Course Descriptions
Contact
German StudiesHumanities Building, Room 209 651-696-6374
651-696-6428 (fax)
German Studies
GERM 101 - Elementary German I
Emphasizing the active use of the language, this course focuses on vocabulary and structural acquisition as a way to develop elementary proficiency in speaking, reading, writing, and comprehension. Students both develop facility with German in highly structured contexts through work with authentic texts and become familiar with a variety of contemporary German-speaking cultures. Students will work with an open educational resource for this course: an interactive, online, and free textbook designed to meet the learning needs of Macalester students. For beginning students with no previous German language instruction. Three hours per week plus laboratory conversation hour.
Frequency: Every fall.
GERM 102 - Elementary German II
This course continues the development of listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills, with increasing emphasis on the practice of reading and writing. Students develop creativity and facility with the language using concrete vocabulary within meaningful contexts. Students also continue to explore contemporary German-speaking cultures. Students will work with an open educational resource for this course: an interactive, online, and free textbook designed to meet the learning needs of Macalester students. Three hours per week plus laboratory conversation hour.
Frequency: Every spring.
Prerequisite(s): GERM 101 with a grade of C- or better, or permission of instructor.
GERM 110 - Accelerated Elementary German
A five-credit accelerated course which covers the content and proficiency development normally covered in GERM 101 and GERM 102. The course, with a separate curriculum for easy independent work, is for students with prior experience with German who need a concentrated review or for students with previous other foreign language background who wish to work at an accelerated pace. Three hours per week plus two conversation laboratory hours. During Spring semester there will be an optional reading and translation lab.
Frequency: Every semester.
GERM 174 - Vampires - from Monsters to Superheroes
Vampires are cyclical. Just a few years ago you ran into them anytime you walked into a bookstore or turned on the TV-just like in Victorian times when Bram Stoker's famous work emerged from a vampire craze. Vampires have always been popular fodder and will continue to be so, even if and as the image of the vampire shifts dramatically over time. The popularity of vampires has waxed and waned for over a hundred years, partially because vampirism can be used as a metaphor for almost anything-from the plague to sexuality to addiction. We will juxtapose classic tales of vampires as monsters with the more recent generation of vampires. What happened to change our imagination of vampires from monsters into hip, outsider superheroes? And what can the examination of vampires tell us about the context in which they were created?
Frequency: Occasionally offered.
GERM 194 - Topics Course
Varies by semester. Consult the department or class schedule for current listing.
GERM 203 - Intermediate German I
This course is designed to help students increase their proficiency in the German language while emphasizing authentic cultural contexts. Through exposure to a variety of texts and text types, students develop oral and written proficiency in description and narration and develop tools and discourse strategies for culturally authentic interaction with native speakers. Cultural topics are expanded and deepened. Three hours per week plus conversation laboratory hour.
Frequency: Every semester.
GERM 204 - Intermediate German II
The course aims to help students attain a comfort level with extended discourse in German within culturally appropriate contexts. Students develop the ability to comprehend authentic spoken German on a variety of topics at length. They develop effective strategies for comprehending a variety of texts and text types. They gain increased facility with extended discourse, such as narrating and describing. Writing in German is also developed so that students can write extensively about familiar topics. Three hours per week plus laboratory conversation hour.
Frequency: Every semester.
Prerequisite(s): GERM 203 with a grade of C- or better, or placement test, or consent of the instructor.
GERM 230 - Green Germany
Germany is famous today as a worldwide leader in discussions about environmental sustainability, green politics, and renewable energy. The term "sustainability" is in fact the translation of the much older German word "Nachhaltigkeit." In this course, we will explore the development of ecological consciousness in the German-speaking world, with a focus on the relationship between environmental movements and broader cultural and intellectual traditions of thinking about nature. Through the study of visual art, literature, film, scientific texts, and philosophical writings, we will discuss topics such as: the political and theoretical underpinnings of eco-activism in Germany; the specter of disaster in the German environmental imaginary; influential scientific, literary, and philosophical attempts to challenge the division between the human and the nonhuman; and eco-architecture and related efforts to envision and create alternative modes of human-nonhuman coexistence. Taught in English. No previous knowledge required.
