This class is meant to give an introduction to German literature between 1945 and the 1990s. We will read up to six medium-length works that are representative for their time and/or genre and are accessible in their linguistic and cultural presuppositions.

Among the works will be: Borchert, Draußen vor der Tür (drama, 1947), Andersch, Sansibar oder der letzte Grund (novel, 1957), Walser, Ein fliehendes Pferd  (novella, 1978), Schlink, Der Vorleser (novella, 1996), Böll, Die verlorene Ehre der Katharina Blum (novella, 1973).

 We will alternate the reading of the longer works with that of short stories and/or poems. This should give students more time to read the longer works and also alternate reading extensively and intensively. You are asked to present a book report in German to the class in which you inform the class about one other work of German literature from this period. The book report must be discussed with your instructor before you can present it in class.
 Graduate students taking the course will be expected to prepare regular speaking and writing assignments. Within the general level of proficiency necessary for the course, writing and speaking tasks will be adjusted to individual needs and possibilities. The instructor will also meet separately with graduate students from time to time to discuss their progress and to assign supplementary reading and writing where this is necessary.

There will be lectures on background material such as literary history, poetics, and the role of individual authors. We will also work on critical terminology. Most of our class time, however, will be spent in reading and discussing individual poems. Our efforts will include: determination of content and form, consideration of literary and historical background, identification of references, and the achievement of an informed and reasonable understanding and evaluation of each poem as a literary work of art. 

The course will be conducted in German. During the term, you will be asked to give reports on selected primary and/or secondary texts, and there will be a final examination. 
 
 

Required texts: 

Echtermeyer / von Wiese, ed. Deutsche Gedichte: Von den Anfängen bis zur Gegenwart (Düsseldorf: Cornelsen, 1990) 
Horst J. Frank, Wie interpretiere ich ein Gedicht? (Tübingen and Basel: Francke, 1995) [ = UNI Taschenbuch 1639] 
Wolfgang Kayser, Kleine Versschule [Sammlung Dalp--a recent edition]
 

Recommended texts:

Hugo Friedrich, Die Struktur der modernen Lyrik. Von Baudelaire bis zur Gegenwart (Reinbek: Rowohlt, 1956)
Reinhold Grimm, ed. Zur Lyrik-Diskussion (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1974) [ = Wege der Forschung, Band 111]
Rudolf Haller, Geschichte der deutschen Lyrik: Vom Ausgang des Mittelalters bis zu Goethes Tod (Bern: Francke, 1967) [ = Sammlung Dalp, Band 101]
Walter Hinderer, ed., Geschichte der deutschen Lyrik vom Mittelalter bis zur Gegenwart (Stuttgart: Reclam, 1983) 

Required texts:
1. Schiller, On the Aesthetic Education of Man, ed. Wilkinson and Willoughby (Oxford                                    UP). (Selections from this work will be available at the Reserve Library.)
2. Schopenhauer, The World as Will and Representation, volumes I and II (Dover).
3.  Nietzsche, The Birth of Tragedy and Other Writings, ed. Geuss (Cambridge UP).
4.  Basic Writings of Nietzsche, ed. Kaufmann (Random House).
5. The Portable Nietzsche, ed. Kaufmann (Viking).

Recommended texts:
1. Nietzsche,  The Will to Power, ed. Kaufmann (Vintage).
2. Nietzsche, The Gay Science, ed. Kaufmann (Vintage).
3. Nietzsche, Human All too Human, ed. Hollingdale (Cambridge UP).
4. Nietzsche, Untimely Meditations, ed. Breazeale (Cambridge UP).

Starting with some poetic theories of romanticism, we will explore the impact of the German romantic tradition by genre, by author, and by language. Among the texts to be discussed will be works by Gottfried Benn, Hermann Hesse, the early Max Frisch, Ingeborg Bachmann, Peter Handke, Wolf Biermann, Bodo Strauss, Thomas Bernhard, Patrick Süsskind, Zoë Jenny, and Markus Werner.

There will be regular classroom reports and a final examination. All discussions will be in German. 

Jews in Modern Europe 18 - 19 C
HIST. 79000
Prof. Carlebach
W, 6:30 - 8:30 p.m.
GC: Rm. TBA
3 credits [70136]

Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde
MUS. 765000
Prof. Burkhart
T, 4:30 - 7:30 p.m.
GC: Rm. TBA
3 credits [70601]

The Music of Mahler
MUS. 86500
Prof. Griffel
R, 10:00 - 1:00 p.m.
GC: Rm. TBA
3 credits [70587]

Leibnitz & His Critics
PHIL. 76600
Prof. Grover
W, 11:45 - 1:45 p.m
GC: Rm. TBA
3 credits [70073]

Critical Theory and the Frankfurt School
SOC. 80700
Prof. Aronowitz
R, 4:15 - 6:15 p.m.
GC: Rm. TBA
3 credits [70345]

History of Cinema I
T. 79500
Prof. Rheuban
M, 6:30  - 8:30 p.m.
GC: Rm. TBA
3 credits [70335]

19th Century: Sex/Death/Narrative
CL. 78100
Prof. Mandelker
W, 4:15 - 6:15 p.m
GC: Rm. TBA
3 credits [70484]

