Comparative Literature and Thought
The following graduate degrees are available from the Department of Comparative Literature and Thought:
- Comparative Literature, PhD
- Data Science in the Humanities, Graduate Certificate
- Early Modern Studies, Graduate Certificate
- German and Comparative Literature, PhD
- German and Higher Education Administration, MA
- Germanic Languages and Literatures, MA
- Germanic Languages and Literatures, PhD
- Translation Studies, Graduate Certificate
See the home department for information about the dual PhD programs, including the following:
- East Asian and Comparative Literatures, PhD (East Asian Languages and Cultures)
- English and Comparative Literature, PhD (English)
- French and Francophone Studies and Comparative Literature, PhD (Romance Languages and Literatures)
- Hispanic Studies and Comparative Literature, PhD (Romance Languages and Literatures)
Contact Info
Contact: | Graduate Program Administrator: Comparative Literature and Thought |
Phone: | 314-935-5170 |
Email: | complitandthought@wustl.edu |
Website: | https://complitandthought.wustl.edu/ |
Chair
Matt Erlin
Professor of German
PhD, University of California, Berkeley
Director of Graduate Studies
Caroline Kita
Associate Professor of German
PhD, Duke University
Directors of Undergraduate Studies
André Fischer
Assistant Professor of German
PhD, Stanford University
Joseph Loewenstein
Professor of English
PhD, Yale University
Department Faculty
Jami Ake
Teaching Professor
PhD, Indiana University
Aylin Bademsoy
Assistant Professor of Germanic Languages and Literatures
PhD, University of California, Davis
Nancy E. Berg
Professor of Modern Hebrew Language and Literature (Affiliated Faculty)
PhD, University of Pennsylvania
J. Dillon Brown
Associate Professor of English (Affiliated Faculty)
PhD, University of Pennsylvania
Jianqing Chen
Assistant Professor (Affiliated Faculty)
PhD, University of California, Berkeley
Jiayi Chen
Assistant Professor of East Asian Languages and Cultures (Affiliated Faculty)
PhD, University of Chicago
Lingchei Letty Chen
Professor of Modern Chinese Literature (Affiliated Faculty)
PhD, Columbia University
Rebecca Copeland
Professor of Japanese Language and Literature (Affiliated Faculty)
PhD, Columbia University
Tili Boon Cuillé
Professor of French and Comparative Literature (Affiliated Faculty)
PhD, University of Pennsylvania
Amy Gais
Lecturer in Comparative Literature & Thought
PhD, Yale University
Matthias Goeritz
Professor of Practice of Comparative Literature
PhD, Washington University
Robert E. Hegel
Liselotte Dieckmann Professor Emeritus of Comparative Literature in Arts & Sciences (Emeritus Faculty)
PhD, Columbia University
Robert K. Henke
Professor of Drama
PhD, University of California, Berkeley
Mona Kareem Husain
Assistant Professor of Jewish, Islamic, and Middle Eastern Studies (Affiliated Faculty)
PhD, State University of New York at Binghamton
Ignacio Infante
Professor of Comparative Literatures
PhD, Rutgers University
Carol Jenkins
Lecturer in Germanic Languages and Literatures
PhD, Washington University in St. Louis
Hyeok Hweon Kang
Assistant Professor East Asian Languages and Cultures (Affiliated Faculty)
PhD, Harvard University
Catherine Keane
Professor of Classics (Affiliated Faculty)
PhD, University of Pennsylvania
Tom Keeline
Associate Professor of Classics (Affiliated Faculty)
PhD, Harvard University
Katherine Kerschen
Lecturer in Germanic Languages and Literatures
PhD, Penn State University
Gabi Kirilloff
Assistant Professor of English (Affiliated Faculty)
PhD, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Stephanie Kirk
Professor of Spanish (Affiliated Faculty)
PhD, New York University
Sarah Koellner
Assistant Professor of German Languages and Literatures
PhD, Vanderbilt University
Naomi Lebowitz
Hortense and Tobias Lewin Distinguished Professor Emerita in the Humanities
PhD, Washington University
Ji-Eun Lee
Associate Professor of Korean Language and Literature (Affiliated Faculty)
PhD, Harvard University
Tabea Linhard
Professor of Spanish (Affiliated Faculty)
PhD, Duke University
Frank Lovett
Professor of Political Science
PhD Columbia University
Paul Michael Lützeler
Rosa May Distinguished University Professor Emeritus (Emeritus Faculty)
PhD, Indiana University
Marvin Marcus
Professor Emeritus of Japanese (Emeritus Faculty)
PhD, University of Michigan
Erin McGlothlin
Gloria M. Goldenstein Professor of Holocaust Studies
PhD, University of Virginia
William McKelvy
Associate Professor of English (Affiliated Faculty)
PhD, University of Virginia
