German Courses Spring 2021

(4 credits)

• Section 001: ONLINE (MTWRF 8:50-9:40 am)
• Section 002: ONLINE (MTWRF 11:00-11:50 am)
• Section 003: ONLINE (MTWRF 3:30-4:50 pm)

Course Description: German 101 is for beginners and presumes no knowledge of the German language. Students learn basic vocabulary around topics such as classroom objects, daily routines, descriptions of people and objects, simple narration in present time, etc. German 101 covers material presented in the textbook Vorsprung from Kapitel 1 to Kapitel 5. Students are exposed to authentic texts from the start. Grammar is explained using examples from these texts as well as from a graphic novel, told in installments, that traces the journey of an American exchange student, Anna Adler, to the university in Tübingen as well as her adventures once there. The course also offers basic cultural insights and comparisons that are further elaborated on in second-year courses. Testing is done in increments of chapter quizzes; there is no mid-term and no traditional final exam. Students also complete writing and reading assessments as well as oral projects. Class participation is expected, and attendance is required. This course cannot be audited. See the UW Book Store for required materials. 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.)

(4 credits)

• Section 001: ONLINE (MTWRF 2:25-3:15 pm)
• Section 002: ONLINE (MTWRF 12:05-12:55 pm)
  
• Section 003: ONLINE (MTWRF 1:20-2:10 pm)
  
• Section 004: ONLINE (MTR 3:30-4:50 pm)

Course Description: German 102 is a continuation of German 101. Students need to have completed German 101 or achieve an appropriate score on the placement exam to enroll. Students learn to narrate using past time markers, to express wishes and conditional ideas, to expand on their ability to describe, and to understand and produce extended texts on everyday topics. German 102 covers material presented in the textbook Vorsprung from Kapitel 6 to Kapitel 10. Students are exposed to authentic texts from the start. Grammar is explained using examples from these texts as well as from a graphic novel, told in installments, that traces the journey of an American exchange student, Anna Adler, to the university in Tübingen as well as her adventures once there. The course also offers basic cultural insights and comparisons that are further elaborated on in second-year courses. Testing is done in increments of chapter quizzes; there is no mid-term and no traditional final exam. Students also complete writing and reading assessments, as well as oral projects. Class participation is expected, and attendance is required. This course cannot be audited. See the UW Book Store for required materials. 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.)

(4 credits)

• ONLINE (MTWR 9:55-10:45 am)

Course Description: Continuation of GERMAN 111/GERMAN 311. All required course materials will be provided.

Prerequisites: GERMAN 111 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 312.)

(4 credits)

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

Course Description: German 203 reviews German grammar but prior knowledge of these concepts is assumed. Students need to have completed German 102 or achieve an appropriate score on the placement exam to enroll. The primary objective of the course is to give students the opportunity to explore language as it is embedded in the culture. Students will explore mostly contemporary but also historical aspects of the cultures of the German-speaking countries through a journey through the Stationen (stations) of which each stands for a major city in Austria, Germany, or Switzerland and the region that it represents. Testing is done in increments, with chapter quizzes instead of mid-terms or a traditional final exam. Students complete writing and reading assessments, as well as two oral projects (not traditional exams). During the second half of the semester students will have the opportunity to sign up for a mini seminar of their 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. 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.)

(4 credits)

• Section 001: ONLINE (MTWR 9:55-10:45 am)
• Section 002: ONLINE (MTWR 11:00-11:50 am)
• Section 003: ONLINE (MW 3:30-5:10 pm)

Course Description: German 204 is a continuation of German 203. Students 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 primary objective of the course is to give students the opportunity to explore language as it is embedded in the culture. Students will explore mostly contemporary but also historical aspects of the cultures of the German-speaking countries through a journey through the Stationen (stations) of which each stands for a major city in Austria, Germany, or Switzerland and the region that it represents. Testing is done in increments, with chapter quizzes instead of mid-terms or a traditional final exam. Students complete writing and reading assessments, as well as two oral projects (not traditional exams). During the second half of the semester students will have the opportunity to sign up for a mini seminar of their 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. 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.)

(4 credits)

• ONLINE (MTWR 12:05-12:55 pm)

Course Description: Continuation of GERMAN 213/313. All required course materials will be provided.

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

(3 credits)

• Section 001: ONLINE (MWF 8:50-9:40 am)              Instructor: Julie Larson-Guenette
• Section 002: ONLINE (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. 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.

(3 credits)

• Section 001: ONLINE (MWF 12:05-12:55 pm)           Instructor: Jeanne Schueller
• Section 002: ONLINE (MWF 1:20-2:10 pm)

Course Description: This course is designed to acquaint students 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, students 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 University Bookstore. 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.

