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Instructor: Dr. Andreas Lixl, Professor of
German, and Head of the Department of German, Russian, and Japanese Studies (http://www.uncg.edu/gar/) at The
University of North Carolina at Greensboro (http://www.uncg.edu/),
Greensboro, North Carolina, USA.
Contact Information: Office E-mail:
Andreas_Lixl@uncg.edu. Phone:
(336) 256-1155, Fax: (336) 334-5885. Address:
Andreas Lixl
337 McIver Building
Dept. of German & Russian, UNCG
P. O. Box 26170
Greensboro, NC 27402, USA
Office Hours: At posted
times, I will be available online to answer questions, provide guidance,
discuss concerns and issues arising from this course. Campus students may
schedule a visit during office hours in 337 McIver Bldg. UNCG.
Course
Description
GER
216 is a three-credit German Civilization course taught in English. The
course carries Global Perspectives (GL) markers under the General Education
Core (GEC) program. GER 216 focuses on German cultural history from the late
Middle Ages and the Reformation to the post-unification era of the 21st
century. While emphasizing the broad development of German civilization since
1500, the curriculum includes excursions into popular culture, literature,
social history, art, music, modern media and technology. The guiding
pedagogical principles behind the course aim at intertwining German
intellectual history and culture studies on the basis of discussion,
conversation, and composition activities, including book and film reviews,
and biographical and Internet exhibits. The methodology of the course
involves a chronological and historical framework, and aims at developing
critical thinking, reading, and interpretation strategies. Based on thought
provoking texts and visuals, the course offers a diverse view of German life
and letters based on reading selections from literary works, memoirs,
newspaper reports, commentaries, and interdisciplinary materials which
highlight the most important cultural movements.
Syllabus at
a Glance
Faust
Legend, Reformation, Baroque, Storms and Stress, Romanticism, Bismarck's
Germany, Modernist Culture, Expressionism, Weimar Culture, Nazi Culture, Cold
War Culture, German Unification, Popular Culture Today
Curriculum: In order to advance cultural interpretation and
comprehension skills, the course's curriculum integrates cultural
interpretations with historical and critical inquiries. The course starts
with a look at the Faust legend, followed by Luther's Reformation, and
proceeds with an exploration of the periods, trends, and movements of the
Baroque era, German Classicism, Romanticism, the formation of the German
Empire in 1871, followed by the demise of the monarchy in 1918, the rise and
fall of the Weimar Republiv 1918-1933, Nazi Germany, the post-war years, and
German unification in 1990 and beyond. The table below outlines the various
units and homework assignments for each of the 16 course sessions.
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Session
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Topic
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Assignments
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Session 1
Aug 21
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The Late Middle Ages, Humanism, and
the Faust Legend in Germany
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Read the first half
(from the beginning through Scene 10, Neighbor's House) of Johann Wolfgang
von Goethe's tragedy Faust, Part I.
Candace Ward (Editor), Anna Swanwick (Translator) / Paperback 138 pages. ISBN:
0486280462.
An online text version
is available at http://www.kenyon.edu/depts/iphs/faust/faustidx.html
An online Study Guide to Goethe's
FAUST is available at
http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~brians/hum_303/faust.html
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Session 2
Aug 28
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From Luther's Reformation to The
Thirty Years' War
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Read the second half (from the scene "A
Street" to the end of Part I) of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's tragedy Faust, Part I.
Candace Ward (Editor), Anna Swanwick (Translator) / Paperback 138 pages. ISBN:
0486280462.
An online text version
is available at http://www.kenyon.edu/depts/iphs/faust/faustidx.html
An online Study Guide to Goethe's
FAUST is available at
http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~brians/hum_303/faust.html
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Session 3
Sep 4
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The Baroque
Era and The Age of Enlightenment
1600s-1750
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Read Mother Courage and Her Children by
Bertolt Brecht. 154 pages (February 1994) Arcade Publishing; ISBN:
1559702346]
A Classic Note Short Plot Summary of Mother Courage
and Her Children is available at http://www.classicnote.com/ClassicNotes/Titles/mothercourage/shortsumm.html
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Session 4
Sep 11
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From Enlightenment to Storm and
Stress: Political and Cultural Crossroads 1750-1790
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Read the first half
of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's novel The Sorrows of Young Werther.
An online text version is available at: http://jollyroger.nbci.com/xlibrary/TheSorrowsofGJ/TheSorrowsofGJ1.html
An online synopsis of
Jules Massenet's Opera Werther, which is based on Goethe's novel, is
available at http://www.laopera.org/98-99/werthersynopsis.htm
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Session 5
Sep 18
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The Culture of Classicism
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Read
the second half of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's novel The
Sorrows of Young Werther.
An online text version is available at: http://jollyroger.nbci.com/xlibrary/TheSorrowsofGJ/TheSorrowsofGJ1.html
An online synopsis of
Jules Massenet's Opera Werther, which is based on Goethe's novel, is
available at http://www.laopera.org/98-99/werthersynopsis.htm
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Session 6
Sep 25
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Romanticism
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Read
the "Introduction" and the tales "Don
Giovanni" by E.T.A. Hoffmann and "The Earthquake in Chili"
by Heinrich von Kleist in the book
Six German Romantic Tales. Heinrich
von Kleist, Ludwig Tieck, ETA Hoffmann. Paperback. ISBN 0-8023-1295-0.
