Spring 2024

Not open for credit to students who have had two or more years of high-school German. Such students should contact the German undergraduate director for more information.

 Taught by Nadja von Bossel in person (470:102:01) and Alexander Pichugin online (470:102:90)

This course will continue introducing students to the language and culture of German-speaking countries, using both prepared and authentic materials with theme-related vocabulary and grammatical structures. Students will have the opportunity to practice listening, reading, writing, and speaking in German through in-class activities and homework assignments. The program of the course corresponds to the Level A2 (Elementary) of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), a widely accepted European standard for language proficiency. By the end of the semester students will be able to:

• understand sentences and frequently used expressions related to areas of most immediate relevance (e.g. very basic personal and family information, shopping, local geography, employment).
• communicate in simple and routine tasks requiring a simple and direct exchange of information on familiar and routine matters.
• describe in simple terms aspects of their background, immediate environment and matters in areas of immediate need.More specifically, students will be able to:
• understand non-fiction texts on some topics, including classified ads
• talk about migration, backgrounds, and languages, compare cities and countries
• talk about families and everyday life, about city and country life
• describe people
• talk about travel
• talk about leisure, hobbies and interests, as well as holidays and traditions
• talk about media
• talk about inventions, products and goods
• organize a trip to a theater, etc.
• talk about professional life
• leave a message on the phone
• express emotions and react to them using language

The course is taught in German with some explanation of grammar points in English. 

This course will introduce students to the language and culture of German-speaking countries focusing on the language competencies particularly relevant in travel situations.

By the end of the semester students will be able to speak about themselves in general and as travelers, ask basic questions about travel, discuss their travel interests and express likes and dislikes, speak about German-speaking countries and their inhabitants, orient themselves in means of transportation and accommodations used in Europe, purchase tickets and book hotel rooms on German-language websites.

The course is taught in German with some explanation of grammar points and cultural references in English. Not open to students who have completed 01:470:102 or the equivalent.

This course will introduce students to the language and culture of German-speaking countries focusing on the language competencies particularly relevant for oral communication in everyday situations. By the end of the semester students will be able to:

• speak about themselves;
• ask basic questions;
• share basic information about their families and relatives;
• speak about their studies;
• speak about objects relevant to everyday situations;
• speak about the weather;
• express likes and dislikes. The course is taught in German with some explanation of grammar points and cultural references in English.

The course is taught in German with some explanation of grammar points and cultural references in English. Not open to students who have completed 01:470:102 or the equivalent.

Professor Alexander Pichugin

This course, taught in English and German, continues to develop the basic reading competencies in the German language. Texts read in the course are chosen from the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences.

By the end of the semester students will be able to:

• apply specific reading strategies to reading a text in German;
• read German texts with correct pronunciation and intonation;
• recognize most grammar phenomena and apply this knowledge to understanding;
• apply some basic passive vocabulary to reading German texts;
• efficiently use online and paper-based dictionaries.

This course is delivered in a hybrid format, which is different from either a traditional classroom-based course or a fully online course. Students spend approximately half the time online and half in the classroom. Instead of meeting in-class twice per week for 80 minutes each class, students will meet once per week, and the rest of the week is held virtually in the Canvas learning management system.

This course also follows a “flipped classroom” approach to learning. This means that students are expected to prepare for each class through readings, learning vocabulary and completing the assignments prior to attending class. This allows class time to be used for more active and engaging activities for a more enriching learning experience for students.

The course is taught in English.

Prerequisite: 01:470:102, 01:470:108, 01:470:121, or placement.

The first semester of Intermediate German further develops students' German language skills with an emphasis on conversation and composition based on everyday situations, aspects of culture, contemporary German short stories, and review of major grammatical points. Students will strengthen their listening, reading, and writing skills, as well as cultural competency by discussing a variety of cultural topics and themes in the German-speaking world, including personal and community life, media, travel, and art. 

Fulfills SAS core goal AHq.

Prerequisite: 01:470:131 or placement.

 Taught by Kevin Wiesehahn

In this course students will further develop their competencies in German language and culture of the German-speaking countries on the intermediate level, using both prepared and authentic materials with theme-related vocabulary and grammatical structures. Students will have the opportunity to practice listening, reading, writing, and speaking in German through various in-class activities and homework assignments. Using a variety of media, such as written texts, video, and audio clips, students will explore the course’s five major themes: Climate and Environment; Social Behaviors; Generations; Migration; Europe.

The program of the course corresponds to the Level B1.2, which is the first half of Level B1 (Intermediate) of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), a widely accepted European standard for language proficiency. By the end of the course sequence, students will be able to understand the main points of clear standard input on familiar matters regularly encountered in work, school, leisure, etc.; deal with most situations likely to arise whilst travelling in an area where the language is spoken; produce simple connected text on topics which are familiar or of personal interest; describe experiences and events, dreams, hopes and ambitions and briefly give reasons and explanations for opinions and plans.

The course is taught in German with some explanation of grammar points in English.

Fulfills SAS core goal AHq

Taught in German

Taught by Claire Cai

In this course students will further develop their competencies in the German language and culture of the German-speaking countries towards the upper intermediate level, using both prepared and authentic materials with theme-related vocabulary and grammatical structures. Students will have the opportunity to practice listening, reading, writing, and speaking in German through various in-class activities and homework assignments.