Modernism 
CL. 85000
Prof. Pike
R, 4:15 - 6:15 p.m
GC: Rm. TBA
3 credits [70490]

Theory of Translation
MALS. 71100
Prof. Pike
M, 6:30 - 8:30 p.m.
GC: Rm. TBA
3 credits [70385] 

We shall read and discuss literature written in German in the 1930s and 1940s in the context of society and politics of the times. We shall consider the fall of Weimar and the establishment and consolidation of the Nazi dictatorship. authors who emigrated from Nazi Germany will be read as well as those who stayed there, either because they were part of the "inner emigration" or because they grew up from childhood in this period. Authors will include Kästner, Brecht, Feuchtwanger, Seghers Jünger, Wiechert, Max von der Grün, Celan. Documents of the time will also be read. 

Graduate students taking the course will be expected to prepare regular speaking and writing assignments. Within the general level of proficiency necessary for the course, writing and speaking task will be adjusted to the individual needs and possibilities. The instructor will also meet separately with graduate students from time to time to discuss their progress and to assign supplementary reading and writing where this is necessary. 

The pros and cons of the communicative approach to language learning and the central role of proficiency will be analyzed in depth through readings by its proponents and detractors and practical classroom experience. Although the proficiency movement has made great strides in raising the quality in language instruction, it has had less success in transforming language teaching at the upper levels. We will discuss specific methods of measuring proficiency in German within the context of current national debates on proficiency and how such methods might be improved. Students will have to prepare sample course outlines and assignments for elementary and intermediate level courses and practical matters of class organization and grading will also be discussed. 

The widening influence of information technology in society and calls for its integration into the classroom will also be discussed. Computer aided learner-oriented methodologies and interdisciplinary approaches can foster a sense of reciprocity in the classroom as teachers become facilitators rather than transmitters of cultural knowledge, yet the integration of such approaches are always more problematic in practice. We will look at common Internet tools currently in use in the learning environment and concerns surrounding division of labor, intellectual property rights and copyright law for the instructor 

As a field project, each student will be expected to write a segment of an undergraduate course outline based on a selected topic and to include teaching notes, background information and student assignments. Students will be expected to visit classes at Hunter College or Queens College and teach these segments to a particular class. This will be videotaped and the tapes will be discussed in class. As a final project, students will be expected to construct a personal homepage or course homepage which demonstrates fundamental fluency in information technology. 

Those portions of the course dealing with secondary literature on the teaching of German and information technology will be in English. Later class discussions on the presentation of course materials will be in German, particularly sessions where we will simulate the setting of the undergraduate classroom. This course is intended for students who are well into their graduate work. They are expected to have at least an advanced level of proficiency in writing and speaking German. 

To reach a fuller understanding of the Vormärz years, I propose a triple approach: During the semester we will read and analyze a number of period works from the Reading List and beyond (including Fanny Lewald's novel Jenny, the children's' classic Struwwelpeter, and accounts of Georg Herwegh's wife "cross-dressing" to join the Badensian insurgents in 1848).  Secondly, we will familiarize ourselves with studies of Biedermeier and Vormärz literature reaching from Sengle's and Hermands' contributions of a quarter of a century ago to more recent assessments focusing on question of gender, race and religion. Based on authors born into a later age, e.g. Theodor Fontane's Von Zwanzig bis Dreissig (1898), Gerhart Hauptmann's Die Weber (1892), Georg Hermann's Jettchen Gebert (1906), Volker Schlöndorff's The Sudden Wealth of the Poor People of Kombach (1969), Peter Turrini's Die Verhaftung des Johann Nepomuk Nestroy (1998). 

The course will be taught in German. Students are expected to present three short papers in German on topics assigned by the instructor and write, over the course of the semester, a research paper (in English or German) on a topic chosen in consultation with the instructor. 

The course will also emphasize translation as an analytic tool. 
Each week, students will do a written translation, to be handed in, of an assigned short passage (a page or less in length) from the work under consideration. In addition to the weekly translations, there will a be a final examination. 

The course will be taught in German. 

You will find it useful to own Deutsche Literaturegeschichte von den Anfängen bis zur Gegenwart (Stuttgart: Metzler, 1992). There will be an extensive reserve list in the Graduate Center library for you to consult. 

Luther, An den Christlichen Adel Deutscher Nation
Lessing, Hamburgische Dramaturgie
Herder, Abhandlung über den Ursprung der Sprache
Schiller, Über naive und sentimentale Dichtung
Schiller, Vom Pathetischen und Erhabenen
Schlegel, Kritische und theoretische Schriften
Kleist, "Das Marionettentheater" 
Kleist, Michael Kohlhaas
E.T.A. Hoffmann, Der goldne Topf
Keller, Romeo und Julia auf dem Dorfe
Stifter, Brigitta
Nietzsche, Die Geburt der Tragödie
Nietzsche, Zur Genealogie der Moral
Hofmannsthal, Ein Brief/Reitergeschichten
Schnitzler, Leutnant Gustl
T. Mann, Tonio Kröger/Mario und der Zauberer