Roland Dollinger

Find the full description for this course under Literature.

Find the full description for this course under Literature.

Human history has always been characterized by the forced or voluntary migration of individuals or groups of people. In this lecture, we will analyze the dialectical relationship between the concepts of “home” and “exile” in a series of works, ranging from the Bible and medieval poems to German literary texts of the 20th century, a century whose upheavals led to different waves of voluntary or forced migration. Essays by Edward Said will provide us with some critical vocabulary to speak and write about the interconnectedness of notions of home, flight, diaspora, migrants, and refugees, while the primary works will invite us to analyze these themes in various fictional and autobiographical forms. Our historical range will help us uncover the voices of those who were displaced from their communities but also the modes through which many authors transformed the punitive experience of exile into more empowering perspectives and positions of distance. We will begin with selected stories from the Old Testament (Pentateuch) and Old English exile poems, while later readings will include works by Ovid, Dante, Goethe, and Herman Hesse. We will conclude with Anna Segher’s novel about the dilemma of refugees being stuck in Marseille in 1942 and a story of four emigrants by the preeminent writer Sebald. Students will attend weekly group conferences that will be conducted in German. We will review some essential German grammar and read shorter texts that also address questions of home, exile, and emigration.

This course concentrates on the study of grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation in order to secure the basic tools of the German language. In addition to offering that introduction, classroom activities and the production of short compositions promote oral and written communication. This class will meet three times per week (90 minutes each session), twice with the main teacher and once with Ms. Mizelle, who will also meet with students individually or in small groups for an extra conference. Course materials include the textbook, Neue Horizonte (eighth edition), along with the workbook and a graded German reader. We will cover about 10 chapters from the textbook—all of the basic grammar and vocabulary that students will need to know in order to advance to the next level. There will be short written tests at the end of each chapter. Students will also be introduced to contemporary German culture through authentic materials from newspapers, television, radio, or the Internet.

This course places strong emphasis on expanding vocabulary and thoroughly reviewing grammar, as well as on developing oral and written expression. The aim of the course is to give students more fluency and to prepare them for a possible junior year in Germany. Readings in the fall will consist of short stories, fairy tales, and a graphic novel called Heimat​ (Home). In the spring semester, we will focus on 20th-century stories, historical essays, and some films in order to learn about the major phases of German history and culture between 1871 and today. All materials are linguistically accessible and promote an understanding of the culture’s fundamental values and way of looking at the world. A solid grammar review, based on the book German Grammar in Review, will help students further improve their speaking and writing skills. Regular conferences with Ms. Mizelle will supplement class work, help improve fluency and pronunciation, and emphasize conversational conventions for expressing opinions and leading discussions.

In this course, students will first get a brief historical overview of postwar German history by watching a YouTube video and reading an essay about Germany's defeat in 1945. Then, we will study several short stories about the war by Heinrich Böll, perhaps the most famous writer in postwar Germany; a play by Wolfgang Borchert about a German soldier coming home from the war and having no home anymore, in conjunction with the 1946 movie Murderers Among Us; Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s play, The Visit, together with Fassbinder's movie, The Marriage of Maria Braun; Max Frisch’s parable about anti-Semitism; Jurek Becker’s novel, Jacob the Liar, about Jewish life and death in a ghetto; two narratives from Sebald’s The Emigrants, both of which are dealing with the aftereffects of traumatic experiences during World War II; Eugen Ruge’s In Times of Fading Light, a family novel covering East German history, in conjunction with movies about life in East Germany under constant surveillance by the secret police (The Lives of Others and Barbara); and Natascha Wodin’s novel about her family’s tragic history in both the Ukraine and postwar Germany. Thematically, all of these texts and movies are tied by one common theme: the question of how German writers and filmmakers were dealing with the legacy of both National Socialism and Stalinism from 1945 to today. This lecture (three credits) is taught in English and open to all students; German language skills are not required. Advanced German students have the option of taking this lecture for five credits; during the extra meetings, we will work on all aspects of Advanced German—reading, speaking, and writing—by discussing (in German) the same and/or other postwar German texts not covered in this lecture, as well as reviewing grammar.

