Courses

Course ID	Title	Offered
GERST 1109	FWS: From Fairy Tales to the Uncanny: Exploring the Romantic Consciousness How did bawdy tales of peasants using magic to climb the social ladder get transformed into moral lessons for children? The answer lies in Romanticism and its appropriation of the imagination as a force for social transformation. As Romantics edited older tales for juvenile consumption they wrote new ones for adults. This new fiction created the matrix for modern pop genres like fantasy, science-fiction, murder mysteries, and gothic horror. To understand this paradigm shift in modern culture, we will read, discuss, and write about a variety of texts the Romantics collected, composed, or inspired, including poetry and film, in addition to classic fairy tales and academic scholarship on the topic. Catalog Distribution: (WRT-AG) Full details for GERST 1109 - FWS: From Fairy Tales to the Uncanny: Exploring the Romantic Consciousness	Fall, Spring.
GERST 1121	FWS: Writing Berlin Berlin is a city that reinvents itself by rewriting itself. In this writing seminar, we'll study a variety of literary, visual, and sonic texts to create a mythical map of the city from its emergence as modern metropolis in the 1920s, reduction to rubble in World War II, refuge for the disaffected in the 1980s, and rebirth in the 21st century. As we make our way through the linguistic, visual, and aural landscape of its ever-changing topography, we'll create our own stories of a mythical Berlin in dialogue with texts written by the displaced persons who breached its walls and navigated its illicit economies. We'll also become more critical readers and viewers, as well as better writers. Catalog Distribution: (WRT-AG) Full details for GERST 1121 - FWS: Writing Berlin	Fall, Spring.
GERST 1125	FWS: Media Studies What is a medium? How do new media relate to old media? What differentiates information contents from medial containers, aesthetic forms, and technical formats? To address such questions, media studies brings together multi-disciplinary expertise about culture and technology across the humanities and sciences. Studying media requires expanding our sense of what counts as a medium, from familiar mass media, such as radio, cinema, newspapers, and television, to individual mediums designed for information, entertainment, or communication—and beyond. In this seminar, students will be reading and writing (in English) about classic examples of media, including books, libraries, paintings, computers, and algorithms, using materials drawn primarily but not exclusively from the rich, vibrant, and dynamic tradition of German media studies. Catalog Distribution: (WRT-AG) Full details for GERST 1125 - FWS: Media Studies	Spring.
GERST 1170	FWS: Marx, Nietzsche, Freud A basic understanding of Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud is a prerequisite for participating in critical debates in the humanities and social sciences. Our seminar will explore key terms in the revolutionary models of critical analysis these thinkers pioneered: historical materialism, post-metaphysical philosophy, and psychoanalysis. This will mean articulating points of contrast as well as convergence. Discussions and writing exercises will focus on texts that created the discursive framework for critiquing society and culture today. Our method will proceed from the premise that critical reading, thinking, and writing are inseparable moments in the same operation of critique. The question that guides that method will be: Do alternative ways of thinking exist in opposition to the ones we view as natural, inevitable, or universal? Catalog Distribution: (WRT-AG) Full details for GERST 1170 - FWS: Marx, Nietzsche, Freud	Fall, Spring.
GERST 1210	Exploring German Contexts I Students develop basic abilities in listening, reading, writing, and speaking German in meaningful contexts through interaction in small group activities. Course materials including videos, short articles, and songs provide students with varied perspectives on German language, culture, and society. Catalog Distribution: (FL-AG) Full details for GERST 1210 - Exploring German Contexts I	Fall, Spring.
GERST 1220	Exploring German Contexts II Students build on their basic knowledge of German by engaging in intense and more sustained interaction in the language. Students learn more advanced language structures allowing them to express more complex ideas in German. Discussions, videos, and group activities address topics of relevance to the contemporary German-speaking world. Catalog Distribution: (FL-AG) Full details for GERST 1220 - Exploring German Contexts II	Fall, Spring.
