German Studies

 

Assistant Professor:  McFarland; Visiting Assistant Professor:  Mueller; Associate Professor Atherton, chair

 

The Major in German Studies

 

The major consists of at least ten semester courses (40 semester hours) in German Studies at or above the 200 level, including Courses 215, 216, and at least two 400-level courses taken at Connecticut College.  For students who take Intensive Elementary German the second semester, German 104, also counts for the major.  Two courses from German Studies in English or the group of German Studies-related courses may be counted toward the major if departmental guidelines are followed.

                Normally, no more than four courses taken at another institution may be counted toward the German Studies major.  Proficiency in spoken and written German is required.

 

The Minor in German Studies

 

The minor consists of at least six semester courses (24 semester hours) in German Studies at or above the 200 level, including Courses 202, 215, and at least one 400-level course taken at Connecticut College.  One course from German Studies in English or the group of German Studies-related courses may be counted toward the minor if departmental guidelines are followed.  Normally, no more than two courses taken at other institutions may count toward the minor.

                Courses selected from the section "German Studies in English" or "German Studies-Related Courses" may count toward the major or minor when departmental guidelines are followed.  These include obligatory participation in a German discussion section if offered and completion of specified readings and written assignments in German.

                Students are strongly encouraged to utilize the resources of the language laboratory, including satellite broadcasts of German television programs and newscasts.  The Department possesses an extensive collection of video and audio cassettes for classroom and individual use.  Other means of improving German language and cultural proficiency include residence in Knowlton, meals at the German table, and German conversation hours on campus.  Off campus opportunities include intensive summer language programs, study abroad at selected institutions, participation in the Connecticut-Baden-Württemberg academic exchange program with the universities of Freiburg, Heidelberg, Konstanz, Stuttgart and Tübingen, among others, and/or internships in Austria, Germany or Switzerland.  Students are encouraged to apply for a limited number of John S. King Memorial Travel Grants for summer study in Germany.

 

Courses

 

A.      German Cultural Studies in English

 

GERMAN STUDIES  110  LINGUISTICS:  INTRODUCTION TO LANGUAGE AND MIND  This is the same course as Hispanic Studies/Linguistics/Slavic Studies 110.  Refer to the Linguistics listing for a course description.

 

German STUDIES  205  City of Decadence:  fin-de-SiÈcle Vienna  At the end of the 19th Century, no city in Europe exemplified what Neitzsche called ″decadence″ more vibrantly than Vienna.  In this course we will explore the work of such notable Viennese figures as Freud, Schönberg, Wittgenstein, Schnitzler, and Kraus to understand how Western societies react to exhausted cultural traditions.  The course is in English, and no prior knowledge of Austrian culture is required.

                Open to freshmen, sophomores, and juniors; and to seniors with permission of the instructor.  Enrollment limited to 40 students.  P. J. McFarland

 

GERMAN STUDIES  243  A DIFFICULT PAST:  GERMAN HISTORY, 1850-2000  This is the same course as History 243.  Refer to the History listing for a course description.

 

GERMAN STUDIES  251  MADNESS, POWER, AND PERVERSION  An introduction to German culture through film.  Readings and films pertain to the crisis of patriarchal power in Germany at the start of the 20th century.  Readings will be in English and will include historical, literary, and theoretical discussions of German society in context.  No prior knowledge of German or film is required.

                Enrollment limited to 40 students.  This course satisfies General Education Area 4.  P. J. McFarland

 

GERMAN STUDIES  252  REPRESENTATIONS OF THE HOLOCAUST IN FILM AND LITERATURE  An examination of a variety of representations of the Holocaust and Nazi Germany in documentary and feature film, as well as in literature.  The list of works is international in scope, although there is an emphasis on cultural productions from Germany (East and West) that allows the class to trace the various stages and debates of this country′s attempt at coming to terms with its difficult past.

                Enrollment limited to 40 students.  This course satisfies General Education Area 4.  G. Atherton

 

GERMAN STUDIES  253  WITCHES, WEIRDNESS, AND WONDER IN GERMAN CULTURAL IMAGINATIONS  An introduction to the imagination of symbolic order and chaos in German literature and popular culture.  We will trace stories of witches and wonders in Grimm′s fairy tales, works by Kafka, Hesse, and others, and in contemporary film and media productions.  Course 253 may include an optional section, German Studies 253f, that will meet for an additional hour each week to discuss supplemental readings in German.  Students participating in the section will receive one additional credit hour, pass/not passed marking.

