German Studies

GERMAN 13Q. Humanities Core: Great Books, Big Ideas -- Europe, Modern. 3-4 Units.

This three-quarter sequence asks big questions of major texts in the European and American tradition. What is a good life? How should society be organized? Who belongs? How should honor, love, sin, and similar abstractions govern our actions? What duty do we owe to the past and future? This third and final quarter focuses on the modern period, from the rise of revolutionary ideas to the experiences of totalitarianism and decolonization in the twentieth century. Authors include Locke, Mary Shelley, Marx, Nietzsche, Freud, Weber, Primo Levi, and Frantz Fanon. N.B. This is the third of three courses in the European track. These courses offer an unparalleled opportunity to study European history and culture, past and present. Take all three to experience a year-long intellectual community dedicated to exploring how ideas have shaped our world and future. Students who take HUMCORE 11 and HUMCORE 12Q will have preferential admission to HUMCORE 13Q (a WR2 seminar). **NOTE** This class meets Monday and Wednesday in room 20-22K and Fridays in room 260-113 to attend a lecture along with the other two HUMCORE courses this quarter.
Same as: DLCL 13Q, HUMCORE 13Q

GERMAN 57N. Nietzsche and the Search for Meaning. 3 Units.

Many of us have heard his declarations of the death of God, the arrival of the Superman, and the need to live beyond good and evil. But what, beyond such sound bites, did Nietzsche actually teach? How can his writings be understood in the context of their own time? And what significance might they hold for us today?.

GERMAN 60N. German Crime. 3 Units.

Crime is as old as humanity, as old as storytelling. Cain's murder of Abel, Antigone's burial of Polynices, Robin Hood's robbing from the rich: all of these testify to the ongoing fascination with crime and criminality, and to literature's role in policing, and probing, the boundaries of social legitimacy. This is a course about murders, break-ins, betrayals, sexual infidelity and violence, and crimes against humanity, and the ways those crimes, sometimes moral, sometimes legal, and sometimes not really even exactly criminal, teach us about German and German literature in recent centuries. Course material will include modern and classical crime fiction (Friedrich Glauser, Friedrich Dürrenmatt, Jakob Arjouni, Thomas Glavinic), crime in novelistic, theatrical and poetic genres (Anna Seghers, Bertolt Brecht, Heinrich von Kleist, Friedrich Schiller), and German-language television and film (Fritz Lang's "M,"Carol Reed's "The Third Man," "Tatort"). nThis course is for students with good knowledge of German. Students without German can participate in a special section with English language material.nGerman Studies Assistant Professor Lea Pao will teach this course.

GERMAN 68N. Franz Kafka: Literature and the Modern Human Condition. 3 Units.

This class will address major works by Franz Kafka and consider Kafka as a modernist writer whose work reflects on modernity. We will also examine the role of Kafka's themes and poetics in the work of contemporary writers.

GERMAN 75N. Famous Last Words. 3 Units.

What would you say if you knew it would be the last thing you would ever say? Who would you want to hear your words? Would you want to inspire somebody? Terrify them? Shout your defiance or your love in their direction?nThis is a course about last words the final utterances left as legacies for the world in the face of revolution, war, betrayal, heartbreak, or that simplest of endings, death. We will look at a wide variety of last words, including last words codified as genres¿quotations, suicide notes, epitaphs, dying declarations, Japanese death poems, confessions, and the like as literary devices (last sentences, envois, punch lines, epilogues), and as forms of social or cultural practice (the making of heroes, idols, and martyrs in religious, political, and popular culture). We will look at fictional last words, real last words, last words spoken by heroes, gods, and ordinary people. And we will end the course, each of us, by writing out our own last words imagining what we each would write, if we had to sum up what mattered most to us, and if we wanted some small selection of signs to stand in, as it has for many of the authors we will read, for our life and the legacy of it.

GERMAN 97. 10 Poems That Will Change Your Life. 3-5 Units.

This course is for anyone who has ever been afraid of poetry, anyone who has ever thought that poems are too difficult to understand, a course for anyone who has fallen in love with poetry before, and for anyone who has used a poem to make a difference in someone's life. You will learn how to read, understand, and if you don't already like poetry. We will read poems from different centuries, different kinds of writers, and different media (paper, computer screens, and even DNA); they will be about loss and love and war and loyalty and bacteria. Some of them will be about you. You will develop interpretive skills that come with this range of poetic forms and structures and will learn how to think about what it means for something to be poetic, whether it is a poem, a Leonard Cohen song, a last minute field goal, or a toilet. Can the poems in this class really change your life? (What would that even mean? We'll discuss.) Maybe; maybe not. But they're certainly going to try.

GERMAN 101. Germany in 5 Words. 3-5 Units.

This course explores German history, culture and politics by tracing five (largely untranslatable) words and exploring the debates they have engendered in Germany over the past 200 years. This course is intended as preparation for students wishing to spend a quarter at the Bing Overseas Studies campus in Berlin, but is open to everyone. Taught in English.

GERMAN 106. Turkish-German Literature, Cinema, and Theater. 3-5 Units.

One in five people in Germany now has, as it is termed, a background of migration. Immigration from Turkey is probably the most prominent not only in terms of its massiveness and demographic consequences, but also for its significant role in changing Germany's overall cultural, social, and economic landscape. In this course, through analyzing selected literary works, films, and plays produced by Turkish-German writers and artists, we will discuss complex ideas like migration, ethnicity, race, religion, gender, and class, resorting not to oversimplifications and binary thinking but instead to relevant literary concepts and formative historical moments which have shaped the Turkish-German experience. Remote synchronous with plenty of opportunities to participate in group and breakout room discussions and creative projects.
Same as: GERMAN 206

GERMAN 109. The End of Europe (as we know it) - Germany and the Future of the European Union. 3-5 Units.

Europe is struggling with the impact of the sovereign debt crisis of the Eurozone, mass migration, political extremism and xenophobia, external and internal security challenges, as well as political and social needs for reform to mention only some of the most pressing problems. The European Union, a project of an ever closer union of European states with currently 28 members started with the promise to provide peace, stability and prosperity. This narrative attracted new members in five enlargement rounds since the 1970s while today Eurosceptic parties, separatist movements as well as internal and external critics of the EU question the European integration project as such. nnThe course starts with the narrative of the success story of European integration and its achievements. This is followed by an analysis of current crises and future problems. In a third step we will discuss consequences and strategies to deal with challenges for Europe as a whole, as well as the EU and its members in particular. The course will follow ongoing debates within and outside of the EU. It includes global reflections on the state European situation and it makes comparisons with responses to similar challenges in other parts of the world.

GERMAN 111. The End of the Western World (as we know it): German Responses to Global Challenges. 3-5 Units.

Germany defines its foreign policy being based on two pillars: being a part of an integrated Europe and belonging to the Western World. For decades, America and Europe have remained closely connected politically, economically, and culturally. This close working relationship, however, now risks coming to an end, or getting substantially weakened. When asked to identify his "biggest foe globally right now," President Trump put the European Union on the list, along with China and Russia. Not only deeds but already words have far reaching consequences for Germany in a number of respects. The course addresses the question whether "The Western World" is coming to an end and discusses root causes and possible implications. As the course unfolds, we will cover a number of timely topics, including the future of NATO and why multilateralism matters, how an open society can survive the rising tide of populism, how migration is changing demographics and politics on both sides of the Atlantic, and the prospects for finding political solutions to climate change. We will even address German and European approaches to dealing with digitization and the protection of private data. The course will be discussion based, and include a number of illuminating studies; our goal is to increase students' understanding of the major challenges facing the decades-old American-European alliance and how Germany is dealing with them. Students will need no prior knowledge of Germany and the European Union. Knowledge of the American perspective is welcome but not required.

