German Studies

GERM 106 - ACCELERATED FIRST YEAR GERMAN

Short Title: ACCEL 1ST YEAR GERMAN

Department: Cntr Lang & Intercultural Comm

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: Alternate first-year German course for students with some background in German or related language. This is an intensive course covering the equivalents of GERM 141 and GERM 142. Students will be prepared for GERM 263 upon completion of the course. Effective May 15, 2019, this course does not carry D1 credit. Mutually Exclusive: Cannot register for GERM 106 if student has credit for GERM 141/GERM 142.

GERM 141 - FIRST YEAR GERMAN I

Short Title: FIRST YEAR GERMAN I

Department: Cntr Lang & Intercultural Comm

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: Development of interactional competence in German (sociolinguistic and sociocultural knowledge) to communicate and interact with speakers of German. The course is based on a student-centered, critical-thinking approach to language analysis/acquisition. No prior knowledge of this language is necessary. Placement Test is required. Effective May 15, 2019, this course does not carry D1 credit. Mutually Exclusive: Cannot register for GERM 141 if student has credit for GERM 101/GERM 106/GERM 222.

GERM 142 - FIRST YEAR GERMAN II

Short Title: FIRST YEAR GERMAN II

Department: Cntr Lang & Intercultural Comm

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Prerequisite(s): GERM 141

Description: Continuation of GERM 141. Development of interactional competence in German (sociolinguistic and socio cultural knowledge) to communicate and interact with speakers of German. The course is based on a student-centered, critical-thinking approach to language analysis/acquisition. Effective May 15, 2019, this course does not carry D1 credit. Mutually Exclusive: Cannot register for GERM 142 if student has credit for GERM 106/GERM 262.

GERM 222 - AP/OTH CREDIT IN GERMAN LANGUAGE

Short Title: AP/OTH CREDIT GERMAN LANGUAGE

Department: Cntr Lang & Intercultural Comm

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Transfer

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: This course provides credit for students who have successfully completed approved examinations, such as Advanced Placement exams. This credit counts toward the total credit hours required for graduation. Mutually Exclusive: Cannot register for GERM 222 if student has credit for GERM 141.

GERM 238 - SPECIAL TOPICS

Short Title: SPECIAL TOPICS

Department: Cntr Lang & Intercultural Comm

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Internship/Practicum, Laboratory, Lecture, Seminar, Independent Study, Lecture/Laboratory

Credit Hours: 1-4

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: Topics and credit hours vary each semester. Contact department for current semester's topic(s). Repeatable for Credit.

GERM 263 - SECOND YEAR GERMAN I

Short Title: SECOND YEAR GERMAN I

Department: Cntr Lang & Intercultural Comm

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Distribution Group: Distribution Group I

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Prerequisite(s): GERM 142

Description: Continuation of GERM 142. Development of interactional competence in German (sociolinguistic and socio cultural knowledge) to communicate and interact with speakers of German. The course is based on a student-centered, critical-thinking approach to language analysis/acquisition. Mutually Exclusive: Cannot register for GERM 263 if student has credit for GERM 201.

GERM 264 - SECOND YEAR GERMAN II

Short Title: SECOND YEAR GERMAN II

Department: Cntr Lang & Intercultural Comm

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Distribution Group: Distribution Group I

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Prerequisite(s): GERM 263

Description: Continuation of GERM 263. Development of interactional competence in German (sociolinguistic and socio cultural knowledge) to communicate and interact with speakers of German. The course is based on a student-centered, critical-thinking approach to language analysis/acquisition. Mutually Exclusive: Cannot register for GERM 264 if student has credit for GERM 202.

Course URL: clicgerman.blogs.rice.edu

GERM 280 - HISTORY OF CINEMA AND MEDIA I: INVENTION TO 1945

Short Title: HISTORY OF CINEMA AND MEDIA I

Department: Modrn & Classicl Lit & Culture

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Distribution Group: Distribution Group I

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: This seminar will introduce students to the history of cinema from its inception to 1945 by considering individual cinematic artifacts in their technological, economic, aesthetic, political, and social contexts. Cross-list: CMST 201.