(3 credits)

• Section 001: ONLINE (TR 9:30-10:45 am)                   Instructor: Melissa Sheedy
• Section 002: ONLINE (TR 11:00 am-12:15 pm)          Instructor: Melissa Sheedy

Course Description: Fairytales, murder mysteries, screenplays, 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. 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 could improve their own communication skills as well as comprehension of written texts. Materials and in-class discussions will be in German.

Course Goals

• to appreciate grammatical, lexical, stylistic, and pragmatic features that characterize various genres of German as a written language
• to learn how to use existing written pieces as models for one’s own writing
• to share with others in the writing processes through collaborative writing, reader response, and performing another’s work
• to develop and refine German vocabulary in various registers
• to continue to engage with the cultures, perspectives, and history of the German-speaking world

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.

(3 credits)

• ONLINE (TR 11:00 am-12:15 pm)          Instructor: Hannah Vandegrift Eldridge

Course Description: Singing mice, torture machines, academic monkeys, bureaucracies run amok, and of course giant insects: Franz Kafka (1883-1924) is an author whose impact on world literature cannot be overestimated. He is perhaps the only German-language author whose name has become an adjective–and certainly the only German-language author with an imaginary airport named after him by The Onion!  In this course, we will engage with Kafka’s puzzling, challenging, and frequently very funny works as well as the international body of authors, visual artists, musicians, and filmmakers he has inspired, from My First Kafka to Orson Welles, Yoko Tawada to graphic novelists Peter Kuper and David Zane Mairowitz. Following Kafka’s wide-ranging interests, we’ll divide his works and the works of other “Kafkaesque” authors into 5 themes: work, law, colonialism, animals, and the absurd.

Because Kafka inspires such strong responses from thinkers, artists, and activists, the main assignments in this course ask you to “write,” “make,” and “do”—that is, write a paper on how the works have changed your thinking, make an artistic response to one of the works (film, music, painting, graphic novel, digital art…), and take an action to change one of the systems in which you find yourself, whether politically, in the institution of the university, or in broader social/cultural life. You’ll share each assignment with your fellow students and discuss what you chose and how you did it, bringing Kafka out of the classroom and into the world.

Authors/directors include Sharon Dodua Otoo, Boots Riley, Yoko Tawada, Virginia Woolf, Hiyao Miyazaki, Haruki Murakami, Annette von Droste Hülshoff, Michael Götting, Jordan Peele, and W. G. Sebald.

Prerequisites: Sophomore standing.

(3 credits)

• ONLINE (TR 1:00 am-2:15 pm)          Instructor: B. Venkat Mani

Course Description: The main aim of this course is to discuss the human experience of migration, refuge, and forced displacements. Migration continues to be a highly contested topic in the world today. In 2016 the number of people living outside nations of their birth was highest in recorded human history. For 2020, the United Nations’ High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates 79.5 million forcibly displaced people around the world, highest since the recorded data available since the two World Wars. The Covid-19 global pandemic brought new challenges. Humans living in refugee camps, detention centers, or simply separated from their loved ones due to closing of international travel were impacted all over the world. The proliferation of refugees and stateless people in the world has coincided with the resurgence of exclusive nationalism, and divisive rhetoric centered on securing and insulating borders. In Europe and North Americ­­­­­­­a, immigration has defined the demographic make-up of specific nations for centuries. Especially since the end of the Second World War, waves of mass-migration have had a major impact on politics, society, and culture, giving rise to forms of aesthetic expression in literature, film, and music.

In this course, we will engage with “migration” as a social, cultural, political, and historical phenomenon. In addition to discussing migration as a journey from the nation of birth to the adopted nation of residence we will discuss migration as a multidirectional, multi-lingual movement of ideas. The focus of our course will be migration into Germany, but we will compare and contrast it with migration into the US, UK, and Canada.

What is so special about the German migration history in the 20th century? How does migration change the social fabric of Germany and other European nations? How has migration enriched literature, culture, music, food, and sports? How do racial, ethnic, religious, and other forms of discrimination pose challenges to inclusion of German/ European migrant subjects? What is the difference between willful and forced migration? How do we understand refugee narratives? These and other questions will be central to this course.

We will discuss how the understanding of migration in the Euro-American world has changed in the 20^th and 21^st  centuries. We will analyze how migration as an experience is manifested in literature, cinema, and music, and how issues of identities and difference, tolerance and acceptance, nationalism and cosmopolitanism form and inform societies today. Most importantly, we will explore how categories such as home and elsewhere, the self and the other, belonging and cultural citizenship find expression in contemporary nations.