Thinking about exile and emigration, human history has always been characterized by the forced or voluntary migration of individuals or groups of people. In this lecture, we will analyze the dialectical relationship between the concepts of “exile” and “home” in a series of literary works and some movies, ranging from biblical stories to literature from Roman antiquity, the Middle Ages, the 18th century, 19th century, and 20th century—a century whose upheavals led to different waves of voluntary or forced migration. Classical essays on the connections between exile and literature by Edward Said and Claudio Guillén will provide some critical vocabulary with which to speak and write about the interconnectedness of notions of exile, home, flight, diaspora, migrants, and refugees, while primary works will invite us to analyze these themes in various literary and philosophical genres. In addition to analyzing literary works and movies as representations of “real, historical” exile, another focus of this lecture will be on “exile as a metaphor” for the human, and especially the modern, condition. We will begin with the stories of Adam and Eve and their children, Cain and Abel, as the first humans to be banished from their original home, while later readings will include works by the Roman writers Ovid and Petrarch; Saint Augustine; Goethe; the German Romantic writer E. T. A. Hoffmann (along with an essay by Sigmund Freud on the Uncanny, a story by Franz Kafka, in connection with Murnau’s classic movie Nosferatu and a discussion of the Christian myth of the “Wandering Jew”); Hermann Hesse’s modern psychological novel, Narcissus and Goldmund; Anna Segher’s novel, Transit, about the dilemma of refugees from Nazi Germany being stuck in Marseille in 1942; two stories from The Emigrants, by W. G. Sebald; and Natascha Wodin’s biographical novel about the tragic life of her parents, who were brought to Germany during World War II as slave laborers. Two fascinating movies will visually represent “exile”: Werner Herzog’s The Enigma of Kasper Hauser (the famous 19th-century European “foundling,” who was locked up in a prison for the first two decades of his life) and the science-fiction movie The Wall, about a woman who is trapped by an invisible wall in the Austrian Alps and must survive alone with some pets. Students will earn three credits by taking this lecture, though German-language students have the option of taking this course for five credits, in which case they will also attend a weekly conference with the instructor.

In this course, students will learn about the major cultural and historical developments in Germany since the late 18th century through an in-depth analysis of masterpieces of German literature (novels, stories, plays) and film. In the fall semester, we will analyze some German “classics,” such as The Suffering of Young Werther; Romantic tales, along with a famous text by Sigmund Freud; and some modern prose by Hesse, Thomas Mann, Kafka, Rilke, and Irmgard Keun. We will also watch and discuss several Expressionist movies from the 1920s (among them, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Dracula, and Metropolis) and finish the term with a reading of Feuchtwanger’s novel, The Oppermans, to understand the main ideological tenets of National Socialism. In the spring semester, the seminar will focus entirely on postwar German literature and film after 1945 and, especially, the question of how writers and intellectuals have dealt with the Holocaust, National Socialism, the Communist dictatorship, and German reunification since 1990. Films such as The Murderers Are Among Us, The Marriage of Maria Braun, The Lives of the Others, Good Bye, Lenin, and Barbara will give students visual representations of the most important cultural and historical issues since 1945. Along with these stories, plays, novels, and movies, students will have to read some “historical” materials (essays and selected chapters from history books) to gain a fundamental understanding of German history. Since this is a First-Year Studies class, other important goals include helping students with the transition to college life, developing good study habits, and improving their critical writing skills. For this reason, biweekly individual conferences will alternate with biweekly group conferences, during which we will explore “student-life” issues and develop some group identity.

Human history has always been characterized by the forced or voluntary migration of groups of people or individuals. In this small lecture, we will analyze stories, novels, and some theoretical texts about the dialectical relationship between the concepts of “home” and “exile.” While our principal focus will lie on the interpretation of German literary texts from the 18th century until today, this lecture will begin with selected stories from the Old Testament (Pentateuch) in order to illustrate what, perhaps, can be called “the archetypal dimension of exile”; i.e., the fact that “being in exile”—no longer “at home”—seems to be the existential and psychological norm and not the exception of our human existence. This lecture is not a historical overview of literary representations of “home” and “exile”; rather, we will explore (through some “case studies”) the various meanings that writers such as Goethe, Hesse, E. T. A Hoffmann, Sigmund Freud, Anna Seghers, Sebald, and other contemporary German writers have attributed to the relationship of being “in exile” and being “at home.” Theoretical essays by Edward Said, Julia Kristeva, and others will provide us with some critical vocabulary to speak and write about this topic.

Human history has always been characterized by the forced or voluntary migration of individuals or groups of people. In this lecture, we will analyze the dialectical relationship between the concepts of “home” and “exile” in a series of works ranging from the Bible and medieval poems to German literary texts of the 20th century, a century whose upheavals led to different waves of voluntary or forced migration. Essays by Edward Said will provide us with some critical vocabulary to speak and write about the interconnectedness of notions of home, flight, diaspora, migrants, and refugees, while the primary works will invite us to analyze these themes in various fictional and autobiographical forms. Our historical range will help us uncover the voices of those who were displaced from their communities but also the modes through which many authors transformed the punitive experience of exile into more empowering perspectives and positions of distance. We will begin with selected stories from the Old Testament (Pentateuch) and Old English exile poems, while later readings will include works by Ovid, Dante, Goethe, and Herman Hesse. We will conclude with Anna Segher’s novel about the dilemma of refugees being stuck in Marseille in 1942 and a story of four emigrants by the preeminent writer Sebald.