A normal load is three courses per summer to be selected in consultation with the director or associate director. First-year students are placed in the courses most appropriate to their linguistic proficiency. All new students are required to take a placement test before they arrive on campus. Only courses designated seminars may be taken to write a Proseminar- or Seminararbeit.
6-week graduate courses 2009:
LANGUAGE:
GRMN 6601 - Advanced Language Studies
Kirchner, 10:00-10:50 am
The course provides intensive practice in written and spoken German. It reviews specific grammatical problems, deals with stylistic areas, and concentrates on the writing of expository prose. The course is targeted to address individual needs of the participants. This year, the course deals with cultural and political issues in post-wall Germany. Current articles from printed and visual media will be examined as a focus for the writing assignments. (1 unit)
Required texts: Rug/Tomaszewski, Grammatik mit Sinn und Verstand (Klett); Bastian Sick, Der Dativ ist dem Genitiv sein Tod. Bd. I-III (Kiepenheuer & Witsch); additional texts will be made available.
Recommended text: Duden, Das Stilwörterbuch (Langenscheidt).
GERMAN STUDIES:
GRMN 6617 - Between Tradition and Modernity: The History of Austria in the 20th Century (Seminar)
Nicolaysen, 9:00-9:50 am
A survey of the eventful Austrian history in the past 100 years from the Doppelmonarchie Austria-Hungary, the First Republic of Austria in 1918, and the Anschluss to nationalistic Germany in 1938, to the founding of the Second Republic in 1945, the attainment of sovereignty in 1955 and the joining of the European Union in 1995. The emphasis will not be exclusively on political developments but also on social and cultural history. The course will deal with literature, science and the arts as well as with everyday life and questions of cultural and national identity. (1 unit)
Required text: Karl Vocelka, Geschichte Österreichs. Kultur, Gesellschaft, Politik. 3. Aufl. (Heyne).
GRMN 6637 - The “Third Reich” (Seminar)
Nicolaysen, 12:00-12:50 pm
Analysis of the 12 years of national-socialist dictatorship in Germany from 1933 to 1945 as well as of the events that led to the rise of the Third Reich and the consequences for the time that followed. The following topics will be explored: The conditions that caused the transfer of power to Hitler; the establishment of the dictatorship 1933/34; the economy and society in the Third Reich; everyday life; anti-Semitism; the SS-state: persecution and annihilation - the system of concentration camps; resistance; the unleashing of WW II; German occupation policies; der totale Krieg and the end of the Third Reich; the handling of the national-socialist past after 1945. (1 unit)
Required text: Wolfgang Benz, Geschichte des Dritten Reiches (dtv)
GRMN 6652 - Berlin – Cultural Metropolis: 1900-2000 (Seminar)
Speier, 11:00-11:50 am
Berlin occupies an exceptional place in German history. The course explores selected chapters from different periods and areas of Berlin’s cultural history such as Berlin expressionism; die goldenen Zwanziger Jahre; clubs, cabarets and revues; Berlin as Cinematic center of Germany: Jewish Life in Berlin; Literatur Cafés; Berlin during the 3rd Reich; art districts (Prenzlauer Berg and Kreuzberg); the building and fall of the wall; and the cultural profile of present-day Berlin. In addition to literary texts, examples are drawn from the fine arts, music and film. (1 unit)
Required text: A prepared reader will be made available
Recommended text: Hans Michael Speier, Berlin mit deinen frechen Feuern. 100 Berlin Gedichte (Reclam).
GRMN 6665 - Defining das Deutsche in German Art: Germany’s Romantic Century and Its Consequences (Seminar)
Busse, 14:40-15:30 pm
Germany’s romantic age marks the beginning of a cultural self-definition which is defined by contradictions. On the one side, it was inspired by Greek and Roman art; on the other side artists looked at the medieval past, and Gothic art was considered part of German identity. A similar contradiction affected the political idealists, who had fought against Napoleon, but suffered a severe disappointment with the political reality which did not permit unity and democracy on German soil. Sehnsucht and irony therefore became the trademarks of early romanticism only to be superseded at the end of the century by the pathos and chauvinism of the huge monuments the 2nd Reich erected to celebrate itself. Based on this historical background and on texts written by artists in the 19th century, the course will analyze paintings, sculptures and architecture of the time to determine what makes them typically German and how these concepts continued to influence art in the 20th century. (1 unit)
Required texts: A prepared reader will be made available.