                This course is not open to students who have received credit for German Studies 210.  Enrollment limited to 40 students.  This course satisfies General Education Area 4.  G. Atherton, Staff

 

GERMAN STUDIES  255  WEIMAR FILM AND ITS LEGACY  The films of Weimar Germany helped raise moving pictures to the status of a major form of modern art.  This course considers the visual, thematic, and political characteristics of Weimar cinema, tracing their consequences into the present day.  This is the same course as Film Studies 255.

                Enrollment limited to 30 students.  This course satisfies General Education Area 4.  P. J. McFarland

 

GERMAN STUDIES  256  ART, ENTERTAINMENT, AND PROPAGANDA:  GERMAN CULTURE THROUGH FILM  An introduction to classics in German cinema, exploring major works in their social, historical, and cultural context.  Students view and analyze films from the Weimar Republic, Nazi Germany, the division of the two Germanys, and the present, with emphasis on the relationship between cinema and politics, popular and high culture.  Course 256 may include an optional section that will meet for an additional hour each week to discuss supplemental readings in German.  Students participating in the foreign language section will receive one additional credit hour, pass/not passed marking.  This is the same course as Film Studies 256.

                Enrollment limited to 40 students.  This course satisfies General Education Area 4.  K. Mueller

 

GERMAN STUDIES  272  BERLIN  This interdisciplinary team-taught course will examine the history, culture, and architecture of the city of Berlin since the 18th century.  Readings in history, literature, and urban studies will focus on the Berlin of old Prussia and Bismarck through the Weimar era and the Nazi dictatorship up to the divided city of the Cold War and the Berlin of Reunification.  Course 272 may include an optional section that will meet for an additional hour each week to discuss supplemental readings in German.  Students participating in the foreign language section will receive one additional credit hour, pass/not passed marking.  This is the same course as History 272.
                Enrollment limited to 35 students.  Offered in alternate years.  G. Atherton, M. Forster

 

GERMAN STUDIES  273  THE STORY OF LANGUAGE  This is the same course as Linguistics/Slavic Studies 273.  Refer to the Linguistics listing for a course description.

 

GERMAN STUDIES  371  SOCIOLINGUISTICS  This is the same course as Linguistics/Slavic Studies 371.  Refer to the Linguistics listing for a course description.

 

B.      Language Courses

 

GERMAN STUDIES  101, 102  ELEMENTARY GERMAN  This course provides students with a basic understanding of German in speaking, listening, reading, and writing through a variety of materials.  Upon completion of 101 and 102, Elementary German, students normally enroll in German 201.  Four hours of credit for each semester.

                Prerequisite:  Course 101 is a prerequisite for 102.  Enrollment limited to 20 students.  Staff

 

GERMAN STUDIES  201  LOWER INTERMEDIATE GERMAN  For students with two or three years of high school German or other previous experience with the language.  Reading and discussion of selected literary texts, grammar, composition.  Students progress from Course 201 to 202.  This course is not open to students who have received credit for German Studies 103, Lower Intermediate German.  Staff

 

GERMAN STUDIES  202  INTERMEDIATE GERMAN  This course strengthens vocabulary and grammatical expertise through conversation and writing assignments.  Focus on contemporary German society through the use of newspapers, films, songs, and texts.

                Prerequisite:  Course 201 or permission of the instructor.  Enrollment limited to 20 students.  Normally offered second semester.  This course satisfies General Education Area 4.  Staff

 

C.      German Cultural Studies in German

 

GERMAN STUDIES  226  THEATER WORKSHOP  Development of aural/oral skills through the medium of play reading.  Practice in pronunciation and phrase intonation.  Individual analysis of phonetic difficulties.  The course culminates in a small-scale production.

                Two hours weekly; with additional individual sessions.  Open to students with two or more semesters of college German.  It may be taken concurrently with any intermediate or advanced German Studies course and may be repeated for credit.  Two hours credit.  Offered second semester.  Staff

 

GERMAN STUDIES  322  FREUD AND NIETZSCHE:  INTRODUCTION TO LITERARY ANALYSIS  Selected works of literature and their social and historical background.  Introduction to genres, major literary movements and techniques of literary analysis.