Stamos Metzidakis
Professor Emeritus of French and Comparative Literature (Emeritus Faculty)
PhD, Columbia University
Timothy Moore
John and Penelope Biggs Distinguished Professor (Affiliated Faculty)
PhD, University of North Carolina
Jamie Newhard
Associate Professor of Japanese (Affiliated Faculty)
PhD, Columbia University
Anca Parvulescu
Liselotte Dieckmann Professor of Comparative Literature (Affiliated Faculty)
PhD, University of Minnesota
Dolores Pesce
Avis Blewett Professor Emerita of Music (Emeritus Faculty)
PhD, University of Maryland
Philip Purchase
Senior Lecturer
PhD, University of Southern California
Jessica Rosenfeld
Associate Professor of English (Affiliated Faculty)
PhD, University of Pennsylvania
Wolfram Schmidgen
Professor of English (Affiliated Faculty)
PhD, University of Chicago
Michael Sherberg
Professor Emeritus of Italian (Emeritus Faculty)
PhD, University of California, Los Angeles
Vincent Sherry
Howard Nemerov Professor in the Humanities (Affiliated Faculty)
PhD, University of Toronto
Alexander Stefaniak
Associate Professor of Music (Affiliated Faculty)
PhD, Eastman School of Music
Harriet Stone
Professor of French (Emertius Faculty)
PhD, Brown University
Lynne Tatlock
Hortense and Tobias Lewin Distinguished Professor in the Humanities
PhD, Indiana University
Anika Walke
Associate Professor (Affiliated Faculty)
PhD, University of California
Gerhild Scholz Williams
Barbara Schaps Thomas and David M. Thomas Professor Emerita in the Humanities (Emeritus Faculty)
PhD, University of Washington
- Comparative Literature, PhD
- Data Science in the Humanities, Graduate Certificate
- Early Modern Studies, Graduate Certificate
- German and Comparative Literature, PhD
- German and Higher Education Administration, MA
- Germanic Languages and Literatures, MA
- Germanic Languages and Literatures, PhD
- Translation Studies, Graduate Certificate
Courses include the following:
Comparative Literature and Thought
COMPLITTHT 5007 Literary Modernities in East Asia: Text & Traditions
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM, IS EN: H
COMPLITTHT 5010 Methods of Literary Study: The Theory and Practice of Literary Translation
This course combines a review of translation theories with a study of translation practices. We will investigate how translations reflect changing literary and cultural values. In addition, we will examine how the nuances of language and culture (source and target) influence the translator's choice of whom and what kind of text to translate. Guest translators will be invited to discuss their work. Requirements: Class presentation of a literary translation of your choice; to be turned into a paper. You must choose a text that has at least two previous translations, which you will evaluate and critique as you work on your own translation and which will be part of your paper. Poetry is preferable; should you choose prose, you must select a challenging text. The paper must include an outline/brief discussion of your methodological assumptions.
Credit 3 units.
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
COMPLITTHT 5020 Methods of Literary Study: The Theory and Practice of Literary Translation II
A review of translation theories and the study of cultural translation across different time periods and areas of the world. A more general approach to translation and cultural exchange in a globalizing world than Part I (Comp Lit 551), with specific examples to be drawn from Europe, Asia, Latin America and various cultural and literary exchanges between these regions. Topics will include the ideological and ethical underpinnings of translation, the political uses of language in intercultural communication, translation and comparative poetics, the impact of digital technology, and the role of translation in a postcolonial and multicultural world. We will consider not only written texts, but also film and new media as the objects of our critical inquiry. Students will choose a work that has already been translated for critique, in addition to producing their own translation and a critical response to their translation. Requirements: presentations, response papers, final translation project. Native or near-native competence in English and another language. This class is required for students completing the Graduate Certificate in Translation Studies. Open to graduate students in Comparative Literature, English, foreign languages and literatures, as well as any other program across the Humanities with an interest in Translation Studies.