Frequency: Offered occasionally.
Cross-Listed as: ENVI 230
GERM 271 - "Dead White Men" in the Era of Antiracism
All readings and class taught in English; no pre-knowledge required. Commenting on the relation between Africa and European philosophy and culture, Kwame Anthony Appiah maintains that the temptation for Africa "to forget Europe is to suppress the conflicts that have shaped our identities; since it is too late for us to escape each other, we might instead seek to turn to our advantage the mutual interdependencies history has thrust upon us." Appiah's interracial approach is equally recommendable for the epistemological relation between the European philosophical tradition and contemporary culture-a culture that understands itself as post-ideological and declares any truth to be constructed (except for the inexorable laws of the market). In this culture, we can hear the question: Why should we bother with "dead white men"-who harbored universal truths and a universal self-conscious rational (male and white) subject-now that we understand that truth depends on historical context, that the self is decentered by the unconscious, that identity is constituted by factors such as class, race, and gender, and that truth is interlaced with imagination, ideology, and power? The faultiness of this question consists in presuming a clear-cut distinction or even break between philosophical tradition and contemporary culture, as if the latter had emerged autonomously and had not been shaped in relation and in conflict with this tradition. To gain insight into these mutual interdependencies, both epistemological and racial, in this course we shall pursue a double movement. On the one hand, we shall read closely texts by various "dead white men" as the unconscious (i.e., repressed and, for that matter, possibly all the more powerful) undercurrent of contemporary culture. And on the other hand, we shall read critiques of "dead white men" that point to the racialist unconscious that undergirds their argumentations. Emphasis may be placed on one or several main figures of any period since the early modernity (17th century) (e.g., Descartes, Spinoza, Kant, Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche, Freud, Heidegger, Sartre, Lacan, Foucault, Deleuze, Derrida) and on their commentators and critics. The course may be offered in different iterations, and under different topics this course may be taken more than once for credit.
Frequency: Offered occasionally.
Cross-Listed as: MCST 271
GERM 273 - German-French Dialogues in Critical Theory: Marx-Freud-Sartre-Lacan
All readings and class taught in English; no pre-knowledge required. This course focuses on the dialogue and mutual influence between the German- and French-speaking traditions of political economy and philosophical and theoretical thought, as it becomes evident in the relations among German Idealism, Phenomenology, Existentialism, Psychoanalysis, (post-)Structuralism, and their productive interconnections in the development of Critical and Political Theory. While becoming familiar with the work of Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Jacque Lacan, as well as the work of relevant thinkers who influenced their thought, we shall be examining the structural and conceptual homologies and differences among political economy, abstract thought, and human subjectivity. The dialogue will include the voices of race and feminist theory (e.g., Simone de Beauvoir, Franz Fanon, Julia Kristeva, Jacqueline Rose). The last part of the course will focus on the relation between these interconnections (among economy, ideas, culture, and the constitution of identities) and the exercise of power in the era of global capitalism, as theorized by thinkers who draw on this German-French-speaking line of thought. French majors and minors may read the French texts in the original and do some writing in French.
Frequency: Offered occasionally.
Cross-Listed as: MCST 273
GERM 274 - Spinoza's Eco-Society: Contractless Society and Its Ecology
All readings and class taught in English; no pre-knowledge required. Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677) has been called the "savage anomaly" of the Enlightenment because his philosophy enables an alternative or 'hidden' modernity based on the interdependence of beings rather than their hierarchy. Ever more political theorists, environmentalists, and ecologists are turning to Spinoza's vision of a nonhierarchical union of nature and society that rejects anthropocentrism as the promise for a more equitable and sustainable life. In this course we shall focus on the foundation of Spinoza's unconventional thesis: his intertwined conceptions of the human being as part of nature-as opposed to the prevailing notion of the human as an autonomous "imperium" in, yet above, nature-and of society as a continuation of nature-as opposed to the dominant theories of the "social contract" that ground society on its break with, or repression of, nature (Grotius, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Kant). We shall examine Spinoza's entailed radical revision in understanding both the "political" and the "environment." Beyond Spinoza's Ethics and his Theologico-Political and Political treatises, we shall read major commentators on Spinoza's ethical and political theory and on his role in environmental ethics and Deep Ecology.
