The German
Immersion program will be offered in the Spring 2004 semester, therefore Basic
German (101-102) will not be offered in the fall of 2003. Contact Professor Kempf early in the fall
if you are interested in participating in the spring Immersion course.
German
Immersion:
Intensive study (12 credits) of a foreign language
helps to create a highly effective and exciting learning environment for those who
wish to achieve a high degree of proficiency in the shortest possible time.
German immersion is designed to enable students with little or no previous
experience in German to complete two years of college German within five months
(spring semester at Bard, plus June in Germany for 4 additional credits). To
achieve this goal, students take fifteen class hours per week during the
semester at Bard, and twenty hours per week during June at Collegium
Palatinum, the German language institute of Schiller International
University in Heidelberg. Each participant will be able to enroll concurrently
in one other course at Bard. This will allow the student to pursue a more
balanced study program or to fulfill certain requirements (e.g., Freshman
Seminar).
CRN |
93427 |
Distribution |
D |
Course
No. |
GER 110 |
||
Title |
Proficiency
through Culture |
||
Professor |
Stephanie Kufner |
||
Schedule |
Tu 8:45 am – 10:00 am LC Lab Wed Fri 8:45 am –
10:00 am LC 206 Th 8:45 am – 10:00 am
LC 115 |
Designed for students who need a thorough review of
elementary grammar, the purpose of this course is threefold: to increase
reading knowledge, enlarge vocabulary, and improve speaking and writing skills;
to gain familiarity with current political,social and economic conditions in
Germany; and to increase sensitivity to cultural phenomena in Germany that will
lead to a deeper cross-cultural understanding. Class activities will be based
on Satellite TV and internet radio news reports, as well as articles from major
online dailies and weeklies, such as Süddeutsche
Zeitung or Spiegel. Weekly online
quizzes. Students will work on a portfolio reflecting individual cross-cultural
interests. Successful completion will allow students to continue with German
202 in Spring 2004.
CRN |
93218 |
Distribution |
D |
Course
No. |
GER 198 |
||
Title |
German
Opera and Ideas |
||
Professor |
Franz Kempf |
||
Schedule |
Wed Fr 10:00 am - 11:20 am LC 118 Fr 1:00 pm - 4:00 pm CAMPUS |
Opera is not just about a tenor and a soprano who
want to make love, and a baritone who won’t let them, but also about liberty,
redemption, tyranny, injustice, humanity, decadence. Far from dismissing love as a primal force in human affairs -
nor, for that matter, the sensuality and immediacy of music - this course
attempts to trace German intellectual history from the Enlightenment to
Modernism and beyond through the study of major operas and the literary works
that spawned some of them. Operas: Mozart’s The Magic Flute (1791), Beethoven’s
Fidelio (1805/1814), Carl Maria von Weber’s Der Freischütz (1821), Wagner’s
Tannhäuser (1845), Richard Strauss’s Salome (1905), Alban Berg’s Wozzeck
(1925), Kurt Weill’s Threepenny Opera (1928), Hans Werner Henze’s Der Prinz von
Homburg (1960), and Bernd Alois Zimmermann’s Die Soldaten (1965). Literary
works: Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz’s Die Soldaten (1776), Heinrich Heine’s Aus
den Memoiren des Herren von Schnabelewopski (1834), Heinrich von Kleist’s Prinz
Friedrich von Homburg (1821). Course taught in English. Musical expertise
neither expected nor provided. Students with an advanced proficiency in German
can read selections in the original for extra credit. Achtung: Some space in this course will be reserved for students
who intend to enroll in German Immersion in Spring 2004. See instructor before
Registration for details.
CRN |
93219 |
Distribution |
D |
Course
No. |
GER 199 |
||
Title |
Kafka:
Prague, Politics, and the Fin-de siècle |
||
Professor |
Franz Kempf |
||
Schedule |
Tu Th 10:00 am - 11:20 am LC 118 |
Kafka can be read as the chronicler of modern
despair, of human suffering in an unidentifiable, timeless landscape. Yet he can also be read as a representative
of his era, his “existential anguish” springing from the very real cultural and
historical conflicts that agitated Prague at the turn of the century (e.g.
anti-Semitism, contemporary theories of sexuality). The course will cover Kafka’s shorter fiction ranging from
fragments, parables and sketches to longer, complete tales (e.g. The Judgment,
The Metamorphosis), as well as the novels The Trial and The Man Who Disappeared
(Amerika) and excerpts from his diaries and letters. Together they reveal the
breath of Kafka’s literary vision and the extraordinary imaginative depth of
his thought. Taught in English. Students with an advanced proficiency in German
can read selections in the original for extra credit. Achtung: Some space in this course will be reserved for students
who intend to enroll in German Immersion in Spring 2004. See instructor before
Registration for details.
CRN |
93171 |
Distribution |
D |
Course
No. |
GER 201 |
||
Title |
Intermediate
German I |
||
Professor |
Susan Bernofsky |
||
Schedule |
Mon Tu Th 11:30 am - 12:50 pm LC 210 |
For students who have completed German 101‑102
or have had some previous instruction (two years of high school or one year of college).
This course is designed to increase the student’s command of all four language
skills (speaking, comprehension, reading, writing). Provision is made for
complete grammar review, conversational practice, and language lab work. Selected readings from modern authors,
introducing students to various styles of literary German, are discussed.
CRN |
93173 |
Distribution |
D |
Course
No. |
GER 420 |
||
Title |
Growing
Pains |
||
Professor |
Susan Bernofsky |
||
Schedule |
Mon Th 4:30 pm – 5:50 pm LC 210 |
More than a century after Goethe's young suffering
Werther, and long after the establishment of the Bildungsroman as a crucial
genre in German-language literature, the young man struggling to find his place
in society reappeared as a dominant motif in the work of a number of important
modernist writers. What exactly this
renewed interest had to do with the particular historical moment - the turn of
the 20th century, the excitement of technicological advances, the explosive
arrival of WWI- will be investigated in the course of our readings. Background to be covered will include the
development of the Bildungsroman and
the youth cult that emerged during this period (e.g. among the members of
Stefan George's circle), but we will also examine this selection of short
novels and long stories as examples of the modernism that would come to define
early twentieth-century writing and art in Europe. In the final weeks of the course, we will go on to read several
more recent interpretations of this set of themes. Conducted in German. Summer reading for those who haven't yet
read it: Die Leiden des jungen Werther
- will be discussed in the first class session. Readings to include: Rainer Maria Rilke, Die Aufzeichnungen von
Malte Laurids Brigge; Thomas Mann, Tonio Kröger; Robert Walser, Jakob von
Gunten; Robert Musil, Die Verwirrungen des Zöglings Törleß; Hermann Hesse,
Demian: Die Geschichte einer Jugend; Christa Wolf, Nachdenken über Christa T.;
Elfriede Jelinek, Die Ausgesperrten; Hans-Ulrich Treichel, Der Verlorene; Jenny
Erpenbeck, Geschichte vom alten Kind.