GERST 1230	Expanding the German Dossier Students continue to develop their language skills by discussing a variety of cultural topics and themes in the German-speaking world. The focus of the course is on expanding vocabulary, reviewing major grammar topics, developing effective reading strategies, improving listening comprehension, and working on writing skills. Work in small groups increases each student's opportunity to speak in German and provides for greater feedback and individual help. Catalog Distribution: (FL-AG) Full details for GERST 1230 - Expanding the German Dossier	Fall, Spring.
GERST 2000	Germany: Intercultural Context Students examine important aspects of present-day German culture while expanding and strengthening their reading, writing, and speaking skills in German. Materials for each topic are selected from a variety of sources (fiction, newspapers, magazines, and the Internet). Units address a variety of topics including studying at a German university, modern literature, Germany online, and Germany at the turn of the century. Oral and written work and individual and group presentations emphasize accurate and idiomatic expression in German. Successful completion of the course enables students to continue with more advanced courses in language, literature, and culture. Catalog Distribution: (ALC-AS) (CA-AG, LA-AG) Full details for GERST 2000 - Germany: Intercultural Context	Fall, Spring.
GERST 2020	Literary Texts and Contexts: The Myth of 1968 1968 marked a turning point in German history. Protesting students upended the social, cultural, and political order with a utopian vision of revolution that ended in a decade-long wave of domestic terrorist violence. This intermediate language course examines four primary texts in four different media (historical fiction, avant-garde film, popular music, multimedia art) that treat the myth of 1968. As we study these texts in historical context, we will expand our oral and written command of idiomatic German through systematic grammar review and enriched vocabulary practice. Catalog Distribution: (ALC-AS) Full details for GERST 2020 - Literary Texts and Contexts: The Myth of 1968	Spring.
GERST 2060	German in Business Culture Learn German and understand German business culture at the same time. This is a German language course that examines the German economic structure and its major components: industry, trade unions, the banking system, and the government. Participants will learn about the business culture in Germany and how to be effective in a work environment, Germany's role within the European Union, the importance of trade and globalization, and current economic issues in Germany. The materials consist of authentic documents from the German business world, TV footage, and a Business German textbook. Catalog Distribution: (ALC-AS) (CA-AG, LA-AG) Full details for GERST 2060 - German in Business Culture	Spring.
GERST 2703	Thinking Media From hieroglyphs to HTML, ancient poetry to audiotape, and Plato's cave to virtual reality, "Thinking Media" offers a multidisciplinary introduction to the most influential media formats of the last three millennia. Featuring an array of guests from across Cornell, including faculty from Communication, Comparative Literature, German Studies, Information Science, Literatures in English, Music, and Performing & Media Arts, the course will present diverse perspectives on how to think with, against, and about media in relation to the public sphere and private life, archaeology and science fiction, ethics and aesthetics, identity and difference, labor and play, knowledge and power, expression and surveillance, and the generation and analysis of data. Catalog Distribution: (ALC-AS) (CA-AG, LA-AG) Full details for GERST 2703 - Thinking Media	Spring.
GERST 3013	German Language Across the Curriculum (LAC) This 1-credit optional course aims to expand the students' vocabulary, and advance their speaking and reading skills as well as enhance their knowledge and deepen their cultural understanding by supplementing non-language courses throughout the University. Full details for GERST 3013 - German Language Across the Curriculum (LAC)	Offered on demand.
GERST 3080	Walking the Line: East and West Germany Then and Now This course is aimed to increase your linguistic competencies in German, your cultural awareness, as well as critical thinking skills. We will discuss different perspectives of the German Reunification and its implications then and today. The highlight of the course will be an intercultural encounter with students from the Bielefeld Universität in Germany. Catalog Distribution: (ALC-AS, GLC-AS) (FL-AG) Full details for GERST 3080 - Walking the Line: East and West Germany Then and Now	Spring.
