Spring 2024 Germanic Languages Literature and Language Courses for the Department of Germanic Languages
About our language classes: All of our language classes are taught as part of a living culture and invite you to explore cultures from multiple perspectives. All Columbia and Barnard German classes are open to both Barnard and Columbia Students. Please note that we do have separate Major/Concentration/Minor requirements. Visit our respective websites for more information.
Other ways to find our courses:
For an overview of all course offerings and sections please also visit the Columbia Directory: http://www.columbia.edu/cu/bulletin/uwb/#home.html German Courses: http://www.columbia.edu/cu/bulletin/uwb/#subj/GER M/_Spring2024.html For Columbia’s courses and syllabi, please visit: https://germanic.columbia.edu For Barnard’s German courses and syllabi, please visit: https://german.barnard.edu/at-aglance_courses
Comparative Literature-German GU4210
Aesthetic Theory: The Frankfurt School Taught in English
Aesthetic Theory is the name of Theodor W. Adorno’s late masterpiece (of which we will read excerpts only—not to worry). At the same time, it is a good indication of the broader interest in the relations of aesthetics, politics, and society that is at the center of many other key works by the group of critical theorists (in part loosely) affiliated first with an interdisciplinary institute in Frankfurt, Germany, and later in exile, temporarily with Columbia University. The course delves into this rich—and unfortunately newly topical—body of work, much of which was first developed in response to twentieth-century fascism. We will trace some of the “Frankfurt School’s” philosophical genealogies in Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalysis and György’s Lukács Marxist philosophy of aesthetic form and read some of Walter Benjamin’s and Siegfried Kracauer’s Weimar (and beyond) criticism, film, and media theory before turning to Max Horkheimer and Adorno’s Dialectic of Enlightenment and its group-authored sociological companion piece on The Authoritarian Personality. The course will also at least touch upon Herbert Marcuse’s work on mass culture and Ernst Bloch’s counter-emphasis on the utopian potential of art and literature, and we will spend some time on the female philosophers on the margins of the group, such as Hannah Arendt and Angela Davis, a student of Marcuse’s. Throughout, we will also ask critical questions, for example, about how to decolonize the Frankfurt School, even while appreciating its continued echoes in twenty-first-century aesthetic theory, from Lauren Berlant and José Muñoz to Tavia Nyong’o and many others.
3 credits
Instructor: Claudia Breger - T 2:10pm-4:00pm
GU4265 3 credits Divided Selves: Jews in German Culture This course will pursue a dual objective. On the one hand it will give students an introduction to the history of Jews in modern German culture from the Enlightenment to the late twentieth century. Rather than offering a systematic historical overview, the course will focus on key moments and figures, from Lessing’s early defense of “the Jews” in his eponymous play (1749) to “ghetto stories” by Franzos and Kompert, from Heine’s “Rabbi of Bacherach” to Thomas Mann’s satire of assimilated Berlin Jews in “Blood of the Volsungs.” The emphasis here is on figures: we will be dealing primarily with cultural representations of Jews, by Jews and non-Jews alike, not with actual individuals. At the same time, the course will attempt to elaborate a theory of German modernity that hinges on the role of Jews in facilitating the transition from an agricultural, medieval, decentralized guild and court society to a modern, industrial, centralized capitalist state. In both positive and negative ways, the Jew as outsider, foreigner, cosmopolitan and wanderer has served as a metaphor for Germany’s cultural modernity. Much of modern German anti-Semitism takes its cue from this peculiarity of German cultural history. The course will be wide-ranging and interdisciplinary, drawing on material from literature, music, architecture, and the visual arts.
Instructor: Mark Anderson W 4:10pm - 6:00pm Requirements: In addition to regular attendance and active class participation, students will be expected to write short responses to the reading material, to do one in-class presentation, and write a final research paper. All readings and discussions in English; knowledge of German, Yiddish and/or Hebrew helpful but absolutely not required.
Advanced Topics in German Literature:
Freuds Vienna, or the Invention of Modernity Vienna in 1900: Freud’s Interpretation of Dreams is published. Simultaneously, an explosion in artistic creativity by Freud’s contemporaries, together with extreme social and political tensions, transforms the aesthetic landscape into what in German is known as “die Moderne,” modern times. Drawing on Freud’s exploration of sexual tensions in the family, this course will focus on literary texts (and one opera!) to chart the pathbreaking changes in aesthetics, gender relations, anti-Semitism, and Zionism that took place in Vienna between 1900 and 1918. Texts by Freud, Arthur Schnitzler, Frank Wedekind, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Adolf Loos, Theodor Herzl, Karl Kraus, and others. All readings and discussions in German, with occasional secondary readings in English. For undergraduates and beginning graduate students.
