German Studies (B.A.)

First-Year Seminar

* GMAN 051b / LITR 024b, Game of Thrones and the Theory of Sovereignty  Kirk Wetters

Introduction to the classical and modern theory of sovereignty in the context of G.R.R. Martin’s popular Game of Thrones series (primarily the books, which are formally more complex and narratively more sophisticated than the television series). Although The Game of Thrones is obviously not a work of German literature, it addresses theoretical and literary-historical discourses that are prominently represented in the German context. Emphasis on strategies of literary and theoretical analysis; literature as a testing ground for theoretical models; theory as an analytic framework for evaluating literary and cultural depictions. Questioning the basis of the contemporary relevance and popularity of this material in light of questions of tragedy, individual agency, myth (vs. history), realism (vs. fantasy), environmental catastrophe and geopolitics. Enrollment limited to first-year students. Preregistration required; see under First-Year Seminar Program.  WR
TTh 9am-10:15am

* DUTC 130a, Intermediate Dutch I  Staff

Continued development of reading, writing, and speaking proficiency in Dutch. Students review and improve grammar skills, expand their vocabulary, read newspaper articles, and watch and listen to Dutch newscasts. Prerequisite: DUTC 120 or equivalent. Course taught through distance learning using videoconferencing technology from Columbia University. Enrollment limited; interested students should e-mail for more information.  L3  RP  1½ Course cr
MW 4:10pm-6pm

* DUTC 140b, Intermediate Dutch II  Staff

Use of authentic Dutch texts to expand proficiency in the language and familiarity with the culture. Focus on Dutch cultural themes that reflect students' interests and fields of study. Readings include a novel and news articles on current events. Prerequisite: DUTC 130. Course taught through distance learning using videoconferencing technology from Columbia University. Enrollment limited; interested students should e-mail for more information.  L4  RP  1½ Course cr
MW 4:10pm-6pm

* DUTC 150a, Advanced Dutch  Staff

Continuation of DUTC 140. Focus on improvement of grammatical knowledge; proficiency in reading, writing, and speaking Dutch; and cultural insight and knowledge of Amsterdam and the Netherlands. Prerequisite: DUTC 140 or equivalent. Course taught through distance learning using videoconferencing technology from Columbia University. Enrollment limited; interested students should e-mail for more information.  L5
MW 1:15pm-2:30pm

* GMAN 110a or b, Elementary German I  Staff

A beginning content- and task-based course that focuses on the acquisition of spoken and written communication skills, as well as on the development of cultural awareness and of foundations in grammar and vocabulary. Topics such as school, family life, and housing. Course materials include a variety of authentic readings, a feature film, and shorter video clips. Tutors are available for extra help. To be followed by GMAN 120. Enrollment limited to 14 per section. Students must preregister through Preference Selection during the online preregistration period. Details and a link to Preference Selection are provided on the German department Web site at  L1  1½ Course cr
HTBA

GMAN 120a or b, Elementary German II  Staff

Continuation of GMAN 110. A content- and task-based course that focuses on the acquisition of communicative competence in speaking and writing and on the development of strong cultural awareness. Topics such as multiculturalism, food, childhood, and travel; units on Switzerland and Austria. Course materials include a variety of authentic readings, a feature film, and shorter video clips. Tutors are available for extra help. To be followed by GMAN 130. Enrollment limited to 14 per section. Students must preregister through Preference Selection during the online preregistration period. Details and a link to Preference Selection are provided on the German department Web site at  L2  1½ Course cr
HTBA

GMAN 125a, Intensive German I  Lieselotte Sippel

Intensive training in speaking, reading, writing, and comprehending the language. Focus on the mastery of formal grammar. For beginning students of superior linguistic ability.  L1, L2  2 Course cr
MTWThF 9:25am-11:15am

GMAN 130a or b, Intermediate German I  Staff

Builds on and expands knowledge acquired in GMAN 120. A content- and task-based course that helps students improve their oral and written linguistic skills and their cultural awareness through a variety of materials related to German literature, culture, history, and politics. Course materials include authentic readings, a feature film, and shorter video clips. Tutors are available for extra help. After GMAN 120 or according to placement examination. Followed by GMAN 140. Enrollment limited to 14 per section. Students must preregister through Preference Selection during the online preregistration period. Details and a link to Preference Selection are provided on the German department Web site at  L3  1½ Course cr
HTBA

GMAN 140a or b, Intermediate German II  Staff

Builds on and expands knowledge acquired in GMAN 130. A content- and task-based course that helps students improve their oral and written linguistic skills and their cultural awareness through a variety of materials related to German literature, culture, history, and politics. Course materials include authentic readings, a feature film, and shorter video clips. Tutors are available for extra help. After GMAN 130 or according to placement examination. Normally followed by GMAN 150 or, with permission of the director of undergraduate studies, by GMAN 171. Enrollment limited to 14 per section. Students must preregister through Preference Selection during the online preregistration period. Details and a link to Preference Selection are provided on the German department Web site at  L4  1½ Course cr
HTBA

