Contents
Additional Information
Wolfgang Müller, Professor of German, Chair Sarah McGaughey, Assistant Professor of GermanKamaal Haque, Visiting Assistant Professor of GermanWilliam G. Durden, President of the College, Part-time Professor of German and EducationRainer Stollmann, Part-time Associate Professor of German; Director, Dickinson in Bremen ProgramElke F. Durden, Part-time Assistant Professor of GermanHerta Müller, International ScholarHans Joachim Schädlich, International ScholarMichael Augustin, International ScholarSujata Bhatt, International ScholarAfter completing the German language requirement, students who major in German must take 11 courses, three of which can be taken in English. If the three courses in English are offered as FLIC courses, German majors are required to take them in that form. Nine of the eleven required courses must be taken in the field of German literature, language, and culture, including 232, 240, 241 and 400. Four of these eleven courses may be language courses taken beyond the language requirement. Seniors must take one 300-level course in the Fall semester and the Senior Seminar in the Spring semester (special arrangements will be made for the seniors completing their professional teaching semester in the spring). Two courses (in which a significant portion of their content deals with Germany-related issues) must be taken in the following departments at Dickinson or the University of Bremen: history, philosophy, art & art history (art history), music, political science, economics, Judaic studies, religion.
Students who want to minor in German have to take six courses beyond the required language sequence including 232, 240 and 241. Five of these courses must be in the German language. Two of these six courses may be language courses taken beyond the language requirements.
For information, see the Director of Teacher Education, or visit the
Education Department web site.
Independent study projects are an option open to self-motivated students who desire to study a topic not offered in a regular College course. Most projects are taken for either half or full course credit. Usually each independent study student will have a weekly meeting with her or his advisor.
Occasionally, students may elect an independent study project in the German language. This option is open only when it is clear that the student's needs cannot be met in the traditional language courses. Possibilities for independent language work include: advanced oral and written language practice; technical translation.
Senior German majors who successfully complete a year-long independent study project worth two course credits will be eligible to be voted honors in German on the completion of the project. A student will graduate with honors in German if a) his/her original research receives the grade of "A" from the supervising instructor and b) the student successfully defends his/her project before a panel of the entire German faculty so that the project is designated as "worthy of honors."
Junior Year Students are encouraged to spend one or two semesters abroad during the junior year. For qualified students, the Junior Year in Bremen is a Dickinson-affiliated program with a wide range of course and program options, including laboratory courses in the sciences.
Summer Immersion Program The German Department offers a four-week student immersion at the University of Bremen, West Germany. See the course description for GRMN 220, Bremen Practicum.
*101, 104 Elementary German An intensive study of the German language. The courses focus on developing reading, writing, speaking, and comprehension skills in the context of topics related to German cultures. Classes are small and move quickly. Classes meet four days a week, one of which may be a lab. Students are reading stories and writing short essays within a few weeks.
116 Intermediate German Introduction to conversation and composition using the skills acquired in 101 and 104 or in similar courses. Readings include a variety of texts including fiction on issues related to German cultures. Classes are small and intensive. Classes meet four days a week, one of which is a lab.
Prerequisite: 104 or the equivalent.120 Intensive German An intensive two-credit course that allows students to complete the last two semesters of the language requirement during a single semester. This course makes extensive use of multi-media supports such as computerized reading programs, interactive videos, and the Internet, as well as more traditional texts and grammars. Classes are small and intensive.
Eight classroom hours and two additional assigned contact hours with native language assistants per week. Completion of this course will satisfy the foreign language distribution requirement.221 German Conversation and Composition Advanced practice in reading, writing, speaking, and understanding German. The course uses various texts on German history and culture, including literary texts as a springboard for discussions and writing assignments. Classes meet four days a week, one of which may be a lab.
Prerequisite: 116 or the equivalent.222 Conversation and Composition on Contemporary Issues This course sharpens language skills learned, such as writing and speaking the German language. By focusing on current cultural and political issues in the German speaking countries, it will also strengthen the cultural and political literacy of our students. Topics to be discussed may include the ramifications of Germany's unification, the Neo-Nazi movement, the administrative structure of Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, and the women's and labor movements. Classes meet four days a week, one of which may be a lab.