Credit 3 units.
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
COMPLITTHT 5050 Theory and Research Methods in the Humanities
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
COMPLITTHT 5107 Literary Modernities in East Asia: Text & Traditions
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM, IS EN: H
COMPLITTHT 5200 Introduction to Comparative Literature
An introduction to the discipline and practice of Comparative Literature, this course explores the concepts most frequently discussed and the methods most successfully practiced. We will study what texts reveal when they are examined cross-culturally. Students will consider the various differences that emerge between texts when themes and genres are followed across more than one national literature. The course includes a short history of the discipline and recent debates about the nature and scope of the field. Topics to be discussed include genres and forms, influence and intertextuality, translation, world literature, exile, and cross-cultural encounter.
Credit 3 units.
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
COMPLITTHT 5210 Literature in the Making
Credit 3 units.
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
COMPLITTHT 5231 Seminar: Transatlantic Modernisms
Credit 3 units.
COMPLITTHT 5295 Seminar in Cultural Theory:
REMINDER: Course X-listed with one in German.
Credit 3 units.
Typical periods offered: Spring
COMPLITTHT 5301 Data Manipulation for the Humanities
The course will present basic data modeling concepts and will focus on their application to data clean-up and organization (text markup, Excel, and SQL). Aiming to give humanities students the tools they will need to assemble and manage large data sets relevant to their research, the course will teach fundamental skills in programming relevant to data management (using Python); it will also teach database design and querying (SQL). The course will cover a number of basics: the difference between word processing files, plain text files, and structured XML; best practices for version control and software hygiene; methods for cleaning up data; regular expressions (and similar tools built into most word processors). It will proceed to data modeling: lists (Excel, Python); identifiers/keys and values (Excel, Python, SQL); tables/relations (SQL and/or data frames); joins (problem in Excel, solution in SQL, or data frames); hierarchies (problem in SQL/databases, solution in XML); and network graph structures (nodes and edges in CSV). It will entail basic scripting in Python, concentrating on using scripts to get data from the web, and the mastery of string handling.
Credit 1 unit. EN: H
COMPLITTHT 5303 The Philosophical Discourse of Modernity
Graduate Level Seminar. Topics vary by semester.
Credit 3 units.
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
COMPLITTHT 5310 Statistics for Humanities Scholars: Data Science for the Humanities
A survey of statistical ideas and principles. The course will expose students to tools and techniques useful for quantitative research in the humanities, many of which will be addressed more extensively in other courses: tools for text-processing and information extraction, natural language processing techniques, clustering & classification, and graphics. The course will consider how to use qualitative data and media as input for modeling and will address the use of statistics and data visualization in academic and public discourse. By the end of the course students should be able to evaluate statistical arguments and visualizations in the humanities with appropriate appreciation and skepticism. Details. Core topics include: sampling, experimentation, chance phenomena, distributions, exploration of data, measures of central tendency and variability, and methods of statistical testing and inference. In the early weeks, students will develop some facility in the use of Excel; thereafter, students will learn how to use Python or R for statistical analyses.
COMPLITTHT 5320 Programming for Text Analysis
This course will introduce basic programming and text-analysis techniques to humanities students. Beginning with an introduction to programming using the Python programming language, the course will discuss the core concepts required for working with text corpora. We will cover the basics of acquiring data from the web, string manipulation, regular expressions, and the use of programming libraries for text analysis. Later in the course, students will be introduced to larger text corpora. They will learn to calculate simple corpus statistics as well as techniques such as tokenization, chunking, extraction of thematically significant words, stylometrics and authorship attribution. We will end with a brief survey of more advanced text-classification terminology and topics from natural language processing such as stemming, lemmatization, named-entity recognition, and part-of-speech tagging.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
COMPLITTHT 5478 Topics in Transmedia Franchises
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
COMPLITTHT 549 Topics in Comparative Literature
In this course, we will read a broad range of literary works written by ethnic Chinese from various parts of the world. We will examine the notion of Sinophone, primarily its implications to the challenge of cultural identity formation to those Chinese who are not traditionally identified as Chinese because of war, migration, immigration, colonialism, among others. We will also examine the meaning of being on the margins of geopolitical nation-states. Finally we will discuss the notions of hybridity and authenticity vis-a-vis literary representation. We will read works by ethnic Chinese writers from the United States, France, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Mongolia, Tibet, and so on. This course is limited to seniors and graduate students only. All readings will be in English. Active class participation is required.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Spring
COMPLITTHT 5501 Interdisciplinary Topics in the Humanities
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
COMPLITTHT 5510 Seminar in Comparative Literature
Credit 3 units.
