German Studies

GERMAN 15SC. Berlin: A City and its Immigrants -- German Immersion. 2 Units.

We designed this course for students who have some German, and who want to jump-start their language acquisition through an intense and immersive experience. If you have taken two or three quarters of German, or if you took German in high school, this course will allow you to dramatically improve your proficiency, all the while immersing you in German music, film, literature and journalism. Our main thematic focus will the city of Berlin, and the many groups that have migrated there over the years: their experiences and artistic creations, from concertos to hip hop videos, from poems to comic books, and from classic films to viral videos will be our guides through both a fascinating city and a fascinating language. Sophomore College course: Applications required, March 1 - April 5, 2016. Apply at http://soco.stanford.edu.

GERMAN 41N. Inventing Modern Theatre: Georg Büchner and Frank Wedekind. 3 Units.

The German writers Georg Büchner (1813-1837) and Frank Wedekind (1864-1918). Many of the most important theater and film directors of the last century, including Max Reinhardt, G. W. Pabst, Orson Welles, Robert Wilson, and Werner Herzog, have wrestled with their works, as have composers and writers from Alban Berg and Bertolt Brecht through Christa Wolf and Thalia Field. Rock artists as diverse as Tom Waits, Lou Reed, Duncan Sheik, and Metallica have recently rediscovered their urgency. Reading these works in translation and examining artistic creations they inspired. Classroom discussions and written responses; students also rehearse and present in-class performances of excerpts from the plays. The aim of these performances is not to produce polished stagings but to creatively engage with the texts and their interpretive traditions. No previous theatrical experience required.
Same as: TAPS 41N

GERMAN 45. Crimes Against Humanity. 5 Units.

What is a crime against humanity and how can it be punished? Starting with the Nuremberg Trials, this seminar will consider how the juridical category of crimes against humanity came into existence and has evolved over the past half century. Thinking through core questions posed by Hannah Arendt, we will consider how crimes against humanity are to be understood in the context of modern jurisprudence, who perpetrates such crimes, and what relationship exists between crimes against humanity and modernity. Priority given to history majors and minors.
Same as: HISTORY 4S

GERMAN 80N. Modern Conservatives. 3 Units.

How do conservatives respond to the modern world? How do they find a balance between tradition and freedom, or between stability and change? This seminar will examine selections from some conservative and some classically liberal writers that address these questions. At the center of the course are thinkers who left Germany and Austria before the Second World War: Friedrich Hayek, Leo Strauss and Hannah Arendt. We will also look at earlier European writers, such Edmund Burke and Friedrich Nietzsche, as well as some recent American thinkers. Taught in English.

GERMAN 88. Germany in 5 Words. 3-5 Units.

This course explores German history, culture and politics by tracing five (largely untranslatable) words and exploring the debates they have engendered in Germany over the past 200 years. This course is intended as preparation for students wishing to spend a quarter at the Bing Overseas Studies campus in Berlin, but is open to everyone. Taught in English.

GERMAN 88Q. Gateways to the World: Germany in 5 Words. 3-5 Units.

This course explores German history, culture and politics by tracing five (largely untranslatable) words and exploring the debates they have engendered in Germany over the past 200 years. This course is intended as preparation for students wishing to spend a quarter at the Bing Overseas Studies campus in Berlin, but is open to everyone. Preference to Sophomores. Taught in English.

GERMAN 103N. Why Humans Matter. 3 Units.

We consider various mythic and religious conceptions of the human from antiquity to Renaissance humanism, key documents of modern secular humanism, and literary works that raise probing questions about humanity. What is peculiar to humans against the foil of animal life forms? Is there a human nature at all, or perhaps a human calling, that might transcend differences among people? Contemporary debates about the limits of the human species, the aspiration to overcome such limits through science, and ecological challenges to traditional views of humans' place in the world.

GERMAN 104. Resistance Writings in Nazi Germany. 3 Units.

This course focuses on documents generated by nonmilitary resistance groups during the period of National Socialism. Letters, essays, diaries, and statements on ethics from the Bonhoeffer and Scholl families form the core of the readings. The resistance novel, Every Man Dies Alone, is also included. Texts will be read as historical documents, reflections of German thought, statements of conscience, attempts to maintain normal relationships with others in the face of great risk, as poetic works, and as guides for the development of an ethical life. Taught in English.

GERMAN 105. Going Medieval: Introduction to Freiburg, Germany, and its Surrounding Region. 1 Unit.

This course offers an introduction to materials that are pertinent to the BOSP summer seminar "Going Medieval" offered in summer 2015. It is a required course for participants of the seminar.
Same as: DLCL 105

GERMAN 113N. Theatre and Politics. 3 Units.

