The German Immersion program will be offered in the Spring of 1998, therefore Basic German (101-102) will not be offered in the fall of 1997. The following is a description of the Immersion program. Students must contact Professor Kempf early in the fall if interested in participating in the spring course.

Spring 1998 German Immersion Program

Intensive study 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 (i.e., 16 credits) within five months (spring semester at Bard, plus June in Germany). 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 her/him to pursue a more balanced study program or to fulfill certain requirements (e.g., Freshman Seminar). A Deutsches Haus will permit interested participants to live together for the semester, making the program truly "total immersion."

Beginning with elementary pronunciation, students are plunged into daily intensive usage of German, with practice in all four language skills (speaking, listening-comprehension, reading, writing). The communicative approach actively involves the student in a variety of activities including structured practice, role playing, linguistic games, student-to-student give-and-take, teacher-to-student give-and-take (and vice versa), response to listening-comprehension exercises, and invention of creative oral and/or written exchanges. Emphasis will be placed on linguistic accuracy and cultural authenticity.

As the course progresses, the transition is made from learning the language for everyday communication to the consideration of literary and cultural values through the reading of classical and modern texts (e.g., Goethe, Eichendorff, Kafka, Brecht) which are representative for the thought and forms of the age in which they were written.

The last month of the program will be spent in Germany. Participants will study at Collegium Palatinum, in Heidelberg for four weeks. Last year's participants raved about the Collegium's effective teaching aids and methods. Course days are Monday through Friday, leaving students most evenings and weekends free for independent study, research, leisure, and excursions. The Collegium Palatinum offers a complete program of information, cultural activities, and excursions. In July and August, after the completion of the program, participants may travel in Europe on their own or return to the U.S. immediately. To cover the costs of the program, financial aid will be made available.

Interested students must be advised that this immersion program is a serious undertaking. Apart from fifteen class hours per week, at least ten to fifteen hours must be devoted to out-of-class work consisting of laboratory practice and home study. (This course is given every other year.)

GER 110 Transitional German

Professor: S. Kufner

CRN: 92639

Distribution: D

Time: M W Th F 9:00 am - 10:00 am OLIN 107

This course is for students with varied backgrounds in German whose proficiency is not yet on the level of 201. While the emphasis will be on a complete review of elementary grammar, all four language skills (speaking, comprehension, reading, writing) as well as cultural proficiency will be sharpened. Extensive Language Lab work will be combined with conversational practice, reading and dramatization of modern German texts, and writing simple compositions. Successful completion will allow students to continue with German 202.

GER 240 German Expressionism

Professor: F. Kempf

CRN: 92424

Distribution: D

Time: Tu 11:00 am - 12:20 pm LC 206
Th 10:30 am - 12:30 pm LC 206

Cross-listed: Integrated Arts
Bringing together experts from various disciplines within German Studies, a goal of this course is to provide students an opportunity to explore the interrelatedness of the liberal arts by studying modes of intellectual and creative activity that produced what is arguably the most fascinating and influential artistic movement of the twentieth century. Flourishing between 1905 and 1925, Expressionism involved all the arts, notably literature, painting, music, and film. Marked by contradictory images of decline and rebirth, corruption and naivete, languor and vitality, Expressionist art has a number of common features. Chief among them is a rejection of external reality; instead, the artist projects onto his art the tension, conflict, and anxiety within his "soul," often with an emotional intensity matched by unfettered literary, visual, and musical language. Less a style than a Weltanschauung of a rebellious generation, Expressionism is generally seen as an artistic reflection of a common feeling of crisis whose origins can be sought, for instance, in the loss of a cohesive world view, especially in the wake of Nietzsche's pessimistic diagnosis; the disappearance of individualism in burgeoning urban centers; the hypocrisy of Imperial Wilhelmine Germany; the soulless materialism and the (self-) alienation of increased industrialization; and the collapse of Newtonian science. Each expert will teach a segment lasting two or three weeks. Scheduled to teach are: Professors Berthold-Bond (philosophy: Nietzsche); Wolf (painting: Die Br�cke, Der blaue Reiter); Botstein (music: Sch�nberg); Skiff (philosophy of science: Mach, Boltzmann, Helmholtz, Einstein); Pruitt (film: Der letzte Mann, M, Die B�chse der Pandora); Kempf (literature: Benn, Heym, Lasker-Sch�ler, Kafka, Kaiser, Trakl). This is a team-taught course led by Prof. Kempf who will participate in all meetings in order to assure continuity.

GER 334 History, Memory, Narrative: Postwar German Literature in Translation

Professor: L. Morris

CRN: 92455

Distribution: B/D

Time: W 10:30 am - 12:30 pm Preston 101

This course will address questions of history, memory, and narrative in post-1945 works written in the German-speaking countries. We will look at the relationship between literature and Politics and the role of literary groups such as "Der Ruf" and the "Gruppe 47." The course will also address the recent debates on historiography and the Third Reich, German Unification, and questions of gender and the role of minorities in Germany today in these works. Readings will include works by Wolfgang Borchert, Heinrich B�ll, Luise Rinser, Uwe Johnson, Christa Wolf, Anna Seghers, Elfreide Jelinek, Peter Handke, Ingeborg Bachmann, Wolfgang Koeppen, Max Frisch, and Peter Weiss. Conducted in English.

GER 380 The Experience of the Foreign in German Literature

Professor: F. Kempf

CRN: 92425

Distribution: B/D

Time: M F 11:40 am - 12:40 pm LC 118

This course will examine representations of foreignness in selected texts of modern German literature (e.g., Lessing, Novalis, Heine, Kafka, Frisch), in contemporary films (Hark Bohm, R.W. Fassbinder), and in works of nonnative Germans writing in Germany today (e.g., Fatma Mohamed Ismail, Aras �ren, Emine Sevgi �zdamar). Attempting to combine aesthetic appreciation with cultural critique, the course will focus on issues such as multiculturalism, homogeneity, and xenophobia. Its goal is to enable students to approach cultural difference, in Claire Kramsch's words, "in a spirit of ethnographic inquiry rather than in a normative or judgmental way." Conducted in German.

GER 405 Four Poets: H�lderlin, Trakl, Rilke, Celan

Professor: L. Morris

CRN: 92456

Distribution: B/D

Time: Tu 3:30 pm - 5:30 pm Preston 101

In-depth study of four major German poets whose poetry addresses Heidegger's large question: "Wozu Dichter in d�rftiger Zeit?" Close reading and consideration of the hermetic and the opaque in poetic language, and the relationship between poetry and silence. Frequent short papers. Course conducted in German.