Typical periods offered: Spring
COMPLITTHT 5525 Humanities By the Numbers: Essential Readings in Digital Humanities
To what extent can computational techniques that draw on statistical patterns and quantification assist us in literary analysis? Over the semester, we will juxtapose the close reading of historical documents or literary works with the distant reading of a large corpus of historical data or literary texts. We will ask how the typically human scale of reading that lets us respond to literary texts can be captured on the inhuman and massive scales at which computers can count, quantify and categorize texts.While this class will introduce you to basic statistical and computational techniques, no prior experience with technology is required. Prerequisites: two 200 level or one 300-level course in literature or history. This is a topics-type course and the specific documents and works examined will vary from semester to semester. Please see semester course listings for current offerings.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
COMPLITTHT 5590 Internship in Digital Humanities
A practicum in digital humanities. Graduate students will work on one or more faculty research projects sponsored by the Humanities Digital Workshop. While we will try to assign students to projects that align with their research interests, we will also aim for assignments that will help students extend their skills. Students seeking a DASH internship should consult with the director of the DASH program.
Credit 6 units.
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
COMPLITTHT 5700 Methods of Literary Study
The seminar deals with recent theories of Modernism, Postmodernism, New Historicism, Multiculturalism, and Postcolonialism. We will read and discuss books and articles by Calinescus, Lyotard, Hutcheon, Greenblatt, Taylor, Habermas, Ashcroft/Tiffin, and Grossberg/Nelson/Treichler. Readings in Enlish. Graduate standing 6 units of literature, or permission of instructor.
Credit 3 units.
Typical periods offered: Spring
COMPLITTHT 5720 Cultural Theory/Cultural Studies
Credit 3 units.
COMPLITTHT 5850 Mellon Dissertation Seminar
Credit 3 units.
COMPLITTHT 5900 Independent Work
Prerequisites: senior standing and permission of chair of the committee.
Credit 3 units.
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
COMPLITTHT 5901 Research
The first part of a two-semester course sequence in reading and translating German. For graduate students in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. May not be taken for graduate credit.
Credit 9 units.
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
COMPLITTHT 5902 Digital Humanities in the Classroom
For declared DASH Graduate Certificate students. See DASH Director for enrollment.
Credit 3 units.
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
COMPLITTHT 5921 Translation Module 1
The first of a series of three 1-unit courses devoted to the practice of translation. The student will translate a published text of 20-30 pages (or, exceptionally, an unpublished text) from either literature, literary criticism, or literary theory related to the course material, pre-approved by the faculty member teaching the class, due at the end of the semester in which the class is taught.
Credit 1 unit.
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
COMPLITTHT 5922 Translation Module 2
The second of a series of three 1-unit courses devoted to the practice of translation. The student will translate a published text of 20-30 pages (or, exceptionally, an unpublished text) from either literature, literary criticism, or literary theory related to the course material, pre-approved by the faculty member teaching the class, due at the end of the semester in which the class is taught.
Credit 1 unit.
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
COMPLITTHT 5923 Translation Module 3
The third of a series of three 1-unit courses devoted to the practice of translation. The student will translate a published text of 20-30 pages (or, exceptionally, an unpublished text) from either literature, literary criticism, or literary theory related to the course material, pre-approved by the faculty member teaching the class, due at the end of the semester in which the class is taught.
Credit 1 unit.
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
COMPLITTHT 7000 Master's Continuing Student Status
Credit 0 units.
Typical periods offered: Fall
COMPLITTHT 7010 Master Nonresident
Credit 0 units.
Typical periods offered: Fall
COMPLITTHT 8010 Doctoral Nonresident
Credit 0 units.