The theatre is a public forum where politics is both represented and enacted. In this seminar we will examine four theatrical artists who have wrestled with urgent political questions of their time and ours: William Shakespeare, Georg Büchner, Bertolt Brecht, and Anna Deveare Smith. nnQuestions we will consider include: How does Shakespeare¿s Hamlet raise questions about a sovereign¿s right to rule? What might a play such as Büchner¿s Danton¿s Death¿set during the one of the bloodiest periods of the French Revolution¿suggest about the relationship between terrorism and reason? What does a musical such as Brecht¿s Threepenny Opera demonstrate about strategies of mass manipulation? And how could a performance piece such as Smith¿s Twilight: Los Angeles help us better understand the dynamics of police brutality and urban riot? nnIn this course, we will read seven plays, delve into their cultural contexts, and watch film and live versions of them, including field trips to at area theatres. We will also try our hand at staging some scenes in class, in order to get a better sense of the sorts of choices these plays require. Your assignments will include short papers and regular postings on an online discussion board. All readings and discussions will be in English, and no prior theatrical experience is necessary.

GERMAN 116. Writing About Germany: New Topics, New Genres. 3-4 Units.

Writing about various topics in German Studies. Topics based on student interests: current politics, economics, European affairs, start-ups in Germany. Intensive focus on writing. Students may write on their experience at Stanford in Berlin or their internship. Fulfills the WIM requirement for German Studies majors.

GERMAN 118N. From Mozart to Metal, Germany in 99 Songs. 3-5 Units.

This course explores 200 years of German history and culture through popular songs -- the good, the bad and the very, very goofy. From songs composed by classical composers, via folksongs and operettas, all the way to punk, hip-hop, techno and heavy metal, this course explores the evolution of German popular culture and history. Prerequisite: 1 year of German.

GERMAN 120. Contemporary Politics in Germany. 3-5 Units.

This course provides an opportunity to engage with issues and actors, politicians and parties in contemporary Germany, while building German language abilities. We will work with current events texts, news reports, speeches and websites. Course goals include building analytic and interpretive capacities of political topics in today's Europe, including the European Union, foreign policy, and environmentalism. Differences between US and German political culture are a central topic. At least one year German language study required.

GERMAN 120N. The Brothers Grimm and Their Fairy Tales. 4 Units.

Historical, biographical, linguistic, and literary look at the Kinder- and Hausmarchen of Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. Readings from the fairy tales, plus materials in other media such as film and the visual arts. Four short essays, one or two oral reports. Preference to Freshmen; class then opens to all. Fulfills WIM for German majors (must be taken for letter grade.) In German.

GERMAN 120Q. Contemporary Politics in Germany. 3-4 Units.

This course provides an opportunity to engage with issues and actors, politicians and parties in contemporary Germany, while building German language abilities. We will work with current events texts, news reports, speeches and websites. Course goals include building analytic and interpretive capacities of political topics in today's Europe, including the European Union, foreign policy, and environmentalism. Differences between US and German political culture are a central topic. At least one year German language study required.

GERMAN 121. Why So Serious? German Earnestness and its Cultural Origin. 3-5 Units.

The stereotype of Germans having no sense of humor and being overly serious is a very persistent one. This course searches for the origins of this cultural stereotype and explores how this mentality manifests itself in modern German thought, literature, cinema, and popular culture. Do Germans find a particular joy in entertaining serious and depressive thoughts? Can we distinguish between different facets and styles of `genuinely German¿ seriousness? And finally, can we understand German culture better through an understanding of their genuine seriousness? Materials include works by: the brothers Grimm, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Murnau, Benn, Fassbinder, Bernhard, Adorno, Haneke. Taught in German. Prerequisite: GERLANG 1-3, or equivalent.

GERMAN 123. German Culture and Film. 3-5 Units.

This course has two primary goals. First, it is designed to provide students with a visual and linguistic foundation for discussing and writing about German film from the Weimar period to the present. To that end we will review important genres, directors, and technological developments in the history of German film. Second, using film as a lens, we will examine several key moments in German cultural history from the 1920s to the present. Certain themes will reoccur throughout the course, including gender, the city, technology, violence, and social crisis. All materials and class discussion in German.(Meets Writing-in-the-Major requirement).

GERMAN 124. Introduction to German Lyric Poetry. 3-5 Units.

Introduction to lyric poetry in German from the 18th century to the present. Readings include poems by Goethe, Holderlin, Brentano, Eichendorff, Heine, Rilke, Trakl, Celan, Brecht. Ways of thinking about and thinking with poetry. Focus on poetic form, voice, figural language, and the interaction of sensory registers. Taught in German, with attention to discussion and writing skills. Prerequisite: GERLANG 1-3 or equivalent.