LITERATURE:
GRMN 6610 - Introduction to Text Analysis
Speier, 9:00-9:50 am
An introduction to reading and interpreting texts from various sources: writing (fiction and theory), film and art. Students will investigate the structures and strategies of such texts and will explore the traditions of culture, thought and composition that work in them. The goals of the course are to refine reading skills, to heighten awareness and knowledge of the structural elements that constitute any text, and to introduce to literary terminology and theories. (1 unit)
Required texts: Jochen Vogt, Einladung zur Literaturwissenschaft. 6. Aufl (Fink); Ludwig Tieck, Der blonde Eckbert (Reclam); Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Torquato Tasso (Reclam); Georg Büchner, Leonce und Lena (Reclam).
GRMN 6611 - Thomas Mann, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche (Seminar)
Richter, 11:00-11:50 am
The course will use Thomas Mann’s two essays, Schopenhauer and Nietzsches Philosophie im Lichte unserer Erfahrung, to explore Mann’s essayistic style and to discuss his understanding and adaptation of the two philosophers and their influence on his fiction. The results of this analysis will then be applied to Thomas Mann’s three Künstlernovellen, Tonio Kröger, Tristan and Der Tod in Venedig, to place the work into a broader cultural context and to achieve a deeper understanding. (1 unit)
Required texts: Thomas Mann, Der Tod in Venedig und andere Erzählungen.60. Aufl. (Fischer). The essays will be included in a reader.
GRMN 6638 - Falke, Sturm oder großer Gesang – The Poet Rainer Maria Rilke (Seminar)
Dirks, 12:00-12:50 pm
Life and work of the poet Rainer Maria Rilke are intimately connected. Influenced by the thought of Friedrich Nietzsche, the works of Sigmund Freud and C.G. Jung as well as Far-Eastern philosophy, he used his writings and his person as means and purpose of cognition. Like no other poet, Rilke formulated a poetics of transcendence while suffering at the same time the insufficiencies of life around him. Today, at a time of new integrated models of experiencing and search for new utopias, Rilke’s work and fame is spreading as never before. This course explores the work of Rilke and its timeless meaning for today’s reader. (1 unit)
Required texts: Rainer Maria Rilke, Die Gedichte. (Insel) and Rainer Maria Rilke, Die Aufzeichnungen des Malte Laurids Brigge. Hrsg. u. komm. Manfred Engel. (Reclam).
GRMN 6621 - Narrating without End or: Do the Germans Re-invent Themselves? (Seminar)
Dirks, 10:00-10:50 am
Gone are the days of modernist experiments. Since the fall of the wall in 1989 and the German reunification, (short) story telling had an unexpected renaissance in literature, film and TV. Curricula vitae are produced against the background of historical events. Even young writers and film directors are trying out variations of the classical family saga, biographies are booming and the Heimatfilm is experiencing an unforeseen comeback. To tell stories seems to create identity, it seems to integrate the individual into a larger context establishing general support in times that are getting more complex everyday. Do the Germans re-invent themselves through these narratives? Is only the “small story” important because the larger history has failed? And vice versa: Can the larger history be told again through the many “smaller stories”? (1 unit)
Required text: Judith Hermann, Sommerhaus, später. Erzählungen. (Fischer)
TEACHING METHODOLOGY:
(Taught as 3-week workshop during the first half of the summer school, June 30 - July 23, 2009)
GRMN 6690 - Methods of Teaching German as a Foreign Language
Lischke, 14:40-16:30 pm
This course analyses and discusses various methods of, and approaches to teaching German language, culture and literature. Particular emphasis will be given to the following issues: self-perspective of teachers and learners, learning strategies, ethnographic projects, classroom interaction, literacy development, and the student as an active participant. The discussion will be accompanied by activities and projects that can be implemented directly in the language classroom. (1 unit)
Required texts: Herbert Puchta, Wilfried Krenn, Mario Rinvolucri, Multiple Intelligenzen im DaF-Unterricht (Huber Verlag); Ulrich Zeuner, Landeskunde und interkulturelles Lernen: eine Einführung ( pdf file); other material will be made availableThe course will demonstrate and analyze various methods of and approaches to teaching German language, culture and literature in a classroom.
