Spring 2003 Course Guide
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Catriona
MacLeod, Undergraduate Chair 898-7334
746 Williams Hall
cmacleod@sas.upenn.edu
Simon Richter,
Chair 898-7332
743 Williams Hall
srichter@sas.upenn.edu
Kathryn
Hellerstein, Yiddish 898-7103 (on leave, Spring
2003)
748 Williams Hall
khellers@mail.sas.upenn.edu
Kim-Eric
Williams, Swedish 898-7107
740 Williams Hall
wkimeric@sas.upenn.edu
Robert Naborn,
Dutch 898-7331
750 Williams Hall
naborn@sas.upenn.edu
Visit our homepage for undergraduate program information, course descriptions, syllabi, events, and extra-curricular activities: http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/german
- Major in German: Choose from a wide variety of courses in language, applied language, culture, literature, and history. You can be confident that you will leave our program fluent in the language and at ease in the cultures and traditions of the German speaking countries
- Major in German Studies: This versatile program offers you fluency in the language, culture, and literature, in addition to enabling you to select five courses related to your German interests in other School of Arts and Science departments. An efficient way to double major and to prepare for graduate school or an international career.
- Double Major in German and Your Major of Choice: You are already in the Wharton School, International Relations, Computer Science, History, or Political Science. If you want to make yourself really competitive, then consider adding German as a double major. This could be just the edge you need.
- Minor in German: You have satisfied your language requirement, but elect to keep up your German with some advanced language courses. To obtain a minor only requires 6 credits beyond GRMN 104 and most of your courses satisfy other college requirements.
- Certificate in German Language Study: Students can receive a Certificate by completing 3 courses taught in German in addition to passing proficiency. Students must receive a minimum of a B+ average in the three courses, and may not take the courses on a pass/fail basis.
- Most of these options can readily be combined with Penn’s study abroad programs in Berlin, Frankfurt, and Munich. Do not forget these programs afford you Penn credit for the courses that you take. You will satisfy courses in your major, double major or minor as you become more fluent in the Germanic language via total immersion in two of Europe’s most exciting cities.
| GRMN 101 Elementary German I. Introduction to the basic elements of spoken and written German, with a particular emphasis placed on the acquisition of communication skills. Readings and discussion focus on cultural differences. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 002 |
MTWRF |
12-1 |
Staff |
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| GRMN 102 Elementary German II. A continuation of GRMN 101. The student’s expression and comprehension are enhanced through the study of literature and social themes. |
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| 001 |
MTWRF |
11-12 |
Staff |
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| 002 | MTWRF | 12-1 | Staff | ||||||||||||||||||||
| 003 |
MTWRF |
1-2 |
Staff |
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| GRMN 103 Intermediate German I. Modern German texts of moderate difficulty, an integrated grammar view, targeted study of vocabulary, and wide-ranging activities and projects to advance the student’s command of the language with regard to reading, writing, and speaking skills. |
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| 001 |
MTRF |
11-12 |
Staff |
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| 002 |
MTRF |
12-1 |
Staff |
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| GRMN 104 Intermediate German II. Literary and non-literary texts of moderate difficulty. Continued practice in active communication. This course is designed to further develop and refine integrative skills of reading, writing, and speaking in German, as well as to prepare students for the Proficiency Examination in German and for advanced-level German courses. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| 001 |
MTRF |
11-12 |
Staff |
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| 002 | MTRF | 12-1 | Staff | ||||||||||||||||||||
| 003 |
MTRF |
1-2 |
Staff |
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| GRMN 107 Accelerated Intermediate Germanb. An intensive two credit course in which two semesters of elementary German are completed in one. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| 001 |
MWF 10-11 TR 10:30-12 |
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Moser |
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| GRMN 180 German in Residence. This is a 1/2 credit course for students living in the Modern Language House. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| 301 TBA | Schnader | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| GRMN 215 Conversation and Composition. Prereq. 104 or equiv. Emphasizes conversational and writing skills in German. Contemporary topics of interest will be selected for discussions, debates, presentations, and role-playing situations. WWW exercises. Active role in critiquing one another's writing exercises. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| 001 |
MWF |
12-1 |
Lutz |
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Business German
| GRMN
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Business
German: A Micro Perspective. This course is designed to
enhance your speaking, reading and writing skills, in addition to
helping you build a strong foundation in business vocabulary. Course
objectives include acquiring skills in cross cultural communication,
teamwork, business management, and creating a business plan. German
grammar will be covered on a need be basis. This course will prepare
you to perform and contribute while in a German-speaking business
environment. Pending: Distribution I: Society, FLAC |
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| 001 |
MWF 1-2 |
J. Kurland |
| GRMN 222 |
Zertifikat
Deutsch fur den Beruf. This course prepares students for
the "Zertifikat Deutsch für den Beruf" (ZDfB) exam. Upon passing
this exam, the student will receive an internationally recognized
proficiency certificate administered by the Goethe Institute.