GERMAN 115. The Queer 20th Century: German LGBTQ Literature and Film. 3-5 Units.

What was it like to be queer in 20th-century Germany? This course examines the rich and sometimes surprising LGBTQ culture of 20th-century Germany, featuring stories that are often left out of traditional seminars. Through literature and film, we will learn about pioneering gay rights activists, persecution under National Socialism, emancipation movements under capitalism and socialism, and debates that are shaping queer life in contemporary Germany. Taught in English; students of all backgrounds are very welcome. Remote synchronous, with plenty of opportunities for breakout rooms, student discussion, Zoom breaks, and off-screen work.
Same as: FEMGEN 115A, FEMGEN 215A, GERMAN 215

GERMAN 116. Writing About Germany: New Topics, New Genres. 3-5 Units.

Writing about various topics in German Studies. Topics based on student interests: current politics, economics, European affairs, start-ups in Germany. Intensive focus on writing. Students may write on their experience at Stanford in Berlin or their internship. Fulfills the WIM requirement for German Studies majors.

GERMAN 120. Contemporary Politics in Germany. 3-5 Units.

This course provides an opportunity to engage with issues and actors, politicians and parties in contemporary Germany, while building German language abilities. We will work with current events texts, news reports, speeches and websites. Course goals include building analytic and interpretive capacities of political topics in today's Europe, including the European Union, foreign policy, and environmentalism. Differences between US and German political culture are a central topic. At least one year German language study required.

GERMAN 120A. Berlin: Literature and Culture in the 20th Century and Beyond. 3-5 Units.

For much of the twentieth century Berlin has been at the epicentre of geopolitics, the Berlin Wall standing as the physical manifestation of a fragile world order. Huge social and political upheavals in the city have inspired much cultural production. Through novels, poetry, films, speeches and more we will examine the Golden Era of Weimar Berlin, the National Socialist period, the Cold War division, reunification, and the contemporary city. Authors include Keun, Döblin, Fallada, Schernikau, Wolf, Brussig, Erpenbeck. Taught in GermanPrerequisite: GERLANG 3 or permission of instructor.

GERMAN 120B. Fairy Tales. 3-5 Units.

In this course, we will explore the fairy tale genre both from a systematic and historical perspective. We will start by asking how fairy tales differ from other short prose texts like legends and fables. We will then focus on bigger themes, allowing us to discern differences within this literary form, namely: the fantastic and the real, motif constancy and variation, narration and orality, animality and the human. Over the course of the seminar, we will not only delve into the world-famous folk tale collection of the Grimm brothers, but also the more stylized Romantic "Kunstmärchen" tradition (Goethe, Brentano, Hoffmann). Examples from the later 19th-century (Keller, Storm) and the 20th century (Hofmannsthal, Kafka, Döblin, Bachmann) demonstrate attempts to reformulate the fairy tale tradition by transgressing its boundaries. Taught in German. Prerequisite: GERLANG 3 or permission of instructor.

GERMAN 120C. German in Public: 99 German Songs. 3-5 Units.

Germany is the land of Beethoven and Brahms, but has also given the world Marlene Dietrich, Nena, and Rammstein. This course aims to introduce you to a variety of music repertories, and a range of ways through popular songs to think and talk about 200 years of German history, art, culture, and politics. While we explore some of the great ¿classics¿ of the musical canon in the German speaking countries, we will also discover the social, critical, and political impacts expressed and triggered by folksongs, rock, punk, hip-hop, techno, and heavy metal music. Our focus will be on particular German genres and obsessions by listening not only good songs but also bad ones, very goofy and entertaining pieces. A class to hum along to! Taught in German. Prerequisite: One year of German or permission of instructor.

GERMAN 120D. The German Graphic Novel. 3-5 Units.

This course is an introduction to the history, theory, and social life of German graphic novels. We will look at early examples of text-and-image (Sebastian Brant¿s "Ship of Fools," a satire published in 1497, Heinrich Hoffmann¿s "Der Struwwelpeter," an 1845 children¿s book detailing various forms of misbehavior in spine-chilling visual detail, or Wilhelm Busch¿s 1895 tale of the mischievous brothers "Max und Moritz") and modern and contemporary comics, political caricatures, and graphic novels from Swiss, German, and Austrian artists (Nicolas Mahler, Gerhard Haderer, Manfred Deix, Ulli Lust, Max Goldt, or Anke Feuchtenberger). This course is in German; no prior knowledge of the topic is required. You will develop your German reading, speaking, and writing skills through a variety of short creative assignments and in-class discussions, develop critical reading skills as they attend to specific formal features, and improve your abilities to think historically about the emergence and development of aesthetic forms.

GERMAN 125. Nietzsche: Life as Performance. 3-5 Units.

Nietzsche famously considered that "there is no 'being' behind the deed, its effect, and what becomes of it; the 'doer' is invented as an afterthought - the doing is everything." How should we understand this idea of a deed without a doer, how might it relate to performance, and what influence has it had on modern culture? In order to answer these questions, we will consider Nietzsche's writings alongside some of the artworks that influenced Nietzsche or were influenced by him.
Same as: GERMAN 325, TAPS 152L, TAPS 325

GERMAN 131. What is German Literature?. 3-5 Units.

How have migration and minority discourses changed the German literary and cultural tradition? What is German literature today, and how does it differ from the traditional notion of Germany as the land of "Dichter und Denker?" We will read texts by Goethe, Novalis, Annette von Droste-Hülshoff, Thomas Mann, Kafka, Anna Seghers, Brecht, Christa Wolf, Emine Sevgi Özdamar, Yoko Tawada, and Sasha Marianna Salzmann, and discuss such topics as identity formation, race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, religion, class, and ecocriticism. Taught in German. GERLANG 3 or equivalent required.

GERMAN 132. History and Politics of the Future in Germany, 1900-Present. 3-5 Units.

The twentieth century brought profound changes to Germany, including two World Wars, changing borders, and the division between competing Cold War ideological blocs. At the same time, the necessity to build and reshape Germany also inspired politicians, writers, and filmmakers to think about how society could be made anew. The century especially ushered in a new era for thoughts about the future. Thinkers imagined new technologies, social structures, and political orders as they dreamed about a German future that could be different from its recent past. Furthermore, this period represented a golden age of German science fiction, as authors thought about what the future could and should be.nThis class considers the possibilities that Germans imagined for the future in the face of ambiguous promises of peace and warfare, democracy and totalitarianism, and capitalism and communism. Regardless of whether these hopes, dreams, and fears came to fruition, historical visions of the future illuminate the lives of Germans during the twentieth century.nThis course will use close readings of several types of primary sources, including films, television shows, short stories, political posters, art, and newspaper articles. We will consider what different thinkers anticipated as the possibilities for the development of the country and what they saw as the driving forces of change, such as mechanics and computers, political parties, and social movements. We will discuss which advancements they thought seemed likely and which seemed fantastical. Finally, this class will investigate how the future offered a space for dissident thinkers to articulate their frustrations with state and society.