GERST 3290	Mean Streets: German Crime and Detective Fiction This class surveys the history and contemporary developments of crime and detective fiction in German. In addition, we may read a number of theoretical reflections on the figure of the detective, the history of police detection, and the literary crime and detective genre(s). The historical development of, and theoretical reflections on, the crime genre in the anglophone world will serve as points of comparison. We may also discuss relevant movies and radio plays, investigate their relation to "literature," and analyze the specificity of each medium as well as its representational affinity with crime and detection. The readings will for the most part be in German and may include such authors as Gilbert Adair, Richard Alewyn, Friedrich Ani, Jakob Arjouni, Bertolt Brecht, Ernst Bloch, Jorge Luis Borges, Kurt Bracharz, Raymond Chandler, Wilkie Collins, Arthur Conan Doyle, Friedrich Dürrenmatt, Friedrich Glauser, Wolf Haas, Peter Handke, Helmut Heißenbüttel, Paulus Hochgatterer, Philip Kerr, Georg Klein, Alfred Komarek, Siegfried Kracauer, Ross MacDonald, August Gottlieb Meißner, Astrid Paprotta, Edgar Allan Poe, Thomas De Quincey, Ulrich Ritzel, Ferdinand von Schirach, Friedrich Schiller, Hansjörg Schneider, Martin Suter, Jan Costin Wagner. Catalog Distribution: (ALC-AS) (CA-AG, LA-AG) Full details for GERST 3290 - Mean Streets: German Crime and Detective Fiction	Spring.
GERST 3575	Introduction to Black German Studies During her time in Germany, the U.S. poet Audre Lorde (who described herself as "Black, lesbian, mother, warrior poet") sought out community and encouraged Black Germans to speak up and make themselves visible as Afro-Germans in a country that often ignored or invalidated their existences. This is one of many crucial moments in Black German history and Black German Studies. In this course will explore the histories, activism, literature, and scholarship that arise from Afro-German communities and have shaped the field of Black German Studies. We will engage with films, novels, poetry, short stories, graphic narratives, music videos, and scholarly essays. Considering the great variety of media and genres, we will spend class time not only developing a shared vocabulary to talk about each text, but we will also learn to apply differing methods of analysis in our class discussions and individual assignments. Catalog Distribution: (ALC-AS, SCD-AS) (CA-AG, LA-AG, D-AG) Full details for GERST 3575 - Introduction to Black German Studies	Spring.
GERST 3580	Nineteenth Century Philosophy Survey of nineteenth century philosophy. Catalog Distribution: (ETM-AS, HST-AS) (HA-AG, KCM-AG) Full details for GERST 3580 - Nineteenth Century Philosophy	Fall.
GERST 4380	Imagining Utopia Why is it easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism? At a time when reality appears dystopian, many are quick to dismiss utopian visions as naïve or irresponsible. In this seminar, we take on the critical and imaginative task of considering what utopias can tell us about our pasts, presents, and possible futures. We encounter two centuries of utopias in which communes have displaced the family, mutual aid has taken the place of capitalist individualism, and sexuality is no longer linked to property rights. While these speculative times and places seek to overcome capitalism, imperialism, racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, and the climate crisis, they remain haunted by these figures. Our treatment of utopias in theory and literature therefore includes a range of ambivalent affects and genres, from critical and ambiguous utopias to philosophical treatises and manifestos. Catalog Distribution: (ALC-AS) Full details for GERST 4380 - Imagining Utopia	Spring.
GERST 4520	Independent Study Undergraduate student and faculty advisor to determine course of study and credit hours. Full details for GERST 4520 - Independent Study	Spring.
GERST 4530	Honors Research The Reading Course is administered by the director of the honors thesis. It carries 4 hours credit, and may be counted towards the work required for the German Major. The reading concentrates on a pre-determined topic or area. Students meet with their honors advisor about every two weeks throughout the term. Substantial reading assignments are given, and occasional short essays are written. Full details for GERST 4530 - Honors Research	Multi-semester course: Fall, Spring.
GERST 4540	Honors Thesis The thesis is to be written on a subject related to the work done in GERST 4530. A suggested length for the thesis is 50-60 pages. Full details for GERST 4540 - Honors Thesis	Fall, Spring.
GERST 6320	Reading Academic German II Emphasis on development of the specialized vocabulary of student's field of study. Full details for GERST 6320 - Reading Academic German II	Spring.