This course counts as a cognate course for the German major, fulfills the L&S “Literature” Breadth Requirement, and counts toward the International Studies Major’s “Globalization and Culture” Track.

Prerequisites: None.

(3 credits)

• ONLINE (TR 2:30-3:45 pm)          Instructor: Melissa Sheedy

Course Description: From wolves to witches, Rumpelstiltskin to Rapunzel, the German fairytale tradition is filled with rich imagery, familiar themes, and political and social subversion. Of enduring popularity and as constant subjects of reimagination and revitalization, German tales and their manifold retellings serve as a unique lens through which to view the social, political, and cultural contexts in which they were produced. Through the texts emphasized in this course, we will glimpse the underlying perceptions and values regarding family, gender, nation, nature, religion, and society both in the first half of the nineteenth century and in the Germany of the last 25 years. With an eye to depictions of gender and gender roles as well as to conceptions of the environment and civilization, we will critically engage with these works and contextualize them within the social and political landscapes that shaped them. Our investigations will center on fairytales and their recent retellings in a variety of forms, including familiar and unfamiliar tales by the Grimm Brothers, and with a special focus on fairytales by women writers. All readings, materials, and discussions will be in English. This course counts as a cognate course for the German major.

Prerequisites: None.

(3 credits)

• ONLINE (TR 4:00-5:15 pm)          Instructor: Katerina Somers

Course Description: This course is about barbarians real and imagined. 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. This course counts as a cognate course for the German major.

Prerequisites: None.

(3 credits)

• ONLINE (MW 9:55-10:45 am)          Instructor: Sunny Yudkoff
  • DIS 301: ONLINE (R 9:55-10:45 am)
  • DIS 302: ONLINE (F 9:55-10:45 am)
  • DIS 303: ONLINE (R 8:50-9:40 am)
  • DIS 304: ONLINE (F 12:05-12:55 pm)

Course Description: American literature has never been written in one language. While English has become dominant in the United States, there has been a long tradition of American literary and cultural production in other languages. This class focuses on the Jewish immigrant experience in Yiddish—a fusion language that brings together German, Hebrew, English, Russian, Latin, and more. We will follow Yiddish culture from the beginning of the twentieth century until today as it has been alternatingly supported, neglected, and imbued with nostalgia. The questions driving our inquiry will be: What does it mean to translate America into Yiddish and what does it mean to translate Yiddish for America? Major terms to be discussed include: cultural translation, ethnicity, migration, “Melting Pot,” multilingualism, and assimilation. Themes include: Jewish-Christian difference, ethnic American humor, race and Jewish culture.

Learning outcomes:

• Awareness of History’s Impact on the Present: To identify the major themes of American Yiddish literature and culture from the early-twentieth century until today.
• Effective Participation in a Multicultural Society: To prepare students for life and careers in an increasingly multicultural and multilingual US environment, and to engender in students the ability to ability to participate in a multicultural society more effectively, respectfully, and meaningfully.
• Ability to Recognize and Question Assumptions: To develop critical thinking skills through sustained discussion with one’s peers and foster a constructive climate in which to engage with questions concerning cultural, racial, religious, and linguistic difference, and to challenge students to question their own assumptions and preconceived notions about these topics.
• Oral and Written Expression: To acquire a critical vocabulary to speak about historical and present-day issues concerning migration, ethnic identity, and religious difference; to engage in reflective writing practices, respond critically to feedback, and assess one’s own communicative strengths.

This course counts as a cognate course for the German major.

Prerequisites: None.

(3 credits)

• ONLINE (MW 2:30-3:45 pm)          Instructor: Jolanda Vanderwal Taylor

Course Description: This course considers texts (novels, short stories, and films) from the Dutch-language literary tradition that take a voyage—physical, mental, emotional, cross-cultural—as their topic. While the emphasis will be on contemporary texts, we will also look at select examples from earlier periods (the Age of Discovery, colonial period) that invite the reader into experiences of voyages across time, space, and cultures.

As we read wonderful stories, we will ask ourselves how texts entertain, challenge, and educate the reader, how they provide an aesthetic experience while they (re)present difference, and how they engage “big questions” such as:

• What is travel? Why do we travel?
• What can travel tell us about ourselves, about our (sub-)cultures, and about the role of languages in our lives? Does travel allow us to learn about the cultures and people we encounter? About ourselves?
• In a multicultural world, can a voyage toward cross-cultural understanding happen through personal interaction as well as through engagement with texts?
• Can travel be a metaphor for life? –an interruption of “normal” life? –a learning experience?
• Can literary texts approximate a voyage? Is the learning, the irritation, the pleasure of travel transferable? How does a text accomplish this communication?
• What questions should readers ask themselves and each other as they read and as they interact in the world?
• Are we grieving because travel is impossible during the pandemic? How can texts “tide us over,” and how will you approach travel when it’s again possible?

