Intermediate German II

Professor: Jana Schmidt  

Course Number: GER 202

CRN Number: 10115

Class cap: 22

Credits: 4

Schedule/Location:

 Tue Wed Thurs    11:50 AM - 1:10 PM Olin Languages Center 118

Distributional Area:

FL  Foreign Languages and Lit   

For students who have completed three semesters of college German (or the equivalent). The course is designed to deepen the proficiency gained in the German Intensive and the January program in Berlin by increasing students’ fluency in speaking, reading, and writing, and adding significantly to their working vocabulary. Students improve their ability to express their own ideas and hone their strategies for understanding spoken and written communication. We will read a contemporary novel supplemented by audiovisual materials. Please consult with the instructor if you are unsure about your proficiency level.

Talking Cures: Psychoanalysis and the Invention of Sex

Professor: Jana Schmidt  

Course Number: GER 327

CRN Number: 10116

Class cap: 15

Credits: 4

Schedule/Location:

 Tue  Thurs    3:30 PM - 4:50 PM Olin Languages Center 120

Distributional Area:

FL  Foreign Languages and Lit   

The most famous patient in the history of psychoanalysis, the vivaciously intelligent “Anna O,” gave two names to her therapist’s practice of making her speak. While the first of these – the “talking cure” – underlines psychoanalysis’s aspiration to becoming a respectable science, the second – “chimney-sweeping” – hints at the more salacious sides of psychoanalysis. In order to cure the patient of her symptoms, it appeared the therapist had to become complicit with the illicit urges, coax them to the surface, and make them proliferate. Most of all, sexuality had to be spoken – and hence imagined. In this course we will trace back how modern sexuality is “invented” by making it speak. From the beginning, this story is intimately connected to the way literary texts imagine sex. So we will consider a variety of theoretical paradigms – from psychoanalysis to queer studies – to read and analyze how German literary texts from the turn of the century onward construct the relationship between speech and sex. Does speaking and writing about sexuality bring it into existence? What is the connection between the expansion of a language of sex and desire? What does literature know about sex? Starting with early psychoanalytic texts, we will consider contemporary narratives by German-speaking authors like Leopold von Sacher-Masoch and Arthur Schnitzler. We will then turn to more recent theoretical models, including poststructuralism, gender and media studies, and authors (Fleur Jaeggy, Ronald Schernikau, Elfriede Jelinek) who challenge what we may think sex is. Toward the end of the semester we will also look at concepts like consent, risk, and jouissance to connect our readings in the history of psychoanalysis with modern debates and contemporary psychoanalytic writers like Adam Philips, Patricia Gherovici, and Avgi Saketopoulou. Readings and discussions will be in German with supplementary readings in English. 

Contemporary German Literature and Film

Professor: Thomas Wild  

Course Number: GER 422

CRN Number: 10117

Class cap: 15

Credits: 4

Schedule/Location:

Mon  Wed     10:10 AM - 11:30 AM Campus Center Red Room

Mon       6:00 PM - 8:00 PM Olin 102

Distributional Area:

FL  Foreign Languages and Lit   

Crosslists: Literature

What is at stake for contemporary German writers, filmmakers, and public intellectuals? Which problems do they address in their novels, poems, and plays, what topics do they challenge us with in their movies and documentaries? How do these artworks respond to Germany's multi-ethnic society and its pivotal role in a rapidly changing Europe? During the Cold War, the country had been divided between East and West for forty years – how present is this past in contemporary Germany, over thirty years after the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989? The basis for our discussion of these questions will be texts by eminent contemporary writers and performers such as Katja Petrowskaja, Sharon Dodua Otoo, Pina Bausch, Thomas Brasch, René Pollesch, Tankred Dorst, and Senthuran Varatharajah. Intertwined with our textual analysis, we will examine films of the so called “Berlin School” including filmmakers such as Christian Petzold, Angela Schanelec, and Maren Ade. Our scrutiny of literary texts and films will be complemented by close readings of these artists’ theoretical writings as well as contemporary criticism. Conducted in German.

The Courage to Be: Courage in the Universities

Course Number: CC 108 B

CRN Number: 10331

Class cap: 22

Credits: 4

Professor:

Maxim Botstein

Schedule/Location:

Mon  Wed     11:50 AM - 1:10 PM Olin 204

Distributional Area:

HA MBV  Historical Analysis Meaning, Being, Value   

Crosslists:

German Studies; Philosophy

The Age of Extremes: Modern European History since 1815

Course Number: HIST 192

CRN Number: 10694

Class cap: 22

Credits: 4

Professor: Gregory Moynahan  

Schedule/Location:

 Tue  Thurs    1:30 PM - 2:50 PM Olin 202

Distributional Area:

HA  Historical Analysis   

Crosslists: German Studies; Global & International Studies

Marx as Literature

Course Number: LIT 261

CRN Number: 10371

Class cap: 22

Credits: 4

Professor: Alys Moody  

Schedule/Location:

Mon  Wed     5:10 PM - 6:30 PM Olin 204

Distributional Area:

LA  Literary Analysis in English  D+J Difference and Justice

Crosslists: German Studies; Politics

Kafka & Brecht: Myth & Theater

Course Number: LIT 283

CRN Number: 10378

Class cap: 22

Credits: 4

Professor:

Thomas Bartscherer

Schedule/Location:

Mon  Wed     3:30 PM - 4:50 PM Olin Languages Center 115

Distributional Area:

LA  Literary Analysis in English   

Crosslists:

German Studies

Hannah Arendt: Reading The Human Condition and the Plurality of Languages

Course Number: LIT 318

CRN Number: 10391

Class cap: 15

Credits: 4

Professor:

Thomas Wild

Schedule/Location:

 Tue      3:10 PM - 5:30 PM Olin 303

Distributional Area:

LA  Literary Analysis in English   

Crosslists:

German Studies; Human Rights; Philosophy

Myth and Modernity in Wagner's Ring Cycle

Course Number: MUS 286

CRN Number: 10537

Class cap: 20

Credits: 4

Professor:

Peter Laki

Schedule/Location:

 Tue  Thurs    10:10 AM - 11:30 AM Blum Music Center N217

Distributional Area:

AA  Analysis of Art   

Crosslists:

German Studies

Marx, Nietzsche, Freud

Course Number: PHIL 245

CRN Number: 10286

Class cap: 22

Credits: 4

Professor:

Ruth Zisman

Schedule/Location:

 Tue  Thurs    11:50 AM - 1:10 PM Olin 203

Distributional Area:

MBV  Meaning, Being, Value   

Crosslists:

German Studies