GMAN 145b, Intensive German II  Lieselotte Sippel

Continuation of GMAN 125. Focus on speaking, writing, and the conversion of grammatical knowledge into reading competence for literary and scholarly purposes. Prerequisite: GMAN 125.  L3, L4  RP  2 Course cr
MTWThF 9:25am-11:15am

* GMAN 151b, Exploring Contemporary German Culture  Staff

Advanced German course focusing on vocabulary expansion through reading practice; stylistic development in writing; and development of conversational German. Critical analysis of selected aspects of contemporary German culture, such as Green Germany, social movements from the 60s to today, the changing "Sozialstaat,” and current events. Prerequisite: GMAN 140 or equivalent.  L5
MW 11:35am-12:50pm

* GMAN 152a, Advanced German, Contemporary Germany  Theresa Schenker

An advanced language and culture course focusing on contemporary Germany. Analysis and discussion of current events in Germany and Europe through the lens of German media, including newspapers, books, TV, film radio, and modern electronic media formats. Focus on oral and written production to achieve advanced linguistic skills. After GMAN 140 or 145. For entering students with a score of 5 on the German Advanced Placement test, or according to results of the placement examination. Students must preregister through Preference Selection during the online preregistration period. Details and a link to Preference Selection are provided on the German department Web site at  L5, HU
TTh 11:35am-12:50pm

* DUTC 160b, Advanced Dutch II  Staff

Continuation of DUTC 150. Focus on improvement of grammatical knowledge; proficiency in reading, writing, and speaking Dutch; and cultural insight and knowledge of Amsterdam and the Netherlands. Prerequisite: DUTC 150 or equivalent. Course taught through distance learning using videoconferencing technology from Columbia University. Enrollment limited; interested students should e-mail for more information.  L5
MW 1:15pm-2:30pm

* GMAN 162a, Pre-1945 German Culture and History  Marion Gehlker

An advanced language course focusing on improving upper-level written and oral language skills through the discussion of selected aspects of pre-1945 German culture, politics, and history in literary and nonliterary texts, films, and the arts. Topics include the Kaiserreich, the Weimar Republic, Expressionist art and film, youth movements, social democracy, and Nazi Germany. Emphasis on vocabulary building through frequent oral and written assignments. After GMAN 140, 145, or 150, or with permission of instructor.  L5, HU
MW 11:35am-12:50pm

* GMAN 163b, The Afro-German Experience  Theresa Schenker

Investigation of the history and culture of Afro-Germans. Topics include pre-colonial contacts between Africans and Germans, German colonies in Africa, and the Afro-German fate during and after the Nazi regime. Strong focus on the experience of Afro-Germans in contemporary Germany as seen in Afro-German fictional and non-fictional texts and media. Course culminates in an analysis of the image of people of color and questions of racism in Germany today Prerequisites: German 150, another advanced German class, or with permission of instructor.  L5, HU
TTh 11:35am-12:50pm

* GMAN 173a, Introduction to German Lyric Poetry  Staff

The German lyric tradition, including classic works by Goethe, Schiller, Hölderlin, Eichendorff, Heine, Mörike, Droste-Hülshoff, Rilke, George, Brecht, Trakl, Celan, Bachmann, and Jandl. Attention to the German Lied (art song). Development of advanced reading, writing, speaking, and translation skills. Prerequisite: GMAN 150 or equivalent.  L5, HU
MW 9am-10:15am

Unless otherwise indicated, courses in this group are conducted in English with both readings and discussion in English. The courses are open to all students in Yale College.

GMAN 208a / HIST 254a, Germany from Unification to Refugee Crisis  Jennifer Allen

The history of Germany from its unification in 1871 through the present. Topics include German nationalism and national unification; the culture and politics of the Weimar Republic; National Socialism and the Holocaust; the division of Germany and the Cold War; the Student Movement and New Social Movements; reunification; and Germany's place in contemporary Europe.  HU
TTh 11:35am-12:50pm

* GMAN 226a / LITR 218a, The Faust Tradition  Jan Hagens

The development of the Faust motif through time, from the period of the Renaissance and the Reformation to the twentieth century. Readings from the English adaptation of the original German chapbook and from works by Marlowe, Ben Johnson, Goethe, Wilde, Bulgakov, and Thomas Mann. Screenings of films with a Faustian theme.  HU
TTh 1pm-2:15pm

* GMAN 227a / HUMS 330a / LITR 330a / PHIL 402a, Heidegger's Being and Time  Martin Hägglund

Systematic, chapter by chapter study of Heidegger’s Being and Time, arguably the most important work of philosophy in the twentieth-century. All major themes addressed in detail, with particular emphasis on care, time, death, and the meaning of being.  HU
HTBA

* GMAN 247b / LITR 201b, Goethe's Wilhelm Meister  Kirk Wetters

A detailed study of Goethe’s 1795/96 Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship – the first novel of the nineteenth century and the prototypical novel of education (Bildungsroman); engagement with critical and scholarly reception starting with Schiller and Schlegel, theories of the novel and transformations of modern society. Readings and discussion in English.  HU
HTBA

