German Courses at Kalamazoo College

New 400-Level German Courses for 2005-2006

German 411: Writing One's Life and Times: Autobiography and Personal Writing in German
(TR 12:40-2:30)
Instructor: Jennifer Redmann
Fall, 2006

In this course, students will engage with a variety of texts written in German in the 20th century that fall into the genre of personal writing (autobiographies, journals, and letters). Readings will center around three themes: defining an artistic identity in the modern age, living through times of crisis, and women’s struggle for social recognition and a public voice. Students will gain a critical understanding of the many and varied ways in which individuals use personal texts to communicate with others, to define identity, to call for social change, and to come to terms with the world in which they live. Student responses to the texts under study will take the form of informal discussions, discussion leadership, oral presentations, and formal essays, and they will also author their own short autobiographical texts and journals or web logs. In German. AOS (Lit); CR (Europe)
Prerequisite: GERM 301 or equivalent.

German 430: Themes in German Literature and Culture: Reading Berlin
(TR 12:40-2:30)
Instructor: Jennifer Redmann
Winter, 2007

This course centers around the city of Berlin and its turbulent 20th century. Through the study of literary, historical, and autobiographical texts, as well as films, art, and architecture, course participants will make their way through Berlin of the Kaiserreich and the Weimar Republic, Hitler’s Berlin and the post-war rubble, the city divided by a wall, and the new Berlin, capital of a united Germany. Readings will include works by Theodor Fontane, Alfred Döblin’s Berlin Alexanderplatz, the post-war diary Eine Frau in Berlin, Uwe Johnson’s Zwei Ansichten, Peter Schneider’s Der Mauerspringer, and recent works by Thomas Brussig. Note: German 430 may be repeated for credit, since the topic rotates. AOS (Lit); CR (Europe)
Prerequisite: GERM 301 or equivalent.
**This course is cross-listed with GERM 490 (Senior Seminar) and required of all senior German majors!**

German 420: Introduction to German Cinema
(MWF 10:00-11:35, F 10:00-10:40; Film Screenings M 7:00-9:00pm)
Instructor: Mike Sosulski
Spring, 2007

This course will offer an overview of German cinema through the analysis of nine films from the Weimar Republic through the post-Wende period. We will screen and discuss films from a wide variety of periods of German cinematic history during this course: the Weimar Era, the Third Reich, Postwar Cinema, New German Cinema, East German, or DEFA Cinema, Women’s Cinema, and post-Wende cinema. Our primary focus in this course will be on learning the basics of film language and analysis; developing your skill in close textual reading of film through sequence analysis; and understanding the film both as art and as cultural artifact within its historical (and film historical) contexts. In German. CR (Europe)
Prerequisite: GERM 301 or equivalent


Courses Offered:

GERM 101: Beginning German I – The Personal World
An introduction to the German language with an emphasis on the personal world. Through communicative activities covering the four language skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing), students learn to ask and answer questions and share information about themselves, their families, and their daily activities.

GERM 102: Beginning German II – The German-Speaking World
Expansion of the skills acquired in GERM 101. Students build on their basic knowledge of everyday German-speaking culture (through topics such as tourism and transportation, health care and leisure activities), improve their communicative competence, and develop skills needed to negotiate a variety of cultural settings.

GERM 135: Topics in German Studies
This course, given in English, offers insight into various aspects of German cultural life through readings and discussions of German texts in translation. Possible course topics include “The Literature of the Holocaust,” “Critical Approaches to the Grimm’s Fairy Tales,” and “German Film.” AOS (LIT); CR (Europe)

GERM 201: Intermediate German – Topics in German Culture
Continued expansion of the skills acquired in GERM 101 and 102. Students further develop their ability to communicate in German and their understanding of the German-speaking world by engaging with increasingly complex topics (such as education, environmental issues, politics, history, and multiculturalism). As in German 101 and 102, all four language skills are practiced, and comparisons between American and German society provide the basis for class discussions.

GERM 203: Advanced German I - Contemporary Germany
This course centers around themes related to life in contemporary Germany, with special emphasis on developing students’ writing skills in various genres. In a unit on current events in Germany, for example, students read and listen to news reports, practice vocabulary items and linguistic structures typical of journalistic texts, and finally compose (in multiple drafts) a newspaper article on a topic of their choice. Other unit themes may include “United Germany,” “German Film and Media,” and “German Politics.” In German.

GERM 204: Advanced German II - German Stories and Histories
This course centers around stories (personal, public, and literary) presented within a German historical and cultural context, with special emphasis on developing students’ reading skills and cultural literacy. Students read and express opinions (both in oral and written form) on texts such as fairy tales, youth novels, personal narratives, and films. Continued practice of linguistic structures and systematic vocabulary building are also central to the course. In German.

GERM 301: Introduction to German Literature - Reading German Texts and Contexts
This course serves as an introduction to upper-level courses in German literature and culture. It stresses the central role that literature plays in fostering an understanding of German society, and it introduces students to the tools and theories of literary and cultural analysis. Readings vary from prose and poetry to drama and film, and they may be focused on a single theme across a number of time periods to provide a context toward an understanding of a particular text. In German. AOS (LIT); CR (Europe)