GERST 6340	German Romanticism This graduate seminar introduces major authors, themes, and problems in European -- also German -- literature, philosophy, art, and critical theory from ca. 1770 to 1830. This, our own, legacy includes: Europe and North America (including Haiti) between and in revolutions. Writers thus include: Toussaint L'Ouveture, Kleist, the Schlegel brothers, Fichte, Schelling. Also Tieck, E.T.A. Hoffmann, Novalis, etc. So-called secondary literature includes: Marx and Engels on the "German ideology"; Lukács on the "flight from reality" and "Romantic philosophy of life: Novalis"; Freud on the "uncanny"; Heidegger on "the other beginning" and the "essence of human freedom" (in Hölderlin, also in Schelling and Nietzsche); Adorno on "parataxis" (in Hölderin); Balibar (on the "internal border" in Fichte); Paul de Man (on the "rhetoric of romanticism"); Lacoue-Labarthe & Nancy (on the "literary absolute," following W. Benjamin); "the absorption of the subject" in painting (M. Fried); the "war machine" (Deleuze & Guattari); and the "crisis of reproduction" (Althusser) -- the latter also involving not only sexuality and class struggle in all known forms, but also reading and seeing, feeling, thinking and acting. Full details for GERST 6340 - German Romanticism	Spring.
GERST 6363	Queer Marxism Are queer theory and Marxism truly irreconcilable? While queer studies emerged in part as a rejection of Marxism's totalizing approach and Marxists have criticized the queer emphasis on individuals, this seminar explores the potential of bringing the two fields together. We will consider how queer critiques of reproductive futurism, racial capitalism, and homonationalism can transform the legacy of Marxist theory and practice. At the same time, we will examine Marxist notions of totality, reification, and value to reenvision the scope of queer politics. After covering these key Marxist and queer theoretical concepts, the seminar will turn to transnational Marxist debates on gender and sexuality in Weimar Germany and the Soviet Union. We will conclude the seminar with a discussion of new scholarship in the emergent field of queer Marxism and a symposium with presentations by seminar participants. Full details for GERST 6363 - Queer Marxism	Spring.
GERST 6385	The German Novel: History, Theory and Context Overview of the History of the German Novel with emphasis on the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. Contemporary developments will be included. Discussion of genre questions, theories of the novel, historical contexts, literary marketing, readerships and authorship. Authors include: Blanckenburg, Spielhagen, Schlegel, Novalis, Jean Paul, Goethe, Grillparzer, Tieck, Keller, Stifter, Fontane, Lukacs, Thomas Mann, Adorno, Musil, Rilke, Walser, Handke, Bernhard, Kafka, Erpenbeck, Dodua Otoo, Salzmann. Full details for GERST 6385 - The German Novel: History, Theory and Context	Spring.
GERST 6405	Thinking Media Studies This required seminar for the new graduate minor in media studies considers media from a wide number of perspectives, ranging from the methods of cinema and television studies to those of music, information science, communication, science and technology studies, and beyond. Historical and theoretical approaches to media are intertwined with meta-critical reflections on media studies as an interdisciplinary field of inquiry. Close attention will be paid to media's role in shaping and being shaped by race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexuality, and other politically constructed categories of identity and sociality. Full details for GERST 6405 - Thinking Media Studies	Spring.
GERST 7540	Independent Study Graduate student and faculty advisor to determine course of study and credit hours. Full details for GERST 7540 - Independent Study	Spring.
GERST 7541	Colloquium The course consists of a bi-weekly workshop series focusing on a range of interdisciplinary topics and sponsored by the Institute for German Cultural Studies (IGCS). Speakers include prominent scholars in the field of German Studies (understood in a wide, interdisciplinary sense) and advanced graduate students, who discuss their work-in-progress based on pre-circulated papers. Besides attending the workshops, course participants meet with the instructor for two additional sessions devoted to pursuing the ties between the topics and disciplinary fields showcased by the speakers and the students' own work. The course is thus intended both as a survey of disciplinary approaches in German and Humanities Studies and as a framework that allows graduate students to hone professional skills (presenter and panel respondent, newsletter contributor, etc). Full details for GERST 7541 - Colloquium	Spring.