GERMAN 133. Marx, Nietzsche, Freud. 3-5 Units.

We read and discuss selections from works by the key master thinkers who have exerted a lasting influence by debunking long-cherished beliefs. Do these authors uphold or repudiate Enlightenment notions of rationality, autonomy and progress? How do they assess the achievements of civilization? How do their works illuminate the workings of power in social and political contexts? Readings and discussion in German.

GERMAN 134. Freud's Vienna. 3-5 Units.

This course is an introduction to the literature and culture of Vienna between 1890 and 1918. The last decades of the Habsburg Empire are often considered a "Golden Age" for bourgeois Viennese Jews, albeit one with its end already visible on the horizon. Students in the course will explore the city through the eyes of several of Vienna's most prominent writers, including Sigmund Freud and Arthur Schnitzler, and seek their own answers to the questions of the era: Was this a Golden Age at all, and if so, for whom?.

GERMAN 135. German Conversation. 3 Units.

This small, individualized course will offer students the chance to work on their spoken expression and critical thinking, in German. Topics will change each quarter but will span contemporary politics and culture, film, literature, and visual arts. The focus will be on speaking German in small groups, as opposed to formal presentations or written assignments. Students will have the opportunity to pursue topics of personal interest, as well as work collaboratively and individually on projects intended to foster advanced communicative skills.
Same as: GERMAN 235

GERMAN 141. The Magic Mountain: Your Travel Guide to a Great Novel. 1-3 Unit.

In this course, students will read their way through one of the great German novels, Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain (Der Zauberberg, 1924) an epic stock-taking of European thought and sensibility between the world wars. Students will meet and discuss the novel weekly, each time under the guidance of a different tour guide Stanford faculty, superfans and professors from other institutions. No final paper, no readings other than the novel required. All readings in German (though an English translation will be made available), class discussion in English.

GERMAN 141A. Mephisto: Your Travel Guide to a Great Novel. 1-3 Unit.

In this course, students will read their way through one of the most disputed German novels in the postwar Federal Republic, Klaus Mann's "Mephisto" (1936 published in exile in Amsterdam) a satirical novel about opportunism and the German theater scene during the NS-Regime. Students will meet and discuss the novel weekly, each time under the guidance of a different tour guide Stanford faculty and professors from other institutions. No final paper, no readings other than the novel required. All readings in German (though an English translation will be made available), class discussion in English. NOTE: This course must be taken for a minimum of 3 units and a letter grade to be eligible for Ways credit.

GERMAN 141C. Gottfried's "Tristan and Isolde" - Your Travel Guide to a Great Novel. 1-3 Unit.

Does true love have to break with the rules and norms of society? Gottfried's "Tristan and Isolde," a masterpiece of medieval epic poetry, follows this question through its portrayal of a tragic romance. The course will close-read, analyze and discuss this milestone of German literature, focusing in particular on its notions of love, loyalty, fate, and honor. Later sessions will also include modern adaptations of the Tristan story. Contributions by invited guest speakers and experts will provide different perspectives for us to discuss.

GERMAN 142. Feminist Avant Garde. 3-5 Units.

Feminist Avant Garde.
Same as: GERMAN 342

GERMAN 147. The Conservative Revolution. 3-5 Units.

Rapid modernization in early twentieth-century Germany elicited various conservative criticisms, which became particularly acute after the First World War. The thinkers of the Conservative Revolution gave voice to post-Nietzschean concerns about cultural transformation, combining traditionalist and anti-traditionalist positions. Its legacy anticipates current discussions regarding post-modernity, post-democracy, and the impact of technological change. Texts by authors such as: Jünger, Heidegger, Hofmannsthal, Borchardt, Mann, Arendt, Marcuse. Taught in English.
Same as: GERMAN 347

GERMAN 157. What kind of Information is Poetry. 1-5 Unit.

"Only a fool reads poetry for facts": To read a poem with the same fact-seeking attention required by using a dictionary, reading a newspaper article, or following a recipe is, perhaps, foolish. But if it is, it is so only because it means the reader has not understood what a poem is supposed to do. Consider Wittgenstein's famous warning: "Do not forget that a poem, even though it is composed in the language of information, is not used in the language-game of giving information." A poem, even though it is made of the same (kinds of) words as information, ought not to be treated as information (the sentence seems to say). Distinct in their respective functions, poetry and information form two ends of an opposition: one for the creative possibilities for human expression, the other for the practical and mechanical tasks of everyday life.nBut what really "is" information? Has poetry not, since the beginning of time, also functioned as vehicle for storing, quantifying, and communicating things¿from historical events, the law, to agricultural manuals, just as "informational" texts do? How has the emergence of technological media in our so-called Information Age altered, reinforced, or revolutionized the place of poetry in the realm of human communication?nThese questions will motivate this course, which is also a general introduction to poetry and poetics. We will closely read German texts from the Musipilli to digital-born poetry, and secondary material from thinkers and theorists such as Schlegel, Schleiermacher, Benjamin, Wittgenstein, Flusser, and Bense, to learn how various methods of reading and literary criticism - from formalism and structuralism to Digital Humanities approaches - have developed alongside something like "information" as literary quality and social form.nAssistant Professor Lea Pao will teach this course.
Same as: GERMAN 357

GERMAN 174. The Poem as Medium. 3-5 Units.

Since Marshall McLuhan formulated his theory of "media" as "extensions of ourselves," we've come to understand the history of human communication in terms of its physical carriers, tools, and technologies. From cuneiform, hieroglyphs, and logographic writing systems, to the alphabet, to algorithms; from clay tablets, to papyrus, to LED screens; from scrolls, to books, to the gramophone, to DNA - the medium and the message shape how we store and communicate information. Poetry's place in this history of media has been both elusive and strangely consistent. In media theory, the poem, which Hans Magnus Enzensberger once called an "archaic medium" and Niklas Luhman a "paradoxical form of communication," often serves as an example of the non-ordinary, of opacity, untranslatability, self-mediation, or hypermediacy. We will read (often lesser known) texts by media theorists (McLuhan, Kittler, Flusser, Benjamin, Luhmann, Siegfried J. Schmidt, Hayles) and a selection of pre-media theory texts on the mediality and mediacy of poetry (Lessing, Hegel, Herder Schleiermacher, Hamburger), as well as one poem each week as we explore the relation between medium and message, content and form. Taught in German.
Same as: GERMAN 374

GERMAN 175. CAPITALS: How Cities Shape Cultures, States, and People. 3-5 Units.

This course takes students on a trip to major capital cities, at different moments in time: Renaissance Florence, Golden Age Madrid, Colonial Mexico City, Enlightenment and Romantic Paris, Existential and Revolutionary St. Petersburg, Roaring Berlin, Modernist Vienna, and bustling Buenos Aires. While exploring each place in a particular historical moment, we will also consider the relations between culture, power, and social life. How does the cultural life of a country intersect with the political activity of a capital? How do large cities shape our everyday experience, our aesthetic preferences, and our sense of history? Why do some cities become cultural capitals? Primary materials for this course will consist of literary, visual, sociological, and historical documents (in translation); authors we will read include Boccaccio, Dante, Sor Juana, Montesquieu, Baudelaire, Gogol, Irmgard Keun, Freud, and Borges. Note: To be eligible for WAYS credit, you must take the course for a Letter Grade.
Same as: COMPLIT 100, DLCL 100, FRENCH 175, HISTORY 206E, ILAC 175, ITALIAN 175, URBANST 153

GERMAN 181. Philosophy and Literature. 3-5 Units.

