Courses in Vermont

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 2008:

LANGUAGE:

GRMN 6601 Advanced Language Studies
- Uebungen in gesprochenem und geschriebenem Deutsch für Fortgeschrittene
Richter, 10:00 - 11:00 am

The course provides intensive practice in written and spoken German. It reviews specific grammatical problems, deals with selected 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 issues in post-wall Germany.  (1 Unit)

Required texts: Rug/Tomaszewski, Grammatik mit Sinn und Verstand (Klett); Sick, Der Dativ ist dem Genitiv sein Tod, Bd. I-III (Kiepenheuer & Witsch)
Recommended texts: Duden, Das Stilwörterbuch, 8th ed.(Langenscheidt) 

GRMN 6619 Applied Linguistics
- Angewandte Linguistik
(3-week workshop, 7/1-7/24)
Lischke, 2:30 - 4:20 pm

This course will introduce principles in applied linguistics and language pedagogy necessary for teaching a foreign language and explore specific issues in the teaching of German. Topics include: second language acquisition, socio-linguistics and pragma-linguistics, phonetics, recent changes in usage in the German language, different assessment tools, and the introduction to The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages as a model for curriculum development. (1 Unit)

Required texts:  Hans Jürgen Heringer, Interkulturelle Kommunikation (A. Franke Verlag); Lightbown & Spada, How Languages are Learned. 3^rd ed. (Oxford University Press); and handouts and prepared materials.

GERMAN STUDIES:

GRMN 6620 The German Media - Guarantor of Democracy?
- Die deutsche Medienlandschaft - Garant der Demokratie?
(Seminar)
Dirks, 11:00-11:50 am

For democracy to survive, independent media are indispensable, a kind of fourth power. Freedom of the press, freedom of opinion and speech – until unification in 1990 both German states, the BRD and the DDR, interpreted and administered freedom in different ways. How much freedom, how much openness does democracy need? And how much influence should government be allowed to exercise, especially in the face of terrorism and violence? The seminar offers a survey of the German press and mass media in recent German history.  (1 Unit)

Texts: To be announced

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
(Seminar)
Nicolaysen, 2:30-3:20 pm

A survey of the development of the Bundesrepublik Deutschland and the Deutsche Demokratische Republik from their founding in 1949 to the unification on October 3, 1990. The most important characteristics of both systems such as parliamentary democracy vs. Realer Sozialismus, social market economy vs. planned economy, NATO membership vs. membership in the Warschauer Pakt will be analyzed and discussed against the background of the East-West-conflict. Other topics include the youth culture, the role of women, the educational systems, the media as well as attitudes towards consumerism and recreational activities in both states.  (1 Unit)

Required text: Jürgen Weber, Kleine Geschichte Deutschlands seit 1945 (Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag).
Recommended text: Deutsche Geschichte im 20. Jahrhundert. Ein Lexikon. Hg. von Axel Schildt (Verlag C.H. Beck).

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
(Seminar)
Nicolaysen, 9:00-9:50 am

Based on the background of the historical development of the European Union, the course explores the origins of the EU, its membership including future applicants, the election process for the European parliament as well as its limitations of power, and the reasons why some EU countries do not use the Euro. In addition to questions concerning institutional, legal and economical aspects, problems of European identity will be discussed including the question of unity and diversity in European history and culture. Emphasis will be placed on the German part in the process of European integration. (1 Unit)

Required texts: Wolf D. Gruber/Wichard Woyke: Europa-Lexikon. Länder-Politik-Institutionen. 2^. erw. Aufl. (Verlag H.C. Beck); Franz Knipping, Rom, 25. März 1957. Die Einigung Europas (Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag)


GRMN 6625 Between Guilt, Atonement and Disremembering – Vergangenheitsbewältigung in Literature and Film since 1945 (Seminar)
Dirks, 10:00-10:50 am

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:

GRMN 6610 Introduction to Text Analysis
- Einführung in die Analyse von Texten aus Literatur, Film und Kunst
Härter, 9:00-9:50 am

This course offers 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 these texts, and will explore traditions of culture, thought and composition at work in them. The goals of the course are refined reading skills, a heightened awareness and knowledge of the structural elements that constitute any text, and access to concepts of literary theory. (1 Unit)

Texts: Keller: Kleider machen Leute (Reclam); Mann: Tristan (Reclam); Vanderbeke: Ich sehe was, was du nicht siehst (Fischer).


