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GER 198 - Advising Workshop
GER 622 - Drama - The end of tragedy in the German context was a slow and agonizing process. One could even argue that it already began with the birth of bourgeois drama in the second half of the eighteenth century, when efforts at establishing a German national theater were still in their infancy. Whether we consider Lessing’s call for the so-called “mittlere Charaktere,” or the replacement of tragedy by the bürgerliches Trauerspiel [bourgeois tragedy], or the mixture of genres, or the deviation from the Aristotelian requirement of unity of action, time, and place, most dramas of that period reveal symptoms of a decline of classicist forms of tragedy.
Over the course of the nineteenth century both the role of the individual in society and notions of what is human changed. By the end of the nineteenth century dramatists responded to these changes by exposing what they perceived as false ideals upheld by playwrights of the idealist era. The course investigates the responses to idealist concepts of tragedy and how these responses expressed a changing attitude toward what is human. We will discuss theories of drama and changing notions of tragedy based on dramas by Lessing, Goethe, Schiller, Lenz, Grabbe, Hebbel, Schnitzler, Wedekind, Kaiser, Toller, Brecht, Dürrenmatt, and Weiß. In these discussions we will also refer to theoretical essays by Aristotle, Gottsched, Lessing, Lenz, Goethe, Schiller, Hebbel, and Brecht.
GER 198 - Advising Workshop
GER 259 - Culture of the Weimar Republic - This multimedia course will focus on the rich cultural life of Germany during the so-called Weimar Republic (1918-1933). This was a time of experiments and innovations in the arts, music, literature, and politics that have helped shape European and American culture today. The course will introduce you to the impact of radical cultural changes that redefined virtually every aspect of life, such as the advent of new media (film, radio), the influence of American culture, mass consumption, fashion, new ideas about sexuality and gender roles. We will discuss the role of influential thinkers, analyze examples of modern art and architecture, film, literature, theatre and cabaret. The course meets Arts and Letters and Multicultural IC requirements.
Spring 2012
GER 198 - Advising Workshop
GER 368 - Themes in German Literature: Kunst und Leben - In this course we will discuss both novellas and plays that focus on the relationship between art and life. Many works published at the turn of the nineteenth to the twentieth century reflect their authors’ preoccupation with the role of the artist and art in society. The relationship of art and life, as represented in works by Gerhardt Hauptmann, Arthur Schnitzler, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, as well and Thomas Mann, is full of ambiguities. The authors’ engagement with the role of art often expresses the artists’ desire to be both separate from and yet connected to life as well as their doubts about the social relevance of their art. We will discuss the different ways of representing life in art and how these representations reflect the changing role of the artist in society at the turn of twentieth century. In a variety of group activities and assignments you will be given the opportunity to improve your reading, writing, and speaking skills. Taught in German.
GER 413 - Advanced Language Training: Speaking - German 413 is designed to improve your oral communications skills (listening and speaking). It is aimed at advanced non-native German majors who have successfully completed at least three years of college German or its equivalent. Through discussions of controversial current topics you will expand your vocabulary but also learn about contemporary German culture. A creative group project will also give you ample opportunity to practice your communication skills. Progress will be evaluated on the basis of recorded pronunciation assignments, presentations, reports, vocabulary quizzes, and listening comprehension exercises. |