GERM 301 - THIRD YEAR GERMAN I

Short Title: THIRD YEAR GERMAN I

Department: Modrn & Classicl Lit & Culture

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Distribution Group: Distribution Group I

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Upper-Level

Description: This course introduces students to contemporary German speaking cultures through the use of authentic materials (film, media, literature). Taught in German. Recommended Prerequisite(s): GERM 264 or Instructor Permisison.

GERM 302 - THIRD YEAR GERMAN II

Short Title: THIRD YEAR GERMAN II

Department: Modrn & Classicl Lit & Culture

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Distribution Group: Distribution Group I

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Upper-Level

Description: This course focuses on complex topics in contemporary German speaking cultures through the use of authentic materials (film, media, literature). Recommended Prerequisite(s): GERM 301 or Permission of Instructor.

GERM 303 - GERMAN FOR PROFESSIONALS: BUSINESS AND RESEARCH

Short Title: GERMAN FOR PROFESSIONALS

Department: Modrn & Classicl Lit & Culture

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Upper-Level

Prerequisite(s): GERM 302

Description: This course introduces students to current issues and language use in German technology, business, and international relations, and it explores these issues in larger cultural contexts. Assignments allow students to explore areas of individual interest and encourage exploration of international career opportunities including GERM 399 The German Studies Internship. Taught in German.

GERM 305 - ENLIGHTENMENT AND ROMANTICISM (1750-1850)

Short Title: ENLIGHTENMENT (1750-1850)

Department: Modrn & Classicl Lit & Culture

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Distribution Group: Distribution Group I

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Upper-Level

Description: An introduction to the major social, political and cultural developments in the period between 1700-1850, which contributed to the emergence of modern German cultural identity within the European context. Covers wide range of theoretical and literary works by Kant, Lessing, Schiller, Goethe, Eichendorff, Hoffmann, Heine, and others. Taught in German.

GERM 306 - REALISM TO MODERNITY (1850-PRESENT)

Short Title: REALISM TO MODERNITY-1850-PRES

Department: Modrn & Classicl Lit & Culture

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Distribution Group: Distribution Group I

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Upper-Level

Description: German history and culture during the late 19th and the 29th century have been rather turbulent: From Wilhelminian empire to Weimar democracy to Hitler fascism to socialist division to German reunification to entry into the European Union. All these political changes will be commented on by cultural reflections in textual and filmic forms. Literary texts will include Fontane, Mann, Kafka, Boll, Grass, Wolf and Maron. Taught in German.

GERM 307 - FOLK AND FAIRY TALE IN GERMAN: TRADITION, STRUCTURE, ARTISTRY

Short Title: FOLK & FAIRY TALE IN GERMAN

Department: Modrn & Classicl Lit & Culture

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Distribution Group: Distribution Group I

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Upper-Level

Description: The folk tales collected by the Brothers Grimm still exhibit all the principle characteristics and functions of oral literature, i.e. the reproduction of an audience's cultural identity and the securing of that identity. Nevertheless, these characteristics are still preserved in fairy tales written by specific authors for a reading audience. Examples of the latter are mainly from authors of Romanticism and Realism. Taught in German.

GERM 309 - GERMAN POETRY

Short Title: GERMAN POETRY

Department: Modrn & Classicl Lit & Culture

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Distribution Group: Distribution Group I

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Upper-Level

Description: "If the soul speaks out, alas! it is no longer the soul that speaks" - in Schiller's famous line one of the many fascinating paradoxes of lyric poetry is expressed. With the tradition of the "Lied," poems set to music, German poetry of the Classical-Romantic epoch was soon to become the epitome of lyric poetry as such. There were, however, poems of quite different kinds before and after Goethe, Eichendorff, and Heine. Without neglecting the Classical-Romantic period, the course will explore the history of lyric expression in German literature from the early modern period to the present in both poems and theoretical texts. Taught in German.

GERM 311 - BERLIN: PAST AND PRESENT

Short Title: BERLIN: PAST AND PRESENT

Department: Modrn & Classicl Lit & Culture

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Upper-Level

Description: The course introduces students to German history and culture as mirrored in the history of the city that is "always in progress and never accomplished." With an emphasis on the period from the 1920's to the present, class discussions encompass literature and theory, politics and social life, as well as architecture, fine arts and film. Taught in German.