This course invites its participants to read attentively, to think carefully, and to discuss thoughtfully and vigorously. It also counts as a cognate course for the German major.

Prerequisites: None.

(3 credits)

• ONLINE (TR 2:30-3:45 pm)          Instructor: Katerina Somers

Course Description: The barbarians of Late Antiquity often exist in the popular imagination as braying, dirty hordes of warriors bent on the destruction of the civilized Roman Empire. In this narrative, the Germanic tribes are seen as a monolithic and abstract horror, representing Rome’s day of reckoning, rather than as a diverse set of peoples each with their own language and culture. This course concentrates on four of these barbarian groups: the East Germanic Goths, the West Germanic Franks, the Ingvaeonic Anglo-Saxons and the North Germanic Vikings. We will analyze their shared prehistoric origins and diverging languages and histories as they move through the period of Late Antiquity and into the Early Middle Ages. We will glean what we can about barbarian language and culture by considering the stories barbarians told, many of which were passed down orally from one generation to the next for centuries, and only much later committed to parchment. We will also draw on contemporary Roman writings and some archaeological remains to complete the picture. The language of instruction is German. This course presupposes no particular disciplinary background.

Prerequisites: None.

(3 credits)

• ONLINE (MWF 12:05-12:55 pm)          Instructor: Sabine Mödersheim

Course Description: Reisen öffnet die Augen, erweitert den Horizont, bietet neue Perspektiven: Schriftsteller/innen erzählen über Reisen und über ihre Erfahrungen auf dem Weg ins Unbekannte  Ihre  Wahrnehmungen und die Repräsentationen des “Neuen” und “Anderen” und des “Fremden” und die Darstellung kultureller Differenz spiegelt oftmals eine Kritik und Auseinandersetzung mit der eigenen, engen Welt. In diesem Seminar lesen wir ausgewählte Beispiele deutschsprachiger Reiseliteratur aus mehreren Jahrhunderten, von Darstellungen realer Reisen bis zu fiktionalen Reiseberichten wie Robinsonaden oder utopischen Entwürfen und fantastischen Reisen in Zeit und Raum.

Offered as GERMAN 385 for honors students.

Prerequisites: (GERMAN 249, 258, and 262) or (GERMAN 249 and 274) or (GERMAN 249 and 284) or (GERMAN 249 and 285).

(3 credits)

• TR 4:00-5:15 pm          Instructor: Julie Larson-Guenette

Course Description: In an era of smartphones, email, text messages, and status updates, letter writing may seem outdated, or even considered a “lost art”. But hashtags such as #snailmailrevolution and #penpalswanted suggest a renewed and growing interest in letter writing. As cultural artifacts, letters present us with a unique lens to experience the thoughts, feelings, and perspectives of individuals while revealing linguistic, social and historical insights of a given time and place. In this course, we will survey the rich tradition of letter writing among German-speakers with content centered on three main areas of inquiry: 1) genre of the letter along with sociolinguistic and stylistic norms associated with letter-writing; 2) letters as a medium for sustained correspondence between individuals (Briefwechsel) and 3) letters as literary devices within texts. This course will also feature practical hands-on workshop components for working with older varieties of handwritten script (e.g., Sütterlin). Course language (readings, class session, and assignments) is German. Course requirements and evaluation criteria will consist of in-class participation, bi-weekly graded assignments, vocabulary quizzes, and a presentation of a final (individualized) project.

Prerequisites: (GERMAN 249, 258, and 262) or (GERMAN 249 and 274) or (GERMAN 249 and 284) or (GERMAN 249 and 285).

(3 credits)

• ONLINE (MWF 11:00-11:50 am)          Instructor: Sabine Mödersheim

Course Description: Schwarze deutsche Literatur hat eine lange Geschichte und weist eine große Bandbreite von Dichtung und Autobiografien bis hin zu aktivistischen Schriften und Kunstwerken auf. Bereits seit dem Mittelalter und dem Beginn des Kolonialismus gibt es eine Schwarze Diaspora in Mitteleuropa. Literatur und Kultur wird von Schwarzen Autor*innen geschrieben und produziert, die selbst migriert sind, eine Migrationsgeschichte haben oder deren Familien seit Generationen in Deutschland leben. Die Kunst und Kultur der Schwarzen Diaspora in Deutschland setzt sich mit den komplexen, oft mehrschichtigen afrodeutschen Identitäten auseinander. In diesem Seminar werden wir die Vielfalt dieser Werke kennenlernen und analysieren. Texte und Materialien von May Ayim, Ika Hügel, Hans Massaquoi, Theodor Michael, Olumide Popoola, Philipp Khabo Koepsell u. a. werden auf Canvas bereitgestellt.