                Prerequisite:  Course 202 or permission of the instructor.  This course satisfies General Education Area 4.  P. J. McFarland

 

GERMAN STUDIES  323  DIE SCHULE DES LEBENS:  ADOLESCENTS IN CONTEMPORARY GERMANY  An exploration of the situation of young people growing up in an urban environment within contemporary Germany.  Examination and discussion of literary texts is supplemented by internet research and examples of popular culture.

                Prerequisite:  A 200-level German course or permission of the instructor.  Enrollment limited to 16 students.  K. Mueller

 

GERMAN STUDIES  324  THE GERMAN NOVELLE  This course will explore the Novelle, a form of short fiction of major importance for German writers from Goethe to the present.

                Prerequisite:  Course 322 or permission of the instructor.  P. J. McFarland

 

GERMAN STUDIES  328  FRANZ KAFKA:  BOTE DER MODERNITÄT  An investigation of the literary work of Franz Kafka, one of the 20th Century′s most incomparable and at the same time most representative figures.  Readings include stories, letters, diaries, and his novel Der Prozess (The Trial).

                Prerequisite:  One 200-level German course, its equivalent, or permission of the instructor.  Enrollment limited to 20 students.  This course satisfies General Education Area 4.  P. J. McFarland

 

GERMAN STUDIES  340  WORLD WAR I AND THE COLLAPSE OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION  This course explores from a German perspective the impact of The First World War.  We will examine the cultural malaise that preceded the war, the enthusiasm that greeted its outbreak, and the eventual disillusion and despair that attended its increasingly catastrophic course as reflected in drama, poetry, music, and painting.

                Prerequisite:  Course 322 or permission of the instructor.  P. J. McFarland

 

GERMAN STUDIES  425  FREEDOM AND REVOLUTION:  THE GERMAN ENLIGHTENMENT INTO ROMANTICISM  Nature, freedom, reason, feeling, these were the bywords of the enlightenment.  This course examines these concepts in the German context in representative works from the enlightenment through to Romanticism in the work of such authors as Goethe, Schiller, and Kant.

                Prerequisite:  A 300-level course, its equivalent, or permission of the instructor.  Offered in alternate years.  G. Atherton

 

GERMAN STUDIES  426  19th CENTURY GERMAN LITERATURE  The major literary movements and writers from Romanticism through Realism.

                Prerequisite:  A 300-level course, its equivalent, or permission of the instructor.  Offered in alternate years.  Staff

 

GERMAN STUDIES  427  MODERN GERMAN LYRIC FROM RILKE TO CELAN  Through careful readings of lyric poetry by such figures as Rilke, Else Lasker-Schüler, Stefan George, Bertolt Brecht, to postwar poets such as Celan, Ingeborg Bachmann, Hans Magnus Enzensberger, and Durs Grünbein, as well as prose discussions by these poets and other critics, we will attempt to understand how lyric poetry and cultural history inform one another.

                Prerequisite:  A 300-level course, its equivalent, or permission of the instructor.  Enrollment limited to 15 students.   This course is not open to students who have received credit for German Studies 427A.  P. J. McFarland

 

GERMAN STUDIES  428  DER FALL KAFKA  This course explores the works of one of the 20th Century's most incomparable and at the same time most representative figures:  the Czech insurance agent Franz Kafka.  We will read selections of his stories, his letters, and his diaries, as well as major critical statements interpreting his writing.

                Prerequisite:  A 300-level course, its equivalent, or permission of the instructor.  Enrollment limited to 15 students.  This course is not open to students who have received credit for German Studies 427B.  P. J. McFarland

 

GERMAN STUDIES  429  AT THE EDGE OF LANGUAGE  This course considers examples of modern German at its most concentrated and intense, in the work of lyric poets writing in the 20th Century.  We will read poetic books by Rilke, Brecht, Celan, and other distinctive German voices addressing the peculiar burdens confronting the German language in pre-and post-war Europe.

                Open to juniors and seniors.  Enrollment limited to 15 students.  This course is not open to students who have received credit for German Studies 493E, 494E.  Staff

 

GERMAN STUDIES  430  RADICALS, TERRORISTS, PACIFISTS IN GERMANY AFTER 1945  In this seminar we investigate films, texts, music, and news reports at key moments of social and political change in East and West Germany youth, student, and feminist movements, left- and right-wing terrorist groups, environmentalists and peace-activists, and the peaceful protests that led to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.

