16:470:502:01     Teaching Apprenticeship in German (1.5 credits)      
Alternating Th 3:15-5:15pm
Dr. Silke Wehner-Franco

The Teaching Apprenticeship in German is designed to give you the opportunity to discuss topics surrounding the practice of German language teaching today in the context of the courses offered at Rutgers. To that end, we will utilize a number of readings from current journals and publications as well the text Perspectives on Learning in light of your teaching experience this semester. In addition to the readings outlined below and distributed during the semester, each participant is also asked to conduct one presentation/discussion (approx. one hour) based on a particular chapter of the text and to submit a short research paper (5-7 pages) that evaluates the learning theory's application in German language courses. Finally, each participant will schedule one class observation and post-observation meeting at some point during the semester.

16:470:640:01     Austrian Narratives - Robert Musil and His Age (in German) (3 credits)      
W 4:30-7:10pm
Prof. Fatima Naqvi and Dr. Robert Leucht

Robert Musil’s monumental, yet unfinished novel The Man without Qualities (1930/1932) is considered one of the most complex and influential books in German literature. Focusing on the first three volumes of the book, „A Sort of Introduction“, „Pseudo Reality Prevails“ and „The Criminals“ („Into the Millenium)*, we will start with examining the novel’s genesis, structure, characters and narrative construction. Special emphasis is then put on discussing the book in the context of contemporary debates such as: the crisis of the modern novel (Adorno, Benjamin), the discussion on utopia and utopian thinking (Bloch, Mannheim), the role of the intellectual in society („Intellektuellendebatte,“ Benda, Kracauer, Mannheim), as well as the problem of urbanity (Simmel). In order to enable a more differentiated discussion we recommend that students familiarize themselves with the book before the semester starts. First-time readers are equally welcome!

16:470:626:01     Goethe's Faust (in English) (3 credits)      
M 4:30 - 7:10pm
Prof. Nicholas Rennie

Goethe’s Faust is often considered the most important work both of Goethe’s life, and of the modern German literary tradition. Written and revised over six decades, the play updates an old German story about experimentation and the limits of human autonomy; it integrates, recasts and anticipates18 th and 19 th-century developments in European intellectual history; it explores virtually every metric and generic form that would be available in German by the time of Goethe’s death in 1832; and it has been invoked as a test case by literary, aesthetic, philosophical, political and social theories of the past 200 years.

This course combines close readings of the play in its various historical contexts, and analysis of a broad range of theoretical projects that have focused on this text, especially in recent decades.

Discussion in English. Primary literature available in English. Secondary literature in English and German.

16:470:672:01     Imaginary Ethnographies (in English) (3 credits)
cross listed with Comparative Literature (16:195:609:01)
T 4:30 - 7:10pm, Prof. Gabriele Schwab

Exploring the relationship between literature, film, ethnography and the cultural imaginary, this course views literature and film as different forms of writing culture. We will explore the specific role and devices of the literary in relation to the visual and to other discourses on culture such as ethnography and cultural theory. In this context, we will develop a method of reading that emphasizes the complex transcodings (as defined by Jameson in The Political Unconscious) between the literary/aesthetic, the cultural/ethnographic, and the psychological. We will explore topics such as the colonial imaginary and the colonization of psychic space, violent histories and trauma, and the social construction of childhood.