Fall 2014

 

Lower Division Courses

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German 1. Elementary German (5 units)

Course Description: This is an introduction to German grammar and development of all language skills in a cultural context with special emphasis on communication.

Course Placement: Students who have successfully completed, with a C- or better, German 2 or 3 in the 10th or higher grade in high school may receive unit credit for this course on a P/NP grading basis only. Although a passing grade will be charged to the student's P/NP option, no petition is required. All other students will receive a letter grade unless a P/NP petition is filed. For more information, please contact the instructor or the German staff adviser directly.

GE credit (Old): Arts & Humanities.
GE credit (New): Arts & Humanities and World Cultures.

Format: Discussion - 5 hours; Laboratory - 1 hour.

Textbooks:

Option 1:

• Thomas Lovik, Douglas Guy and Monika Chavez, Vorsprung [3rd Edition] (Heinle Cengage Learning, 2013)
• Quia Access Code for all of the homework and lab assignments (course code provided by instructor)

Option 2:

• eBook version of Vorsprung [3rd Edition] (order ISBN10:1-133-60735-7 at http://www.cengagebrain.com/shop/isbn/9781133607359; it should cost about $117). If you are considering the eBook, you must be sure that you can bring your iPad/laptop to class every day.
• Quia Access Code for all of the homework and lab assignments (course code provided by instructor)
   

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German 2. Elementary German (5 units)
Giovanna Montenegro

M-F 9:00 - 9:50A
163 Olson
CRN 46002

Course Description: This is the continuation of German 1 in areas of grammar and the basic language skills, and the second course in the Elementary German series.

Prerequisite: German 1.

GE credit (Old): Arts & Humanities.
GE credit (New): Arts & Humanities and World Cultures.

Format: Discussion - 5 hours; Laboratory - 1 hour.

Textbooks:

Option 1:

• Thomas Lovik, Douglas Guy and Monika Chavez, Vorsprung [3rd Edition] (Heinle Cengage Learning, 2013)
• Quia Access Code for all of the homework and lab assignments (course code provided by instructor)

Option 2:

• eBook version of Vorsprung [3rd Edition] (order ISBN10:1-133-60735-7 at http://www.cengagebrain.com/shop/isbn/9781133607359; it should cost about $117). If you are considering the eBook, you must be sure that you can bring your iPad/laptop to class every day.
• Quia Access Code for all of the homework and lab assignments (course code provided by instructor)
   

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German 20. Intermediate German (4 units)
Katja Herges

MWF 9:00 - 9:50A
101 Olson
CRN 46003

Course Description: This is the first course of 2nd year German. Students will review grammar, and begin to read and discuss short, literary texts of cultural and historical interest. Class is conducted in German.

Prerequisite: German 3.  May be taken concurrently with German 6.

GE credit (Old): Arts & Humanities.
GE credit (New): Arts & Humanities and World Cultures.

Format: Lecture/Discussion - 3 hours; Extensive Writing.

Textbook:

• Tobias Barske, et al., Denk Mal! Deutsch ohne Grenzen - with SuperSite Access  (Vista Higher Learning, 2012)
   

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German 21. Intermediate German (4 units)
Amila Becirbegovic

MWF 11:00 - 11:50A
207 Wellman
CRN 46004

Course Description: Review of grammatical principles by means of written exercises, expanding of vocabulary through readings of modern texts.

Prerequisite: German 20.

GE credit (Old): Arts & Humanities.
GE credit (New): Arts & Humanities and World Cultures.

Format: Lecture/Discussion - 3 hours; Extensive Writing.

Textbook:

• Tobias Barske, et al., Denk Mal! Deutsch ohne Grenzen - with SuperSite Access  (Vista Higher Learning, 2012)
   

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German 45. Vampires (4 units)
Kirsten Harjes

Lecture: MW 12:10-1:00P, 234 Wellman
Film Viewing: M 7:10-10:00P, 234 Wellman

Course Description: History of representations of vampires and the undead generally from the 16th through 21st centuries. Emphasis on transnational history of the vampire genre; psychologies of horror effects; issues of race, gender, and class; intersections with prejudice, medicine, modernity.

Prerequisite: None.

GE credit (Old): Arts & Humanities.
GE credit (New): Arts & Humanities, American Cultures, Domestic Diversity, Oral Literacy, Visual Literacy, World Cultures and Writing Experience.

Format: Lecture - 2 hours; Discussion - 1 hour; Film Viewing - 3 hours.