What, if anything, does reading literature do for our lives? What can literature offer that other forms of writing cannot? Can fictions teach us anything? Can they make people more moral? Why do we take pleasure in tragic stories? This course introduces students to major problems at the intersection of philosophy and literature. It addresses key questions about the value of literature, philosophical puzzles about the nature of fiction and literary language, and ways that philosophy and literature interact. Readings span literature, film, and philosophical theories of art. Authors may include Sophocles, Dickinson, Toni Morrison, Proust, Woolf, Walton, Nietzsche, and Sartre. Students master close reading techniques and philosophical analysis, and write papers combining the two. This is the required gateway course for the Philosophy and Literature major tracks. Majors should register in their home department.
Same as: CLASSICS 42, COMPLIT 181, ENGLISH 81, FRENCH 181, ILAC 181, ITALIAN 181, PHIL 81, SLAVIC 181

GERMAN 185. Understanding International Politics Today: From the German Philosophers to Modern Social Science. 4-5 Units.

This course is being offered in collaboration with Stanford in Berlin, Bing Overseas Study Program. International politics is beset by problems. States go to war. The global economy is volatile and unequal. The human community is divided into multiple nation-states. Some states dominate others. People commit acts of evil. Luckily, we are not the first people to have noticed that international politics is not characterized exclusively by peace and harmony. War, capitalism, racism, and totalitarianism have all been subjects about which German thinkers - many based in Berlin - have made profound contributions over the last two centuries. Do their ideas and arguments stand up in the cold light of modern social science? What can we learn from them - and what do we need to discard? This course will introduce students to perennial problems in international politics from two perspectives: those of key German political thinkers, and those of modern social science. It is structured around five core questions: Why do states go to war and what could be the basis for a lasting peace? If war is unavoidable, what is the role of morality in war? How can/should the world be governed in the absence of a world state? How has international politics been transformed by capitalism? What role has been and is played by race and racism in international politics?.

GERMAN 188. In Search of the Holy Grail: Percival's Quest in Medieval Literature. 3-5 Units.

This course focuses on one of the most famous inventions of the Middle Ages: the Holy Grail. The grail - a mysterious vessel with supernatural properties - is first mentioned in Chrétien de Troyes' "Perceval," but the story is soon rewritten by authors who alter the meaning of both the grail and the quest. By reading three different versions, we will explore how they respond differently to major topics in medieval culture and relevant to today: romantic love, family ties, education, moral guilt, and spiritual practice. The texts are: Chrétien de Troyes' "Perceval," Wolfram von Eschenbach's "Parzival," and the anonymous "Queste del Saint Graal." All readings will be available in English.
Same as: COMPLIT 188, COMPLIT 388, GERMAN 388

GERMAN 189. KRUPP-FLEX: Work-Life Balance in Today's Germany. 2-3 Units.

This class is being offered in collaboration with Stanford in Berlin, Bing Overseas Studies Program. This course will accompany and deepen the experience of Krupp Interns living and working in German cities and towns in summer 2021. Their participant observations in the workplace and in Germany's rich leisure culture, as well as critical consideration of their own assumptions and experiences in the context of cultural exploration, will be recorded in a reflective Arbeitsjournal (critical journal -- genre and language at the discretion of the student). These reflections will be informed by regular reading of the German press (print or online) around themes on which students choose to focus -- be that the history behind the extensive rights and social services that support labor in Germany; or habits, mores and modes of personal interaction in and outside the workplace; or attitudes toward diversity, gender, class in contemporary German culture; or topics of immediate socio-political concern that lend themselves to comparative reflection with home-country culture (e.g. immigration and asylum, structure of systemic and social responses to COVID 19, environmental awareness, vocational training); or religion, or sport culture, or indeed the specific professional sector of the internship itself. Students will submit their completed journals with an annotated reading list at the end of the summer and will give a short presentation during the mandatory Internship Seminar in late August of 2021. Permission code required. You will receive a permission code from Cornelia Kastelan - ckastelan@stanford.edu. This course is restricted to Krupp Internship students in the Program for Stanford Students in Germany.

GERMAN 191. German Capstone Project. 1 Unit.

Each student participates in a capstone interview and discussion with a panel of the German Studies faculty on topics related to German cultural and literary analysis. In prepration for the interview/discussion, students submit written answers to a set of questions based on several authentic cultural texts in German. The written answers, normally in English, should be well-formed and coherent. Within the interview/discussion, students must demonstrate a further understanding of the topic(s) posed, through cogent argument.

GERMAN 199. Individual Work. 1-12 Unit.

Repeatable for Credit. Instructor Consent Required.

GERMAN 206. Turkish-German Literature, Cinema, and Theater. 3-5 Units.

One in five people in Germany now has, as it is termed, a background of migration. Immigration from Turkey is probably the most prominent not only in terms of its massiveness and demographic consequences, but also for its significant role in changing Germany's overall cultural, social, and economic landscape. In this course, through analyzing selected literary works, films, and plays produced by Turkish-German writers and artists, we will discuss complex ideas like migration, ethnicity, race, religion, gender, and class, resorting not to oversimplifications and binary thinking but instead to relevant literary concepts and formative historical moments which have shaped the Turkish-German experience. Remote synchronous with plenty of opportunities to participate in group and breakout room discussions and creative projects.
Same as: GERMAN 106

GERMAN 213. Medieval Germany, 900-1250. 1-5 Unit.

(Undergraduates may sign up for GERMAN 213 or HISTORY 213F, graduate students should sign up for GERMAN 313 or HISTORY 313F. This course may be taken for variable units. Check the individual course numbers for unit spreads.) This course will provide a survey of the most important political, historical, and cultural events and trends that took place in the German-speaking lands between 900 and 1250. Important themes include the evolution of imperial ideology and relations with Rome, expansion along the eastern frontier, the crusades, the investiture controversy, the rise of powerful cities and civic identities, monastic reform and intellectual renewal, and the flowering of vernacular literature.nnTo satisfy a Ways requirement, this course must be taken for at least 3 units. In AY 2020-21, a letter grade or "CR" grade satisfies the Ways requirement.
Same as: GERMAN 313, HISTORY 213F, HISTORY 313F

GERMAN 215. The Queer 20th Century: German LGBTQ Literature and Film. 3-5 Units.

What was it like to be queer in 20th-century Germany? This course examines the rich and sometimes surprising LGBTQ culture of 20th-century Germany, featuring stories that are often left out of traditional seminars. Through literature and film, we will learn about pioneering gay rights activists, persecution under National Socialism, emancipation movements under capitalism and socialism, and debates that are shaping queer life in contemporary Germany. Taught in English; students of all backgrounds are very welcome. Remote synchronous, with plenty of opportunities for breakout rooms, student discussion, Zoom breaks, and off-screen work.
Same as: FEMGEN 115A, FEMGEN 215A, GERMAN 115

GERMAN 222. Myth and Modernity. 3-5 Units.