GERMAN 126. Old Stories, New Media: Great German Tales and their Adaptations. 3-5 Units.

There are some characters that we see again and again: the love-struck artist, the mad genius, and the valiant hero. Where do these tropes come from? How do they evolve through history? This course will survey German history through the eyes of some of its most well-known stories. We will explore how audience, medium, cultural ideals, and historical changes can transform the meaning of a narrative over time. The central aim of this course is to provide students with an analytical framework with which to approach an unfamiliar work of art or literature. The course also aims to improve students¿ German language proficiency and give students a broad understanding of German intellectual history. Taught in German.

GERMAN 127. Modernity, Memory, Mourning: 20th Century German Short Fiction. 3-5 Units.

Through a sampling of short stories and novellas from 1918 to 1952, this course will explore major historical and cultural questions related to Germany in the early 20th century. Students will develop an understanding of recent German history and of how German writers have chosen to engage with this history in various ways. Themes will include the impact of modernity on the individual, violence and war, fascism and its effect on personal agency, exile and mourning, memory and trauma, and tradition and its breakdown. Authors include Kafka, Mann, Seghers, and Böll. Readings and discussion in German.

GERMAN 128N. Medicine, Modernism, and Mysticism in Thomas Mann's the Magic Mountain. 3 Units.

Published in 1924, The Magic Mountain is a novel of education, tracing the intellectual growth of a budding engineer through a maze of intellectual encounters during a seven- year sojourn in a sanatorium set high in the Swiss Alps. It engages with the key themes of modernism: the relativity of time, the impact of psychoanalysis, the power of myth, and an extended dispute between an optimistic belief in progress and a pessimistic vision of human nature. Through its detailed discussion of disease (tuberculosis), this remarkable text connects the study of medicine to the humanities. There will be an exploration of this rich and profound novel both as a document of early twentieth-century Europe and as a commentary on the possibilities of education that are urgent for liberal arts education today. Taught in English.

GERMAN 130N. Nobel Prize Winners in German Literature. 3 Units.

Readings from some of the best German-language authors, including Thomas Mann, Hermann Hesse, Heinrich Boll and Herta Muller. How imaginative literature engages with history, and how great authors address the major questions in politics and philosophy in modern Germany. Taught in German. German language equivalent to high school AP.

GERMAN 131. What is German Literature?. 3-5 Units.

This course covers material from the fairy tales of German romanticism, expressionist poetry and painting, literary responses to Nazi Germany and reflections on a unified Germany. Exploring the shifting relationships between cultural aesthetics, entertainment, historical context, and "what is German", we will cover roughly 250 years of literary and artistic production, social and political upheavals, as well as the lives of numerous authors, both male and female. Taught in German. Prerequisite: One year of German language at Stanford or equivalent.

GERMAN 132. Dynasties, Dictators and Democrats: History and Politics in Germany. 3-5 Units.

Key moments in German history through documents: personal accounts, political speeches and texts, and literary works. The course begins with the Prussian monarchy and proceeds to the crisis years of the French Revolution. Documents from the 1848 revolution and the age of Bismarck and German unification follow. World War I and its impact on Germany, including the rise of Hitler, as well as the aftermath, divided Germany in the Cold War through the fall of the Berlin Wall. Taught in German.
Same as: COMPLIT 132A

GERMAN 133. Marx, Nietzsche, Freud. 3-5 Units.

We read and discuss selections from works by the key master thinkers who have exerted a lasting influence by debunking long-cherished beliefs. Do these authors uphold or repudiate Enlightenment notions of rationality, autonomy and progress? How do they assess the achievements of civilization? How do their works illuminate the workings of power in social and political contexts? Readings and discussion in German.

GERMAN 137. Hysteria and Modern Culture. 3-5 Units.

The term "hysteria" has been used for centuries to categorize the mysterious ailments of others. This course will focus on the history of hysteria's representation and production from the late nineteenth century through WWI. Readings will include medical writings (Charcot, Bernheim, Freud), plays (Ibsen, Strindberg, Toller), and feminist theory (Cixous, Clément, Diamond). We will also devote some attention to the ongoing influence of the discourse of hysteria on contemporary medical and popular cultures.
Same as: HUMBIO 162H, TAPS 169

GERMAN 140. German Sports Culture and History. 3-5 Units.

The course highlights specificities of sports in Germany and thus provides a unique point of access for understanding German culture in past and present. Concepts of competition and performance will be examined, as well as the relations between sports and politics in different periods of modern German history. Special attention will be given to soccer, but boxing, cycling, gymnastics (Turnen), and other Olympic sports will be studied as well. Materials will include theoretical and literary texts in English and German, media representations of athletic contests. To improve writing skills students will write a weekly essay on various phenomena. Language: German, requirement: one year of college German or equivalent.

