1 - 10 of 17 results for: GERMAN

We consider various mythic and religious conceptions of the human from antiquity to Renaissance humanism, key documents of modern secular humanism, and literary works that raise probing questions about humanity. What is peculiar to humans against the foil of animal life forms? Is there a human nature at all, or perhaps a human calling, that might transcend differences among people? Contemporary debates about the limits of the human species, the aspiration to overcome such limits through science, and ecological challenges to traditional views of humans' place in the world.

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.

Introduction to lyric poetry in German from the 18th century to the present. Readings include poems by Goethe, Holderlin, Brentano, Eichendorff, Heine, Rilke, Trakl, Celan, Brecht. Ways of thinking about and thinking with poetry. Focus on poetic form, voice, figural language, and the interaction of sensory registers. Taught in German, with attention to discussion and writing skills. Prerequisite: Gerlang 1-3 or equivalent.

This course covers material from the fairy tales of German romanticism, expressionist poetry and painting, literary responses to Nazi Germany and reflections on a unified Germany. Exploring the shifting relationships between cultural aesthetics, entertainment, historical context, and "what is German", we will cover roughly 250 years of literary and artistic production, social and political upheavals, as well as the lives of numerous authors, both male and female. Taught in German. Prerequisite: One year of German language at Stanford or equivalent.

Even before Novalis claimed that the world must be romanticized, thinkers, writers, and artists wanted to perceive the human and natural world poetically. The pre- and post-romantic poetic modes of thinking they created are the subject of this course. Readings include Ecclestias, Zhaozhou Congshen, Montaigne, Nietzsche, Kafka, Benjamin, Arendt, and Sontag. This course will also present poetic thinking in the visual arts--from the expressionism of Ingmar Bergman to the neo-romanticism of Gerhard Richter.

Required gateway course for Philosophical and Literary Thought; crosslisted in departments sponsoring the Philosophy and Literature track. Majors should register in their home department; non-majors may register in any sponsoring department. Introduction to major problems at the intersection of philosophy and literature, with particular focus on the question of value: what, if anything, does engagement with literary works do for our lives? Issues include aesthetic self-fashioning, the paradox of tragedy, the paradox of caring, the truth-value of fiction, metaphor, authorship, irony, make-believe, expression, edification, clarification, and training. Readings are drawn from literature and film, philosophical theories of art, and stylistically interesting works of philosophy. Authors may include Sophocles, Chaucer, Dickinson, Proust, Woolf, Borges, Beckett, Kundera, Charlie Kaufman; Barthes, Foucault, Nussbaum, Walton, Nehamas; Plato, Montaigne, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, and Sartre. Taught in English.

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.

Repeatable for Credit. Instructor Consent Required