GERST 1109

FWS: From Fairy Tales to the Uncanny: Exploring the Romantic Consciousness

How did bawdy tales of peasants using magic to climb the social ladder get transformed into moral lessons for children? The answer lies in Romanticism and its appropriation of the imagination as a force for social transformation. As Romantics edited older tales for juvenile consumption they wrote new ones for adults. This new fiction created the matrix for modern pop genres like fantasy, science-fiction, murder mysteries, and gothic horror. To understand this paradigm shift in modern culture, we will read, discuss, and write about a variety of texts the Romantics collected, composed, or inspired, including poetry and film, in addition to classic fairy tales and academic scholarship on the topic.

Catalog Distribution: (WRT-AG)

Full details for GERST 1109 - FWS: From Fairy Tales to the Uncanny: Exploring the Romantic Consciousness

Fall, Spring.

GERST 1121

FWS: Writing Berlin

Berlin is a city that reinvents itself by rewriting itself. In this writing seminar, we'll study a variety of literary, visual, and sonic texts to create a mythical map of the city from its emergence as modern metropolis in the 1920s, reduction to rubble in World War II, refuge for the disaffected in the 1980s, and rebirth in the 21st century. As we make our way through the linguistic, visual, and aural landscape of its ever-changing topography, we'll create our own stories of a mythical Berlin in dialogue with texts written by the displaced persons who breached its walls and navigated its illicit economies. We'll also become more critical readers and viewers, as well as better writers.

Catalog Distribution: (WRT-AG)

Full details for GERST 1121 - FWS: Writing Berlin

Fall, Spring.

GERST 1125

FWS: Media Studies

What is a medium? How do new media relate to old media? What differentiates information contents from medial containers, aesthetic forms, and technical formats? To address such questions, media studies brings together multi-disciplinary expertise about culture and technology across the humanities and sciences. Studying media requires expanding our sense of what counts as a medium, from familiar mass media, such as radio, cinema, newspapers, and television, to individual mediums designed for information, entertainment, or communication—and beyond. In this seminar, students will be reading and writing (in English) about classic examples of media, including books, libraries, paintings, computers, and algorithms, using materials drawn primarily but not exclusively from the rich, vibrant, and dynamic tradition of German media studies.

Catalog Distribution: (WRT-AG)

Full details for GERST 1125 - FWS: Media Studies

Spring.

GERST 1170

FWS: Marx, Nietzsche, Freud

A basic understanding of Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud is a prerequisite for participating in critical debates in the humanities and social sciences. Our seminar will explore key terms in the revolutionary models of critical analysis these thinkers pioneered: historical materialism, post-metaphysical philosophy, and psychoanalysis. This will mean articulating points of contrast as well as convergence. Discussions and writing exercises will focus on texts that created the discursive framework for critiquing society and culture today. Our method will proceed from the premise that critical reading, thinking, and writing are inseparable moments in the same operation of critique. The question that guides that method will be: Do alternative ways of thinking exist in opposition to the ones we view as natural, inevitable, or universal?

Catalog Distribution: (WRT-AG)

Full details for GERST 1170 - FWS: Marx, Nietzsche, Freud

Fall, Spring.

GERST 1210

Exploring German Contexts I

Students develop basic abilities in listening, reading, writing, and speaking German in meaningful contexts through interaction in small group activities. Course materials including videos, short articles, and songs provide students with varied perspectives on German language, culture, and society.

Catalog Distribution: (FL-AG)

Full details for GERST 1210 - Exploring German Contexts I

Fall, Spring.

GERST 1220

Exploring German Contexts II

Students build on their basic knowledge of German by engaging in intense and more sustained interaction in the language. Students learn more advanced language structures allowing them to express more complex ideas in German. Discussions, videos, and group activities address topics of relevance to the contemporary German-speaking world.

Catalog Distribution: (FL-AG)

Full details for GERST 1220 - Exploring German Contexts II

Fall, Spring.

GERST 1230

Expanding the German Dossier

Students continue to develop their language skills by discussing a variety of cultural topics and themes in the German-speaking world. The focus of the course is on expanding vocabulary, reviewing major grammar topics, developing effective reading strategies, improving listening comprehension, and working on writing skills. Work in small groups increases each student's opportunity to speak in German and provides for greater feedback and individual help.