Prerequisites: (GERMAN 249, 258, and 262) or (GERMAN 249 and 274) or (GERMAN 249 and 284) or (GERMAN 249 and 285).

(3 credits)

• MWF 1:20-2:10 pm          Instructor: Jeanne Schueller

Course Description: This course is designed to broaden your knowledge of German culture through the analysis and interpretation of film. We will consider the historical and cultural contexts of each film and read thematically related fiction and non-fiction texts. The course will introduce you to several critically acclaimed German films that explore a range of topics and genres. Our overarching themes this semester will be resilience and perseverance. I will provide you with materials to help you better understand the films, but I am most interested in your reactions to them – what you enjoy, how they make you feel, what you discover about the German-speaking world, and what you learn about yourself through the process and the semester. Film-specific terminology and aspects of film analysis will be introduced at the beginning of the semester to facilitate our discussion of the films. The films and readings will be in German. Some films have German or English subtitles, and others are in German with no subtitles. Assessments will include regular assignments on Canvas; short reflective writing assignments; an in-class presentation of a film review; and active participation. Partner, small-group, and whole-class discussions will be in German. Class materials will be available for download from Canvas. Feature-length films will be viewed outside of class; some short films will be viewed together in class.

Prerequisites: (GERMAN 249, 258, and 262) or (GERMAN 249 and 274) or (GERMAN 249 and 284) or (GERMAN 249 and 285).

(3 credits)

• TR 9:30-10:45 am          Instructor: Salvatore Calomino

Course Description: This course provides further practice in reading and translating German expository prose in a variety of fields.  At the start of the semester a review of both grammatical and syntactical topics vital to progress in reading will be combined with a discussion of selected chapters in R. A. Korb, Jannach’s German for Reading Knowledge.  During the balance of the semester specific reading will be made available through both photocopy and internet sources.  The goal for all participants will be enhanced practice and confidence in reading German at various levels of both scholarly and journalistic prose, in addition to developing a focus in reading for their specific research areas. Upon completion of this course participants will be able to: read advanced German texts in a wide variety of scholarly and journalistic fields; read pertinent texts in the chosen, specific scholarly field; work with journals and reference handbooks in German that are essential to student’s research; produce idiomatic written translations of passages potentially needed for citation.

Prerequisites: Senior or graduate students status plus GERMAN 391 or consent of instructor.

(3 credits)

• ONLINE (TR 9:30-10:45 am)          Instructor: B. Venkat Mani

Course Description: What is “German?” Is it a linguistic term, a cultural adjective, a nationality, or something more? What does being “German” mean in the multi-ethnic, multi-religious, multicultural societies of German-speaking world today? Is there something specific about the “German” experience of the 20^th and 21^st centuries? What distinguishes “German” cultural production—literature, cinema, music, print- and digital cultures—from other European and non-European countries during the course of the 20^th and 21^st centuries? How do political realities and historical events—the two World Wars, the Holocaust, the division of Germany into GDR and FRG, and German Reunification—leave their marks on the intellectual and cultural production in the German language? How does decolonization around the world, and the steady flow of migrants and refugees from Asia and Africa into German-speaking countries after World War II transform our socio-cultural understanding of what is German today?

These and other questions will be central to German 411. The course aims to offer a deeper understanding of Germany in the 20^th and 21^st centuries. Together we will read literary, philosophical, sociological, and political texts, watch films, and also look at transformations in the print and digital cultures in Germany. We will discuss these texts through conceptual frameworks of nationalism and cosmopolitanism, exile and diaspora, history and memory, race and ethnicity, gender and sexuality, and self and the other.

Prerequisites: (GERMAN 249, 258, and 262) or (GERMAN 249 and 274) or (GERMAN 249 and 284) or (GERMAN 249 and 285).

(3 credits)

• ONLINE (TR 4:00-5:15 pm)          Instructor: Adam Stern

Course Description: This course will provide students with a wide-ranging introduction to psychoanalytic theory and practice. Beginning with a reading of major texts by Freud and his early followers, the course will cover major themes of the discipline, including: dream analysis, drive theory, the unconscious, transference, anxiety, metapsychology, sexuality, sublimation, culture, and trauma. From there, the class will explore the development of these concepts as they are reworked by later practitioners and as they appear in a range of non-clinical contexts, including literature, philosophy, film, and politics. A central question for the course will be: Is psychoanalysis a science? And if not, why has it been so difficult to lay it to rest? This course counts as a cognate course for the German major.