Textbook:

• Bram Stoker, Dracula  (W.W. Norton & Company, 1996)

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German 48. Myth and Saga in the Germanic Cultures (4 units)    IN ENGLISH
Kirsten Harjes

MWF 11:00 - 11:50A
166 Chemistry
CRN 46005

Course Description: This course focuses on the mythology of the Germanic tribes during the 8th-14thcenturies.  Each piece of literature reflects a unique culture and society of the time and these will be compared and contrasted.  Some elements of these societies have kept a presence in the modern world in the judicial system, rhetoric patterns and seasonal patterns.  The course will also provide modern interpretations of the stories as well as how they would have been understood in their original context.

Prerequisite: None.

GE credit (Old): Arts & Humanities and Writing Experience.
GE credit (New): Arts & Humanities, World Cultures and Writing Experience.

Format: Lecture/Discussion - 3 hours; Term Paper.

Textbooks:

• H.R. Ellis Davidson, Gods and Myths of Northern Europe (Penguin Books, 1965)
• Snorri Sturluson, The Prose Edda: Norse Mythology, translated by Jesse L. Byock (Penguin Classics, 2006)
• Anonymous, The Saga of the Volsungs, translated by Jesse L. Byock (Penguin Classics, 2000)
• Anonymous, Beowulf: A New Verse Translation, translated by Seamus Heaney (W.W. Norton & Company, 2001)
   

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Upper Division Courses

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German 101A. Survey of German Literature, 800-1800 (4 units)
Carlee Arnett

MWF 10:00-10:50A
217 Olson
CRN 46013

Course Description: This course will acquaint students with literary works from 800-1800.   This includes the older Germanic languages like Gothic, Old High German and Middle High German.  We will also talk about the development of the German language and the history that influenced language.  We start off with runes and charms and end with young Goethe.  On the way, we will discuss the Nibelungenlied, Humanism, Mathias Claudius, and Moses Mendelssohn.

Prerequisite: German 22.

GE credit (Old): Arts & Humanities.
GE credit (New): Arts & Humanities, World Cultures and Writing Experience.

Format: Lecture/Discussion - 3 hours.

Textbook:

• Gudrun Clay, 1000 Jahre Deutsche Literatur [2nd Edition] (Focus Publishing, 2008)
   

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German 116. Reading in Jewish Writing and Thought in German Culture (4 units)    IN ENGLISH
Sven-Erik Rose

TR 10:30-11:50A
147 Olson
CRN 63615

Course Description: The most widespread association people have with German-Jewish culture is undoubtedly the Holocaust, the cataclysm that brought this culture to an end. But if we remember only the Holocaust, we forget what this extraordinarily creative tradition contributed to Jewish, German, and world cultures. For 150 years—between the late 1700s and the rise of the National Socialists to power in 1933—Jews in Germany and German-speaking lands produced a body of works and ideas that have left an indelible mark on our modernity. An astonishing number of the salient currents in modern Jewish life have their origins in Germany. The Jewish Enlightenment began in Berlin at the end of the eighteenth century with the great Berlin philosopher Moses Mendelssohn. It was a Viennese playwright and journalist, Theodor Herzl, who invented political Zionism at the turn of the twentieth century. It was a Viennese Jewish doctor, a contemporary of Herzl’s—Sigmund Freud—who invented psychoanalysis. In this course, we will explore some of the most innovative German-Jewish contributions to German, Jewish, and world cultures by figures, in addition to those already mentioned, such as Hannah Arendt, Martin Buber, Heinrich Heine, Franz Kafka, Karl Marx, Charlotte Salomon, Else Lasker-Schüler, Arthur Schnitzler, and Rahel Varnhagen. Course readings will include prose literature, poetry, philosophy, political theory, theology, psychoanalysis, painting, and cinema. All readings and discussion in English.

Prerequisite: None.

GE credit (Old): Arts & Humanities, Diversity and Writing Experience.
GE credit (New): Arts & Humanities, Oral Literacy, World Cultures and Writing Experience.

Format: Lecture - 3 hours; Term Paper.

Textbooks:

• Theodor Herzl, The Jewish State (Dover Publications, 1988)
• Sigmund Freud, Moses and Monotheism (Vintage, 1967)
• Arthur Schnitzler, Professor Bernhardi and Other Plays, translated by G. J. Weinberger (Ariadne Press, 1993)
   

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German 127. Major Writers in German (4 units)
Dieter Borchmeyer

TR 9:00-10:20A
129 Wellman
CRN 64369

Course Description: This course convers three short stories that are typical of Thomas Mann's works: "Tonio Kröger" (1903) demonstrates the tension between artistry and the middle classes (bourgeoisie), while "Death in Venice" (German: "Der Tod in Venedig") (1912) revolves around the failure of an ascetic artist in Venice, the capital of decadence, and the secret longing for death. Finally, we will deal with "Mario und der Zauberer" (1930), a short story based on an autobiographic event that foreshadows facism.

We will work with the German texts. English translations may be consulted as well though proficiency in German is essential for the course. Please make yourselves familiar with the translation by David Luke ("'Death in Venice' and Other Stories by Thomas Mann," Bantam Books). As for the other stories, please consult Thomas Mann, "'Tonio Kröger' and Other Stories" (Bantam Books), the translation by Joachim Neugroschel, "'Tonio Kröger', 'Death in Venice' and Other Tales" (Penguin Books), the edition by Frederick A. Lubich, "'Death in Venice', 'Tonio Kröger', and Other Writings" (German Library 63), and finally the two editions by Clayton Koelb (Norton Critical Editions) and Naomi Ritter (Bedford Books) both "Death in Venice."

Prerequisite: German 22.

Format: Lecture/Discussion - 3 hours; Extensive writing.

GE credit (Old): Arts & Humanities.
GE credit (New): Arts & Humanities, World Cultures and Writing Experience.

Textbooks:

• Thomas Mann, Der Tod in Venedig (Fischer Taschenbuch, 1992)
• Thomas Mann, Tonio Kröger/Mario und der Zauberer (Fischer Taschenbuch, 1973)
   

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Graduate Courses

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German 259. Studies in Kafka (4 units)    OPEN TO ENGLISH-SPEAKERS
Sven-Erik Rose

W 2:10-5:00P
412B Sproul
CRN 63616

Course Description: In this seminar, we will explore one of the twentieth century’s most brilliant and enigmatic prose writers, Franz Kafka (1883-1924), in the context of the literary, intellectual, and political movements of early twentieth-century Central Europe that most saliently shaped his oeuvre, including fin de siècle aestheticism, Expressionism, national conflict in the Habsburg Empire, and Yiddish theater and cultural Zionism. Kafka wrote most of his works between 1912 and 1924 (though few were published during his lifetime), and we will be able to read most of them in this course: his three novels, his most important short fiction and parables, and selections from his aphorisms, letters, and diaries. In tandem with our own close readings of Kafka’s primary texts, we will read some of the most fundamental scholarship on Kafka, by Mark Anderson, Stanley Corngold, Scott Specter, John Zilcosky, and others; and some of the most brilliant reflections Kafka’s work has inspired, by thinkers including Theodor Adorno, Walter Benjamin, Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, and Jacques Derrida. All readings can be read in English or German, and discussions will be conducted in English. No background in German Studies is required.

Prerequisite: None.

Format: Seminar- 3 hours; Term Paper.

Textbooks:

[Texts in German]

• Franz Kafka, Die Erzählungen (Fischer Taschenbuch, 2011)
• Franz Kafka, Der Verschollene (Fischer Taschenbuch, 2008)
• Franz Kafka, Der Proceß (Fischer Taschenbuch, 2011)
• Franz Kafka, Der Schloß (Fischer Taschenbuch, 2008)

[Texts in English]

• Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis, translated by Stanley Corngold (Bantam Classics, 1972)
• Franz Kafka, The Trial, translated by Breon Mitchell (Schocken, 1999)
• Franz Kafka, The Castle, translated by Mark Harman (Schocken, 1998)
• Franz Kafka, Kafka's Selected Stories, translated by Stanley Corngold (W.W. Norton & Company, 2006)
• Franz Kafka, Amerika, translated by Mark Harman (Schocken, 2011)
   

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German 297. Hugo von Hofmannsthal and Richard Strauss - Mythological Opera and Musical Social Comedy (4 units)
Dieter Borchmeyer

T 2:10-5:00P
203 Wellman
CRN 46059

Course Description: The cooperation of Hofmannsthal und Strauss produced some of the greatest masterpieces in the history of opera. More so than even Mozart and Da Ponte or Verdi and Boito, composer and librettist were both exceptionally talented in their respective métiers. Strauss and Hofmannsthal produced six operas: Elektra, Der Rosenkavalier, Ariadne auf Naxos, The Woman without a Shadow, The Egyptian Helena and Arabella. These works represent mixtures of antique myth, timeless fairy tale and modern social comedy.

This course analyzes Rosenkavalier, Ariadne, Woman without a Shadow and Arabella. We will analyze recordings of all works, both auditory and visual. Musicological knowledge is welcome, but not necessary.

May be repeated for credit when topic differs.

Prerequisite: None.

Textbook:

• Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Gesammelte Werke: Dramen V - Operndichtungen (Fischer Taschenbuch, 2002)

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German 390A. Teaching of German (2 units) 
Carlee Arnett

Day/Time TBA
Room TBA
CRN @

Course Description: Theoretical instruction in modern teaching methods and demonstration of their practical application.  Required of new teaching assistants. (S/U grading only)

Prerequisite: Graduate standing or consent of instructor.

Format: Lecture - 2 hours.

Textbooks:

• None