Typical periods offered: Fall
Germanic Languages and Literatures
GERMAN 5010 Introduction to the Teaching of German
This course will introduce students to basic teaching strategies employed in the German department at Washington University and allow students to evaluate these personally by means of required observations of German 102. Discussions and research will call upon students to understand how basic language learning fits into the overall curriculum on a departmental and university level at Washington University as well as in other programs. The examination and evaluation of language textbooks will introduce students to market issues as well as differences in methodology/philosophy represented by the textbook and new issues involving technology.
Credit 1 unit.
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
GERMAN 5020 Teaching Practicum
This course supports beginning university instructors during their first German courses at Washington University. It will be comprised of activity composition, discussion and microteaching with a focus on the following topics: a review of processing instruction, the national standards and the four skills in a cultural context, technology in the foreign language classroom, and appropriate strategies for feedback, assessment and motivation.
Credit 1 unit.
Typical periods offered: Fall
GERMAN 5030 Theory and Practice of Foreign Language Pedagogy
This third course in the pedagogical series takes a look back and forward to inform future language instruction. Instructors in their second semester of teaching German at Washington University will consider various theories that have been employed for the purpose of second/foreign language acquisition and how these have been incorporated into or overlooked in contemporary SLA methodology. Students will be introduced to important journals as well as professional organizations that assist language instructors at all levels and will present one journal article of their choice to the class. They will also have an opportunity to begin construction of the materials portfolio - gathering exemplary syllabi, lesson plans and evaluations, and creating their first drafts of a statement of teaching philosophy to start them on these aspects of job market preparation. The course will be comprised of active class discussion and group and individual document development.
Credit 2 units.
Typical periods offered: Spring
GERMAN 5040 Apprenticeship in Course Design
For more information, please check with the department.
Credit 3 units.
Typical periods offered: Spring
GERMAN 5050 Apprenticeship in the Teaching of Literature and Culture I
Apprenticeship in teaching literature and culture in English. For students who have completed at least 1 year of teaching at Washington University.
Credit 1 unit.
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
GERMAN 5060 Apprenticeship in the Teaching of Literature and Culture II
Apprenticeship in teaching literature and culture in German. For students who have completed at least 1 year of teaching at Washington University.
Credit 1 unit.
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
GERMAN 5070 German Reading Knowledge for Graduate Students I
The first part of a two-semester course sequence in reading and translating German. For graduate students in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. May not be taken for graduate credit.
Credit 3 units.
Typical periods offered: Summer
GERMAN 5080 German Reading Knowledge for Graduate Students II
Mastery of more specialized vocabulary and of complex German sentence structure. Emphasis on tools and strategies for researching German language texts. Students who complete L21 5071 and 5081 should be able to read German academic texts proficiently. Prerequisite: L21 5071 or permission of DGS required.
Credit 3 units.
Typical periods offered: Summer
GERMAN 5382 Contemporary Literature
This seminar deals with contemporary German literature of the last three decades. Prerequisite: graduate student standing. Max Kade Writer/Critic course taught each Spring Semester. Topics vary by year/semester.
Credit 3 units. Arch: HUM Art: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Spring
GERMAN 5530 Theories of Literary and Cultural Analysis: Narrative Theory - A Critical and Analytical Toolbox
This seminar familiarizes graduate students with concepts and methodologies that are foundational for research in the humanities. Our discussions will be organized around a range of conceptual categories that have constituted the focus of scholarly reflection in the past few decades, categories such as text, genre, image, medium, discourse, discipline, subjectivity, gender, race, culture, politics, and history. Our consideration of these categories will also require us to examine key currents in recent literary theory and cultural criticism, including (post)structuralism, psychoanalysis, Marxist theory, feminism and gender theory, postcolonial studies, cognitive science, book history, visual studies, and media theory. Although this seminar does not aim to offer an intellectual history, seminar members will acquire a sense of some of the key trends in cultural theory since 1945, as well as an awareness of the limits and possibilities that characterize each of them. The course also includes an introduction to the tools of scholarly research. Readings and discussions in English.
Credit 3 units.
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
GERMAN 5700 Seminar: Literature in the Making III
This seminar is designed for graduate students enrolled in the International Writers PhD Track in German and Comparative Literature to put their creative work into conversation with their studies in German language, culture, and literature with an eye to the long-term goal of the hybrid dissertation. Participants will read and discuss practical criticism, present their current creative projects and hone their skills as writers, translators and readers by engaging with a living literature as it evolves. At the conclusion of the course, students will have the choice of presenting a polished work of translation, a piece of original writing (in English or in German), or an essay on one or more of the works read during the semester. German students not officially in the International Writers Track are not eligible to take this course.