An online German text version
of Hoffmann's text is available at
http://gutenberg.aol.de/etahoff/donjuan/donjuan.htm
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Session 7
Oct 2
[fall break]
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Romanticism, Realism, and the
Revolution of 1848
Exam I
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Read the tales "Eckbert
the Fair", "The Runenberg" by Ludwig Tieck, and "The
Jesuit Chapel in G." by E.T.A. Hoffmann in the book Six German Romantic Tales. Heinrich
von Kleist, Ludwig Tieck, ETA Hoffmann. Paperback. ISBN 0-8023-1295-0.
An online English version of Tieck's "Eckbert the
Fair" tale is available at
http://www.vcu.edu/hasweb/for/tieck/eckbert_e.html.
The German text for "The Jesuit Chapel in G." can be found at
Projekt Gutenberg at http://gutenberg.aol.de/.
Preparation for Course Exam One. Study
the following items, topics and questions to prepare for the one-hour,
in-class exam. Please, bring your own blue books to class.
(1)
Know how to identify and describe the historical epochs and cultural
movements since 1500 (Reformation, Baroque, Storms and Stress, Classicism,
Romanticism)
(2)
Prepare to describe your reader responses to the assigned texts for the
course (Faust I, Mother Courage, Sorrows of Young Werther, and Romantic
Tales). Explain what concepts, notions, and topics in the readings you
found challenging, appealing and/or disconcerting.
(3)
Prepare your thoughts for a 300-word essay. Which of the cultural periods
we studied so far (Reformation, Baroque, Storms and Stress, Classicism,
Romanticism) did you find most interesting? Why?
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Session 8
Oct 16
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Bismarck and the German Empire
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Read
the poems from page 53 (To George Sand) to page 79 (Future Generations) in The Defiant Muse: German Feminist Poems from the
Middle Ages to the Present. Susan
L. Cocalis (ed.). The Feminist Press: New York, 1986. ISBN:
0935312536
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Session 9
Oct 23
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German Modernism
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Reading
to be announced from The Defiant Muse: German Feminist Poems from the
Middle Ages to the Present. Susan
L. Cocalis (ed.). The Feminist Press: New York, 1986. ISBN:
0935312536
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Session 10
Oct 30
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Weimar Republic
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Read
"Right and Left" in Right and Left and the Legend of the Holy Drinker
Joseph Roth,Michael Hofmann (Translator)/Paperback
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Session 11
Nov 6
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Nazi Germany and Exile
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Read
Hand-out from Women of Exile by Andreas Lixl
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Session 12
Nov 13
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Nazi Germany and the Holocaust
Exam II
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Read Night
by Elie Wiesel.
Preparation for Course Exam One. Study the following items,
topics and questions to prepare for the one-hour, in-class exam. Please,
bring your own blue books to class
(1)
Know how to identify and describe the historical epochs and cultural
movements of Bismarck's Germany, Modernism, Weimar Germany, and
Nazi-Germany.
(2)
Prepare to describe your reader responses to the assigned texts for the
course (The Holy Drinker by Joseph Roth Roth, The Defiant Muse: German Feminist Poems from the
Middle Ages to the Present, and Night by
Elie Wiesel). Explain what concepts, notions, and topics in the readings
you found challenging, appealing and/or disconcerting
(3)
Prepare your thoughts for a 300-word essay on one of the following topics:
(a) Lessons of the German Holocaust; (b) Lessons of the German Women's
Movement; and (c) your own topic involving German civilization issues
1850-1945.
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Session 13
Nov 20
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Post-war Era and Cold-War Divisions
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Read
the hand-out "Coming to
Terms with the Past" in Understanding Contemporary Germany
by Stuart Parks
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Session 14
Nov 27
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From the Roaring Sixties to
Unification
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Read
"Divided Germany" in Understanding Contemporary Germany
by Stuart Parks
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Session 15
Dec 4
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Post-unification German Civilizatioln
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Read
the hand-out "The Intellectual Climate since Unification in Understanding
Contemporary Germany by Stuart Parks
Prepare
(a) a written outline and (b) an short oral presentation about the contents
of your Final Paper
Start
writing Final Paper due on Dec.18
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Session 16
Dec 18
6:00 PM deadline
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Final
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Turn in
Final Paper: 4-5 page review of GER 216 text, or extra-curricular
cultural history book, or GER 216 video (Nibelungen, unification, Pandoras
Box, Marquise of O, Luther, Bach, Mozart Biography, Friedrich, Mephisto,
Berlin Airlift, East German Women, Triumph of the Will, Night and Fog,
etc.).
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Course Objectives: Various
essays, presentations, readings and reporting assignments dealing with German
civilization topics will provide class members with opportunities to expand
their global perspectives and cultural interpretation skills. Part of the
assignments will involve the use of the Internet, e-mail, and other
electronic learning and research tools which utilize foreign language
resources available on the global web. Upon completion of the course,
students will ...
Ø Have a
basic understanding of the history of German civilization in terms of major
periods and movements (including social, artistic, and political
developments, and philosophical traditions) and a basic grasp of critical
methods for interpreting these fields.
Ø Understand
the relationship of culture to social history and intellectual life in the
German-speaking countries.
Ø Have the ability
to research, organize, and present effective oral presentations on topics in
literary and cultural studies.
Ø Have the
ability to research, organize, and develop (in English) coherent critical
writings on topics in cultural studies.
Ø Have the
ability to use the computer as a research and writing tool and to use the
library as well as the Internet as a source of knowledge about other
cultures.
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