Students will be able to function confidently in a business German
speaking environment and enhance their chances for employment.
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| 001 |
MW 3-4:30 |
J. Kurland |
| GRMN 227 | German for Daily Situations in the Professions. This course is designed to facilitate the acquisition of an extensive business vocabulary together with the communicative skills needed to function daily in a professional setting. Emphasis is placed on the development of oral proficiency. A series of topics depicting a variety of situations in and around the workplace provide the basis for an emphasis on practical applications. Beyond helping students build a vocabulary useful in the professional world, this course also seeks to reveal differences between Germans and Americans. Such factual and cultural knowledge should prove most beneficial to anyone contemplating an internship or work in Germany. | |
| 680 | R 4:30-6:45 | F. Brevart |
| GRMN 216 | Introduction
to Literature. Develops students' basic skills of literary
interpretation. Exposure to various reading techniques (e.g. close
reading, reading for plot, etc.) and to literary terminology and
its application. Readings will include selections from prose, drama
and lyric poetry. General Req. III: Arts & Letters |
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| 001 |
MWF 10-11 |
C. Frei |
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| GRMN 354 |
Sex,
Spies & Videotape. In this course we will survey political
scandals in Germany from 1945 to the present. The German past,
the division of Germany, and the unification are reflected in
these political affairs. The seminar will survey the actors of
political scandals: politicians, journalists, the media. Political
Scandals are an excellent means for understanding and comparing
political cultures. For example, who cares in the US whether a
politician dyes his hair? On the other hand, Monica Lewinsky would
not have caused a scandal France and Germany (and other European
countries). In some countries, Enron would have cost the career
of politicians. Thus political scandals tell us a lot about norms
and norm violation. Not everything can be scandalized everywhere.
It depends on the ever changing political culture to see what
goes - and what doesn't. |
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| 001 |
TR 3-4:30 |
S. Roth |
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| GRMN 380 |
Heimat . The concept of Heimat (homeland, home, roots) has been a focal point of German culture for at least the past two hundred years; but it has no precise translation into English. Heimat is deeply connected with German notions of modernity, nature, community, and gender; but the question of where one belongs has also been associated with escapism, exclusion and marginality. Beginning with a reading of Freud's essay "Das Unheimliche," we will explore literary representations of Heimat (including works by authors such as Eichendorff, Storm, Stifter, Raabe and Sebald); nineteenth-century paintings by artists such as Leibl; and Edgar Reitz's epic film Heimat (1984). |
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| 001 |
TR 10:30-12 |
C. MacLeod |
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| DTCH 230 |
Sociolinguistic History of Convergence and Divergence in Dutch. In this course a sociolinguistic history of Dutch from its earliest stages until today is presented. The development of the Dutch language is sketched in the light of the historical and social development of the Low Countries and the contact of Dutch with other languages. The main theme of the course are the patterns of convergence and divergence between Dutch spoken in Flanders and in the Netherlands. All readings and lectures in English. |
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| 001 |
TR 1:30-3 |
van de Velde |
| GRMN 246 |
Heroes Minstrels Knights. In this course we will read medieval works of international literary importance, such as the Arthurian novels of Hartman von Aue Erec and Iwein, the German Song of the Nibelungs and the Old French Song of Roland as examples of heroic literature, and the tragic love story of Tristan and Isolde by Gottfried von Strasburg. We will also read two Spielmannsepen which have as their central theme the international motif of the bridal quest, namely Sankt Oswald and König Rother, and compare these works with the Nibelungenlied and Tristan, which themselves also involve the bridal quest as one of their principal structural elements. There is, however, a major and critical distinction between the traditional happy ending of the bridal quest epics and that of The Nibelungs and of Tristan and Isolde, for those two German works culminate in the total destruction and disintegration of entire peoples and values, or with the utter misery of the ideal couple. With our readings of the love poems of the French Troubadours and those of their German counterparts, the Minnesänger, our final genre of medieval literature, we will not only discuss the ubiquitous and timeless love theme in all its variations, but also the socio-political implications of such poetry. All readings and lectures in English. |
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| 001 | TR 10:30-12 | Brevart |
| GRMN 255 |
Mann
Hesse Kafka. Based on considerations of the cultural tradition
and the intellectual currents of the twentieth century, the course
presents a survey of the achievements of Mann, Hesse, and Kafka.
