Curriculum

The German Department offers courses in the language, literature, and culture of the German-speaking countries of Europe. The program is designed for students who wish to become literate in the language and culture, to comprehend the relationship between language, thought, and culture, and to gain a better understanding of their own culture in a global context.

The German curriculum at Bowdoin facilitates an understanding of culture through language, accommodating students who wish to begin their study of the language and culture at Bowdoin as well as those who have begun this study elsewhere. Language, culture, and literature are taught as a continuous whole from the outset and in a broad interdisciplinary context; our departmental curriculum is integrated with a variety of study away and co-curricular options to allow for several paths towards intercultural competence. During the first three years, key social and cultural topics are approached variously through history, literature, politics, popular culture, and the arts while emphasizing linguistic practice in speaking, comprehension, reading and writing. Third-year courses are designed to explore aspects of German culture in particular depth. For example, in the fifth semester, topics include post-war and post-unification themes in historical and cross-cultural contexts with a particular emphasis on post-1990 German youth culture and language. The sixth semester is designed as an introduction to the critical reading of texts by genre (e.g. prose fiction and nonfiction, lyric poetry, drama, opera, film) in the context of German intellectual, political, and social history. Advanced 300-level courses continue to emphasize the understanding of German culture through language. These courses address literature, musical theater, opera, and popular culture as well as class, race, ethnicity, and gender from the 18th Century to the present. Topics are approached from a variety of historical, social, aesthetic, political, and artistic perspectives.

In addition to the advanced courses devoted to particular periods of the cultural history of German-speaking countries, the following advanced 300-level seminars are taught by the department:

390 IP. Robots, Vamps and Whores: Women in German Culture & Society: 1880-1989 Spring 2008. JILL SMITH
An examination of female sexuality as one of the central controversies of modern German culture. Analyzing 19th- and 20th-century artifacts (works of literature, films, and paintings) from four distinct periods in German history - the fin-de-siécle, the Roaring 20s, the Nazi era, and divided Germany - the course compares historical and artistic representations of women, particularly those women who push the boundaries of normative sexual and social behavior. We will use a variety of texts to discuss such diverse social phenomena and contested territory as the Women’s movement / feminism, morality crusades, sexology, prostitution, marriage reform, abortion and lesbianism. Frequent short writings, several critical interpretive essays, and a final project based upon visual images of women spanning the time periods discussed are required. (Same as Gay and Lesbian Studies and Women's Studies 390.)

392. IP. Das deutsche Lustspiel. Spring 2009. STEVEN CERF
An examination of selected masterworks of the rare and problematic German-language comedy from the Enlightenment to Post-Unification in historical and cultural contexts. Particular attention is paid to the comedic works of Lessing, Kleist, Wagner, Hofmannsthal, Zuckmayer, Dürrenmatt and Levy. Three questions are posed: 1) Why are there so few German literary comedies? 2) How did German comedic writers--with their attention to psychological, historical, and sociological detail--form their own tradition in which they responded to each other over two centuries? 3) To what extent did writers from other cultures inspire German comedic playwrights? In addition to a close reading of texts, filmed stage productions and cinematic adaptations are examined.

394 IP. Contested Discourse: German Popular Film since Unification. Spring 2010. HELEN CAFFERTY
Since the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989, a new generation of filmmakers has emerged; the art house film of New German Cinema has given way to a German popular film that has increasingly contested contemporary political, social, and cultural issues. These include contemporary modes of Vergangenheitsaufarbeitung with regard to World War II and the Holocaust, East-West perspectives on history and German identity, Ostalgie and Westalgie, the role of Berlin as a hot spot for contested discourse, and constructions of sexuality, race, ethnicity, and gender. Emphasis on the historical and cultural context of post-unification film as well as critical film-reading and vocabulary. Consideration of popular genre strategies such as comedy, action, thriller, and melodrama as well as the genesis of individual films. Directors/ films may include: Färberbock, Aimee und Jaguar; Link, Nirgendwo in Afrika; Dörrie, Keiner liebt mich; Sanoussi-Bliss, Zurück auf los; Tykwer, Lola rennt; Dresen, Nachtgestalten; Haußmann, Sonnenallee; Becker, Good Bye Lenin!; Schlöndorff, Die Stille nach dem Schuss; Henckel von Donnersmarck, Das Leben der anderen; Akin, Gegen die Wand.

395 IP. Myths, Modernity, Media. Spring 2011 BIRGIT TAUTZ
Explores the important role that myths have played in German cultural history. While founding myths of Germanic culture (e.g. Nibelungen) are considered, the course focuses especially on myth in relation to fairy tales, legends (including urban legends of the 20th century), and borderline genres and motifs (e.g. vampires, witches, automatons), as well as on questions of mythmaking. Examines why modern culture of the 20th and 21st century, which seemingly neglects or overcomes myths, heavily engages in mythicization of ideas (e.g. gender roles, the unnatural) and popularizes myths through modern media (film, television, the internet), locations (e.g. cities) and transnational exchange (Disney; the myth of “the Orient”). Aside from short analytical or interpretive papers aimed at developing critical language skills, students may pursue a creative project (performance of a mythical character, design of a scholarly webpage, writing of a modern fairy tale).

German 396 IP. Vienna, 1890-1914. STEVEN CERF
An examination of representative shorter literary works( i.e., Novellen, dramas, poetry, essays, etc.) of such diverse, psychologically-oriented authors as Schnitzler, Freud, Hofmannsthal, Trakl, Kraus, and Musil in historical and cultural contexts. Three basic areas are explored: 1) How and why turn-of-the-century Vienna became the home of modern psychiatry. 2) The myriad ways in which imaginative writers creatively interacted with leading composers, visual artists, and philosophers of the era. 3) The extent to which such cinematic directors as Ophüls, Reed, and Schlöndorff were able to capture Viennese intellectual and creative vibrancy for the screen.

398 IP.Colors: Signs of Ethnic Difference 1800/1900/2000 BIRGIT TAUTZ
In German culture, color/hue has played an important role in marking ethnic difference. Color marks not only “racial difference” (“Black” v. “White”), but also geographical difference (“tropical colors”) or diversity (“Bunte Republik Deutschland”). Considers changing discourse on color and ethnic difference in literary texts and films, all of which serve to illuminate the broader cultural context at three historical junctures: 1800, 1900, and 2000. Considers texts and films in conjunction with non-fiction, including examples from the visual arts (paintings, photographs, “Hagenbecks Völkerschauen”), medical and ‘scientific’, encyclopedic entries, policy statements and advertisements (“Reklamemarken”, commercials), and popular music (HipHop, lyrics), recognizing, in the process, how German culture (“national identity”) defines itself through and against color.

Courses in the German Department also fulfill the International Perspectives requirement (German 205 and above). Department courses taught in English in the department also fulfill International Perspectives, Visual and Performing Arts, and Exploring Social Differences requirements.

Culture courses taught in English are open to all students and address topics of broad interest to the campus. Examples include: German 151, ESD, The Literary Imagination of the Holocaust; German 154, VPA, IP, Laugh and Cry: Post-World War II German Film, and German 156, VPA, IP, Nazi Cinema. German Department courses are regularly cross-listed with Film Studies and other interdisciplinary programs.