Fall 2023 Course Descriptions

GER 101, 102 (Elementary German I & II); GER 103, 104 (Intermediate German I & II). MWF 4 hours.
All beginning and intermediate German language courses are blended-online and classroom courses. Use of computer and internet access is required.

• 101      10-10:50 am, 11-11:50 am, & 1-1:50 pm
• 102      11-11:50 am
  
• 103      9-9:50 am & 11-11:50 am
• 104      1-1:50 pm

GER 211; TTH 2:00-3:15 pm; Instructor: Dr. Elizabeth Loentz; 3 hours
Exploring German-Speaking Cultures
Prerequisite(s): GER 104 or the equivalent.

GER 333; TTH 12:30-1:45 pm; Instructor: Dr. Heidi Schlipphacke; 3 hours
Berlin in the 1920s
In the 1920s Berlin was a city both of great potential and of chaos. It was the cultural and political center of Germany’s first attempt at democracy, the Weimar Republic. Many of the most exciting works of art, theater, literature, and film produced within Europe during this period came out of Berlin. But the Weimar Republic was politically and economically unstable, and this instability contributed to the rise of radical political movements, including the Nazis. This course will explore the cultural, social, and political highs and lows of this critically important period in modern German history. Taught in German.
Prerequisite(s): GER 211 or GER 212 or the equivalent.

GER 100; TTH 11:00 am-12:15 pm; Instructor: Dr. Nadjib Sadikou; 3 hours
Introduction to Germanic Cultures and Literatures
“Germany and Africa: Multiculturalism and Literature”
How do Germany and Africa imagine each other? How do they represent each other in literature? How does literature grapple with the toxic legacies of German colonialism in Africa? Can literature help point the way towards a better future, towards multiculturalism and away from nationalism? Can literature contribute to intercultural relations, openness to pluralism, and respect for differences? As we read texts from Germany and Africa we will ask how literature imagines community and represents hybrid identities, home, and belonging.
Course Information: Taught in English. General Education credit for Creative Arts and World Cultures.
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GER/SPAN/LCSL 207; TR 3:30-4:45pm; Instructor: Dr. Heidi Schlipphacke; 3 hours
European Cinema
Europe is the home of the “art film,” a genre that is sometimes called “counter cinema” and that arose in response to the rising domination of Hollywood cinema after WWII. European filmmakers frequently reject the commercialism and genre formulas of Hollywood, yet their techniques of citation and parody give testament to a love-hate relationship with American film. In this course, we will learn about major post-WWII European film movements, including Italian Neorealism, the French New Wave, New German Cinema, Eastern European New Waves, Dogme 95, and transnational European cinema. Close analysis of individual films, utilizing precise film analysis terminology, will be combined with discussions about the particular historical and cultural contexts within which individual films were created.
Course Information: Taught in English. Prerequisite: English 160. General Education credit for World Cultures and Creative Arts.

GER 217 – Asynchronous Online – 2 sections
Introduction to German Cinema
Course Information: Taught in English. Films with subtitles. No knowledge of German required. Area literature/culture. General Education credit for Creative Arts and World Cultures.

GER 531; TH 3:30-5 pm; Instructor: Dr. Nadjib Sadikou; 4 hours
Aesthetics of Border Crossing: “Ästhetiken der Grenzverhandlung”
Durch die Zunahme weltweiter Internationalisierung wird das Phänomen der Grenze, der Grenzziehung oder Grenzüberschreitung aktueller und komplexer denn je. Diese Komplexität fasst Michel Foucault in seiner 1963 erschienenen „Vorrede zur Überschreitung“ folgendermaßen zusammen: „Die Grenze und die Überschreitung verdanken einander die Dichte ihres Seins“. Eine solche Dichte manifestiert sich unter anderem in Prozessen einer Neuverhandlung und Transformation kultureller Repräsentationen, in Bereichen einer Erstellung von Trennlinien oder Übergangszonen, von Differenzmarkierungen und Ähnlichkeiten.
Im Seminar werden wir uns im ersten Schritt mit einschneidenden theoretischen Ansätzen zum Phänomen der Grenze beschäftigen, in denen Logik und Absurdität einer radikalen und absoluten Grenzziehung zwischen dem ,Eigenen‘ und dem ,Fremden‘ thematisiert werden. Sodann lesen wir ausgewählte Texte und loten aus, inwiefern jede Sinnstiftung durch Grenzziehung brüchig wird, weil sich eine fließende, vom Einzelnen immer wieder neu zusammengestellte, subjektive und individuelle Identität durchsetzt. Hier werden postmoderne sowie postkoloniale Raum- und Identitätsentwürfe vorgestellt, die im Wissen um die Unzuverlässigkeit aller Grenzziehungen, ästhetisch-rhetorische Mittel zur Neuverhandlung transnationaler und transkontinentaler Kulturräume einsetzen.

GER 531; T 5-7:30 pm; Instructor: Dr. Imke Meyer; 4 hours
Generation: Reproduction and Power in German Literature and Film
Generation is a multifaceted concept that encompasses biological and physiological as well as social and ideological reproduction. Generation can also be understood as production, innovation, or revolution; or, conversely, as selection and exclusion. Generation takes shape as Bildung in the German Enlightenment, and pedagogical theories, educational institutions, and biopolitical concepts emerge in its wake to ensure the proper shaping of children as well as social classes, as well as the proliferation of cultural formations and ideologies. In the German context, Bildung is a double-edged sword, generating progressive thought, but also spawning what is known as “schwarze Pädagogik” [poisonous pedagogy] and theories of heredity that give rise to concepts such as selection, exclusion, and eugenics. How do German literature and film engage with the nexus of reproduction and education, and with the power generated and contested in their wake? How are these issues reflected, or, as it were, generated in German intellectual history? As we grapple with these questions we will engage with works by authors and filmmakers such as Heinrich von Kleist, Franz Grillparzer, Fanny Lewald, Heinrich Hoffmann, Rainer Maria Rilke, Robert Musil, Robert Walser, Franz Kafka, Heinrich Mann, Erika Mann, Hermann Hesse, Ingeborg Bachmann, Werner Herzog, Margarethe von Trotta, Valie Export, Elfriede Jelinek, Birgit Vanderbeke, and Jackie Thomae. Our conversations will be framed by theoretical texts by writers such as G.E. Lessing, Immanuel Kant, G.W.F. Hegel, Wilhelm von Humboldt, Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, Hedwig Dohm, Rosa Mayreder, Friedrich Nietzsche, Sigmund Freud, Karl Mannheim, Max Horkheimer, Theodor W. Adorno, Hannah Arendt, Pierre Bourdieu, Michel Foucault, Audre Lorde, and Kathryn Bond Stockton.