discern a variety of fictional responses to a constantly changing Berlin and analyze the aesthetic and political stakes as well as Berlin history that serves as the discursive and artistic background in a range of depictions of life in the city. Students will have the opportunity to closely work with Max Kade Writer in Residence, Tanja Dückers, who will co-teach several class sessions with the instructor. A number of Dückers’ works (still to be determined with the author) will be among the texts discussed.

Prerequisites: Graduate or professional standing.

GERMAN 960 – Empirical Research in SLA

(3 credits)

  • TR 4:00 – 5:15 pm            Instructor: Monika Chavez

Course Description: This seminar is intended for graduate students who are conducting empirical research in Second Language Acquisition and have made substantial progress toward their dissertation proposal (preliminary exam document) or on their dissertation. While we will have common meeting sessions for all course participants (e.g., for collaborative consultations and group writing; mutual feedback; learning to describe one’s research to others), some sessions will be designated for specific student groups. For example, more advanced students will consider analytic options, cross-chapter connections, or research projects related but not identical to the dissertation; or, students in the early stages of their dissertation work, will review the canonical structure of SLA dissertations (and, similarly, dissertation proposals or preliminary exam documents); how the structure relates to the chronology of writing; and how to identify appropriate secondary sources. The overarching intent of this course is to provide practical, intellectual, and affective support to graduate students in the final stages of their education; to advance their progress; and, if appropriate, to help them define and articulate their professional selves. Course participants are expected to not only receive advice and feedback from the instructor but to also be willing to themselves support the intellectual efforts of their peers. Students who are not my (Monika’s) advisees are asked to consult with their advisors before registering for this course. Please do not hesitate to send questions to mmchavez@wisc.edu.

Prerequisites: Graduate or professional standing.