GERMAN 150. Masterpieces: Kafka. 3-5 Units.

This class will address major works by Franz Kafka and consider Kafka as a modernist writer whose work reflects on modernity. We will also examine the role of Kafka's themes and poetics in the work of contemporary writers.
Same as: COMPLIT 114, JEWISHST 145

GERMAN 154. Poetic Thinking Across Media. 4 Units.

Even before Novalis claimed that the world must be romanticized, thinkers, writers, and artists wanted to perceive the human and natural world poetically. The pre- and post-romantic poetic modes of thinking they created are the subject of this course. Readings include Ecclestias, Zhaozhou Congshen, Montaigne, Nietzsche, Kafka, Benjamin, Arendt, and Sontag. This course will also present poetic thinking in the visual arts--from the expressionism of Ingmar Bergman to the neo-romanticism of Gerhard Richter.
Same as: COMPLIT 154B, COMPLIT 354B, GERMAN 354, JEWISHST 144B

GERMAN 181. Philosophy and Literature. 5 Units.

Required gateway course for Philosophical and Literary Thought; crosslisted in departments sponsoring the Philosophy and Literature track. Majors should register in their home department; non-majors may register in any sponsoring department. Introduction to major problems at the intersection of philosophy and literature, with particular focus on the question of value: what, if anything, does engagement with literary works do for our lives? Issues include aesthetic self-fashioning, the paradox of tragedy, the paradox of caring, the truth-value of fiction, metaphor, authorship, irony, make-believe, expression, edification, clarification, and training. Readings are drawn from literature and film, philosophical theories of art, and stylistically interesting works of philosophy. Authors may include Sophocles, Chaucer, Dickinson, Proust, Woolf, Borges, Beckett, Kundera, Charlie Kaufman; Barthes, Foucault, Nussbaum, Walton, Nehamas; Plato, Montaigne, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, and Sartre. Taught in English.
Same as: CLASSICS 42, COMPLIT 181, ENGLISH 81, FRENCH 181, ITALIAN 181, PHIL 81, SLAVIC 181

GERMAN 182. War and Warfare in Germany. 3 Units.

Survey of Germany at war through historical, theoretical and literary accounts. War in the international system and the role of technology. Religious wars, rationalization of warfare, violence and politics, terrorism. War films, such as All Quiet on the Western Front. Readings by authors such as Clausewitz, Jünger, Remarque, Schimtt, and Arendt. Taught in English.

GERMAN 184. Technology, Innovation, and the History of the Book. 3-5 Units.

An historical perspective on the intellectual and social impact of developments in information technology will be examined. Focusing on the evolution of media from scrolls to codices to printed books we will look at the social, historical, cultural, and economic sources and ramifications of innovation in media and information technology, and explore why such innovation occurs in certain places and within certain social groups and not others. Examples draw from German cultural history, e.g. Gutenberg and the printing press, but also from the broader European history of the book. Students will have the opportunity to work with historical materials from Special Collections. Taught in English.

GERMAN 190. German Capstone: Reading Franz Kafka. 3-5 Units.

This class will address major works by Franz Kafka and consider Kafka as a modernist writer whose work reflects on modernity. We will also examine the role of Kafka's themes and poetics in the work of contemporary writers. (Meets Writing-in-the-Major requirement).
Same as: COMPLIT 111, COMPLIT 311C, GERMAN 390, JEWISHST 147, JEWISHST 349

GERMAN 191. German Capstone Project. 1 Unit.

Each student participates in a capstone interview and discussion with a panel of the German Studies faculty on topics related to German cultural and literary analysis. In prepration for the interview/discussion, students submit written answers to a set of questions based on several authentic cultural texts in German. The written answers, normally in English, should be well-formed and coherent. Within the interview/discussion, students must demonstrate a further understanding of the topic(s) posed, through cogent argument.

GERMAN 199. Individual Work. 1-12 Unit.

Repeatable for Credit. Instructor Consent Required.

GERMAN 200. The Ballad Tradition. 3-5 Units.

This team-taught cross-disciplinary course traces the history and aesthetics of the ballad in German, English, and Scottish literature, from the 18th century to the early 20th century. No knowledge of German is required, but reading knowledge is a plus.
Same as: COMPLIT 227A

GERMAN 217. The Poetry of Friedrich Holderlin. 3-5 Units.

A working through of the complex prosodic forms, existential and political concerns, and poetological reflections of both the most past-oriented and most pathbreaking German poet of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. A comprehensive introduction that will attempt to develop an innovative view in which Holderlin will appear as one of the founding figures of literary Modernity. Knowledge of German desirable but participation through English translations will be possible.
Same as: COMPLIT 217

GERMAN 218. Central European Literature. 4 Units.