Prerequisites: Junior status or consent of instructor.

(3 credits)

• ONLINE (TR 2:30-3:45 pm)          Instructor: Jolanda Vanderwal Taylor
  • DIS 301: ONLINE (W 1:20-2:10 pm)

Course Description: This course considers texts (novels, short stories, and films) from the Dutch-language literary tradition that take a voyage—physical, mental, emotional, cross-cultural—as their topic. While the emphasis will be on contemporary texts, we will also look at select examples from earlier periods (the Age of Discovery, colonial period) that invite the reader into experiences of voyages across time, space, and cultures.

As we read wonderful stories, we will ask ourselves how texts entertain, challenge, and educate the reader, how they provide an aesthetic experience while they (re)present difference, and how they engage “big questions” such as:

• What is travel? Why do we travel?
• What can travel tell us about ourselves, about our (sub-)cultures, and about the role of languages in our lives? Does travel allow us to learn about the cultures and people we encounter? About ourselves?
• In a multicultural world, can a voyage toward cross-cultural understanding happen through personal interaction as well as through engagement with texts?
• Can travel be a metaphor for life? –an interruption of “normal” life? –a learning experience?
• Can literary texts approximate a voyage? Is the learning, the irritation, the pleasure of travel transferable? How does a text accomplish this communication?
• What questions should readers ask themselves and each other as they read and as they interact in the world?
• Are we grieving because travel is impossible during the pandemic? How can texts “tide us over,” and how will you approach travel when it’s again possible?

This course invites its participants to read attentively, to think carefully, and to discuss thoughtfully and vigorously.

Prerequisites: GERMAN 314 or consent of instructor.

(3 credits)

• ONLINE (TR 4:00-5:15 pm)          Instructor: Hannah Vandegrift Eldridge

Course Description: In the summer of 2018, the soccer player Mesut Özil quit the German National Team, citing disrespect and racism and noting that to his critics, “I am German when we win but I am an immigrant when we lose.” To those unfamiliar with Germany’s immigration discussion, this statement is puzzling: how can Özil be an “immigrant” in Germany when he was born in Gelsenkirchen, North Rhine-Westphalia? But Özil’s words highlight the complex nature of what it means to be German, as well as the question of who decides which individuals count as German and how. These issues have become especially present in the contemporary so-called refugee crisis, but in fact the question of what it means to be German stretches back into the eighteenth century and before, and it has shaped German language, literature, history, and art. In this course, we will follow the question of what it means to be German in all of those places, including what Germanness was compared to (when being German meant being not-French, or being German rather than Bavarian or Swabian, or German rather than East or West German), both before and after Germany’s founding as a nation in 1871. We will examine moments of intercultural contact, differentiation, conflict, and exchange in poems, novels, short stories, television shows, films, news media, and social media. Students will also reflect on what it means to study German in the U.S. and other locations outside Germany, Austria, or Switzerland; analyze how we understand German “heritage” in the U.S. and elsewhere; and consider their own cultural and linguistic identities.

Authors include: Yoko Tawada, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Rafik Schami, Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock, May Ayim, Johann Gottfried Herder, Emine Sevgi Özdamar, Anton Wilhelm Eno, Johann Gottfried Herder, and others.

Prerequisites: GERMAN 337 & two additional advanced German courses or consent of instructor.

(3 credits)

• ONLINE (TR 1:00-2:15 pm)          Instructor: Monika Chavez

Course Description: Ever since the widespread adoption of communicative language teaching as the ‘method of choice’ (i.e., for nearly half a century), the role of accuracy has been debated with varying degrees of fierceness. What is more, ‘accuracy’ has largely been constructed as an issue of cognition and measured against the yardstick of the prescribed or described language-use behavior of the proverbial ‘educated native speaker.’  In a similar vein, teachers (and textbooks) have been cast as ‘agents of accuracy’ and, conversely, ‘adversaries of not native-like language use.’

A number of developments in theories of second language acquisition (SLA) and areas of focus in foreign language pedagogy have complicated discussions of accuracy: The gradual dismantling of the native speaker as a suitable role model for learners; the emphasis on learner over teacher agency; the so-called social turn in SLA that some have taken to stand in opposition to cognitive research; awareness of the significance of learner affect, self-visions, and individual differences in language learning; the gap between ideal and actual outcomes;  a focus on communication (which has not always been clearly defined and often limited to Grice’s maxims); the growing realization of the very limited effectiveness of corrective feedback; and unclear future language-use aspirations on part of the learners, have all contributed to the issue of accuracy fading from major strands of research, especially those to do with LOTEs (Languages Other Than English).