Masters of German 20th- and 21st-Century literature and philosophy as they present aesthetic innovation and confront the challenges of modern technology, social alienation, manmade catastrophes, and imagine the future. Readings include Nietzsche, Freud, Rilke, Musil, Brecht, Kafka, Doeblin, Benjamin, Juenger, Arendt, Musil, Mann, Adorno, Celan, Grass, Bachmann, Bernhardt, Wolf, and Kluge. Taught in English. Note for German Studies grad students: GERMAN 322 will fulfill the grad core requirement since GERMAN 332 is not being offered this year. NOTE: Enrollment requires Professor Eshel's consent. Please contact him directly at eshel@stanford.edu and answer these 2 questions: "Why do you want to take this course?" and "What do you think you can add to the discussion?" Applications will be considered in the order in which they were received. Enrollment is limited to 20 students.
Same as: COMPLIT 222A, GERMAN 322, JEWISHST 242G, JEWISHST 342

GERMAN 230. German Literature (800-1700). 3-5 Units.

In this seminar we will read and discuss a number of key medieval texts: Hartmann von Aue's "Gregorius," Wolfram von Eschenbach's "Parzival," Alber's "Tnugdalus," sermons by Meister Eckhart and a selection of twelfth-century religious poetry. Discussions will focus on sin, atonement and subjectivity. Some course materials are only available in German.
Same as: GERMAN 330

GERMAN 231. German Literature (1700-1900). 3-5 Units.

How the literature of the period between 1750 and 1900 gives voice to new conceptions of selfhood and articulates the emergent self-understanding of modernity. Responses to unprecedented historical experiences such as the French Revolution and the ensuing wars, changes in the understanding of nature, the crisis of foundations, and the persistence of theological motifs. Lessing, Herder, Goethe, Schiller, Holderlin, Kleist, Heine, Buchner, Keller, and Fontane. Taught in English, readings in German.
Same as: GERMAN 331

GERMAN 232. German Literature 3: Modernity and the Unspeakable. 3-5 Units.

Masterpieces of German literature, drama, and film from the first half of the 20th century. Particular focus on modernism and the crisis of language. What urgent truths (whether psychological, political, spiritual, or sexual) cannot be expressed, and how do art and dreams attempt to speak the unspeakable? Readings and viewings include works by Hofmannsthal, Schnitzler, Freud, Wedekind, Mann, Musil, Kafka, Toller, Höch, Rilke, Schoenberg, Riefensthal, Benjamin, and Brecht. Taught in English.
Same as: GERMAN 332

GERMAN 235. German Conversation. 3 Units.

This small, individualized course will offer students the chance to work on their spoken expression and critical thinking, in German. Topics will change each quarter but will span contemporary politics and culture, film, literature, and visual arts. The focus will be on speaking German in small groups, as opposed to formal presentations or written assignments. Students will have the opportunity to pursue topics of personal interest, as well as work collaboratively and individually on projects intended to foster advanced communicative skills.
Same as: GERMAN 135

GERMAN 237. Fascism after Fascism. 3-5 Units.

When World War II ended, most of the states that described themselves as "fascist" ended with it. Nevertheless, fascism haunted postwar democracy as an ever-present threat. The question of what exactly had characterized fascism, and what parts of it persisted within liberal democracies themselves, were continuously and contentiously debated. This question has emerged all the more forcefully in recent years as "illiberal," or "right-wing populist," movements and governments have begun to question the basic premises of liberal democracy. What was fascism, and what would it mean for it to return? This course considers writings by philosophers, historians, journalists and writers, and moves from early anti-fascist writings to critiques of online movements and neo-reactionaries.
Same as: COMPLIT 237

GERMAN 239. Queer Theory. 3-5 Units.

Do we really need a theory in order to be queer? Queer Theory emerged in response to feminist thought, and the study of the history of sexuality, building on their insights, but also uncovering their blind spots. Without Queer Theory, few of the discourses around desire, power and gender identity that we take for granted on college campuses today would exist. Yet there is also a real risk that reality has left the theory behind. In this course, we will try to answer the question: What do we need queer theory for? Do we still need it? And if so, of what kind? The course is designed to introduce students to core texts of queer theory, and to connect them to current debates, be this around trans rights, the representation of homosexuality or the fight against campus sexual assault.
Same as: COMPLIT 239, FEMGEN 239

GERMAN 253. Hannah Arendt: Facing Totalitarianism. 3-5 Units.

Like hardly any other thinker of the modern age, Hannah Arendt's thought offers us timeless insights into the fabric of the modern age, especially regarding the perennial danger of totalitarianism. This course offers an in-depth introduction to Arendt's most important works in their various contexts, as well as a consideration of their reverberations in contemporary philosophy and literature. Readings include Arendt's <em>The Origin of Totalitarianism</em>, <em>The Human Condition, Between Past and Future</em>, <em>Men in Dark Times</em>, <em>On Revolution</em>,<em>Eichmann in Jerusalem</em>, and <em>The Life of the Mind</em>, as well as considerations of Hannah Arendt's work by Max Frisch, Jürgen Habermas, Seyla Benhabib, Judith Butler, Giorgio Agamben, and others. Special attention will be given to Arendt's writings on literature with an emphasis on Kafka, Brecht, Auden, Sartre, and Camus. This course will be synchronously conducted, but will also use an innovative, Stanford-developed, online platform called Poetic Thinking. Poetic Thinking allows students to share both their scholarly and creative work with each other. Based on the newest technology and beautifully designed, it greatly enhances their course experience.
Same as: COMPLIT 353B, GERMAN 353, JEWISHST 243A

GERMAN 256. Thomas Bernhard. 3-5 Units.

This is a course about the Austrian writer Thomas Bernhard, his work, and his time.
Same as: GERMAN 356

GERMAN 261. Theorie des Erzählens. 3-5 Units.

This course approaches the history of narrative theory from the German perspective: we will read canonical and foundational texts that have shaped the way we read and study narrative¿from the usual suspects (Gerard Genette, Yuri Lotman, Tzvetan Todorov, Algirdas Julien Greimas) to the (here) lesser known German theorists of narrative forms and literary theory (Frank K. Stanzel, Käte Hamburger, Monika Fludernik, Siegfried J. Schmidt). Alongside these theoretical approaches, we will read two German novels, which we¿ll use as experimental playground to better test and understand how and why literary theory can help us construct models of reading, world-making, human experience, and storytelling. Towards the end of the course, we¿ll switch to the open questions and future of narrative theory: what media of long-form storytelling come after the novel? What do they have in common with, say, the novels of J.W. Goethe, Adalbert Stifter, Lou Andreas-Salomé, or Ingeborg Bachmann? How would we expand narrative theory to include today¿s most important and engaging sites of storytelling (like video games or serial television)? Taught in German.
Same as: GERMAN 361

GERMAN 265. Middle High German. 1-3 Unit.

Middle High German (MHG), a form of German spoken in the High Middle Ages c. 1050¿1350, constitutes one of the most important medieval languages of Europe. Numerous fundamental classics of European literature were originally composed in MHG, among them the Nibelungenlied, Wolfram von Eschenbach¿s Parzival, and Meister Eckhart¿s German Sermons. Reading skills in this language will thus allow literary scholars and historians to both appreciate well-known texts in their original form and access a range of untranslated literary works and sources. Working with different textual examples, students will learn how to read and translate MHG texts. They will additionally gain an overview of the history of the German language. Focusing on reading comprehension, this course will take a hands-on approach to key methods and concepts of historical linguistics (etymology, dialectology, historical semantics, phonetic history, premodern Germanic morphology and syntax). Additionally, students will learn how to work with printed and digital tools for translating MHG texts (lexical databases, dictionaries, historical grammars). German skills of intermediate level or higher are required. Assignments include weekly translation exercises.

