Prerequisite(s): GERM 112. This course examines the oral roots and multimedia afterlife of German fairy tales documented by the Brothers Grimm in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Depending on the instructor’s background, folk tales from different national traditions can be added to the curriculum. Core fairy tale themes and motifs will be discussed, as will later treatments of the narrative material, and theoretical approaches to understanding fairy tales from structuralist, psychoanalytical, feminist, and poststructuralist perspectives. After in-depth analysis of the Grimm fairy tales, the course explores Romantic literary fairy tales by Ludwig Tieck and E.T.A. Hoffmann, as well as twentieth-century appropriations of the fairy tales. Concluding discussions will engage with the pressing question of how contemporary individuals can mobilize these multiform cultural tales to help establish new social roles and identities. Taught in English. Students registering for GERM 226 will do assignments in German; for students in GRIN 226, all assignments are in English. Satisfies Great Works and Influences GenEd requirement; satisfies SEEDS Literary and Artistic Analysis student learning outcome in alignment with Diversity and Intercultural Competency value.
Prerequisite(s): GERM 102 may be taken as prerequisite or corequisite. A discussion and analysis of films made during the Third Reich, against the background of the history and politics of National Socialist Germany, this course examines the special role film played for the propagandistic apparatus of the Nazis. It discusses fascist aesthetics, representations of the Holocaust, and the fascination for the Nazis and their imagery in contemporary pop culture. Taught in English. Students registering for GERM 227 will do assignments in German; for students in GRIN 227, all assignments are in English. Satisfies SEEDS Literary and Artistic Analysis student learning outcome in alignment with Educated Citizenry value.
Exploration of a timely topic or significant area of German literature or culture. The specific topic will be announced at the appropriate time before registration begins. May be repeated twice for a maximum of 9 credits.
Prerequisite(s): HUMN 115 or HUMN 151. Various aspects of German expressionism, encompassing roughly the period between the two world wars; the political and social climate of the Weimar republic; literature, painting, sculpture, and music, and the film of that era; defining expressionism as a specific historical period as well as a perennial stylistic device. Taught in English.