Catalog Distribution: (FL-AG)

Full details for GERST 1230 - Expanding the German Dossier

Fall, Spring.

GERST 2000

Germany: Intercultural Context

Students examine important aspects of present-day German culture while expanding and strengthening their reading, writing, and speaking skills in German. Materials for each topic are selected from a variety of sources (fiction, newspapers, magazines, and the Internet). Units address a variety of topics including studying at a German university, modern literature, Germany online, and Germany at the turn of the century. Oral and written work and individual and group presentations emphasize accurate and idiomatic expression in German. Successful completion of the course enables students to continue with more advanced courses in language, literature, and culture.

Catalog Distribution: (ALC-AS) (CA-AG, LA-AG)

Full details for GERST 2000 - Germany: Intercultural Context

Fall, Spring.

GERST 2020

Literary Texts and Contexts: The Myth of 1968

1968 marked a turning point in German history. Protesting students upended the social, cultural, and political order with a utopian vision of revolution that ended in a decade-long wave of domestic terrorist violence. This intermediate language course examines four primary texts in four different media (historical fiction, avant-garde film, popular music, multimedia art) that treat the myth of 1968. As we study these texts in historical context, we will expand our oral and written command of idiomatic German through systematic grammar review and enriched vocabulary practice.

Catalog Distribution: (ALC-AS)

Full details for GERST 2020 - Literary Texts and Contexts: The Myth of 1968

Spring.

GERST 2060

German in Business Culture

Learn German and understand German business culture at the same time. This is a German language course that examines the German economic structure and its major components: industry, trade unions, the banking system, and the government. Participants will learn about the business culture in Germany and how to be effective in a work environment, Germany's role within the European Union, the importance of trade and globalization, and current economic issues in Germany. The materials consist of authentic documents from the German business world, TV footage, and a Business German textbook.

Catalog Distribution: (ALC-AS) (CA-AG, LA-AG)

Full details for GERST 2060 - German in Business Culture

Spring.

GERST 2703

Thinking Media

From hieroglyphs to HTML, ancient poetry to audiotape, and Plato's cave to virtual reality, "Thinking Media" offers a multidisciplinary introduction to the most influential media formats of the last three millennia. Featuring an array of guests from across Cornell, including faculty from Communication, Comparative Literature, German Studies, Information Science, Literatures in English, Music, and Performing & Media Arts, the course will present diverse perspectives on how to think with, against, and about media in relation to the public sphere and private life, archaeology and science fiction, ethics and aesthetics, identity and difference, labor and play, knowledge and power, expression and surveillance, and the generation and analysis of data.

Catalog Distribution: (ALC-AS) (CA-AG, LA-AG)

Full details for GERST 2703 - Thinking Media

Spring.

GERST 3013

German Language Across the Curriculum (LAC)

This 1-credit optional course aims to expand the students' vocabulary, and advance their speaking and reading skills as well as enhance their knowledge and deepen their cultural understanding by supplementing non-language courses throughout the University.

Full details for GERST 3013 - German Language Across the Curriculum (LAC)

Offered on demand.

GERST 3080

Walking the Line: East and West Germany Then and Now

This course is aimed to increase your linguistic competencies in German, your cultural awareness, as well as critical thinking skills. We will discuss different perspectives of the German Reunification and its implications then and today. The highlight of the course will be an intercultural encounter with students from the Bielefeld Universität in Germany.

Catalog Distribution: (ALC-AS, GLC-AS) (FL-AG)

Full details for GERST 3080 - Walking the Line: East and West Germany Then and Now

Spring.