* GMAN 273a / FILM 319a / LITR 368a, The Third Reich in Postwar German Film, 1945-2007  Jan Hagens

Close study of the intersection of aesthetics and ethics with regard to how German films, since 1945, have dealt with Nazi history. Through the study of German-language films (with subtitles), produced in postwar East, West, and unified Germany through 2007, students consider and challenge perspectives on the Third Reich and postwar Germany, while learning basic categories of film studies.  HU
W 1:30pm-3:20pm

* GMAN 316b / HUMS 317b, The Death Sentence: When the State Kills  Paul North

The political, economic, and philosophical figure of the “death sentence,” although it has archaic roots, continues to haunt the 21st century. “Capital punishment,” often understood as the paradigmatic, final, and ultimate form of sovereign power, forms only the starting point of our inquiry. If it is the case that, as John Locke writes quoting Cicero, salus populi suprema lex esto (the safety of the people should be the supreme law), and if, furthermore, this maxim extends in the name of national security up to and including the point where the lives of certain people and populations are thrown into question, then all instances where the state kills, sanctions killing, or benefits directly or indirectly from the killing of its own citizens must be in question in the course. It may seem strange—modern politics, economics, and philosophy all begin from death sentences. The French revolution depended on bloody executions that were “necessary” for founding a new polity. The Atlantic slave trade condemned millions of Africans to death, under economic reasoning, for the benefit of world capitalism. Athens killed the philosopher Socrates because he was dangerous to the polis, and philosophy has enshrined this death sentence as its mythical origin and its most modern moment. We investigate the stories and logics these events have in common. Why does the state kill its own? Why are death sentences necessary for the current complex of state-nation-capital? Why did “barbaric” practices not end with enlightenment, the critique of religion, scientific rationalism, modernization, capitalism? Answers to these questions come from texts in political theory, philosophy, history, and the social sciences.  HU
M 3:30pm-6:30pm

* GMAN 323a, Vienna 1900-1938  Staff

The Vienna of 1900—of Freud, Schnitzler, Strauss, Hofmannsthal, Kraus, Musil, Mahler, Schönberg, Klimt, Schiele, and Wittgenstein—has become the stuff of myth. For good reason: at the turn of the 20th century, the capital of the multi-ethnic, multi-lingual Habsburg Empire became a focal point for experimentation in literature, fine art, architecture, music, film, psychology, and philosophy. In this course, we examine the emergence of new aesthetic strategies and the development of psychoanalysis; we delve into questions of representation and language. How do the artists of the time thematize the pressures of urbanization, secularization, ethnic conflict, cosmopolitanism, sexuality, gender, and consciousness? Continuing into the interwar period, we examine the collapse of empire and its ramifications for architecture, urban planning, and artistic representation. The post-1918 period, leading up to the rise of fascism in the early 1930s and Austria’s Anschluss, witnessed the emergence of progressive social ideals in the public sphere, from childcare to public housing projects. Women writers move to the forefront as chroniclers and analysts of squalid living conditions, rising anti-Semitism, and gender disparities. We also look at the fin-de-siècle’s powerful afterlife and its subsequent mythologization and we explore issues of temporality, ethnicity, and media (such as the serialized publication of literary texts, the proliferation of cinemas, and the development of the telephone network).  HU
Th 9:25am-11:15am

* GMAN 365b / LITR 460b, The Contemporary German Novel, 1945-2019  Rüdiger Campe

This course discusses exemplary novels in German language after 1945 from West and East Germany, Germany after Reunification, from Austria, and from Switzerland. Part I, "Zero Hour—or Not," covers political critique of Nazi Germany and the attempt of aesthetic clean break (e.g., Gunther Grass, Wolfgang Koeppen, Ingeborg Bachmann, Max Frisch); Part II "1968: Revolution or New Interiority," covers social protest versus aesthetic internationalism (e.g., Peter Handke, Christa Wolf, Hubert Fichte, Thomas Bernhard); and Part III, "The Attempt of Being Contemporary," covers German and German speaking societies in the global world (e.g., Elfriede Jelinek, Daniel Kehlmann, Yoko Tawada, Rainald Goetz). While "contemporaneity" is the particular mark of the last section, all works desire to critically intervene in their moment and their place in time. Giving an account of this desire is the goal of the course. Contextualization as needed; close reading of selected passages as the mode of work; all works are provided in English translation and German.  HU
TTh 11:35am-12:50pm

GMAN 381a / PHIL 204a, Kant's Critique of Pure Reason  Paul Franks

An examination of the metaphysical and epistemological doctrines of Kant's Critique of Pure Reason. Prerequisite: PHIL 126 or DRST 004.  HU
WF 9am-10:15am

* GMAN 411b / ER&M 416b / HUMS 342b / JDST 327b / LITR 406b, World Literature  Hannan Hever