Courses » » German 398. Experimental Courses

Advanced Conversation and Composition

This course is an advanced study of the application of vocabulary, idiomatic expressions, and grammatical structures necessary for effective written and oral communication. Students will explore a wide array of topics in contemporary German culture, politics, and society while strengthening their abilities to write, read, and speak German. Class discussions and homework assignments are based on a variety of textual and audio-visual materials.

Repression and Rebellion: German Literature and Culture of Resistance from Gutenberg to the Internet

This English- taught course traces ideas of German identity as reflected in literature. Beginning with the explosion of print media made possible by Gutenberg’s press, we will read widely through significant periods of cultural change including the Enlightenment, Romanticism, Modernism, Nazi Germany, the split state, and today’s reunited Germany of immigration. Special emphasis will be given to literatures of resistance, which challenged, and often changed, dominant cultural paradigms. Authors writing against artistic, political, sexual, and racial repression will be read alongside other creative production – film, art, and music – for a comprehensive introduction to German cultural history.

Authors include: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Heinrich von Kleist, Friedrich Nietzsche, Franz Kafka, Thomas Mann, Christa Wolf, Herta Müller.

Readings and discussions in English for 298 some readings and discussions in German for 398.