GERM 320 - TWENTIETH CENTURY GERMAN THOUGHT AND LITERATURE IN GERMAN

Short Title: 20TH CENTURY GERMAN THOUGHT

Department: Modrn & Classicl Lit & Culture

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Distribution Group: Distribution Group I

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Upper-Level

Description: This course will focus on the way in which major events of twentieth century German history and culture – especially World War I, the founding of the Weimar Republic, and National Socialism and the Holocaust – have been dealt with in literature, philosophy, and the social sciences.

GERM 322 - MARX, FREUD, EINSTEIN: FOREBEARERS OF MODERNITY

Short Title: MARX, FREUD, EINSTEIN

Department: Modrn & Classicl Lit & Culture

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Distribution Group: Distribution Group I

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Upper-Level

Description: Like no others, these three thinkers of the 19th and 20th centuries have influenced the intellectual, historical, social and cultural development not only of Germany, but of the entire world. The course examines the works of these authors in the context of their own time as well as their continued importance in the present. Works by Brecht, Christa Wolf, Schnitzler, Kafka will also be considered. Taught in English. Cross-list: HUMA 322.

GERM 324 - BERLIN: RESIDENCE, METROPOLIS, CAPITAL

Short Title: BERLIN:RESIDENCE,METRO,CAPITAL

Department: Modrn & Classicl Lit & Culture

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Distribution Group: Distribution Group I

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Upper-Level

Description: The course offers an introduction to German history, politics, and culture as mirrored in the history of the old and new German capital. Berlin has always been a city of contradictions: from imperial glamour to proletarian slums, from the Roaring Twenties to Hitler's seizure of power. Emerging from the ruins of WWII Berlin became both the capital of Socialism and the display window of the Free World. After the fall of the wall, Berlin is still looking for its role in the center of a reshaped Europe. Readings and discussions encompass fine arts and literature from the 18th century to the present, including film. Taught in English. Cross-list: HUMA 324.

GERM 325 - MODERN GERMAN WRITERS: KAFKA

Short Title: MODERN GERMAN WRITERS: KAFKA

Department: Modrn & Classicl Lit & Culture

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Distribution Group: Distribution Group I

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Upper-Level

Description: Goethe's vision of "world-literature" came true in the twentieth century. German authors, among them Kafka, transcended the confines of national traditions and redefined the concepts of literature and authorship in view of a modern globally dispersed audience. Topics may vary. Taught in English. Cross-list: HUMA 325. Repeatable for Credit.

GERM 326 - THE GERMAN FAIRY TALE: OLD AND NEW

Short Title: GERMAN FAIRY TALE: OLD & NEW

Department: Modrn & Classicl Lit & Culture

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Distribution Group: Distribution Group I

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Upper-Level

Description: Discussion of several prototypes from the fairy-tale collection of the Brothers Grimm and the subsequent development of the "literary" fairy tale from Goethe and the Romantics to the 20th century. Taught in English. Cross-list: HUMA 372.

GERM 327 - GERMAN EXPRESSIONISM IN EUROPEAN CONTEXT: HISTORY, LITERATURE AND FINE ARTS

Short Title: GERMAN EXPRESSIONISM

Department: Modrn & Classicl Lit & Culture

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Distribution Group: Distribution Group I

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Upper-Level

Description: The literature, fine arts and film of German Expressionism represent the most concentrated breakthrough of modernity. In addition to focusing on this accomplishment in its European context, the course will also discuss Nietzsche's influence, the movement's ambivalent reaction to WWI and its misappropriation by communism and national-socialism. Taught in English.