Frequency: Offered occasionally.
GERM 275 - Theoretical Approaches to European and American Cinema
All readings and class taught in English; no pre-knowledge required. In this course we shall approach films as a medium that, through all of its means (from dialogue to more formal aspects, such as camera angle or editing), raises and attempts to negotiate philosophical, ideological, and political issues and conflicts. We shall be exposed to different methodologies of film analysis while examining: (a) a few representative films of three influential European film movements (German expressionism, Italian Neo-Realism, French nouvelle-vague), as a means of tracing the itinerary of European cinema from an action-oriented to a reflection-oriented practice; (b) the British and later American work of Alfred Hitchcock, as a mode of cinematography that employs the "gaze" as a principle of structural organization; and (c), American films of the 1970's - 1990's, as attempts to represent the world of late capitalism.
Frequency: Offered occasionally.
Cross-Listed as: MCST 275
GERM 276 - Marx, the Imaginary, and Neoliberalism
All readings and class taught in English; no pre-knowledge required. Marx's contribution to the theorization of the function of the imaginary in both the constitution of subjectivity and the mechanisms of politics and economy-usually referred to as ideology-cannot be overestimated. The first part of this course traces Marx's gradual conceptualization of the imaginary throughout his work-as well as further Marxist theoreticians, such as Louis Althusser, Étienne Balibar, and Slavoj Žižek-while exploring how the imaginary enabled Marx's discovery of three further crucial concepts: structure, the unconscious, and the symptom, all of which are central in the analysis of culture and ideology. In the second part of the course, we shall focus on the logic and mechanisms of power in contemporary neoliberalism, including the claim that today Marx's theory is no longer relevant (readings will include Friedrich Nietzsche, Michel Foucault, Gilles Deleuze, Maurizio Lazzarato, McKenzie Wark).
Frequency: Offered occasionally.
GERM 277 - Metaphysics in Secular Thought
All readings and class taught in English; no pre-knowledge required. A widespread tendency in contemporary Western societies is to associate metaphysics with religion, if not with what is often dismissively called the "irrational." This course will dismantle this myth by reading closely European philosophy and political theory, mostly since the seventeenth century, in their relation to theology and their reception by twentieth-century critical theory. This will allow us to examine the ways in which secular thought emerges not as an alternative to metaphysics-something which thought cannot supersede anyway-but rather as a different way of dealing with the very same metaphysical questions and issues that concern religion, from the meaning of life to the imminence of death, and from (actual or imagined) guilt to the hope for redemption. We shall endeavor to identify the similarities and differences between the 'secular' and the 'religious' ways, including their respective relations to rationality and their functions in ideology. Readings may include: Aristotle, Talal Asad, George Bataille, Walter Benjamin, Kenneth Burke, Richard Dienst, Emile Durkheim, Michel Foucault, Sigmund Freud, Peter Harrison, Jacques Lacan, Karl Marx, Marcel Mauss, Carl Schmitt, Baruch Spinoza, Alberto Toscano, Max Weber, Slavoj Zizek.
Frequency: Occasionally.
GERM 278 - Marx, Religion, and Biopolitical Race
All readings and class taught in English; no pre-knowledge required. In this course we shall examine the relation of religion to both capital and the modern forms of political power (what Michel Foucault termed biopolitics or biopower), as well as the biopolitical formations of race and racism as means for sustaining power-while discovering the enduring pertinence of Marx's work in theorizing the above issues. Biopower emerges gradually in secular capitalist modernity as a form of power that legitimizes itself not through its right to "take life" (as in traditional forms of sovereignty) but through its obligation to protect and enhance life. Yet, albeit "secular," biopower is a form of "pastoral power" (Foucault). We shall explore: the interconnectedness of modern biopower and religion; Marx's critique of the dominant (Enlightenment) critique of religion and his thesis that the secular state presupposes religion; the colonial and racial constructions of religion; racial capitalism; the biopolitical constructions of race in its relation to social class and other forms of domination; and anti-racist criticisms of both Foucault and Marx.
