Teaching Apprenticeship in German (1.5 credits)
16:470:502:01
Alexander Pichugin
Th2 9:50-11:10am, ED 025B
pdf
Syllabus
(380 KB)
This course prepares graduate students for a successful teaching and learning experience in the foreign language classroom. The course addresses two major goals: introduce aspiring and beginning instructors to the most current methodologies of foreign language teaching and provide them with guidance and practical advice in the classroom. Special focus this semester will be on classroom interaction with its various aspects. The course includes designing lesson plans for a learner-centered classroom, stating objectives based on standards of foreign language learning and nationally accepted proficiency guidelines, finding authentic materials for teaching, developing and reviewing graded assignments, analyzing and comparing different assessment tools, observing and reflecting upon one's own teaching and the teaching by others, and discussing personal experiences and the challenges of the language classroom. This course is taught in German with some assignments and readings in English.
Topics: Poetry and Philosophy (3 credits)
16:470:670:01
Cross-listed with Comparative Literature 16:195:608:01 and Philosophy 16:730:524:01
Michael Levine
W 4:30-7:10pm, German House Seminar Room 102
pdf
Syllabus
(145 KB)
In English.
The course examines crucial -- and crucially missed -- encounters between poets and philosophers in 20th- and 21st-century European thought. Texts discussed include Heidegger's seminal readings of Hölderlin and Rilke, Derrida's writings on Mallarmé and Celan, Hamacher's analysis of the famous encounter between Celan and Heidegger at the latter's hut in the Black Forest, and Celan's prose poem "Conversation in the Mountains" written in the wake of a missed encounter with Adorno. Of particular concern will be the political implications of Heidegger's turn to poetry in the 1930s and Adorno's famous dictum about the barbarity of writing poetry after Auschwitz. If one is to continue to write poetry after "that which happened" (Celan), how must it be done differently? What new relations between poetry and philosophy does this entail? Students are encouraged to read texts in the original French and German but English translations will be provided for all works assigned and discussions will be conducted in English.
Topics: Tragedy and the Tragic
16:470:671:01
Cross-listed with Comparative Literature 16:195:516:02
Martin Schaefer
T 4:30-7:10pm, German House Seminar Room 102
pdf
Syllabus
(114 KB)
In English.
The course examines concepts and examples of tragedy and the tragic in the German tradition and beyond. Our exploration will cover the transformation of tragedy into 18th century German "Trauerspiel" (mourning play), the reception of Greek tragedy in German thought (from Hölderlin, Hegel, Schelling up to Nietzsche, Freud and Benjamin) as well as contemporary reevaluations of tragedy for an allegedly "post-tragic" age (C. Menke, Lehmann). Peter Szondi's 1961 "An Essay on the Tragic" (Meridian: Crossing Aesthetics, paperback 2002) will be a constant point of reference. Discussion in English; all readings available in English translation and also in the original German whenever relevant.