Using a variety of media, such as written texts, video, and audio clips, students will explore the course’s eight major themes: Extreme Things; Nature and Technology, Lifestyles; Sites and Events; Volunteering; Architecture; Germans; Streets and Stories.

The program of the course corresponds to Level B2 (Upper Intermediate) of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), a widely accepted European standard for language proficiency.

The course is taught in German with some explanation of grammar points in English. 

Professor Michael Levine

cross-listed with Comparative Literature 195:247:01

In English. No prerequisites.

Psychoanalysis is traditionally viewed as a theory of interpretation, as a way, for example, of deciphering the meaning of dreams. Yet, it is also and perhaps above all a unique form of human interaction, an experience, a happening. One name Freud gave to this potentially transformative experience was transference. The course will explore these different dimensions of analytic thought and practice through close readings of Freud’s own case studies and theoretical writings as well as through the study of literature, film, and television series such as In Treatment and The Sopranos.

Course fulfills the Core requirements AHo & AHp 

Professor Nicola Behrmann

This cross-disciplinary course introduces you to the European avant-garde movements of the early 20th century. We will consider innovations in art, music, film, and literature, beginning with German Expressionism, followed by Italian Futurism, French Surrealism, and the international Dada movement. We will examine the various ways in which these movements reveal the irrational, the pathological, the unconscious, the precarious, the hypervisible, and the abandoned as revolutionary and subversive gestures with the potential to change the world. We will explore what binds and what separates these movements from each other. And we will trace their dependency on non-European cultures and how these influences have been appropriated and repressed. You will contribute to a DEEP MAP of early 20th-century artistic communities and the lives of artists across Europe and the globe.

No prerequisites. Readings and discussions will be in English with the option to read and research in other languages as well. Students should plan to spend 4-6 hours per week on the course. Fulfills AHo and AHp.

DELIVERY FORMAT

This course will be taught online and in asynchronous mode, wherein students work on mostly their own time but with scheduled due dates and with seven online discussion meeting in smaller teams. Each week includes a formal lecture by the instructor as well as reading assignments, and multi-media assignments. There will be one guest lecture—either by an established scholar in the field or an advanced graduate student who is working in the field of avant-garde studies. Students will actively contribute to a research platform that allows for an annotated “deep map” of early 20th-century artistic communities and lives of artists all over Europe while also tracing their ties to other regions of the world. They will present their final project, individual assignments, and deep maps at an online conference at the end of the semester. The aim is to create a group of independent learners who become experts in a particular movement, artist, or a specific vanguard practice (i.e. montage, chance, anti-art). Through reading, discussion, locating and exploring, and online presentation of essential prose texts, poems, manifestos, films, paintings, installation, music and songs, students will gain insight into various vanguard productions and their ongoing impact on art, literature, and sub-culture today. At the end of the semester, the they will have configured their very own individual approach and a unique canon of early 20th century radical modernisms.

Professor Jeffrey Shandler

Explore the thousand-year history of Yiddish, key to centuries of Jewish folklore and politics, great works of modern literature and traditional spirituality. Learn how a language thrives in diaspora and endures a genocide, and how it has enriched the lives of fundamentalists, revolutionaries, avant-garde performers, and others—including many people who aren’t Jewish—around the world.

No prior knowledge of Yiddish or other languages needed. Fulfills AHq.

Prerequisite: 01:470:102 or 01:470:121, or higher. 

In German. If taken twice, 470:299 may be counted for three credits towards the major or minor. 

The main goal of this course is to increase the students' cultural awareness through the study of the various media and their role in contemporary German society, while furthering the students' German language skills through consistent speaking, listening, reading, and writing. In this course, students will explore the traditional, modernized, and news media and the role they play in different realms of contemporary German society. Chosen topics of the course are crucial to understanding the modern German-speaking world and include themes such as social structure, politics, culture, and everyday life. Special attention is paid to cultural comparisons between Germany and the United States.

Professor Michael Levine

The course provides an introduction to Franz Kafka’s work and its impact on World literature. Among the texts to be considered are the introduction to his writing in “comix” form by David Zane Mairowitz and Robert Crumb; the fiction of Clarice Lispector, Jorge Luis Borges, Mana Neyestani, JM Coetzee, and Philip Roth; the music of Philip Glass; and films of David Cronenberg and Orsen Welles. Readings also include canonical texts by Ovid and Homer and critical/biographical works by Benjamin, Butler, Deleuze and Guattari, and others. Taught in English. Course fulfills the Core requirements AHo & AHp.

This course introduces students to films of the Weimar, Nazi, and post-war period, as well as to contemporary German cinema. We will explore issues of social class, gender, historical memory, violence, and conflict by means of close film analysis. The class seeks to sensitize students to the cultural context of these films and the changing socio-political climates in which they were made. We will also look closely at issues of style and genre. Directors and films include Robert Wiene, Fritz Lang, Richard Oswald, Josef von Sternberg, Leontine Sagan, Leni Riefenstahl, Billy Wilder, Alexander Kluge, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Harun Farocki, Christian Petzold, Valeska Grisebach, Fatih Akin among others.

Taught in English. Fulfills SAS Core Course Goal AHo.