GERMAN 267. Prospects for Transatlantic Relations: What Holds the West Together?. 1-2 Unit.

This seminar treats disintegration tendencies in the trans-Atlantic West, including the impact of China and Russia in globalization and north-south issues inside the EU. This course involves participation in an international conference during October and the preparation of individual research papers.nMeeting times: This seminar will meet from 9:00 to 11:00am in room 260-252 on Monday, October 21, Wednesday, October 23 and Friday, October 25, 2019.
Same as: GERMAN 367

GERMAN 268. Socialism: Theory, Literature, Practice. 3-5 Units.

The prospect of socialism has circulated in the cultural and political programs of many countries, and socialist programs have informed the real governance structures in some. This course examines some of the theoretical texts that have described socialism as well as critical responses. In addition, the treatment of socialism in literature will be discussed as well as considerations of the outcomes of institutionalized programs. Readings will include texts by authors such as Marx, Lenin, Hayek, Friedman, Koestler, Steinbeck, Wolf, Brauenig, Wright and others.
Same as: COMPLIT 268

GERMAN 270. Sovereignty and the Limits of Globalization and Technology. 3-5 Units.

Current opposition to globalization is emerging in many countries in the various forms of populism, restrictive trade policies, protest parties and localism, accompanied by appeals to national interests and cultural traditions. At stake is the reassertion of state sovereignty against market processes and internationalist claims. This seminar explores the tensions between state and market, their cultural contexts, new technologies, and the importance of community belonging. Readings include texts by authors such as Marx, Nietzsche, Schmitt, Strauss, Girard, Lasch, Bloom, Appiah. Student research projects on contemporary topics. NOTE: To be considered for enrollment in this course, please complete and submit this short application by October 19, 2018, 11:59pm PST. Students accepted to participate in this course will be notified on October 26, 2018 by 6:00pm. Auditors are not permitted.nLink to application: http://web.stanford.edu/~conorato/german270.fb.

GERMAN 275. Outer Space Exploration in Germany in the Twentieth Century. 1-5 Unit.

Since the nineteenth century, Germans, like their counterparts around the world, have considered the meaning and the role of humanity in outer space. As space travel developed from a dream to a reality, and as Germany changed borders and political systems among empires, dictatorships, socialist states, and capitalist states, German interest in spaceflight remained, although the meaning found in the stars changed dramatically. This course considers Germans' dreams of and predictions for outer space travel alongside German technological developments in spaceflight. It includes the different German states throughout the century, including Weimar Germany, National Socialism, East Germany, and West Germany. The course looks at science fiction films and novels, newspaper reports, scientific developments, and German space engineering projects, which together demonstrate how and why space travel often found high levels of support in Germany. Students will engage in historical and cultural analysis through course readings, discussions, and assignments.nNOTE: To be eligible for WAYS credit, you must take this course for a minimum of 3 units and a letter grade.
Same as: HISTORY 237G

GERMAN 277. Stagnation or Progress. 3-5 Units.

Vibrant cultures draw on the dynamism of innovation and creativity, but they can decline through stagnation, forms of which we have been facing in recent years: deceleration of technological innovation, prospects of slowed economic growth, and a generalized cultural stagnation or decadence. This seminar examines this problem and asks about antidotes, whether as progress, renaissance, or disruption. Readings drawn from authors such as Nietzsche, Burckhardt, Spengler Strauss, Girard, Lasch and contemporary treatments of technology, economy and culture. Taught in English. NOTE: To be considered for enrollment in this course, please complete and submit this short application by January 31, 2020, 11:59pm PST. Students accepted to participate in this course will be notified on February 7, 2020 by 6:00pm. Auditors are not permitted. nLink to syllabus: https://stanford.box.com/s/h18yow1j80zv9vvlbk64suchzs2c0rcc Link to application: http://web.stanford.edu/~conorato/german277.fb.

GERMAN 281. G.W.F. Hegel: System, History, Dialectics. 3-5 Units.

This course is intended to introduce students to the study of G.W.F. Hegel. The seminar will read several of Hegel's central works and discuss his reception in the later 19th and 20th century.

GERMAN 283A. Modern Notions of 'The Holy'. 3-5 Units.

This course explores the question, "What may we call 'holy' in the modern era?" by focusing on key writers and thinkers, who in various ways, and in different times raised this question: Friedrich Hölderlin, Hermann Cohen, Franz Kafka, Martin Heidegger, Martin Buber, Franz Rosenzweig, Else Lasker-Schüler, Walter Benjamin, Ernst Bloch, Hannah Arendt, Margarete Susman, Nelly Sachs, Paul Celan, and Judith Butler.nnThis course will be synchronous-conducted, but will also use an innovative, Stanford-developed, on-line platform called Poetic Thinking. Poetic Thinking allows students to share both their scholarly and creative work with each other. Based on the newest technology and beautifully designed, it will greatly enhance their course experience.
Same as: COMPLIT 283A, COMPLIT 383A, GERMAN 383A, RELIGST 283A, RELIGST 383A

GERMAN 286. Forming the world: Pragmatism and Aesthetics. 3-5 Units.

This course will explore key pragmatist philosophical and theoretical approaches to literature, the visual arts, and music. How are human lives mediated by and through aesthetic experience, in the realm of the private as well as the public. Rather than positing a metaphysical idea of beauty, the thinkers and artists we engage ask how texts and artworks render us sensitive to our multifaceted contingencies, and how we may speak and write about them. Readings and viewings include R. W. Emerson, Friedrich Nietzsche, Emily Dickinson, Martin Heidegger, John Dewey, T. W. Adorno, Hannah Arendt, Richard Rorty, Terrence Malick, J. M. Coetzee, Bruno Latour, Marilynne Robinson, Nancy Fraser, Rita Felski, Tania Bruguera, Yivve Citton, Richard Moose, Cheryl Misak, and Shannon Sullivan, among others.
Same as: COMPLIT 286

GERMAN 313. Medieval Germany, 900-1250. 1-5 Unit.

(Undergraduates may sign up for GERMAN 213 or HISTORY 213F, graduate students should sign up for GERMAN 313 or HISTORY 313F. This course may be taken for variable units. Check the individual course numbers for unit spreads.) This course will provide a survey of the most important political, historical, and cultural events and trends that took place in the German-speaking lands between 900 and 1250. Important themes include the evolution of imperial ideology and relations with Rome, expansion along the eastern frontier, the crusades, the investiture controversy, the rise of powerful cities and civic identities, monastic reform and intellectual renewal, and the flowering of vernacular literature.nnTo satisfy a Ways requirement, this course must be taken for at least 3 units. In AY 2020-21, a letter grade or "CR" grade satisfies the Ways requirement.
Same as: GERMAN 213, HISTORY 213F, HISTORY 313F

GERMAN 319. Modern Theatre. 1-5 Unit.

