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