German

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.

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 classwork, help improve fluency and pronunciation, and emphasize conversational conventions for expressing opinions and leading discussions.

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 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.

Against the backdrop of the bloodiest half-century in human history, Continental European culture produced an astonishingly rich and diverse body of lyric poetry. Robert Frost famously remarked that “poetry is what gets lost in translation.” But the unmistakable genius of modern European poetry survives its passage into English (inevitable losses notwithstanding), thanks in no small part to the inspired efforts of its translators. In this course, we will learn to hear the voices they have made available to English-language readers, often comparing multiple translations of a single poem or referring to the original in opposing-page editions. We will read selections from at least 12 poets translated from seven languages, including: Cavafy, Valéry, Rilke, Trakl, Pessoa, Akhmatova, Mandelstam, Tsvetaeva, Lorca, Cernuda, Montale, and Celan.

Does life have a purpose, a meaning? What does it mean “to be”? What does it mean to be human? What does it mean to be a woman (or to be a man)? What does it mean to be Black (or to be white)? What makes us into who we are? What distinguishes each of us? And what, if anything, is in common to all of us? These and other questions are raised by existentialist philosophy and literature, mostly through interrogation of real-life experiences, situations, and “fundamental emotions” such as anxiety, boredom, loneliness, and shame. In the first half of this course, we will get acquainted with the core tenets of existentialist thought by reading two of its most influential figures: Jean-Paul Sartre (France, 1905-1980) and Martin Heidegger (Germany, 1889-1976). In the second half, we will analyze texts by authors who set out to expand or challenge these core tenets on the grounds of their experiences of oppression. These authors are Simone de Beauvoir, Frantz Fanon, and Jean Améry. Group conference will meet weekly and play a central role in this course. In it, we will mostly read literary texts or watch films that are relevant to the work of the above-listed authors. Conference material will include stories by Franz Kafka, Albert Camus, and Ralph Ellison and films such as The Battle of Algiers (1967) and Monsieur Klein (1977).