GERM 328 - GERMAN ADAPTATIONS: TEXT TO FILM

Short Title: GERMAN ADAPTATIONS: TEXT-FILM

Department: Modrn & Classicl Lit & Culture

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Distribution Group: Distribution Group I

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Upper-Level

Description: Prominent novels of the 20th century will be studied for their possibilities or impossibilities of rendition from print medium to cinematic medium. From the myriad of adaptations we will concentrate on Thomas Mann: Tod in Venedig; Franz Kafka: Das Schloss; Klaus Mann: Mephisto; Gunter Grass: Die Blechtrommel; H. Boll: Katharina Blum; Jurek Becker: Jacob der Lugner. All films are subtitled in English. Taught in English. Cross-list: HUMA 328.

GERM 329 - LITERATURE OF THE HOLOCAUST AND EXILE

Short Title: LIT OF HOLOCAUST & EXILE

Department: Modrn & Classicl Lit & Culture

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Upper-Level

Description: Most of the authors from Germany and Austria, who were persecuted and fled into exile, used literature to search for meaning in life that apparently had been stripped of all meaning. Among these authors are the most distinguished writers of the time, i.e., Th. and H. Mann, Brecht, Benjamin, Werfel, Doblin, J. Roth, S. Zweig, N. Sachs, Celan, Auslander. Taught in English. Cross-list: HUMA 329.

GERM 330 - LITERATURE AND FILM IN EAST GERMANY: BEHIND THE IRON CURTAIN

Short Title: LIT AND FILM: EAST GERMANY

Department: Modrn & Classicl Lit & Culture

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Distribution Group: Distribution Group I

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Upper-Level

Description: This seminar will introduce students to the literature and filmic culture of East Germany, as well as to its social, political, and cultural context. It will also ask how literature and film not only reflect history but also respond to history by mobilizing their own political force.

GERM 333 - NIETZSCHE: PHILOSOPHY, POLITICS, HISTORY

Short Title: NIETZSCHE

Department: Modrn & Classicl Lit & Culture

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Distribution Group: Distribution Group I

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Upper-Level

Description: Situates Nietzsche's thought on language, history, and the body within its historical context, and examines the validity of his arguments in a world increasingly challenged by scientific knowledge. Focuses on Nietzsche's views on truth, genealogy, nihilism, morality, and science, which continue to be relevant for current debates within the humanities. Taught in English.

GERM 334 - NATIONALISM AND CITIZENSHIP

Short Title: NATIONALISM AND CITIZENSHIP

Department: Modrn & Classicl Lit & Culture

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Distribution Group: Distribution Group I

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Upper-Level

Description: Critical review of modern concepts of nationalism and citizenship. Topics include: theories of nationalism and citizenship, space and territory, identity, monuments, the emergence of nation states, multicultural democracy, transnationalism, and political belonging. Course provides links between political theory, public policy, literature, visual culture, architecture, and historical anthropology.

GERM 335 - GERMAN FILM (IN ENGLISH)

Short Title: GERMAN FILM (IN ENGLISH)

Department: Modrn & Classicl Lit & Culture

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Distribution Group: Distribution Group I

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Upper-Level

Description: The course explores filmic representations of communities, their complex mechanisms of inclusion and exclusion, their inevitable dynamics of otherness, as well as practices of modern states toward communal regulation and control. While communities biologically denote the interaction of organisms sharing an environment, we will examine the practices of power that states wield toward the maximization of “life.” Hence the questions of biopower, health politics, eugenics, sexism, racism, and genocide. How do films negotiate the precarious politics of communal life, what are their strategies for resistance, and what their moments of complicity? We will explore how film reflects communal life in twentieth-century German history, but also, and perhaps primarily, how film responds to that history by generating its own speaking power and mobilizing its own political force. Mutually Exclusive: Cannot register for GERM 335 if student has credit for FSEM 136/GERM 136.

GERM 336 - NATIONAL SOCIALISM AND FILM

Short Title: NATIONAL SOCIALISM AND FILM

Department: Modrn & Classicl Lit & Culture

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Distribution Group: Distribution Group I

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Upper-Level

Description: This course explores films made in Nazi Germany as well as films about Nazi Germany and the corresponding crisis of justice in the mid-twentieth century. We will analyze cinematic responses to the rise of the fascist movement, World War II, the Holocaust, and the post-war years. Particular attention will be paid to the value of film as propagandistic tool, ways in which it can configure and contest our image of national identity, and the relation between mass manipulation and mass murder. Taught in English. Mutually Exclusive: Cannot register for GERM 336 if student has credit for FSEM 132/GERM 132.

