Beginning with the
academic year 2014-15, the German Studies program will switch to an intensive
format for its basic language sequence (Germ 106). Instead of the regular-paced
Germ 101-102 sequence, students will have the opportunity to study one year of college
German during the spring semester at Bard (two hours every day, four days a
week), followed by a four-week intensive language and culture program at Bard
College Berlin in August. The semester and summer programs are indivisible,
carrying a total of 12 credits. Designed for students with little or no
previous experience in German, Germ 106 offers a highly effective and exciting
learning environment for those who wish to achieve a high degree of proficiency
in the shortest possible time. In Berlin, students may opt to earn an
additional two credits through an independent study project. Requiring a
substantial piece of critical writing, the project will draw upon the cultural
program, e.g., Berlin Today; Old Berlin and
Prussia; Weimar Berlin; Jewish Life, Nazi Berlin and the Holocaust; The Divided
City. Students interested in Germ 106 should contact Professor Thomas Wild
early in the 2014 fall semester.
91612 |
GER 270 REBELS WITH(OUT) A CAUSE: Great Works of German
LitERATURE |
Franz
Kempf |
. T . Th . |
10:10 am- 11:30 am |
OLIN 205 |
ELIT |
Cross-listed: Literature A survey of representative
works of German literature from the eighteenth century to the present, from
Goethe’s Weltschmerz bestseller The
Sufferings of Young Werther (1774) to Mother Tongue (1990), a collection of
stories by Emine Sevgi Özdamar, a Turkish-German woman writer. Other authors
include: Schiller, Eichendorff, Heine, Hauptmann, Wedekind, Rilke, Kafka, Thomas Mann, Brecht, Dürrenmatt, and Jelinek. Course
conducted in English. Students with an advanced proficiency in German are
expected to read the works in the original.
Class size: 22
91580 |
GER 303 ONCE UPON A TIME: THE FOLKTALES OF THE
BROTHERS Grimm |
Franz
Kempf |
. T . Th . |
1:30 pm -2:50 pm |
OLIN 205 |
FLLC |
“Enchanting,
brimming with wonder and magic, the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm are the
special stories of childhood that stay with us throughout our lives,” writes
translator and Grimm scholar Jack Zipes.
Unfortunately, we seem to know these tales only in adaptations that greatly
reduce their power to touch our emotions and engage our imaginations. Through a
close reading of selected tales, with emphasis on language, plot, motif, and
image, this course explores not only the tales’ poetics and politics but also
their origins in the oral tradition, in folklore and myth. The course considers
major critical approaches (e.g., Freudian, Marxist, feminist) and conducts a
contrastive analysis of creative adaptations (Disney, classical ballet,
postmodern dance) and other fairy-tale traditions (Perrault, Straparola, Arabian Nights). Creative and
critical writing assignments. Conducted in German.
First year students with should consult with Prof. Kempf
for eligibility. Class size: 18
91581 |
GER 331 Poetry and Philosophy |
Thomas
Wild |
. T . Th . |
11:50 am -1:10 pm |
HEG 300 |
FLLC |
Is
there something like a sensory reasoning? Who has the capacity to formulate the
unspeakable? How can we address— with words— the crisis of language? Is humor a
thought or a sentiment? Poetry and philosophy have for centuries offered
fascinating responses to such questions— not least in the German tradition.
Poets, philosophers, and poetic thinkers—from Goethe, Kant, and Schiller, to Hölderlin, Heidegger, and Rilke, or from Heine, Nietzsche,
and Kafka, to writers of the Avant-Garde, and on to Benjamin, Brecht, and
Arendt—have all had something to say on these questions. The beauty and
precision of their language(s) will foster our analytical vocabulary and will (we
hope!) inspire ambitious and playful writing experiments and provoke a semester
of joyful conversations with these thinkers of and in the German language. Conducted in German. Class
size: 18