Frequency: Offered occasionally.
GERM 279 - Value: The Bad, the Ugly, and the Cheap
All readings and class taught in English; no pre-knowledge required. For thousands of years value has been scrutinized in philosophy, art history, and economic analysis, as it cuts across three constitutive aspects of social, cultural, and political life: economy, aesthetics, and ethics. Not only do we have and impose on the world our moral, aesthetic, and exchange values, but these three fields often become difficult to distinguish, as is evident in the slippery flexibility of words that allow us to say as much "this painting is bad or worthless" as "I think this person is bad or worthless," or "this is a bad, or worthless, remark" and "this is a bad or worthless check." This course will focus primarily on influential accounts of value in aesthetic theory, while also examining the ways in which aesthetic value demarcates itself from or implicates its moral and economic counterparts, and what the interplays among the three fields entail for aesthetic value. Our readings will focus on the formation of modern aesthetic theory-from the early eighteenth century through the Enlightenment and Romanticism to high modernism, the Frankfurt School, and postmodernism.
Frequency: Offered occasionally.
Cross-Listed as: MCST 279
GERM 294 - Topics Course
Varies by semester. Consult the department or class schedule for current listing.
GERM 308 - German Cultural History: Failed and Successful Revolutions
This course prepares students with intermediate German language skills for upper-level courses in German Studies through advanced language instruction combined with the study of political, social, and aesthetic topics in the cultural history of Germany and related countries, from the cultural revolutions of the Enlightenment to the peaceful protests in East Germany and the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Major events in this itinerary include the Wars of Liberation against Napoleon (1813-1815); the 1848 European revolution; the industrial revolution; the unification of Germany (1870/1871); the economic and philosophical critiques offered by socialism and feminism; the modernist cultural and aesthetic revolution, and in particular the Jugendstil in Vienna at the turn of the 20th century; imperialism and the two World Wars surrounding the rise and fall of the Weimar Republic (1918-1933) by Nazism; and the subsequent division of Germany into four zones and, later, two countries, up until its reunification. In addition to historical sources and visual art, we shall read a literary text and watch a film relating to the life on the East side of the Berlin Wall (1961-1989). Three hours per week plus one hour of intensive language practice. The course is conducted in German; all readings, writing, presentations, etc. are in German.
Frequency: Fall semester.
Prerequisite(s): GERM 204 or permission of instructor.
GERM 309 - Culture and the Capital: Urban Experience in Berlin and Vienna
The big city is a relatively new phenomenon. Made possible by electricity, the automobile, and rapid industrialization, it introduced a shock into modern life that continues to resonate through literature, painting, dance, music, architecture, art, and film. This course invites students with intermediate German-language skills to examine two major capitals and the culture they engender. On the one hand Vienna, the epicenter of not one but two former empires, steeped in decadence and decay. On the other hand Berlin, a city that has always been defined by division: between socialists and fascists, between the Soviet east and American west, and now between the bike-riding center and car-centric periphery. The course is designed to prepare students for advanced German study, by focusing on original German-language documents written in and about these twin metropoles. Themes will range from the coffee house to the cabaret, from urban anonymity to the 'new woman,' from the shock of city dwelling to DADA. Three hours per week plus one hour of intensive language practice. The course is conducted in German; all readings, writing, presentations, etc. are in German.
Frequency: Every spring.
Prerequisite(s): GERM 204 or permission of instructor.