GERST 3290

Mean Streets: German Crime and Detective Fiction

This class surveys the history and contemporary developments of crime and detective fiction in German. In addition, we may read a number of theoretical reflections on the figure of the detective, the history of police detection, and the literary crime and detective genre(s). The historical development of, and theoretical reflections on, the crime genre in the anglophone world will serve as points of comparison. We may also discuss relevant movies and radio plays, investigate their relation to "literature," and analyze the specificity of each medium as well as its representational affinity with crime and detection. The readings will for the most part be in German and may include such authors as Gilbert Adair, Richard Alewyn, Friedrich Ani, Jakob Arjouni, Bertolt Brecht, Ernst Bloch, Jorge Luis Borges, Kurt Bracharz, Raymond Chandler, Wilkie Collins, Arthur Conan Doyle, Friedrich Dürrenmatt, Friedrich Glauser, Wolf Haas, Peter Handke, Helmut Heißenbüttel, Paulus Hochgatterer, Philip Kerr, Georg Klein, Alfred Komarek, Siegfried Kracauer, Ross MacDonald, August Gottlieb Meißner, Astrid Paprotta, Edgar Allan Poe, Thomas De Quincey, Ulrich Ritzel, Ferdinand von Schirach, Friedrich Schiller, Hansjörg Schneider, Martin Suter, Jan Costin Wagner.

Catalog Distribution: (ALC-AS) (CA-AG, LA-AG)

Full details for GERST 3290 - Mean Streets: German Crime and Detective Fiction

Spring.

GERST 3575

Introduction to Black German Studies

During her time in Germany, the U.S. poet Audre Lorde (who described herself as "Black, lesbian, mother, warrior poet") sought out community and encouraged Black Germans to speak up and make themselves visible as Afro-Germans in a country that often ignored or invalidated their existences. This is one of many crucial moments in Black German history and Black German Studies. In this course will explore the histories, activism, literature, and scholarship that arise from Afro-German communities and have shaped the field of Black German Studies. We will engage with films, novels, poetry, short stories, graphic narratives, music videos, and scholarly essays. Considering the great variety of media and genres, we will spend class time not only developing a shared vocabulary to talk about each text, but we will also learn to apply differing methods of analysis in our class discussions and individual assignments.

Catalog Distribution: (ALC-AS, SCD-AS) (CA-AG, LA-AG, D-AG)

Full details for GERST 3575 - Introduction to Black German Studies

Spring.

GERST 3580

Nineteenth Century Philosophy

Survey of nineteenth century philosophy.

Catalog Distribution: (ETM-AS, HST-AS) (HA-AG, KCM-AG)

Full details for GERST 3580 - Nineteenth Century Philosophy

Fall.

GERST 4380

Imagining Utopia

Why is it easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism? At a time when reality appears dystopian, many are quick to dismiss utopian visions as naïve or irresponsible. In this seminar, we take on the critical and imaginative task of considering what utopias can tell us about our pasts, presents, and possible futures. We encounter two centuries of utopias in which communes have displaced the family, mutual aid has taken the place of capitalist individualism, and sexuality is no longer linked to property rights. While these speculative times and places seek to overcome capitalism, imperialism, racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, and the climate crisis, they remain haunted by these figures. Our treatment of utopias in theory and literature therefore includes a range of ambivalent affects and genres, from critical and ambiguous utopias to philosophical treatises and manifestos.

Catalog Distribution: (ALC-AS)

Full details for GERST 4380 - Imagining Utopia

Spring.

GERST 4520

Independent Study

Undergraduate student and faculty advisor to determine course of study and credit hours.

Full details for GERST 4520 - Independent Study

Spring.

GERST 4530

Honors Research

The Reading Course is administered by the director of the honors thesis. It carries 4 hours credit, and may be counted towards the work required for the German Major. The reading concentrates on a pre-determined topic or area. Students meet with their honors advisor about every two weeks throughout the term. Substantial reading assignments are given, and occasional short essays are written.

Full details for GERST 4530 - Honors Research

Multi-semester course: Fall, Spring.

GERST 4540

Honors Thesis

The thesis is to be written on a subject related to the work done in GERST 4530. A suggested length for the thesis is 50-60 pages.

Full details for GERST 4540 - Honors Thesis

Fall, Spring.

GERST 6320

Reading Academic German II

Emphasis on development of the specialized vocabulary of student's field of study.

Full details for GERST 6320 - Reading Academic German II

Spring.