GERMUN3991 3 credits Instructor: Mark Anderson M 10:10 am - 12:00 pm
Unland: UN3456 Writing Utopias
The word ‘Utopia’ is a combination of the Greek prefix ou—not and topos —place. In the aftermath of the Shoah, the poet Paul Celan alludes to this etymology when he writes about ‘Unland,’ referring to the desiccated status of Europe, the ‘not-yet’ of nascent political or communal formations, and the ‘no-place’ of poetry; a non-territorial laboratory for understanding and reconfiguring the world. This course will look at a variety of writers who generate ‘non-places’— vacuums, alternatives, blueprints—that shed new light on our lived realities. Alluring or depleted (or both), these often unreachable realms instigate critical reflection about the tragic absurdities of our own present. We will pay particular attention to how writers conceive of text as a ‘third space’ that hovers between reality and fantasy. Looking at a range of authors from early modernity to the present, this course will challenge the genre boundaries between science-fiction and canonical literature. Readings will include works by Shakespeare, Georg Büchner, Franz Kafka, Italo Calvino, Jorge Luis Borges, Stanisław Lem, Ursula K. Le Guin, and Samuel R. Delany.
Instructor: Evan Parks M W 4:10pm - 5:25 pm 3 credits
GERMGU4446 Berliner Topographien / Berlin Topographies
The development of Berlin’s urban space goes hand in hand with the emergence of an urban perception in literature, which not only shapes the texts of well-known Berlin flaneurs such as Walter Benjamin or Franz Hessel, but has its beginnings with E.T.A. Hoffmann and Heinrich Heine. Their seeing, hearing and reading of the city is related to the social reality that the concept of topography reflects. The seminar traces the interactions of urban development and perception in literature with regard to concrete places, squares and streets in order to take into account the history and diversity of the city, which always has been shaped by immigration. Based on recent work that combines approaches of the spatial turn with those of affect studies, the seminar elaborates an understanding of Berlin topographies that reflects the tension between real urban space and the imaginary spaces of literature and makes their links productive. Starting with the authors mentioned above, followed by Alfred Döblin, Aras Ören and contemporary voices including Fatma Aydemir and Tomer Gardi, the seminar inquires into affective topographies that take place (or make place) in literature and unfold the dialogical, polyphonic character of metropolitan life into the immediate present.
3 credits Instructor: Anne Fleig (Distinguished Visiting Max Kade Professor, Freie Universität Berlin) M 2:10 pm - 4:00 pm
Crime and Criminality This seminar will explore narrative representations of criminality from the late 18th century to the present, drawing on German literature with occasional forays into criminology and film. Specific attention will be paid to various textual strategies of constructing authenticity, “true crime” fiction, and interrelations of literature and criminology. Lectures, discussions, and readings will be in German.
Instructor: Stefan Andriopoulos
W 10:10 am - 12:00 pm GERMUN3556
3 credits
Comical Expression in Multicult Lit/Film This course is designed for participants who are interested in learning more about the role of humor in 20th/21st-c. literature and film. The survey begins with an introduction to key elements of the comical in literature and film, including slapstick, clowning, mime, or stunts. Discussions revolve around the issue of how or whether humor is universally recognizable or whether it is regionally, historically, and culturally defined. To shed light on this difficult question we will consider both historical and geographical settings. In close studies of popular films and literary texts we will examine the characters’ proclivities and discuss their gender-based perspectives as well as the influence of racial, religious or age-related identities. Our weekly readings—which include excerpts from major novels, selected scenes from films as well as short stories--provide us with rich and instructive examples of how eating habits, choice of food, calendrical events (holiday vs. weekday) may be related to the formation and expression of cultural identity. Romantic comedies reveal not only personal preferences and the joy of eating—they also signal collective taste patterns and indicate what kind of fantasies or constraints have governed the daily or festive dietary practices from the early 20th c. on. While the comical is first and foremost represented in time-honored genres such as comedies or jokes, we will concentrate on the modern tradition in this course. This approach allows us to address the social, political, and cultural issue of multiculturalism and to build bridges between individual text/film and their historical contexts in the Germanspeaking countries. The emphasis of the course lies on a critical investigation of how cultural identity is related to self-expression and to physical interaction on the page, the stage or the screen. The course is taught in English, all readings are in English, and there are no prerequisites.
BC3105 3 credits
Instructor: Erk Grimm Tu Th 2:40 pm - 3:55 pm
UN3517
Sexuality, Modernity & German Film This course explores the modern historical development of sexuality and gender through a close engagement with German cinema of the 20th and early 21st centuries. We will trace two forces closely associated with “modernity”: the art and technology of cinema as an international medium and sexuality as a socially significant aspect of individual personhood, collective politics and public concern. We will consider both film and sexuality as intertwined vectors of social and cultural change, as well as aesthetic and artistic practice, and we will apply our film-analytical framework to develop a better understanding of German culture over the last century. Our course will draw from feminist and queer film studies, cultural studies, critical theory, and histories of gender and sexuality to build our methodology. Through our shared film viewings and class discussions, we will exercise practical forms of critical understanding and communication about modern German cinema and culture. Please note: One weekly meeting session reserved for film screenings.