Central Europe is not a clearly defined region so much as an idea debated with particular intensity in the successor states of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. Part reality part fantasy, "Central Europe" refers to a contested space between East and West, between cosmopolitanism and provincial narrowness, a space whose diversity has fostered cultural creativity, political conflict and utopian fantasy. Our survey will focus on fiction, memoires and essayistic commentary from the successor states of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. It will comprise the dissolution of the empire, the interwar years, the Cold War decades and the postcommunist era. Attention to the predicament of small nations, "minor" literatures and cultural cross-pollination. Authors include Musil, Kafka, Roth, Kosztolányi, Márai, Hasek, Svevo, Kis, Torberg, Hrabal, Kundera, Esterházy, Magris. Discussion and readings in English.

GERMAN 220. German Literature 1: How Stories are Told (ca. 1170-1600). 1-5 Unit.

This seminar offers a survey of medieval and early modern German literature and culture from ca.800 to 1600. This year we will focus primarily on heroic epic and tales of fortune. Most texts are available only in German. Advanced reading knowledge of German required. Discussion in English.
Same as: GERMAN 320

GERMAN 221. German Literature 2: Selfhood and History. 1-5 Unit.

How the literature of the period between 1750 and 1900 gives voice to new conceptions of selfhood and articulates the emergent self understanding of modernity. Responses to unprecedented historical experiences such as the French Revolution and the ensuing wars, changes in the understanding of nature, the crisis of foundations, and the persistence of theological motifs. Lessing, Herder, Goethe, Schiller, Holderlin, Kleist, Heine, Buchner, Keller, and Fontane. Taught in English, readings in German. (Note: Fulfills DLCL 325 for AY 1415 for the PhD Minor in the Humanities).
Same as: COMPLIT 321A, GERMAN 321

GERMAN 222. German Literature 3: Myth and Modernity. 1-5 Unit.

Masters of German 20th- and 21st-Century literature and philosophy as they present aesthetic innovation and confront the challenges of modern technology, social alienation, manmade catastrophes, and imagine the future. Readings include Nietzsche, Freud, Rilke, Musil, Brecht, Kafka, Doeblin, Benjamin, Juenger, Arendt, Musil, Mann, Adorno, Celan, Grass, Bachmann, Bernhardt, Wolf, and Kluge. Taught in English. Undergraduates enroll in 222 for 5 units, graduate students enroll in 322 for 8 units.
Same as: COMPLIT 222A, GERMAN 322

GERMAN 223. GERMANY BETWEEN EAST AND WEST. 3-5 Units.

A consideration of German political culture and its contradictory orientations toward alternative poles: the Russian East and the American West. How historical traditions inform current debates, such as the response to the Ukraine crisis. Conflicts between liberal and populist paradigms, enlightenment and romantic legacies. Germany and its geopolitical imagination. The German image of Russia. Texts such as Th. Mann, ¿The German Republic,¿ Carl Schmitt, Land and Sea, Wolf, Divided Heaven, and documents of contemporary popular culture.

GERMAN 239. Queer Theory. 1-5 Unit.

This course is designed to introduce graduate students and advanced undergraduates to the core texts of queer theory. Topics will include: the relationship between queer theory and feminism, between queer theory and psychoanalysis, and between queer theory and gay and lesbian history. At the same time, the course will investigate how queer theory has been put to use in literary study, musicology and art history.
Same as: FEMGEN 239

GERMAN 240. Short Fiction as Genre. 3-5 Units.

Exploration of various short fictional forms in German literature and their narrative capacities. Selections from the eighteenth century to the present.

GERMAN 245. German Idealist and Romantic Aesthetics. 3-5 Units.

Focus on influential theories of aesthetic experience as an autonomous cultural domain that supplements science and morality. How the discovery of beauty and sublimity in nature led to an unprecedented celebration of art as the highest form of human activity. The problem of the relation between aesthetic experience and conceptual understanding. Readings by Kant, Schiller, Friedrich Schlegel, Schelling, Hegel, and more recent responses to their works. Taught in English.

GERMAN 246. Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit. 3-5 Units.

Hegel's groundbreaking work models the mind's efforts to understand itself and tells a historically rich story of the evolution of social forms of life. The book begins with basic sensory awareness and ends with the recognition that thought is not finite and constrained by an inert reality but absolutely free, the only source of authority for modern subjects. Topics include the question of whether the human standpoint is inherently limited and fixed, the role of history, knowledge and agency, political conflict and power, rationality and religion, the ancient and the modern world.