GERM 316 - Reading Marx
For Marx, "private capital" is an oxymoron - a contradiction in terms, since by its very nature capital is social. And "philosophy" is really not a thing, at least not the way it's always been defined, since the world of ideas has no existence independent of the material conditions of human existence. In this course, we will try to recover the revolutionary force of these arguments with a focus on what they show us about the illusory or fantastic character of modern life. From the early critique of alienation to the late analysis of surplus value, Marx showed over and again how the so-called rational world is not as rational as it seems: specters, fetishes, deceptive appearances, "false consciousness" are just some of the features of life under capital that Marx exposes and that continue to haunt our world (just think of how we appeal to the "magic of the market," its "invisible hand" or to "creative destruction"). We will read selections from Marx's early writings on religion and alienation through the theory of ideology, of commodity fetishism, and of primitive accumulation to his late programmatic texts in tandem with texts by 20th-century thinkers who critiqued and further developed Marx's thought (Lukacs, Gramsci, Lefort, Derrida).
Frequency: Alternate years.
Cross-Listed as: PHIL 216
GERM 363 - The Fairy Tale (Grimms to Disney)
Deemed unsuitable for children (too gruesome!), the Grimm Brothers' original fairy tales have been revised to suit popular sensibilities ever since their first appearance in 1812. What hasn't changed is their ability to point up what is wrong with the "real" world and to gratify a simple but irrefutable sense of justice. The course traces the history and adaptions of the Grimms' tales with an eye to understanding their cultural and psychological functions and the reasons for their perennial appeal. We will ask: what is folklore? What is German romanticism and why did its fairy tales come to define the genre? What do fairy tales tell us about the history of childhood and of gender? Readings include both well-known and obscure tales from the Grimms; screenings may include The Company of Wolves, Into the Woods, The Lion King, Mulan. Three papers and regular reading responses. Taught in German. Prerequisites: German 308 or 309, or study abroad, or permission of the instructor. Offered fall term of even-numbered years.
Frequency: Offered fall term of even-numbered years.
GERM 364 - Migration, Then and Now
Like few other countries, Germany exemplifies how the migrant is the political figure of our time (Thomas Nail), exploding our image of "national" culture and putting flight and movement, rather than citizens and the state, in the focus of cultural scholarship. In this course, we will explore the political reality and the cultural imaginary of diverse forms of migration to and from Germany since the 19th century. Topics include: African "Vertragsarbeiter" in the GDR; refugees and asylum in Germany today; Hannah Arendt's critique of human rights; literature by migrant authors (Yoko Tawada, Zé do Rock, Tomer Gardi); German migration to the US in the 19th century; films by and about migrants (Fatih Akin, Christian Petzold); the "Willkommenskultur" in 2015 and its aftermath. Taught in German.
Frequency: Alternate fall semesters.
GERM 365 - A Kafkaesque Century
Taught in English; there is an optional German component for those who want to have the course count toward their German-taught courses. In this case, students must do the reading and writing assignments and some of their oral presentations in German.What does the internationally (mis)used word "kafkaesque" actually mean? This course approaches Kafka's work both as a case for literary analysis and as one that offers insights into modernism. In one way or another, Kafka sheds light on massive industrialization, bureaucratization, the commodification of art, the destabilization of patriarchy, and the development of technology and media, as well as on the question: what is literature itself. In addition to a selection of Kafka's fiction, we shall read Crumb and Mairowitz's graphic version of Kafka's life and work, allowing students to produce their own graphic group project.
Frequency: Alternate spring semesters.
Cross-Listed as: ENGL 235
GERM 366 - Cinema Studies
Taught in English; there is an optional German component for those who want to have the course count toward their German-taught courses. In this case, students must do the reading and writing assignments and some of their oral presentations in German.Cinema Studies is a film course with a special emphasis on some aspect of German culture relating to cinema, such as German film production, film adaptations of German literary texts, or the representation of German history in world cinema. While familiarizing students with the methodologies of film analysis, the course focus may vary from a historical or genre survey to a particular concept (such as representations of gender, race, nationality) to a cross-section between film and other texts. Students will gain insight into film as an aesthetic, ideological, and political medium, and into specifics of German history and culture. Students may register more than once in this course, provided a different topic is offered.