GERM 337 - VIENNA 1800 TO THE PRESENT - LASTING CENTER OF GERMAN CULTURE

Short Title: VIENNA 1800 TO THE PRESENT

Department: Modrn & Classicl Lit & Culture

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Distribution Group: Distribution Group I

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Upper-Level

Description: Despite Vienna’s drastic political changes from 1800 to 2000, it is still synonymous with German culture in its fusion of literature, music and the fine arts.

GERM 338 - NEW GERMAN FILM: HITLER'S CINEMATIC CHILDREN

Short Title: NEW GERM FILM: HITLER'S CINEMA

Department: Modrn & Classicl Lit & Culture

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Distribution Group: Distribution Group I

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Upper-Level

Description: From the 1960 to 2000, Germany has developed a very distinct auteur cinema with independent filmmakers such as Fassbinder, Herzog, Wenders, Adlon, Trotta, Sander, Brueckner, Doerrie, Garnier, Tykwer, and others. The first 20 years of German film were oriented on coming to terms with the fascist past; the second 20 years focused on more contemporary issues. Film, critical reading and class discussion in English. All films are subtitled in English and will be assessed with podium technology. Taught in English. Cross-list: HUMA 373, SWGS 361.

GERM 339 - FROM EXPRESSIONISM TO FASCISM: ART AND FILM IN GERMANY

Short Title: FROM EXPRESSIONISM TO FASCISM

Department: Modrn & Classicl Lit & Culture

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Upper-Level

Description: Focusing on the tumultuous years of the Weimar Republic, this class will examine art and film in Germany from the birth of Expressionism through the end of the Nazi dictatorship. Topics covered will include Expressionism, Dada, the Bauhaus, and Fascist aesthetics. Particular attention will be paid to the relations between aesthetics and politics and art and everyday life, all central concerns of the art and criticism of the period. Cross-list: HART 398.

GERM 340 - WALTER BENJAMIN: AESTHETICS, HISTORY AND POLITICS

Short Title: WALTER BENJAMIN

Department: Modrn & Classicl Lit & Culture

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Upper-Level

Description: Benjamin has been celebrated as a revolutionary Marxist, a theologian of Jewish Messianism, and as an essayist and literary critic. The course offers an introduction to his writings by way situating them in the historical background of the Weimar Republic and the crises of European society on the eve of WWII. Taught in English. Cross-list: HUMA 340.

GERM 341 - A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMAN THOUGHT ON HISTORY

Short Title: GERMAN THOUGHT ON HISTORY

Department: Modrn & Classicl Lit & Culture

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Upper-Level

Description: From early modern times onward history has played and still plays a crucial role in German thought. Why? An answer to this question is to be sought in history; in authors such as Lessing, Kant, Hegel, Marx, and Nietzsche who contributed to what in German is called "Philosophy of History."

GERM 345 - FROM DEMOCRACY TO DICTATORSHIP: GERMAN HISTORY, 1890-1945

Short Title: GERMAN HISTORY, 1890-1945

Department: Modrn & Classicl Lit & Culture

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Distribution Group: Distribution Group I

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Upper-Level

Description: From 1890-1945, Germans experienced dramatic changes in their political environment. This lecture class will examine these changes, taking into account not only political history, but also attempts to come to terms with the challenges posed by organized capitalism, the rise and fall of socialism, the development of an interventionist state, cultural critique, and political culture, the Nazi social revolution, and the Holocaust. Taught in English. Cross-list: HIST 355.

GERM 349 - GERMAN POLITICAL THOUGHT

Short Title: GERMAN POLITICAL THOUGHT

Department: Modrn & Classicl Lit & Culture

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Distribution Group: Distribution Group I

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Upper-Level

Description: Advanced seminar in political thought. Traces the development and influence of one of the most important traditions of modern political thought from the Enlightenment to the present. Topics include: natural law, public sphere, intellectuals and the modern state, civil society, mass democracy. Reading intensive and research oriented. Taught in English.