GRMN 6660 Discoveries, Expeditions, Transits - Travel Literature
- Entdeckungen, Expeditionen, Uebergänge und -fahrten - Reiseliteratur mit Fokus auf den amerikanischen Kontinent (Literatur, Film und Kunst)
(Seminar)
Härter, 12:00-12:50 pm

Adventures of traveling and exploring, exciting or uncanny encounters with foreign lands, somber scenes of cultural conflict have made travel literature one of the most intriguing genres. Travel literature reflects the experience of foreign cultures, but also exposes the fact that such experience is shaped by the traveler’s (and writer’s) own cultural background. Therefore travel literature sheds light not only on foreign cultures and regions, but on the familiar world from which the journey began as well. This course focuses on German travel literature about exploration, real or fictitious, of the American continents. Strategies of representation of the foreign, reaching from the documentary to the fantastic, from fact to fiction, will be investigated. Literature, films and works of art will also be discussed. (1 Unit)

Texts:  Kehlmann: Die Vermessung der Welt (Rowohlt); von Kleist: Die Verlobung in St. Domingo. Das Bettelweib von Locarno. Der Findling. (Reclam); Roth: Hiob. Roman eines einfachen Mannes (dtv); Handke: Der kurze Brief zum langen Abschied (Suhrkamp); Federspiel: Die Ballade von der Typhoid Mary (Suhrkamp).

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)
(Seminar)
Speier, 11:00-11:50 am

The Kunstmärchen is used as an introduction into the literature and culture of the German Romantik. Compared to the Volksmärchen, the Kunstmärchen is characterized by self-reflection and a utopian perspective, and it contains essential elements of romantic fiction. In addition to the analysis of the texts, central concepts and topics of romanticism are explored such as: Romantic irony, Universalpoesie, magic, nature symbolism, the Doppelgänger motif, and the role of madness and dream. The discussion includes poetry, short theoretical essays as well as examples from painting and music. (This course may alternatively be counted to fulfill one German Studies requirement.)  (1 Unit)

Required texts: Monika Schmitz-Emans, Einführung in die Literatur der Romantik (Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft); Ludwig Tieck, Der blonde Eckbert. Der Runenberg (Reclam, UB 7732); E.T.A. Hoffmann, Der goldene Topf (Reclam, UB 101); Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué, Undine (Reclam,UB 492); Adelbert von Chamisso, Peter Schlemihls wundersame Geschichte (Reclam, UB 93)

GRMN 6684 Poetry in the 20th Century
- Lyrik des 20. Jahrhunderts
(Seminar)
Speier, 12:00-12:50 pm

The seminar explores changing concepts and traditions of German poetry in the 20^th century and focuses on exemplary analysis of poetic texts by poets including Hofmannsthal, Rilke, Benn, Brecht, Bachmann, Celan, Enzensberger and Grass as well as texts known as konkrete Poesie. The course introduces basic concepts and terminology used for literary analysis and demonstrates different methodological approaches to the interpretation of poetic text. Authors will be introduced with their literary and historical background.

Required texts: Deutsche Lyrik. Eine Anthologie. Hg. von Hanspeter Brode (Suhrkamp); Dieter Burdorf, Einführung in die Gedichtanalyse (Verlag J.B. Metzler).

TEACHING METHODOLOGY:

(3-WEEK WORKSHOP FOR TEACHERS AND STUDENTS OF GERMAN)

GRMN 6619 Applied Linguistics for the Teaching of German - Angewandte Linguistik für den Deutschunterricht
Lischke, 2:30-4:20 pm
July 1 – July 24
(1 unit)

Description: see under LANGUAGE

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 (in 2007):

Language

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)