In German. Counts for literature/civilization/film credits toward the major and minor.

Studies in short genres of German prose such as the anecdote, farce, fable, novella, and short story.

Ever since we can remember, people told stories to amuse themselves and to instruct. Fables told how animals and men act, or should act, in difficult or ambiguous situations: “It is better to have a bird in one’s hand than ten in the bush.” The Bible contains stories of hope, of little David killing the giant Goliath and of Jonah who, after the whale had swallowed him, sees once more the light of day. But stories also tell of those who prey on others, as did the student, who duped a poor woman of all her wealth by pretending that he had just returned from paradise.

The popularity of single stories led to collections that center on folk figures. Every German child knows Eulenspiegel, the fool or scoundrel, who pokes fun at serious and pompous adults and exults in his freedom. Faust, the university professor, sold his soul to the devil to acquire knowledge and the power it confers, a life’s story that excited dramatists ever since his biography was published.