GERMAN 250. Humanities Education in the Changing University. 3 Units.

Advanced study in the humanities faces changes within fields, the university and the wider culture. Considers the debate over the status of the humanities with regard to historical genealogies and current innovations. Particular attention on changes in doctoral education. Topics include: origins of the research university; disciplines and specialization; liberal education in conflict with professionalization; literature and literacy education; interdisciplinarity as a challenge to departments; education policy; digital humanities; accountability in education, assessment and student-centered pedagogies.
Same as: COMPLIT 275, DLCL 320

GERMAN 251. Youth Culture. 1-5 Unit.

Beginning after World War I, the seminar discusses youth as a special phase in life course in the context of political, social and cultural change. Which tasks and problems did society, schools, and parents submit to youth, and how did that change throughout the history of the twentieth century? Youth cultures of different social classes in Germany, and German youth literature will be analyzed. In the seminar, it will also be discussed if youth and youth culture became of more importance for the growing ups throughout the twentieth century. It will be analyzed, if the generational conflicts in society and families have increased in the twentieth century. The impact of political regimes, economy and media on youth and youth cultures will be discussed, too. The seminar starts with the Bündische Jugend in the Weimar Republic, continues with the Hitler-Jugend in Nazi-Germany and the Halbstarke in the 1950ies and goes to the movement of 1968 at the German universities.

GERMAN 252. F. W. J. Schelling. 1-5 Unit.

Schelling is the most enigmatic figure of German idealism, whose works have influenced a host of theoretical paradigms from existentialism through materialism to psychoanalysis. We will read selections from Schelling's early writings on transcendental philosophy, his philosophy of art and his philosophy of nature. Close attention will be paid to the Treatise on the Essence of Human Freedom, the Weltalter fragments and the late Berlin lectures. Readings and discussion in English, though those who can are invited to read the original.

GERMAN 258. Song Collections as a Reflection of Social and Political Practices at the Hapsburg Court ca. 1500. 3-5 Units.

Artistic endeavors were of crucial importance for Emperor Maximilian¿s self-conception and his notion of an emerging German nation. Up to now it has been investigated particularly by looking at literary and visual artworks commissioned by him. In the seminar musical products of the Imperial court, especially songs will be surveyed as expressions of courtiers, urban patricians and humanists in the German lands. A manuscript collection, which was prepared for the Diet in Augsburg 1518 will be at the core of the course, complemented by an early print from 1512. Besides a panegyric on Maximilian as defender of Christendom against the Turks there are standard lyrics, mostly on the theme of love and some merry topics, punctuated by a considerable amount of politically conceived texts, complaining about grievances and social evils at court. Recent approaches have tried to decipher courtly love poems of pre-conversational times as a method of launching social or political opinions in a disguised way. Thus the anthology can be checked as a vehicle of political communication. Philological aspects of source description, material, layout and handwriting will also be examined. Additionally, excursions to Early Modern High German and to musical procedures will be undertaken.

GERMAN 262. The Total Work of Art. 5 Units.

Frequently associated with the work of Richard Wagner, The Total Work of Art (or Gesamtkunstwerk) is a genre that aims to synthesize a range of artistic forms into an organic unity, a unity that both models and helps to forge an ideal state. This seminar will examine the history of the Gesamtkunstwerk from its roots in German Romanticism to the present day, focusing on the genre's relations with technology and mass culture across a wide range of media. Creations we will consider include Wagner's Festival Theatre at Bayreuth, Walter Gropius' plans for a Totaltheater, Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill's radio-oratorio The Lindbergh Flight, Leni Riefenstahl's Triumph of the Will, Walt Disney's theme parks, Andy Warhol's Exploding Plastic Inevitable, and Bill Gates' "home of the future." Taught in English.
Same as: TAPS 262S

GERMAN 262A. Explosions of Enlightenment. 3-5 Units.

Eighteenth-century culture seen as permeated by intellectual and artistic practices and plays pushing principles of reason and rationality to an extreme that becomes self-undercutting. Such obsessions and practices are becoming more visible and prominent now, as the traditional concept of "Enlightenment" (synonymous with the 18th century) is undergoing a profound transformation. Among the protagonists of this seminar will be: Diderot as a philosopher and novelist; Lichtenberg as a scientist and writer of everyday notes; Goya, accusing violence and obsessed with nightmarish visions; Mozart as the excessive master of repetition and variation.
Same as: COMPLIT 262A

GERMAN 264. Post-Cold War German Foreign Policy. 3-5 Units.