In this course, we will examine critically and in depth the issues (mentioned above) that have led to the dwindling of studies on accuracy in major LOTE research journals. Our discussions will include a fundamental examination of what ‘communication’ means; who makes it happen and how; and what visions of ‘native speakers’ – and their dispositions, abilities, and goals – persist implicitly in students’ (and perhaps teachers’) minds as we well as in approaches to teaching.  For example, some models of ‘communication’ rely on a ‘scaffolded negotiation of meaning’ between a learner and an interlocutor, the latter of which many learners continue to envision as a ‘native speaker’, specifically, a monolingual native speaker. Such a model pre-supposes certain qualities in the interlocutor (the native speaker). For example, the imagined interlocutor/NS needs to possess the necessary skills as well as motivation to ‘get the message at nearly all costs’ – and have no other linguistic resources (such as the learner’s L1) at their disposal. In other words, we will ask whether accuracy (or lack thereof) does not, after all, play an important social role, especially in societies in which multilingualism is becoming ever more common and in which the language of interaction itself may be subject to negotiation.

In addition, we will examine whether (and if so why) accuracy is considered more or less important in certain areas of language, such as syntax, lexicon, phonology, and pragmatics, as well as in certain modalities (e.g., written versus spoken language or language reception versus language production); and most fundamentally, what all ‘accuracy’ can come to mean once one assumes that communication – including communication in a second language – can and does go beyond Grice’s maxims of quantity, quality, relation, and manner (all of which appear fundamental to traditional descriptions of ‘communicative language learning’).

Last, we will examine how learners develop ideas about the need for accuracy in specific contexts and for specific purposes, about their current as well as long-term abilities to develop & deploy it, and how learners understand the connection between accuracy and their social positioning and participation in target-language societies.

Prerequisites: Graduate or professional standing.

(3 credits)

• ONLINE (T 4:00-6:30 pm)          Instructor: Sonja Klocke

Course Description: Are you wondering how to make literature in English translation attractive for your students? Are you thinking about ways to teach Nelly Sachs, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Anna Akhmatova, Leo Tolstoy, Astrid Lindgren, August Strindberg … to students accustomed to miniscule screens with ephemeral flashes of communication that instantaneously vanish into thin air (both with regards to endurance and actually visible text)? Then this seminar is for you. Intended for current and/or future instructors of college-level literature courses, it offers an introduction to methods and didactics of teaching literature. The goal is to help you learn about and understand key concepts of approaching different genres in creative ways that make these texts appealing to undergraduate students. Course participants will design instructional materials, lessons, and assessment tools for teaching literature, and are encouraged to develop their identity as teachers of fictional texts. This seminar combines theory and practice-oriented work, and it is entirely assignment- and project-based (no exams).

Language of instruction is English.

Prerequisites: Graduate or professional standing.

(3 credits)

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

Course Description: The goal of this seminar is to introduce students to the techniques and practice of German palæography and its traditions from the early nineteenth century to the present day.  As an introduction to varying methodologies and transcription, participants in the seminar will work with reproductions and facsimiles of (primarily) German manuscripts from the ninth through the eighteenth centuries.  Further, in addition to gaining familiarity with scribal practice and handwriting in major geographical regions, seminar discussions will concentrate on specific problems in the transcription and edition of medieval, early modern, and later literary records as well as charters, civic documents, etc.  Topics will include the influence of Latin script, multiple transmissions of individual texts, and possibilities for the dating and identification of regional dialects based on manuscript evidence.  The mutual transmission of late medieval manuscripts and early printed books will also be treated. The evolution of concepts in textual editing of medieval and early modern or later documents, and implications for the critical reception of these materials, will be a concern throughout the semester.  Participants will complete an edition of representative manuscripts as a seminar project.  Materials for photocopying, including facsimile and manuscript reproductions, will be provided by the instructor.  Internet and other supplementary resources, e.g., digitized manuscripts from major European and American archives, will be used as well. Upon completion of this course participants will be able to: transcribe representative written documents from the medieval and Early Modern periods; evaluate and identify schools of scribal practice from various Germanic regions and periods; assemble a scholarly edition based on single and complex transmission of manuscripts; work with assorted archival reference materials on all aspects of the early book.

Prerequisites: Graduate or professional standing.

(3 credits)

• MW 1:00 am-2:15 pm          Instructor: Mark Louden

Course Description: In this course, which will be taught in German, we will explore the basic structures of German syntax against the backdrop of primarily generative theory. We will begin by addressing some big-picture questions about what syntax is, how it differs from prescriptive grammar, and how it mediates between form and meaning. Then we move on to the mechanics of “doing syntax” by learning about diagnostics for constituency and the basic template for phrase structure set down in X-bar theory. In weeks 4–7, we examine the details of nominal syntax: structures involving nouns, articles, adjectives, prepositions, but also adverbs. This will bring us to the midpoint of the course, when the first of two take-home exams will be assigned; there will be no final. The second half of the course will focus mainly on verbal syntax and clause structure.

