Faculty Information

Current / Recent Courses

GER 666, Fall 2006: Politics/Poetics: Dramas Of Revolution

Close analyses of dramas of revolution from the 19th and 20th centuries will lead to discussions about different concepts of history. We will investigate how the poetic constructs of historical events are based on processes of their deconstruction. The dramas to be discussed explore the tension between word and action, and gender relations as a basis for historical processes. Readings include texts by: J.L. Austin, Karl Marx, Friedrich Schiller, Georg Buechner, Bertolt Brecht, Peter Weiss, Heiner Mueller, Walter Benjamin, Emmanuel Lévinas, Peter Schneider. Readings in German, discussions in English or German. Short presentations and a research paper will be required.

GER 607, Spring 2003: Weimar Modernisms

The Weimar period has been described as a "laboratory of modernity." This course will examine the innovative and controversial facets of Weimar culture. We will ask how dramas, films, poetry, novels, theoretical manifestos and the visual arts address the controversial issues of technology, life in mass society, and the desire for a new aesthetics. Texts and films include Brecht's and Pabst's a "Dreigroschenoper," Toller's "Masse Mensch," Kaiser's "Gas," Lang's "Metropolis," Doeblin's "Alexanderplatz" and Mann's "Mario der Zauberer." In-class presentations and final research paper or take-home exam are required.

GER 460, Winter 2001: POETIC ENCOUNTERS: CONSTRUCTS OF GENDER IN TEXTS OF THE EARLY 20^th CENTURY

Discussions of various thematizations of gender concerning love by representative authors of the modernist movement in Europe’s cultural centers Vienna and Berlin. We will initially study recent feminist criticism (Hélène Cixous, Luce Irigaray, Julia Kristeva). Then we focus on the diverse perspectives towards gender issues in poetic dialogues between various authors, as for example between Rainer Maria Rilke/Lou Andreas-Salome/Ellen Key, Gottfried Benn/Else Lasker-Schüler, Else Lasker-Schüler/Peter Hille, Bertolt Brecht.Margarethe Steffin. Furthermore attention is given to the controversies between Walter Benjamin and the German Youth Movement. Finally, we will consider to what extent theoretical paradigms of the feminist movement at the end of the 20^th century can be traced in and perhaps modified by gender debates of the early 20^th century.