Prerequisite: 116 or the equivalent.232/314 Introduction to German Literature This course is designed to introduce students to the special skills required for careful, critical reading of literary texts. It is a prerequisite for all literature courses that the Department offers in German and is strongly recommended for all students intending to participate in a German program abroad.
Prerequisite: 116 or permission of the instructor.240/310 German Cultural History I A survey of the historical, social, and cultural developments in Germany, including their impact upon German literature, from pre-Christian days up to the French Revolution.
Prerequisite: 116 or the equivalent.241/311 German Cultural History II A survey of the historical, social, and cultural developments in Germany, from the French Revolution up to the present day.
Prerequisite: 116 or the equivalent.250 Topics in German Studies An examination of some topic related to German literature or culture. Topics may include studies of major German writers such as Goethe, Mann, and Wolf, German humor, sagas and legends.
252 Topics in Women's and Gender Studies Analysis and discussion of various feminist or gender issues. Topics may be feminist literature and criticism, individual feminist authors, German women's history, recent feminist issues, or the cultural construction of gender in German society and literature.
Offered in English.342 Sturm und Drang and German Classicism A study of the works of Goethe and Schiller and their contemporaries, and the era in which they lived and worked.
Prerequisite: 232 and 240. Simultaneous enrollment in 240 is permitted.343 German Romanticism A study of the generation of writers after Goethe and Schiller (the 1790s to the 1830s), e.g., E.T.A. Hoffmann, Brentano, and the brothers Grimm, whose stories, poems, and fairy tales have had a powerful effect on Poe and Hesse.
Prerequisite: 232 and 240. Simultaneous enrollment in 240 is permitted.344 German Bourgeois Realism A study of the works of Stifter, Grillparzer, Heine, Grabbe, Storm, and Fontane, writers active from the turmoil of the mid-1800s to the rise of Prussia and the decay and collapse of the Austrian empire.
Prerequisite: 232 and 241. Simultaneous enrollment in 241 is permitted.345 German Expressionism A study of the works of writers in World War I and the Weimar Republic, including Wedekind, Werfel, Trakl, Kaiser, Toller, and Lasker-Schüler.
Prerequisite: 232 and 241. Simultaneous enrollment in 241 is permitted.346 German Literature since 1945 A study of the works of Bachmann, Böll, Frisch, Grass, Heym, Wolf, and others as writers dealing with contemporary issues of the German speaking countries.
Prerequisite: 232 and 241. Simultaneous enrollment in 241 is permitted.350 Topics in German Studies An examination of topics related to German literature or culture. Topics may include major German writers, periods of German culture, and intellectual and social movements.
Prerequisite: Study in Bremen or permission of instructor.360 German Popular Culture This course will investigate German popular culture in its historical and cultural context. Students will study selected texts from popular fiction, such as detective novels and cartoons, listen to popular music, and watch popular tv series, while developing a methodology to analyze critically the "other" German culture.
Prerequisite: Permission of the instructor.370 German Film This course will focus on German films in their broader cultural and historical context. Students will study selected films and develop a method for viewing and analyzing them. Topics may be the "New German Cinema" from Schlöndorff and Kluge to Herzog, Fassbinder and Wenders, the films of feminist film makers, such as Sander, von Trotta, Ottinger, and Sanders-Brahms, or Literature and Film.
Prerequisite: Permission of the instructor.400 Senior Seminar Advanced investigation of a particular writer, work, problem, or theme in German literature and/or culture, with emphasis on independent research and seminar reports.
Prerequisite: German major or permission of the instructor.The following courses are offered in Bremen:220 The Bremen Practicum A four-week course in contemporary German language and culture offered at the University of Bremen, West Germany. Students will speak only German during this four-week period, and participate in intensive language classes, special lectures and field trips arranged by Dickinson with German university instructors.
Prerequisite: 116 or equivalent and permission of the department.340 Comparative Cultures: USA-Germany Using the university and city of Bremen as laboratory, students will explore the experience of culture shock, the difference between American and German everyday life, structural differences in American and German public institutions, historical ties between the two countries, historic concepts and symbols, differing relationships to national culture, the effect of Germany's past on contemporary consciousness.
Prerequisite: Acceptance into the Dickinson in Bremen Program.