Frequency: Alternate spring semesters.
Cross-Listed as: MCST 266
GERM 394 - Topics Course
Varies by semester. Consult the department or class schedule for current listing.
GERM 488 - Senior Seminar
Designed as a capstone experience in German studies, the senior seminar guides students through the process of developing and executing a highly individual project on a self-chosen topic. While this can take the form of a traditional research paper, students are invited to develop creative projects as well-for example, a story, video, or comic-combined with a shorter accompanying paper. Over the course of the semester, students will brainstorm ideas, learn about the fundamental questions of German studies, receive instruction in the theories and methodologies that inform contemporary scholarship, and gain practice communicating the results of their research to their peers. (Furthermore, given the wide range of majors and minors paired with German, students will gain familiarity with the methodologies of disciplines beyond German Studies.) The seminar will culminate in a public event, in which participants showcase their projects to the rest of the Macalester German community. Taught in German.
Frequency: Every year.
GERM 494 - Topics Course
Varies by semester. Consult the department or class schedule for current listing.
GERM 601 - Tutorial
Limit to be applied toward the major or will be determined in consultation with the department.
Frequency: Every semester.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor and department chair.
GERM 602 - Tutorial
Limit to be applied toward the major or will be determined in consultation with the department.
Frequency: Every semester.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor and department chair.
GERM 603 - Tutorial
Limit to be applied toward the major or will be determined in consultation with the department.
Frequency: Every semester.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor and department chair.
GERM 604 - Tutorial
Limit to be applied toward the major or will be determined in consultation with the department.
Frequency: Every semester.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor and department chair.
GERM 611 - Independent Project
Limit to be applied toward the major will be determined in consultation with the department.
Frequency: Every semester.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor and department chair.
GERM 612 - Independent Project
Limit to be applied toward the major will be determined in consultation with the department.
Frequency: Every semester.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor and department chair.
GERM 613 - Independent Project
Limit to be applied toward the major will be determined in consultation with the department.
Frequency: Every semester.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor and department chair.
GERM 614 - Independent Project
Limit to be applied toward the major will be determined in consultation with the department.
Frequency: Every semester.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor and department chair.
GERM 621 - Internship
Limit to be applied toward the major will be determined in consultation with the department.
Frequency: Every semester.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor. Work with Internship Office.
GERM 622 - Internship
Limit to be applied toward the major will be determined in consultation with the department.
Frequency: Every semester.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor. Work with Internship Office.
GERM 623 - Internship
Limit to be applied toward the major will be determined in consultation with the department.
Frequency: Every semester.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor. Work with Internship Office.
GERM 624 - Internship
Limit to be applied toward the major will be determined in consultation with the department.
Frequency: Every semester.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor. Work with Internship Office.
GERM 631 - Preceptorship
Limit to be applied toward the major will be determined in consultation with the department.
Frequency: Every semester.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor. Work with Academic Programs.
GERM 632 - Preceptorship
Limit to be applied toward the major will be determined in consultation with the department.
Frequency: Every semester.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor. Work with Academic Programs.
GERM 633 - Preceptorship
Limit to be applied toward the major will be determined in consultation with the department.
Frequency: Every semester.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor. Work with Academic Programs.
GERM 634 - Preceptorship
Limit to be applied toward the major will be determined in consultation with the department.
Frequency: Every semester.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor. Work with Academic Programs.
GERM 641 - Honors Independent
Independent research, writing, or other preparation leading to the culmination of the senior honors project.
Frequency: Every semester.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor and department chair.
GERM 642 - Honors Independent
Independent research, writing, or other preparation leading to the culmination of the senior honors project.
Frequency: Every semester.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor and department chair.
GERM 643 - Honors Independent
Independent research, writing, or other preparation leading to the culmination of the senior honors project.
Frequency: Every semester.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor and department chair.
GERM 644 - Honors Independent
Independent research, writing, or other preparation leading to the culmination of the senior honors project.
Frequency: Every semester.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor and department chair.