Modern theatre in Europe and the US, with a focus on the most influential works from roughly 1880 to the present. What were the conventions of theatrical practice that modern theatre displaced? What were the principal innovations of modern playwriting, acting, stage design, and theatrical architecture? How did modern theatrical artists wrestle with the revolutionary transformations of the modern age? Plays by Büchner, Ibsen, Strindberg, Shaw, Chekhov, Wilde, Wedekind, Treadwell, Pirandello, Brecht, O¿Neill, Beckett, Smith, Parks, and Nottage.
Same as: TAPS 119, TAPS 319

GERMAN 322. Myth and Modernity. 3-5 Units.

Masters of German 20th- and 21st-Century literature and philosophy as they present aesthetic innovation and confront the challenges of modern technology, social alienation, manmade catastrophes, and imagine the future. Readings include Nietzsche, Freud, Rilke, Musil, Brecht, Kafka, Doeblin, Benjamin, Juenger, Arendt, Musil, Mann, Adorno, Celan, Grass, Bachmann, Bernhardt, Wolf, and Kluge. Taught in English. Note for German Studies grad students: GERMAN 322 will fulfill the grad core requirement since GERMAN 332 is not being offered this year. NOTE: Enrollment requires Professor Eshel's consent. Please contact him directly at eshel@stanford.edu and answer these 2 questions: "Why do you want to take this course?" and "What do you think you can add to the discussion?" Applications will be considered in the order in which they were received. Enrollment is limited to 20 students.
Same as: COMPLIT 222A, GERMAN 222, JEWISHST 242G, JEWISHST 342

GERMAN 325. Nietzsche: Life as Performance. 3-5 Units.

Nietzsche famously considered that "there is no 'being' behind the deed, its effect, and what becomes of it; the 'doer' is invented as an afterthought - the doing is everything." How should we understand this idea of a deed without a doer, how might it relate to performance, and what influence has it had on modern culture? In order to answer these questions, we will consider Nietzsche's writings alongside some of the artworks that influenced Nietzsche or were influenced by him.
Same as: GERMAN 125, TAPS 152L, TAPS 325

GERMAN 330. German Literature (800-1700). 3-5 Units.

In this seminar we will read and discuss a number of key medieval texts: Hartmann von Aue's "Gregorius," Wolfram von Eschenbach's "Parzival," Alber's "Tnugdalus," sermons by Meister Eckhart and a selection of twelfth-century religious poetry. Discussions will focus on sin, atonement and subjectivity. Some course materials are only available in German.
Same as: GERMAN 230

GERMAN 331. German Literature (1700-1900). 3-5 Units.

How the literature of the period between 1750 and 1900 gives voice to new conceptions of selfhood and articulates the emergent self-understanding of modernity. Responses to unprecedented historical experiences such as the French Revolution and the ensuing wars, changes in the understanding of nature, the crisis of foundations, and the persistence of theological motifs. Lessing, Herder, Goethe, Schiller, Holderlin, Kleist, Heine, Buchner, Keller, and Fontane. Taught in English, readings in German.
Same as: GERMAN 231

GERMAN 332. German Literature 3: Modernity and the Unspeakable. 3-5 Units.

Masterpieces of German literature, drama, and film from the first half of the 20th century. Particular focus on modernism and the crisis of language. What urgent truths (whether psychological, political, spiritual, or sexual) cannot be expressed, and how do art and dreams attempt to speak the unspeakable? Readings and viewings include works by Hofmannsthal, Schnitzler, Freud, Wedekind, Mann, Musil, Kafka, Toller, Höch, Rilke, Schoenberg, Riefensthal, Benjamin, and Brecht. Taught in English.
Same as: GERMAN 232

GERMAN 342. Feminist Avant Garde. 3-5 Units.

Feminist Avant Garde.
Same as: GERMAN 142

GERMAN 343. World War Two: Place, Loss, History. 5 Units.

A consideration of how the Second World War still goes on today in the form of haunted absences and vivid representations. Studying literature and art in detail, the seminar will center on some of the places where those absences and representations gather: Portbou, Pearl Harbor, Auschwitz, Guadalcanal, London, Berlin, Hamburg, Rome, Omaha Beach, Peleliu, Monte Cassino, Hollywood. Writers and artists include: James Jones, Georges Didi-Huberman, Walter Benjamin, Eduardo Cadava, W.G. Sebald, Rachel Whiteread, Ingeborg Bachman, Wis¿awa Szymborska, Eugene Sledge, Hans Erich Nossack, Jorie Graham, Gerhard Richter, Dani Karavan, Tom Lea, W. Eugene Smith, Val Lewton, and Terrence Malick.
Same as: ARTHIST 401

GERMAN 347. The Conservative Revolution. 3-5 Units.

Rapid modernization in early twentieth-century Germany elicited various conservative criticisms, which became particularly acute after the First World War. The thinkers of the Conservative Revolution gave voice to post-Nietzschean concerns about cultural transformation, combining traditionalist and anti-traditionalist positions. Its legacy anticipates current discussions regarding post-modernity, post-democracy, and the impact of technological change. Texts by authors such as: Jünger, Heidegger, Hofmannsthal, Borchardt, Mann, Arendt, Marcuse. Taught in English.
Same as: GERMAN 147

GERMAN 353. Hannah Arendt: Facing Totalitarianism. 3-5 Units.

Like hardly any other thinker of the modern age, Hannah Arendt's thought offers us timeless insights into the fabric of the modern age, especially regarding the perennial danger of totalitarianism. This course offers an in-depth introduction to Arendt's most important works in their various contexts, as well as a consideration of their reverberations in contemporary philosophy and literature. Readings include Arendt's <em>The Origin of Totalitarianism</em>, <em>The Human Condition, Between Past and Future</em>, <em>Men in Dark Times</em>, <em>On Revolution</em>,<em>Eichmann in Jerusalem</em>, and <em>The Life of the Mind</em>, as well as considerations of Hannah Arendt's work by Max Frisch, Jürgen Habermas, Seyla Benhabib, Judith Butler, Giorgio Agamben, and others. Special attention will be given to Arendt's writings on literature with an emphasis on Kafka, Brecht, Auden, Sartre, and Camus. This course will be synchronously conducted, but will also use an innovative, Stanford-developed, online platform called Poetic Thinking. Poetic Thinking allows students to share both their scholarly and creative work with each other. Based on the newest technology and beautifully designed, it greatly enhances their course experience.
Same as: COMPLIT 353B, GERMAN 253, JEWISHST 243A

GERMAN 356. Thomas Bernhard. 3-5 Units.

This is a course about the Austrian writer Thomas Bernhard, his work, and his time.
Same as: GERMAN 256

GERMAN 357. What kind of Information is Poetry. 1-5 Unit.

"Only a fool reads poetry for facts": To read a poem with the same fact-seeking attention required by using a dictionary, reading a newspaper article, or following a recipe is, perhaps, foolish. But if it is, it is so only because it means the reader has not understood what a poem is supposed to do. Consider Wittgenstein's famous warning: "Do not forget that a poem, even though it is composed in the language of information, is not used in the language-game of giving information." A poem, even though it is made of the same (kinds of) words as information, ought not to be treated as information (the sentence seems to say). Distinct in their respective functions, poetry and information form two ends of an opposition: one for the creative possibilities for human expression, the other for the practical and mechanical tasks of everyday life.nBut what really "is" information? Has poetry not, since the beginning of time, also functioned as vehicle for storing, quantifying, and communicating things¿from historical events, the law, to agricultural manuals, just as "informational" texts do? How has the emergence of technological media in our so-called Information Age altered, reinforced, or revolutionized the place of poetry in the realm of human communication?nThese questions will motivate this course, which is also a general introduction to poetry and poetics. We will closely read German texts from the Musipilli to digital-born poetry, and secondary material from thinkers and theorists such as Schlegel, Schleiermacher, Benjamin, Wittgenstein, Flusser, and Bense, to learn how various methods of reading and literary criticism - from formalism and structuralism to Digital Humanities approaches - have developed alongside something like "information" as literary quality and social form.nAssistant Professor Lea Pao will teach this course.
Same as: GERMAN 157

GERMAN 358. Seminar in Medieval German Studies. 3-5 Units.