GERM 351 - HOLOCAUST MEMORY IN MODERN GERMANY

Short Title: HOLOCAUST MEMORY

Department: Modrn & Classicl Lit & Culture

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Distribution Group: Distribution Group I

Credit Hours: 3,4

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Upper-Level

Description: This course traces and examines forms of Holocaust memory and memorialization in film, literature, art, architecture, city planning, museums, and memorials in Germany. For an additional credit hour, students will participate in a week-long trip to Berlin. Instructor Permission Required. Cross-list: HART 387.

GERM 352 - POLITICS OF THE FLESH IN GERMAN LITERATURE, THOUGHT AND FILM

Short Title: THE POLITICS OF THE FLESH

Department: Modrn & Classicl Lit & Culture

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Distribution Group: Distribution Group I

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Upper-Level

Description: This course will introduce students to the complex relation between the sphere of politics and the human body as negotiated in German literature, thought and film. We will examine the practices of power that states wield toward the maximization of “life” and discuss such pressing issues as biopower, eugenics, racism, sexism and genocide. Taught in English.

GERM 361 - THE AGE OF GOETHE: POETRY AND TRUTH

Short Title: AGE OF GOETHE: POETRY & TRUTH

Department: Modrn & Classicl Lit & Culture

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Upper-Level

Description: The "Age of Goethe" is generally referred to as the "classical" decade of German literature and culture. It was, however, by no means exclusively the age of Goethe and Schiller, but also of Kant and Herder, Holderlin and Kleist, and the beginning of the Romantic movement. While German intellectuals debated revolution in the lofty realm of letters, their French contemporaries took to the streets and staged a political revolution that culminated in the execution of their king. Germany as the "land of the poets and philosophers" is a myth indeed, and a rather ambivalent one, too. The course explores the age of Goethe, its "poetry" and its "truth," by way of reading key texts of that period in their intellectual, historical, and political contexts. Taught in German.

GERM 362 - NEW REALITIES: LITERATURE AND POLITICS IN THE 19TH CENTURY

Short Title: 19TH C. LITERATURE & POLITICS

Department: Modrn & Classicl Lit & Culture

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Upper-Level

Description: In German arts and letters, the nineteenth century is usually referred to as the age of Realism. As a reaction to Neo-Classicism, Romanticism, and Idealism, intellectual life turned towards the new realities in the sciences as well as society and politics. Industrialization, urbanization, the social question, women's liberation and the founding of the "Reich" created a new sense of reality and gave way to new forms of expression in literature and the arts. While optimism regarding the process of mankind prevailed, pessimism spread amongst the more thoughtful. Readings include texts by Heine, Fontaine, Keller, Hauptmann, Marx, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche. Taught in German.

GERM 363 - THE WEIMAR REPUBLIC, 1919-1933

Short Title: THE WEIMAR REPUBLIC, 1919-1933

Department: Modrn & Classicl Lit & Culture

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Upper-Level

Description: Seminar in Germany's first democracy and one of the most formative moments of modernity. Covers political culture, constitutional conflict, literary and intellectual movements and urban visual culture from the end of the First World War and the spectacular modernity of 1920s Berlin to the rise of the Nazis. Taught in German.

GERM 364 - THE EXPRESSIONIST VISION OF "NEW MAN"

Short Title: EXPRESSIONIST VISION

Department: Modrn & Classicl Lit & Culture

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Upper-Level

Description: Inspired by Nietzsche's concept of the "Superman," the Expressionist writers and artists (roughly between 1910 and 1920) strived towards a total renewal of society. They attached its patriarchal foundation, blamed the anonymity of the metropolitan mass society with the newly formed proletariat on hand and the materialistic life-style on the other for the general dissociation of individuals. The major literary forms were poetry and drama, which were either activist or experimenting with newly created metaphors. The prose employs the genre of the grotesque. The visual artists are influenced by van Gogh. As a totally new medium, the film incorporates all these aspects and elements. Taught in German.