This course is devoted to Germany's role and policy in international relations since 1990. It is based on the premise that Germany's post-Cold War foreign policy was shaped by two potentially conflicting impulses which is historical learning versus the country's economic role and geopolitical position. The course's objective is to make students familiar with the overall conditions of German Foreign Policy in the post-Cold War era and to analyze related tensions and dilemmas. Empirical examples are Germany's role in the Yugoslavian wars in the first half of the 1990s, the transatlantic crisis over the Iraq war of 2003 and Germany's engagement in Afghanistan and German Foreign Policy during the country's tenure as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council 2011-2012. Discussion in English; German reading knowledge required.

GERMAN 264A. Walter Benjamin. 3-5 Units.

Walter Benjamin's work as cultural historian, critic, literary author and philosopher, seen from the trajectory of a German-Jewish intellectual life in the context of the first half of the 20th century. Providing such a historical perspective will be the condition for an actively critical reading of Benjamin's works; a reading that -- counter to the predominant Benjamin-reception -- will try to distinguish between works of purely biographical and historical interest and those Benjamin texts that prove to be of great and lasting intellectual value. Taught in English.
Same as: COMPLIT 264

GERMAN 271. Futurity: Why the Past Matters. 3-5 Units.

Drawing on literature, the arts, political discourse, museums, and new media, this course asks why and how we take interest in the watershed events of the modern era; how does contemporary culture engages with modern, made-made disasters such as the World Wars or 9/11? Readings and viewings include the literature of G. Grass, W. G. Sebald, Ian McEwan, Toni Morrison and Cormac McCarthy; the cinema of Kathryn Bigelow and Steven Spielberg; speeches by Barak Obama; and the theoretical writing of Walter Benjamin, Hayden White, Fredric Jameson, among others. Taught in English.
Same as: COMPLIT 271A

GERMAN 282. Martin Heidegger. 3-5 Units.

Working through the most systematically important texts by Martin Heidegger and their historical moments and challenges, starting with Being and Time (1927), but emphasizing his philosophical production after World War II. The philological and historical understanding of the texts function as a condition for the laying open of their systematic provocations within our own (early 21st-century) situations. Satisfies the capstone seminar requirement for the major tracks in Philosophy and Literature. Taught in English.
Same as: COMPLIT 213A, COMPLIT 313A, GERMAN 382

GERMAN 283. Brecht. 3-5 Units.

Arguably the most influential theatrical artist of the twentieth century, Bertolt Brecht continues to be a lightning rod for debates over art and politics. This course will consider Brecht as playwright, director, and theorist. Alongside reading and discussing texts such as Threepenny Opera, Mother Courage, and Galileo, students will also be expected to participate in occasional in-class performances in order better to grapple with his plays and theories. No previous theatrical experience is necessary.
Same as: TAPS 382

GERMAN 284. The Nervous Age: Neurosis, Neurology, and Nineteenth-century Theatre. 5 Units.

The nineteenth century witnessed profound developments in neurological and psychological sciences, developments that fundamentally altered conceptions of embodiment, agency, and mind. This course will place these scientific shifts in conversation with theatrical transformations of the period. We will read nineteenth-century neuropsychologists such as Charles Bell, Johannes Müller, George Miller Beard, Jean-Martin Charcot, and Hippolyte Bernheim alongside artists such as Percy Shelley, Georg Büchner, Richard Wagner, Émile Zola, and August Strindberg.
Same as: HUMBIO 162, TAPS 354

GERMAN 285. Environmentalism, Literature and Cultural Criticism. 3-5 Units.

Concern for environmental threats increasingly draw on traditions of cultural and civilizational criticism. This course explores literary and cultural dimensions of environmentalist discourse, especially in German-speaking Europe but with opportunities for comparative treatments of ecological tendencies in other countries. Topics include: Environmentalism as progressive or as conservative; ambivalence toward technology; sustainability and the critique of growth; humans and animals. Authors such as F. Jünger, Jahnn, Wolf, C. Amery, Dath, with comparisons to Leopold, Atwood, Ghosh, Latouche and others. Reading knowledge of German or permission of instructor.

GERMAN 289. Buechner and Wedekind. 3-5 Units.

Modern theatre owes an incalculable debt to two German playwrights: Georg Büchner (1813-1837) and Frank Wedekind (1864-1918). We will read their still-shocking portraits of sex, madness, and social brutality in plays such as Woyzeck and Spring's Awakening, and explore the international journeys these works have made from stage to film and from opera to musical theatre.
Same as: TAPS 289

GERMAN 298. Writing Workshop. 1-12 Unit.

Open only to German majors and to students working on special projects, including written reports for internships. Honors students use this number for the honors essay. May be repeated for credit.

GERMAN 310A. Music and Critical Theory. 3-5 Units.