(This workshop is open to qualified students enrolled in the six week graduate program as well as to teachers of German who only want to take 1 course.)
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recently offered 6-week graduate courses (offered in 2008):
LANGUAGE COURSES:
GRMN 6601 Advanced Language Studies
- Uebungen in gesprochenem und geschriebenem Deutsch für Fortgeschrittene
GRMN 6619 Applied Linguistics
- Angewandte Linguistik
(3-week workshop)
GERMAN STUDIES COURSES:
GRMN 6620 The German Media - Guarantor of Democracy?
- Die deutsche Medienlandschaft - Garant der Demokratie?
GRMN 6651 Two States - One Nation: The History of a Divided Germany 1945-1990
- Zwei Staaten - eine Nation: Zur Geschichte des geteilten Deutschlands 1945-1990
GRMN 6654 Project Europe: The European Union and the Role of Germany in the Process of European Integration
- Projekt Europa: Die europäische Union und die Rolle Deutschlands im europäischen Integrationsprozess
GRMN 6625 Between Guilt, Atonement and Disremembering – Vergangenheitsbewältigung in Literature and Film since 1945 (Seminar)
From Kahlschlagliteratur to the verdict that poetry could not be composed anymore after Auschwitz; from collective guilt and charges against the Vatergeneration to the meticulous research of particular cases, literature and film gave crucial impulses for dealing with the German past. Lately, however, facts are changed into fiction, the downfall of Germany is turned into a movie, and the Third Reich runs as a “docu-soap opera” on TV. Is the time right for such fictionalization? And above all, is German society stable enough for this process? (This course may alternatively be counted to fulfill one Literature requirement.) (1 Unit)
Required texts: Jurek Becker, Jakob der Lügner (Suhrkamp); Günter Grass, Im Krebsgang. Eine Novelle (Deutscher Taschebuch Verlag); Uwe Timm, Am Beispiel meines Bruders (Kiepenheuer & Witsch).
LITERATURE COURSES:
GRMN 6610 Introduction to Text Analysis
- Einführung in die Analyse von Texten aus Literatur, Film und Kunst
GRMN 6660 Discoveries, Expeditions, Transits - Travel Literature
- Entdeckungen, Expeditionen, Uebergänge und -fahrten - Reiseliteratur mit Fokus auf den amerikanischen Kontinent (Literatur, Film und Kunst)
GRMN 6680 German Romantik as Reflected through the Kunstmärchen. (Painting, poetry, music and theoretical texts will also be used as examples). May also count as German Studies.
- Die deutsche Romantik im Spiegel des Kunstmärchens (mit zusätzlichen Beispielen aus der Malerei, Musik, Lyrik und Theorie)
GRMN 6684 Poetry in the 20th Century
- Lyrik des 20. Jahrhunderts
(Seminar)
TEACHING METHODOLOGY COURSE:
(3-WEEK WORKSHOP FOR TEACHERS OF GERMAN)
GRMN 6619 Applied Linguistics for the Teaching of German - Angewandte Linguistik für den Deutschunterricht
This workshop is open to qualified students enrolled in the six week graduate program as well as to teachers of German who only want to take 1 course.
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6-WEEK GRADUATE COURSES OFFERED IN 2007:
Language
GRMN 6601 Advanced Language Practice
GRMN 6636 The History of the German Language
GRMN 6640 The Art of Writing
German Studies
GRMN 6632 “Sonderfall Schweiz?” An Introduction to the History, Culture and Identity of Switzerland
GRMN 6644 Opportunities and Crises of the First German Democracy: Social and Cultural History of the Weimar Republic 1918 - 1933
GRMN 6631 German Expressionism: Art, Film, Literature and Music
Literature
GRMN 6610 Introduction to Text Analysis
GRMN 6681 Faust Seminar
GRMN 6645 The Battle of the Sexes: About Lust und Last der Liebe in German Literature after 1945
Teaching Methodology
GRMN 6643 Visual Text and Gesture in German Language Teaching
(3-week workshop)