Prerequisites: Graduate or professional standing.

(3 credits)

• ONLINE (T 4:00-6:30 pm)          Instructor: Sonja Klocke

Course Description: Are you wondering how to make literature in English translation attractive for your students? Are you thinking about ways to teach Nelly Sachs, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Anna Akhmatova, Leo Tolstoy, Astrid Lindgren, August Strindberg … to students accustomed to miniscule screens with ephemeral flashes of communication that instantaneously vanish into thin air (both with regards to endurance and actually visible text)? Then this seminar is for you. Intended for current and/or future instructors of college-level literature courses, it offers an introduction to methods and didactics of teaching literature. The goal is to help you learn about and understand key concepts of approaching different genres in creative ways that make these texts appealing to undergraduate students. Course participants will design instructional materials, lessons, and assessment tools for teaching literature, and are encouraged to develop their identity as teachers of fictional texts. This seminar combines theory and practice-oriented work, and it is entirely assignment- and project-based (no exams).

Language of instruction is English.

Prerequisites: Graduate or professional standing.

(3 credits)

• R 4:00-6:30 pm          Instructor: Sabine Gross

Course Description: Der Kriminalroman gilt als Unterhaltungsliteratur, ist aber – in klassischen wie populären Ausprägungen – gleichzeitig eine Schule des aufmerksamen, aktiven, analytischen, ‚misstrauischen‘, mitdenkenden Lesens. Wir werden Primärtexte aus gut zwei Jahrhunderten—sowie aus Deutschland, der Schweiz und Österreich – lesen und analysieren (außer mehreren Romanen ein Theaterstück, zwei Novellen und mehrere Kurzgeschichten), ergänzt durch eine Auswahl grundlegender Texte der Sekundärliteratur (Bertolt Brecht, Walter Benjamin, Richard Alewyn, Peter Hühn u.a.). Kennen lernen werden Sie in diesem Kurs einige Klassiker der deutschsprachigen Literatur (Kleist, E.T.A Hoffmann, Droste-Hülshoff), aber auch genre-bestimmende Texte von Edgar Allan Poe und Arthur Conan Doyle. Noir und Großstadtkrimi (Jakob Arjouni) sind ebenso vertreten wie Zen-Krimi (Janwillem van de Wetering) Frauenkrimi (Pieke Biermann, Sabine Detmer, Ingrid Noll) sowie eine schwarze Detektivin (Noah Sow) und der Text einer Bachmann-Preisträgerin. Anhand typischer und unkonventioneller Krimis – auch der Humor kommt dabei nicht zu kurz (Kleist, Haas, Haefs) – werden wir die Funktion von Genrekonventionen diskutieren, die Rollen von DetektivIn und LeserIn beleuchten und den Aufbau und die Durchbrechung von Illusionen sowie Lese-Erwartungen analysieren. Dies ist ein lese-intensiver Kurs. Lust am Lesen ist erwünscht; Vergnügen beim Lesen wird das Seminar hoffentlich allen Teilnehmer*innen bieten. Über das behandelte Thema hinaus ist die Arbeit an den Texten in diesem Kurs darauf angelegt, Ihnen bei weiteren Projekten auch zu ganz anderen Themen hilfreich zu sein.

Prerequisites: Graduate or professional standing.

(3 credits)

• ONLINE (TR 2:30-3:45 pm)          Instructor: Katerina Somers

Course Description:The barbarians of Late Antiquity often exist in the popular imagination as braying, dirty hordes of warriors bent on the destruction of the civilized Roman Empire. In this narrative, the Germanic tribes are seen as a monolithic and abstract horror, representing Rome’s day of reckoning, rather than as a diverse set of peoples each with their own language and culture. This course concentrates on four of these barbarian groups: the East Germanic Goths, the West Germanic Franks, the Ingvaeonic Anglo-Saxons and the North Germanic Vikings. We will analyze their shared prehistoric origins and diverging languages and histories as they move through the period of Late Antiquity and into the Early Middle Ages. We will glean what we can about barbarian language and culture by considering the stories barbarians told, many of which were passed down orally from one generation to the next for centuries, and only much later committed to parchment. We will also draw on contemporary Roman writings and some archaeological remains to complete the picture. The language of instruction is German. This course presupposes no particular disciplinary background.

Prerequisites: Graduate or professional standing.