Credit 3 units.
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
GERMAN 5710 Seminar in Medieval Culture
The Middle High German era from 1150 to 1350 produced the first great literary works in the German language. The syllabus will be organized around what may well be the key concept of the period, minne. Minne predominately refers to courtly love, a class-specific set of erotic practices or attitudes--even an ethical system--that characterize the courts of medieval Germany and Europe. Far less research, however, has been conducted on the equally powerful legal and theological meanings of minne as conflict resolution by means of reconciliation. Our seminar will inquire whether classic German texts such as Hartmann's Iwein, Walther's lyrics, or the Nibelungenlied (as a negative exemplum) deploy the multiple meanings of minne to argue for a more peaceful society based on love rather than warfare and vengeance. Since most courtly love literature assumes or creates heterosexual norms, gender relations will be a theoretical and thematic aspect of our thinking. Why would heterosexual love serve well as the allegory for peace? We will consider non-literary texts in prose such as sermons, chronicles, and legal compilations; plus some late medieval selections, especially from the Minnereden. The historical and legal research on medieval conflict resolution by Gerd Althoff, Stephen D. White, William Ian Miller, and Fredric L. Cheyette and others will constitute the interdisciplinary context of our reading and discussion. Readings in MHG as far as possible but translations will also be available.
Credit 3 units.
Typical periods offered: Fall
GERMAN 5720 Seminar in Reformation & Humanism
During the early modern period, 1500-1750, prose fiction developed as one of the dominant literary forms. We will read and review several important literary expressions along this evolutionary trajectory that mark the narrative changes leading from late medieval/early modern Prosaromane (Volksbücher) to early forms of the novel. We will explore the relationship of facts and fiction, the influence of magic, demonologies, and travel writings as well as issues of gender construction and their effect on the development of prose narratives.
Credit 3 units.
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
GERMAN 5730 Seminar in the Late 18th Century
This seminar is designed to provide students with an in-depth introduction to the complete text of Goethe's Faust. Our reading and discussion of the drama will unfold against the backdrop of three distinct but interrelated contexts. 1) We will consider Faust from a literary-historical perspective, situating the work within Goethe's own literary oeuvre as well within the frameworks of eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century German literature more generally and of the long history of literary Faust adaptations. 2) We will also approach Faust from an intellectual-historical perspective, attempting to understand how it engages with the key philosophical discussions and debates of the period during which it was written: theodicy, the dialectic of enlightenment, and the legitimacy of the modern age. 3) Finally, we will read a selection of scholarly essays that demonstrate how Faust sheds light on various theoretical and scholarly pre-occupations, from the relationship between literature and economics to questions of gender and sexuality. One of the aims of the seminar is to expose students, on the basis of an exemplary case study, to a wide range of models of scholarly inquiry. Readings of the primary text will be supplemented with video of performances as well as adaptations of the Faust material to other media.
Credit 3 units.
Typical periods offered: Spring
GERMAN 5740 Seminar in the 19th Century
Examination of violence as a constituent element in literary evocations of community and the formation of reader communities during a century of multiplying print forms and venues, increasing literacy and expanding publics, political and social upheaval, armed conflict, emigration and colonialism, and re-definitions of allegiance and identity in German-speaking territories and communities. Exploration of the portrayal of violence and crime as endemic in human social formations, including the family, and as an indication of a given community's sickness and health. Particular attention will be paid to international and national literary genres (gothic, Geheimnisliteratur, detective fiction, village tale, novella, case history) that treat these themes, and the publication venues and modes of circulation of these works. Supplementary readings will help to analyze and contextualize literary treatments of violence. Works by Kleist, Auerbach, Droste-Hülshoff, Heine, Gotthelf, Storm, Raabe, Fontane, Ebner-Eschenbach, and others. Readings largely in German, discussion in English. Accommodations can be made for interested graduate students in other programs who do not read German at the graduate level. Please see instructor.
Credit 3 units.