Instructor: Hazel Rhodes M 6:00 pm - 7:50 pm &W 2:10 pm 4:00 pm - 3 credits
YIDD 3500UN
Survey of Yiddish Literature (ENG) For the better part of a thousand years Yiddish was the primary language of European Jewry – and the language of its most exciting and vibrant literary and cultural achievement. This class hopes to trace the history of that literature – which is at its heart a history of much of the Jewish people as it lived traditionally faced modernity and suffered catastrophe. Stories poems plays – by authors ranging from Nobel prize winners like Isaac Bashevis Singer to seventeenth century women like Gluckel of Hameln – are not only great works of art in their own right but they open a window into a largely vanished world.
Instructor: Jeremy Dauber R 10:00am - 12:00pm 3 credits
GU4310
Contemporary American Jewish Women’s Literature The seminar will focus on trends that have emerged over the past three decades in Jewish American women's writing in the fields of memoirs, fiction and Jewish history: the representation and exploration through fictive narratives of women's experiences in American Jewish orthodox communities; reinterpretation of Jewish history through gender analysis; the recording of migration and exile by Jewish women immigrants from the former Soviet Union, Morocco, Iran, and Egypt; and gender transformations. Texts will be analyzed in terms of genre structures, narrative strategies, the role of gender in shaping content and Jewish identity, and the political, cultural and social contexts in which the works were created. The course aims for students to discuss and critically engage with texts in order to develop the skills of analytical and abstract thinking, as well as the ability to express that critical thinking in writing. Prerequisites: Both one introductory WGSS course and Critical Approaches to Social and Cultural Theory, or Permission of the Instructor.
Instructor: Agnieszka Legutko T 4:10pm - 6:00pm 4 credits
UN3335 Prerequisites: GERM UN2102 or the equivalent, 2 credits
Advanced Conversation and Composition: Sport and Society in the German-Speaking World The integration of sport into our social fabric is so thorough that it often goes unnoticed. From the persistence of sports metaphors in everyday conversation (“the ball’s in your court,” “going the extra mile,” “overcoming a hurdle” – all of which have cognate expressions in German!) to the intertwining of social and political issues into professional athletic competitions, sports quite evidently have a rich and vibrant life beyond the ball field. Sport at the same time also serves for many people as an escape from the pressures of their social and political lives, offering opportunities for leisure, community-building, and self-improvement. This course investigates all these relations of sports and society in the German-language context and more through engagements with a wide variety of texts, from the literary to the journalistic, from the philosophical to the farcical, from the leisurely to the revolutionary. We will begin the semester by laying out the linguistic and cultural basis for sport’s social utility before turning to a systematic examination of specific points of intersection between sports and society, exploring how sport is deeply entangled in and invested in conversations about race, gender, multiculturalism, capitalism, geopolitics, and much more.
Instructor: Nate Wagner TR 4:10 pm - 5:25 pm
UN3002
Prerequisites: GERM UN2102 or the equivalent.
Advanced German II: Vienna Past and Present A course for students who would like to improve their German language skills, speaking, reading, listening, writing and immerse themselves at the same time into the culture, history and politics of Fin de Siecle Vienna to the present. Visit Viennese coffee houses and meet famous people, such as Gustav Klimt, Emilie Flöge, Sigmund Freud, Arthur Schnitzler, Alma Mahler-Werfel, as well as Hundertwasser and Thomas Bernhard. Many different genres of texts, films and video sequences, as well as music and art will be used to enhance students’ language proficiency as well as spark and/or deepen their interest in Viennese culture. In order to further develop writing skills in German there will be ample opportunity to practice grammar and stylistics.
Instructor: Irene Motyl-Mudretzkyj M W 4:10 pm - 5:25 pm 3 credits
Language Courses German UN1101 Elementary German I - 4 credits UN1102 Elementary German II - 4 credits UN2101 Intermediate German I - 4 credits UN2102 Intermediate German II - 4 credits UN3002 Advanced German II - 3 credits BC2210&2212 - Grammatik Aktiv - 2/3 credits UN3335 Advanced Conversation & Composition I - 2 credits
Yiddish UN1101 Elementary Yiddish I - 4 credits UN1102 Elementary Yiddish II - 4 credits UN2101 Intermediate Yiddish I - 4 credits UN3333 Advanced Yiddish - 3 credits
Language Courses Dutch
UN1102 Elementary Dutch II - 4 credits UN2102 Intermediate Dutch II - 4 credits UN3102 Advanced Dutch II - 3 credits
Finnish
UN2102 Intermediate Finnish II - 4 points
Swedish
UN2102 Intermediate Swedish II - 4 points
If you have prior experience with German, please contact us for the Placement test to find the best fit for you. Phone: 212.854.3202 Email: germanic@columbia.edu