In this weekly seminar we will read primary materials, and important scholarship, and discuss ongoing debates and trends in medieval studies. The reading list will be determined in consultation with the participants; students will be invited to share their own work with the group. All graduate students working in medieval studies or interested in deepening their familiarity with medieval studies are encouraged to participate.

GERMAN 361. Theorie des Erzählens. 3-5 Units.

This course approaches the history of narrative theory from the German perspective: we will read canonical and foundational texts that have shaped the way we read and study narrative¿from the usual suspects (Gerard Genette, Yuri Lotman, Tzvetan Todorov, Algirdas Julien Greimas) to the (here) lesser known German theorists of narrative forms and literary theory (Frank K. Stanzel, Käte Hamburger, Monika Fludernik, Siegfried J. Schmidt). Alongside these theoretical approaches, we will read two German novels, which we¿ll use as experimental playground to better test and understand how and why literary theory can help us construct models of reading, world-making, human experience, and storytelling. Towards the end of the course, we¿ll switch to the open questions and future of narrative theory: what media of long-form storytelling come after the novel? What do they have in common with, say, the novels of J.W. Goethe, Adalbert Stifter, Lou Andreas-Salomé, or Ingeborg Bachmann? How would we expand narrative theory to include today¿s most important and engaging sites of storytelling (like video games or serial television)? Taught in German.
Same as: GERMAN 261

GERMAN 367. Prospects for Transatlantic Relations: What Holds the West Together?. 1-2 Unit.

This seminar treats disintegration tendencies in the trans-Atlantic West, including the impact of China and Russia in globalization and north-south issues inside the EU. This course involves participation in an international conference during October and the preparation of individual research papers.nMeeting times: This seminar will meet from 9:00 to 11:00am in room 260-252 on Monday, October 21, Wednesday, October 23 and Friday, October 25, 2019.
Same as: GERMAN 267

GERMAN 369. Introduction to the Profession of Literary Studies. 1-2 Unit.

A survey of how literary theory and other methods have been made institutional since the nineteenth century. The readings and conversation are designed for entering Ph.D. students in the national literature departments and comparative literature.
Same as: COMPLIT 369, DLCL 369, FRENCH 369, ITALIAN 369

GERMAN 374. The Poem as Medium. 3-5 Units.

Since Marshall McLuhan formulated his theory of "media" as "extensions of ourselves," we've come to understand the history of human communication in terms of its physical carriers, tools, and technologies. From cuneiform, hieroglyphs, and logographic writing systems, to the alphabet, to algorithms; from clay tablets, to papyrus, to LED screens; from scrolls, to books, to the gramophone, to DNA - the medium and the message shape how we store and communicate information. Poetry's place in this history of media has been both elusive and strangely consistent. In media theory, the poem, which Hans Magnus Enzensberger once called an "archaic medium" and Niklas Luhman a "paradoxical form of communication," often serves as an example of the non-ordinary, of opacity, untranslatability, self-mediation, or hypermediacy. We will read (often lesser known) texts by media theorists (McLuhan, Kittler, Flusser, Benjamin, Luhmann, Siegfried J. Schmidt, Hayles) and a selection of pre-media theory texts on the mediality and mediacy of poetry (Lessing, Hegel, Herder Schleiermacher, Hamburger), as well as one poem each week as we explore the relation between medium and message, content and form. Taught in German.
Same as: GERMAN 174

GERMAN 383A. Modern Notions of 'The Holy'. 3-5 Units.

This course explores the question, "What may we call 'holy' in the modern era?" by focusing on key writers and thinkers, who in various ways, and in different times raised this question: Friedrich Hölderlin, Hermann Cohen, Franz Kafka, Martin Heidegger, Martin Buber, Franz Rosenzweig, Else Lasker-Schüler, Walter Benjamin, Ernst Bloch, Hannah Arendt, Margarete Susman, Nelly Sachs, Paul Celan, and Judith Butler.nnThis course will be synchronous-conducted, but will also use an innovative, Stanford-developed, on-line platform called Poetic Thinking. Poetic Thinking allows students to share both their scholarly and creative work with each other. Based on the newest technology and beautifully designed, it will greatly enhance their course experience.
Same as: COMPLIT 283A, COMPLIT 383A, GERMAN 283A, RELIGST 283A, RELIGST 383A

GERMAN 384. The Nervous Age: Neurosis, Neurology, and Nineteenth-century Theatre. 1-4 Unit.

The nineteenth century witnessed profound developments in neurological and psychological sciences, developments that fundamentally altered conceptions of embodiment, agency, and mind. This course will place these scientific shifts in conversation with theatrical transformations of the period. We will read nineteenth-century neuropsychologists such as Charles Bell, Johannes Müller, George Miller Beard, Jean-Martin Charcot, and Hippolyte Bernheim alongside artists such as Percy Shelley, Georg Büchner, Richard Wagner, Émile Zola, and August Strindberg. NOTE: Only for German Studies PhD students.

GERMAN 388. In Search of the Holy Grail: Percival's Quest in Medieval Literature. 3-5 Units.

This course focuses on one of the most famous inventions of the Middle Ages: the Holy Grail. The grail - a mysterious vessel with supernatural properties - is first mentioned in Chrétien de Troyes' "Perceval," but the story is soon rewritten by authors who alter the meaning of both the grail and the quest. By reading three different versions, we will explore how they respond differently to major topics in medieval culture and relevant to today: romantic love, family ties, education, moral guilt, and spiritual practice. The texts are: Chrétien de Troyes' "Perceval," Wolfram von Eschenbach's "Parzival," and the anonymous "Queste del Saint Graal." All readings will be available in English.
Same as: COMPLIT 188, COMPLIT 388, GERMAN 188

GERMAN 396. German Studies Lecture Series. 1 Unit.

What's happening in German Studies today? The GSLS invites 3 speakers per quarter to present on their work and research in German literature, culture, politics, and history, offering students an insight into the current field of German Studies and an engagement with topics ranging from medieval fabrics to the refugee crisis. Luncheons are scheduled every first Tuesday of the month. To earn the unit for this course, students will attend the lecture, read 1-2 articles or book chapters written by the speaker of the week, and complete one short 2-page writing assignment (this could be a reflection, a review, a creative assignment, a poetic adaptation of a talk - we'll discuss).

GERMAN 397. Graduate Studies Colloquium. 1 Unit.

Colloquium for graduate students in German Studies. Taught in English. May be repeated for credit.

GERMAN 399. Individual Work. 1-12 Unit.

Repeatable for Credit. Instructor Consent Required.

GERMAN 680. Curricular Practical Training. 1-3 Unit.

CPT course required for international students completing degree. nPrerequisite: German Studies Ph.D candidate.

GERMAN 802. TGR Dissertation. 0 Units.

.