GERM 380 - GERMAN HISTORY IN FILM: INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVES

Short Title: GERMAN HISTORY IN FILM

Department: Modrn & Classicl Lit & Culture

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Distribution Group: Distribution Group I

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Upper-Level

Description: This course explores how German history and its effects on Europe and the world have been presented in international film. Special attention will be paid to films dealing with traumatic moments and developments before, during and after World War I, World War II, the Holocaust and the Cold War.

GERM 399 - THE GERMAN STUDIES INTERNSHIP

Short Title: THE GERMAN STUDIES INTERNSHIP

Department: Modrn & Classicl Lit & Culture

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Internship/Practicum

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Upper-Level

Description: The Office of the Dean of humanities and relevant faculty from German Studies match students individually with one of a variety of projects in the areas of diplomacy, engineering, pedagogy, public culture. Students conduct research or related activities under the guidance of on-site supervisor and the section instructor on record. Instructor Permission Required.

GERM 401 - TOPICS IN GERMAN LITERATURE AND CULTURE

Short Title: TOPICS IN GERMAN

Department: Modrn & Classicl Lit & Culture

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 1-3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Upper-Level

Description: This course will work with sophisticated texts to enable students to bring their proficiency in the various modalities of German to the advanced level. Taught in German. Repeatable for Credit.

GERM 402 - GERMAN TRANSLATION

Short Title: GERMAN TRANSLATION

Department: Modrn & Classicl Lit & Culture

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Upper-Level

Description: Advanced seminar on German-English translations. With stylistic exercises covering a broad range of genres: poetry, novels, essays, historical documents, legal documents, journalism, etc. Taught in German. Effective May 15, 2019, this course does not carry D1 credit.

GERM 410 - THE POLITICS OF GERMAN FILM (IN GERMAN)

Short Title: THE POLITICS OF GERMAN FILM

Department: Modrn & Classicl Lit & Culture

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Upper-Level

Description: This course explores film in the context of German politics and history. It examines why film has been such a contested subject in German philosophy and the social sciences. Assignments will include films from the Weimar Republic and Nazi Germany to postwar New German Cinema and today’s filmic presentation of German history and politics.  Selected directors include: Maren Ade, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, Werner Herzog, Fritz Lang, Margarete von Trotta, and Tom Tykwer. The course also provides an introduction to German film theory examining selected works by Theodor W. Adorno, Walter Benjamin, Siegfried Kracauer, and Georg Lukács.Taught in German.

GERM 411 - THE POETICS OF JUSTCE IN GERMAN LITERATURE, THOUGHT, AND FILM

Short Title: THE POETICS OF JUSTICE

Department: Modrn & Classicl Lit & Culture

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Upper-Level

Description: Seminar will introduce students to the ongoing concern with law and its relation to justice in German literature, thought, and film. We will examine works that stage actual and figurative trials, and will ask how these enactments serve as a catalyst for civilization's most pressing normative questions.

GERM 420 - GERMAN POLITICS/CULTURE AFTER 1945

Short Title: GERM. POLI/CULTURE AFTER 1945

Department: Modrn & Classicl Lit & Culture

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Upper-Level

Description: Advanced seminar on German culture and politics after the Second World War -- from the foundation of the Federal Republic, the separation of the two Germanys, and the student revolts of 1968 to 1970s terrorism, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and Germany's present role in the international community. Taught in German.

GERM 425 - VIENNA AND ITS PEOPLE

Short Title: VIENNA AND ITS PEOPLE

Department: Modrn & Classicl Lit & Culture

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Upper-Level

Description: In this course we will look at the people of Vienna from the turn of the century to the present. Our readings, film viewings and discussions will introduce us to the Viennese as people of all classes and ethnic and national groups. Taught in German. Recommended Prerequisite(s): Intermediate high proficiency (speaking & writing).

GERM 430 - GERMAN INTELLECTUAL HISTORY

Short Title: GERMAN INTELLECTUAL HISTORY

Department: Modrn & Classicl Lit & Culture

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Upper-Level

Description: Advanced Seminar on key topics in modern German intellectual history, including history of science and scholarship, from 1700 to the present. Ideal preparation for graduate school in the humanities. Taught in German.