Typical periods offered: Fall
GERMAN 5750 Seminar in the 20th Century
For writers, artists, activists, and intellectuals, expressing their political commitments often requires a strong notion of resistance. While the term resistance has become ubiquitous in contemporary discourse, a closer look at its history since the early 20th century allows for a critical perspective on the complex and contradictory structure of its usage by writers and intellectuals of various ideological leanings. Focusing on the "short 20th century" (1914-1989), this course explores the various understandings of resistance in the context of modern European literature and thought. Students will analyze a range of novels, plays, stories, poems, essays, treatises, pamphlets, and manifestoes with the goal of formulating a - however preliminary - aesthetic theory of resistance. We will discuss how resistance and oppression are related, how aesthetics and politics intersect, how art and ideology permeate one another, and how subversion constantly seeks new ways to express itself. Authors include Luxemburg, Brecht, Seghers, Benjamin, Jünger, Schmitt, Malaparte, Camus, Weil, Arendt, Weiss, or Krasznahorkai. Readings and discussions in English.
Credit 3 units.
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
GERMAN 5760 Seminar in Romanticism
German Romantic literature goes in many different directions. At its beginning, we have a new appreciation of the world of the arts by Wackenroder and Tieck, a literature that will have an impact on the Romantic Nazarene school of painters a decade later. We have (with Friedrich Schlegel, Dorothea Schlegel and Novalis) ambitious writers who want to give the educational novel (Bildungsroman) as established by Goethe a more poetic twist. At the same time, they are inventing and rediscovering the world of the fairy tale (Volks- und Kunstmärchen) in the case of Tieck, Fouqué, and the Grimm Brothers. Then there are authors like Chamisso, ETA Hoffmann, and Hauff who show the clash of a romantic concept of life with the new realities of capitalism in trade and industry. Finally, stories by Eichendorff are reflecting the cultural European heritage with its friction between Antiquity and Christianity. We will discuss these stories and novels in their literary and historical contexts (politics and art), and will consult theoretical writings both of the authors and from secondary literature. This is a graduate course, but undergraduate senior majors can be admitted with permission of the instructor.
Credit 3 units.
Typical periods offered: Spring
GERMAN 5770 Seminar in Cultural Theory
Graduate-level seminar. Topics vary by semester.
Credit 3 units.
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
GERMAN 5780 Literary Seminar
This graduate seminar covers innovative engagements with new media over roughly the past century, incorporating both theoretical frameworks and aesthetic responses. On the one hand, the course will cover major works of media theory from this period, particularly as they apply to literature, with an emphasis on German authors. Theorists are likely to include Benjamin, Heidegger, Adorno, McLuhan, Kittler, Siegert, and Krämer. On the other hand, we will consider how new media have shaped aesthetic practices, particularly in literary movements identified as experimental or avant-garde. The focus in this respect will be on German-language contributions to movements such as Dada and Concrete poetry, including the works of Raoul Hausmann, Max Bense, and Ferdinand Kriwet. In addition, we will consider works by authors such as Yoko Tawada that foreground the role of written media, and by contemporary writers and artists such as Julius Popp and Amaranth Borsuk who work at the intersection of textual and digital media. Readings can be done in German or English; discussion will be in English.
Credit 3 units. EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
GERMAN 5800 Seminar in the Teaching of German
A practical and theoretical introduction for the new teacher of college-level German. Includes basic linguistic principles, classroom management, teaching of smaller units, testing principles, teaching methodologies, professional orientations, and use of multimedia. Extensive observation and the preparation and delivery of a cultural teaching unit.
Credit 3 units.
Typical periods offered: Fall
GERMAN 5810 Advanced Pedagogy Seminar: Integrating Technology Into Language Instruction
Seminar offers professional development in language pedagogy with a focus on enhancing the teaching of the four skills (listening, speaking, reading, writing) and culture through technology. Participants will develop critical skills for assessing, creating, and integrating multimedia courseware into the language classroom. Course formats include readings, discussion, demonstrations, and hands-on sessions with multimedia technologies (e.g., software, WWW, CD-ROM, video). Open to advanced graduate students in all language departments who have completed their required classes. Students with questions regarding eligibility should consult with the instructors.
Credit 3 units.
Typical periods offered: Spring
GERMAN 5900 Independent Study
Requires a paper or a written examination. Prerequisites: permission of the student's adviser and the department.
Credit 6 units.
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring