Spring 2011

Lower Division Courses

German 1: Elementary German (5 units)

STAFF (sec. 1, M-F 08:00 - 08:50, 227 Olson) CRN 36197
STAFF (sec. 2, M-F 02:10 - 03:00, 1344 Storer) CRN 53882 NEW SECTION

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.

 

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

Texts:

  • Thomas A. Lovik, Vorsprung, 2nd edition (Textbook)
  • Thomas A. Lovik, Student Activities Manual - Used with Vorsprung (Workbook)

German 3: Elementary German (5 Units)

STAFF (sec. 1, M-F 09:00 - 09:50, 107 Wellman) CRN 36198

STAFF (sec. 2, M-F 10:00 - 10:50, 267 Olson ROOM CHANGE) CRN 36199

STAFF (sec. 3, M-F 11:00 - 11:50, 103 Wellman) CRN 36200

This is the continuation of German 3 in areas of grammar and the basic language skills, and the last course in the Elementary German series.

Prerequisite: German 2.

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

Texts:

  • Thomas A. Lovik, Vorsprung, 2nd edition (Textbook)
  • Thomas A. Lovik, Student Activities Manual - Used with Vorsprung (Workbook)

German 20: Intermediate German (4 units)

STAFF (MWF 10:00 - 10:50, 115 Wellman) CRN 36201

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.

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

Texts:

  • Rosemarie Morewedge and Larry Wells (eds.), Mitlesen/Mitteilen
  • Jamie Rankin and Larry Wells (eds.), Handbuch zur deutschen Grammatik

German 22: Intermediate German (4 units)

STAFF (MWF 11:00 - 11:50, 1038 Wickson) CRN 36202

This is the continuation of German 21 and wraps up the Intermediate German sequence. This course is a review of grammatical principles by means of written exercises; expanding of vocabulary through readings of modern texts.

Prerequisite: German 21.

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

Texts:

  • Heinrich Böll, Die Verlorene Ehre der Katharina Blum
  • A Course Reader (Available on SmartSite)

Upper Division Courses

German 105: Modern German Language (4 Units)

Carlee Arnett, Associate Professor (TR 09:00 - 10:20, 1128 Hart) CRN 52936

The course will focus on the structure of Modern German. This will include phonetics, phonology and syntax. The main focus, however, will be on the speakers of the German language. We will look at who speaks German and grapple with the issue of what is German. Does German have a standard and , if so, who speaks it? What does it mean to have an accent? How is a language learned and what does it mean to know a language? An analysis of these questions will also involve some knowledge of the history of the language.

Prerequisite: German 22.

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

Text:

  • Stephen Barbour and Patrick Stevenson, Variation in German (Cambridge, 1990)

German 120: Survey of Culture (4 Units)

Clifford Bernd, Professor (MTRF 11:00 - 11:50, 115 Wellman) CRN 36221

This course addresses itself to the colorful picture of major German contributions to Western civilization. Lectures in German, readings from well-annotated texts and slide shows will acquaint the student with such topics as: (1) Charlemagne and the founding of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, (2) the flowering of the arts in the Middle Ages, (3) Albrecht Dürer and the Renaissance, (4) the Protestant Reformation, (5) the Catholic Counter Reformation, (6) Classicism, (7) Romanticism, (8) the era of Bismarck, (9) the roaring 1920’s, (10) the rebirth of German culture out of the ashes of world War II. GE credit: ArtHum. Conducted in German.

Prerequisite: German 22.

Course Format: Lecture - 3 hours; Discussion 1 - hour.

Text:

  • A Course Reader

German 134: Topics - "On Love — Über die Liebe" (4 Units)

Gerhard Richter, Professor (TR 10:30 - 11:50, 104 Sproul NEW ROOM) CRN 52932

We will turn to a number of exemplary texts by canonical authors in the German tradition that explicitly thematize the affective phenomenon of "love" ("die Liebe") as a serious topic of aesthetic and intellectual investigation. By reading all texts in the original, we will be able to develop a feeling for the singular tone and unmistakable style of some of the giants of the German language. Writers and thinkers to be studied include Goethe, Novalis, Nietzsche, Rilke, Freud, Brecht, and Adorno. As a special treat, we will also look at some of the little-known love poems by Karl Marx. (Readings and discussions in German).

Prerequisite: German 22.

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

Texts:

  • Goethe, Über die Liebe (Insel Verlag)
  • Novalis, Über die Liebe (Insel Verlag)
  • Nietzsche, Die fröhliche Wissenschaft (Reclam)
  • Rilke, Es gibt nur — die Liebe (Insel Verlag)
  • Freud, Schriften über Liebe und Sexualität (Insel Verlag)
  • Brecht, Gedichte über die Liebe (Suhrkamp Verlag)

 

 

Graduate Courses

German 212: Contemporary Approaches to Literary Theory (4 Units)

Gerhard Richter, Professor (T 01:10 - 04:00, 104 Sproul ROOM CHANGE) CRN 52933

This graduate seminar serves as an intensive introduction to the Frankfurt School, one of the most influential groups of writers and theorists to have emerged in modern Western thought. Through close readings of key texts by major figures associated with the Frankfurt School (especially Theodor W. Adorno, Walter Benjamin, Max Horkheimer, and Siegfried Kracauer), we will examine the ways in which the group's conceptual roots (provided by Kant, Hegel, Marx, Freud, and others) were transformed into the new concepts and strategies that came to be known as "Critical Theory." This course will be taught in English and, in keeping with the Frankfurt School's own interdisciplinary outlook, graduate students from a variety of backgrounds and fields are welcome.

Note: The seminar also counts as an elective for the Designated Emphasis in Critical Theory.

 

Prerequisite: Graduate student standing.

Course Format: Seminar - 3 hours; Term Paper.

Texts:

  • Horkheimer and Adorno, Dialectic of Enlightenment (Stanford UP)
  • Adorno, Minima, Moralia: Reflections from Damaged Life (Verso)
  • Adorno, Negative Dialectics (Continuum)
  • Benjamin, Illuminations (Schocken)
  • Benjamin, The Arcades Project
  • Kracauer, The Mass Ornament (Harvard UP)
  • Richter, Thought-Images: Frankfurt School Writers' Reflections from Damaged Life (Stanford UP)
  • Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History of the Frankfurt School and the Institute of Social Research, 1923-1950 (U of California Press)

German 297: The Case of Cinema in Germany (4 Units)

Jaimey Fisher, Associate Professor (R 02:10 - 05:00, 412B Sproul) CRN 52945

The seminar introduces graduate students to research and teaching in film studies, primarily by offering an overview of the history of German cinema. The course will take up the major periods of German film history, including the Weimar, the Nazi, the 1950s-60s, the New German Cinema, and the contemporary periods, but also probe this conventional periodization. The seminar will engage each film in its historical, political, and economic context and provide some theories of how these contexts can relate to film itself. Special attention will be to attendant theories of film and media as well as to how to effectively teach with them. The seminar will focus on the formal and technical aspects of these films, particularly how they represent via a technique that self-consciously mimics or resists (even when instrumentalizing) the classical Hollywood system. Among the historical and national themes this very rich cinema brought forth are: modernity and trauma in the Weimar era, the impact of the Nazi movement on media, postwar German reconstruction, feminism, political radicalism and terrorism in the 1970s, the “micropolitics” of the home and sexuality, and its relationship to Hollywood as well as to American political hegemony. Knowledge of German welcome, but not required.

Prerequisite: Graduate student standing.

Course Format: Seminar - 3 hours; Term Paper.

Texts:

  • Thomas Elsaesser, Weimar Cinema and After: Germany’s Historical Imaginary
  • Siegfried Kracauer, From Caligari to Hitler
  • Kaja Silverman, Subject of Semiotics
  • Anton Kaes, Shell-Shock Cinema

 

Other Courses Taught by German Faculty

This information is currently not available at the moment. For any inquiries, contact the Main Office at (530)752-4999.