The seminar provides an opportunity to study some of the seminal texts of Critical Theory dealing with music. Concentrating on Theodor Adorno's writings on music, we will also include key philosophers who informed Adorno's thinking (in particular Kant, Hegel and Nietzsche), influential nineteenth-century aesthetics of music (Hoffmann, Schopenhauer and Hanslick), other contemporaries of Adorno (for example, Ernst Bloch), and some later authors whose work was influenced by the Frankfurt School (such as Carl Dahlhaus). We will also consider the impact of Critical Theory on recent scholarship. Weekly meetings will be organized around various topics, ranging from central concepts such as "Enlightenment" and "musical material" to individual composers. Music by Wagner, Mahler, Schoenberg, Stravinsky and Weill will feature prominently on the syllabus.
Same as: MUSIC 310A

GERMAN 320. German Literature 1: How Stories are Told (ca. 1170-1600). 1-5 Unit.

This seminar offers a survey of medieval and early modern German literature and culture from ca.800 to 1600. This year we will focus primarily on heroic epic and tales of fortune. Most texts are available only in German. Advanced reading knowledge of German required. Discussion in English.
Same as: GERMAN 220

GERMAN 321. German Literature 2: Selfhood and History. 1-5 Unit.

How the literature of the period between 1750 and 1900 gives voice to new conceptions of selfhood and articulates the emergent self understanding of modernity. Responses to unprecedented historical experiences such as the French Revolution and the ensuing wars, changes in the understanding of nature, the crisis of foundations, and the persistence of theological motifs. Lessing, Herder, Goethe, Schiller, Holderlin, Kleist, Heine, Buchner, Keller, and Fontane. Taught in English, readings in German. (Note: Fulfills DLCL 325 for AY 1415 for the PhD Minor in the Humanities).
Same as: COMPLIT 321A, GERMAN 221

GERMAN 322. German Literature 3: Myth and Modernity. 1-5 Unit.

Masters of German 20th- and 21st-Century literature and philosophy as they present aesthetic innovation and confront the challenges of modern technology, social alienation, manmade catastrophes, and imagine the future. Readings include Nietzsche, Freud, Rilke, Musil, Brecht, Kafka, Doeblin, Benjamin, Juenger, Arendt, Musil, Mann, Adorno, Celan, Grass, Bachmann, Bernhardt, Wolf, and Kluge. Taught in English. Undergraduates enroll in 222 for 5 units, graduate students enroll in 322 for 8 units.
Same as: COMPLIT 222A, GERMAN 222

GERMAN 354. Poetic Thinking Across Media. 4 Units.

Even before Novalis claimed that the world must be romanticized, thinkers, writers, and artists wanted to perceive the human and natural world poetically. The pre- and post-romantic poetic modes of thinking they created are the subject of this course. Readings include Ecclestias, Zhaozhou Congshen, Montaigne, Nietzsche, Kafka, Benjamin, Arendt, and Sontag. This course will also present poetic thinking in the visual arts--from the expressionism of Ingmar Bergman to the neo-romanticism of Gerhard Richter.
Same as: COMPLIT 154B, COMPLIT 354B, GERMAN 154, JEWISHST 144B

GERMAN 369. Introduction to the Profession of "Literary Studies" for Graduate Students. 1-2 Unit.

A history of literary theory for entering graduate students in national literature departments and comparative literature.
Same as: COMPLIT 369, DLCL 369, FRENCH 369, ITALIAN 369

GERMAN 382. Martin Heidegger. 3-5 Units.

Working through the most systematically important texts by Martin Heidegger and their historical moments and challenges, starting with Being and Time (1927), but emphasizing his philosophical production after World War II. The philological and historical understanding of the texts function as a condition for the laying open of their systematic provocations within our own (early 21st-century) situations. Satisfies the capstone seminar requirement for the major tracks in Philosophy and Literature. Taught in English.
Same as: COMPLIT 213A, COMPLIT 313A, GERMAN 282

GERMAN 390. German Capstone: Reading Franz Kafka. 3-5 Units.

This class will address major works by Franz Kafka and consider Kafka as a modernist writer whose work reflects on modernity. We will also examine the role of Kafka's themes and poetics in the work of contemporary writers. (Meets Writing-in-the-Major requirement).
Same as: COMPLIT 111, COMPLIT 311C, GERMAN 190, JEWISHST 147, JEWISHST 349

GERMAN 397. Graduate Studies Colloquium. 1 Unit.

Colloquium for graduate students in German Studies. Taught in English.

GERMAN 398. Dissertation Prospectus Colloquium. 1-12 Unit.

Repeatable for Credit.

GERMAN 399. Individual Work. 1-12 Unit.

Repeatable for Credit. Instructor Consent Required.

GERMAN 802. TGR Dissertation. 0 Units.

.