                Open to juniors and seniors.  Enrollment limited to 15 students.  This course is not open to students who have received credit for German Studies 493F, 494F.  Staff

 

GERMAN STUDIES  431  TERROR IN GERMAN CULTURE:  RAF  The West German terrorist group Rote Armee Fraktion (RAF) arose from the radical student movement of the late 1960s to provoke the gravest crisis in post-War German history in 1977.  It voluntarily dissolved in 1998.  We will study its role in West German culture using literature, film, the media and other documents.

                Open to juniors and seniors.  Enrollment limited to 15 students.  This course is not open to students who have received credit for German Studies 493G, 494G.  G. Atherton

 

GERMAN STUDIES  432  WEIMAR GERMANY:  VIOLENCE AND CULTURE  The opportunities and dangers facing any democratically organized modern society are exemplified in a compelling form by the experience of post-World War I Germany.  This seminar will consider literary, theoretical, and historical documents in order to clarify this turbulent period in German history and relate it to our contemporary situation.

                Prerequisite: A 300-level course in German.  Enrollment limited to 16 students.  P. J. McFarland

 

GERMAN STUDIES  433  AFTER THE WALL:  GERMAN LITERATURE AND FILM AFTER 1990  An exploration of literature and films produced in the aftermath of German unification.  The course considers recurrent themes, including evaluations of the "Wende"; the memory of World War II, the Holocaust, and life under the Stasi; and constructions of a new German identity.

                Open to juniors and seniors.  Enrollment limited to 16 students.  K. Mueller

 

GERMAN STUDIES  434  BEYOND THE WALL:  HISTORY AND CULTURE OF THE GERMAN DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC  An exploration of the history and culture of the German Democratic Republic from its founding in 1949 to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.  Students encounter a selection of examples from literature, film, and music, and learn to analyze them in their historical, social, and political context.

                Prerequisite:  One 200-level or 300-level German course, its equivalent, or permission of the instructor.  Enrollment limited to 16 students.  K. Mueller

 

GERMAN STUDIES  491, 492  INDIVIDUAL STUDY

 

GERMAN STUDIES  497-498  HONORS STUDY

 

D.      Foreign Language Across the Curriculum Courses

 

GERMAN STUDIES  243f  A DIFFICULT PAST:  GERMAN HISTORY, 1850-2000  (in German)  This is the same course as History 243f.  Refer to the History listing for a course description.

 

GERMAN STUDIES  251f  MADNESS, POWER, AND PERVERSION  (in German)  This optional section of German Studies 251 will meet for an additional hour each week to discuss supplemental readings in German.  Students participating in the foreign language section will receive one additional credit hour, pass/not passed marking.  Students electing course 251f must concurrently register for German Studies 251.  P. J. McFarland

 

GERMAN STUDIES  253f  WITCHES, WEIRDNESS, AND WONDER IN GERMAN CULTURAL IMAGINATIONS  (in German)  This optional section of German Studies 253 will meet for an additional hour each week to discuss supplemental readings in German.  Students participating in the foreign language section will receive one additional credit hour, pass/not passed marking.  Students electing Course 253f must concurrently register for German Studies 253.

                This course is not open to students who have received credit for German Studies 210f.  Staff

 

GERMAN STUDIES  256f  ART, ENTERTAINMENT, AND PROPAGANDA:  GERMAN CULTURE THROUGH FILM  (in German)  This optional section of Course 256 will meet for an additional hour each week to discuss supplemental texts in German.  Students participating in the foreign language section will receive one additional credit hour, pass/not passed marking.  Students electing Course 256f must concurrently register for Film Studies/German Studies 256.  K. Mueller

 

GERMAN STUDIES  272f  BERLIN  (in German)  This optional section of History/German 272 will meet for an additional hour each week to discuss supplemental texts in German.  Students participating in the foreign language section will receive one additional credit hour, pass/not passed marking.  Students electing Course 272f must concurrently register for History/German 272.  This is the same course as History 272f.  G. Atherton, M. Forster

 

E.       German Studies-Related Courses

 

Art History 231 Government 277 Government 308 History 232 History 237 History 239 Philosophy 330B Sociology 325

Modern Art of the Early 20th Century European Politics Ethnic Conflict in Europe Medieval Europe Early Modern Europe, 1500-1750 Reformation and Counter-Reformation Kant Foundations and Development of Sociological Theory