The extensive study of representative works focus on the problems
of the artist in the modern age. |
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| 001 |
TR 12-1:30 |
F. Trommler |
| GRMN 256 | The
Devil's Pact in Literature, Music and Film. For centuries
the pact with the devil has signified humankind's desire to surpass
the limits of human knowledge and power. From the reformation
chapbook to the rock lyrics of Randy Newman's Faust, from Marlowe
and Goethe to key Hollywood films, the legend of the devil's pact
continues to be useful for exploring our fascination with forbidden
powers. |
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| 401 Lec | MW 12-1 | S. Richter |
| 402 Rec | F 12-1 | Staff |
| 403 Rec | F 12-1 | Staff |
| 404 Rec | F 12-1 | Staff |
| 405 Rec | F 1-2 | Staff |
| 406 Rec | F 11-12 | Staff |
| 407 Rec |
F 11-12 |
Staff |
| GRMN 517 |
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| 401 |
T 9-10:30, R 4-5:30 |
C. Frei/K. McMahon |
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| GRMN 530 |
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| 301 |
W 2-4 |
L. Lloyd |
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| GRMN 532 |
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| 301 |
MWF 10-11 |
H. Daemmrich |
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| GRMN 533 | Literary Theory & German Studies. This course introduces students to the history of literary theory, concepts and issues of literary interpretation and German cultural studies, and the main trends in the discipline. Theoretical positions considered may include: Frankfurt School, psychoanalysis, hermeneutics, deconstruction, feminism, discourse analysis, semiotics, cultural studies, gender studies, and post-colonial theory. | |||||
| 301 | M 2-4 | S. Richter | ||||
| GRMN 635 |
Goethe's Wilhelm Meister. Goethe's Wilhelm Meister project spanned several decades and three novels. This seminar will analyze Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre (1795), the foundational work in the development of the German Bildungsroman, and Wilhelm Meisters Wanderjahre (1829), an anomalous and eccentric narrative that stretches the boundaries of the novel genre. We will also consider recent critical approaches to the novels, and will discuss in particular Foucauldian and psychoanalytic readings that deal with Bildung as a discourse of desire, formation, and discipline. | |||||
| 301 |
R 2-4 |
C. MacLeod |
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| GRMN 642 | Drama of the 20th Century. Based on a discussion of the relationship of drama (text) and theater (performance), the course examines the development of realistic and antirealistic currents in modern German drama. From Wedekind and Expressionism to Piscator's political theater, Brecht's epic theater and beyond (Horvath, Fleisser, Frisch, Duerrenmatt, Handke). | |||||
| 301 | T 2-4 | F. Trommler | ||||
| GRMN 690 |
Theory & Literary History: Giving the Gift. The aim of this graduate seminar will be to investigate a number of philosophical and literary texts focusing around the notion of the gift. Our point of departure will be the concept gift seen in its anthropological sense as a binding reciprocal practice underpinning all sociability (Mauss) but also as a dangerous limit to be transgressed (Freud, Melanie Klein, Bataille). Beyond the potlatch, does the problematic of the gift open onto that of sacrifice as emblematized by Abraham (Kierkegaard) or can it allow us to sketch a principle of generosity (Descartes)? In the post-Heideggerian tradition that takes its bearings from the availability of a world that is somehow given (Es gibt Sein) , contemporary meditation of the conditions of possibility of giving (Marion) leads us to qualify the thesis that a gift is impossible as such (Derrida) or only leads to spurious economies (Baudelaire). If time is both the dimension of my future death and an excess of unforeseen data , art and literature can emerge as practices that exceed most economies (Duchamp). The main theoretical texts we will read are Marcel Mauss's The Gift , The Georges Bataille Reader, Derrida's Given Time: Counterfeit Money, Kierkegaard's Fear and Trembling, Jean-Luc Marion Being Given: Toward a phenomenology of givenness, Freud's Dora, Lewis Hyde's The Gift. Literary texts will include poems by Baudelaire, Mallarmé, Rilke and Ezra Pound, novels by Georges Bataille (My Mother) , two plays: Moličre's The Miser, Joyce's Exiles, Vladimir Nabokov's The Gift, H.D.'s The Gift, Georges Bataille's My Mother, plus a visit to the PMA to see Duchamp's Etant Donnés… |
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| 401 |
W 3-6 |
J. Rabate |
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