GERST 6340

German Romanticism

This graduate seminar introduces major authors, themes, and problems in European -- also German -- literature, philosophy, art, and critical theory from ca. 1770 to 1830. This, our own, legacy includes: Europe and North America (including Haiti) between and in revolutions. Writers thus include: Toussaint L'Ouveture, Kleist, the Schlegel brothers, Fichte, Schelling. Also Tieck, E.T.A. Hoffmann, Novalis, etc. So-called secondary literature includes: Marx and Engels on the "German ideology"; Lukács on the "flight from reality" and "Romantic philosophy of life: Novalis"; Freud on the "uncanny"; Heidegger on "the other beginning" and the "essence of human freedom" (in Hölderlin, also in Schelling and Nietzsche); Adorno on "parataxis" (in Hölderin); Balibar (on the "internal border" in Fichte); Paul de Man (on the "rhetoric of romanticism"); Lacoue-Labarthe & Nancy (on the "literary absolute," following W. Benjamin); "the absorption of the subject" in painting (M. Fried); the "war machine" (Deleuze & Guattari); and the "crisis of reproduction" (Althusser) -- the latter also involving not only sexuality and class struggle in all known forms, but also reading and seeing, feeling, thinking and acting.

Full details for GERST 6340 - German Romanticism

Spring.

GERST 6363

Queer Marxism

Are queer theory and Marxism truly irreconcilable? While queer studies emerged in part as a rejection of Marxism's totalizing approach and Marxists have criticized the queer emphasis on individuals, this seminar explores the potential of bringing the two fields together. We will consider how queer critiques of reproductive futurism, racial capitalism, and homonationalism can transform the legacy of Marxist theory and practice. At the same time, we will examine Marxist notions of totality, reification, and value to reenvision the scope of queer politics. After covering these key Marxist and queer theoretical concepts, the seminar will turn to transnational Marxist debates on gender and sexuality in Weimar Germany and the Soviet Union. We will conclude the seminar with a discussion of new scholarship in the emergent field of queer Marxism and a symposium with presentations by seminar participants.

Full details for GERST 6363 - Queer Marxism

Spring.

GERST 6385

The German Novel: History, Theory and Context

Overview of the History of the German Novel with emphasis on the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. Contemporary developments will be included. Discussion of genre questions, theories of the novel, historical contexts, literary marketing, readerships and authorship. Authors include: Blanckenburg, Spielhagen, Schlegel, Novalis, Jean Paul, Goethe, Grillparzer, Tieck, Keller, Stifter, Fontane, Lukacs, Thomas Mann, Adorno, Musil, Rilke, Walser, Handke, Bernhard, Kafka, Erpenbeck, Dodua Otoo, Salzmann.

Full details for GERST 6385 - The German Novel: History, Theory and Context

Spring.

GERST 6405

Thinking Media Studies

This required seminar for the new graduate minor in media studies considers media from a wide number of perspectives, ranging from the methods of cinema and television studies to those of music, information science, communication, science and technology studies, and beyond. Historical and theoretical approaches to media are intertwined with meta-critical reflections on media studies as an interdisciplinary field of inquiry. Close attention will be paid to media's role in shaping and being shaped by race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexuality, and other politically constructed categories of identity and sociality.

Full details for GERST 6405 - Thinking Media Studies

Spring.

GERST 7540

Independent Study

Graduate student and faculty advisor to determine course of study and credit hours.

Full details for GERST 7540 - Independent Study

Spring.

GERST 7541

Colloquium

The course consists of a bi-weekly workshop series focusing on a range of interdisciplinary topics and sponsored by the Institute for German Cultural Studies (IGCS). Speakers include prominent scholars in the field of German Studies (understood in a wide, interdisciplinary sense) and advanced graduate students, who discuss their work-in-progress based on pre-circulated papers. Besides attending the workshops, course participants meet with the instructor for two additional sessions devoted to pursuing the ties between the topics and disciplinary fields showcased by the speakers and the students' own work. The course is thus intended both as a survey of disciplinary approaches in German and Humanities Studies and as a framework that allows graduate students to hone professional skills (presenter and panel respondent, newsletter contributor, etc).

Full details for GERST 7541 - Colloquium

Spring.

Courses by semester

Courses for Spring 2025