GERM 435 - CONCEPTS OF HISTORY FROM G.E. LESSING TO W. BENJAMIN

Short Title: CONCEPTS OF HISTORY

Department: Modrn & Classicl Lit & Culture

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Upper-Level

Description: The twentieth-century Italian philosopher Benedetto Croce called philosophy of history (Geschichtsphilosophie) a "German discipline." There is indeed a long and rich tradition of texts in German thought that focus on making sense of the seemingly senseless, on speculating about the origin, the course, the aim, or, quite generally, the "meaning" of history. Based on selected texts by Lessing, Kant, Heine, Hegel, Nietzsche, Ranke, Burckhardt, Benjamin, and others, the course discusses different concepts of history from the early eighteenth to the twentieth century. Taught in German.

GERM 477 - SPECIAL TOPICS

Short Title: SPECIAL TOPICS

Department: Cntr Lang & Intercultural Comm

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar, Lecture, Laboratory, Internship/Practicum

Credit Hours: 1-4

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Upper-Level

Description: Topics and credit hours vary each semester. Contact department for current semester's topic(s). Repeatable for Credit.

GERM 491 - FALL - INDEPENDENT WORK IN GERMAN LITERATURE

Short Title: FALL-IND WRK GERM LITERATURE

Department: Modrn & Classicl Lit & Culture

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Independent Study

Credit Hours: 1-3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Upper-Level

Description: Qualified students work on projects of their choice under the supervision of individual instructors with approval of the undergraduate advisor. Department Permission Required. Repeatable for Credit.

GERM 492 - SPRING - INDEPENDENT WORK IN GERMAN LITERATURE

Short Title: SPRING-IND WRK GERM LITERATURE

Department: Modrn & Classicl Lit & Culture

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Independent Study

Credit Hours: 1-3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Upper-Level

Description: Qualified students work on projects of their choice under the supervision of individual instructors with approval of the undergraduate advisor. Department Permission Required. Repeatable for Credit.

GERM 493 - FALL HONOR THESIS

Short Title: FALL HONOR THESIS

Department: Modrn & Classicl Lit & Culture

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Research

Credit Hours: 3-6

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Upper-Level

Description: Independent research projects by outstanding German majors leading to a substantial honors thesis, undertaken in close cooperation with a departmental faculty member. Department Permission Required.

GERM 494 - SPRING HONORS THESIS

Short Title: SPRING HONOR THESIS

Department: Modrn & Classicl Lit & Culture

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Research

Credit Hours: 3-6

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Upper-Level

Description: Independent research projects by outstanding German majors leading to a substantial honors thesis, undertaken in close cooperation with a department faculty member. Department Permission Required.

GERM 541 - FIRST-YEAR GERMAN I FOR GRADUATE STUDENTS

Short Title: 1ST YR GERMAN I FOR GRAD STUD

Department: Cntr Lang & Intercultural Comm

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Graduate level students.

Course Level: Graduate

Description: This course is targeted at graduate students of different disciplines as an introduction to the fundamentals of listening, reading, writing, spoken production and interaction in German. This course is student-centered, uses a critical-thinking approach and intends to make students aware of contextualized language use and socioculturally significant interactions.

GERM 542 - FIRST-YEAR GERMAN II FOR GRADUATE STUDENTS

Short Title: 1ST YR GERMAN II FOR GRAD STUD

Department: Cntr Lang & Intercultural Comm

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Graduate level students.

Course Level: Graduate

Prerequisite(s): GERM 541

Description: This course builds on GERM 541. Based on an active student-centered critical-thinking approach, this course wants to make students aware of language use in context and socioculturally significant interactions. The emphasis is on interactional communication, reading, writing, translations, and intercultural awareness and understanding.

Course URL: clicgerman.blogs.rice.edu

GERM 677 - SPECIAL TOPICS

Short Title: SPECIAL TOPICS

Department: Cntr Lang & Intercultural Comm

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Internship/Practicum, Laboratory, Lecture, Seminar, Independent Study, Lecture/Laboratory

Credit Hours: 1-4

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Graduate level students.

Course Level: Graduate

Description: Topics and credit hours may vary each semester. Contact department for current semester's topic(s). Repeatable for Credit.