printer friendly pageFRENCH 256: French Kiss: The History of Love and the French Novel (FRENCH 159, HISTORY 236F)
The history of the French novel is also the history of love. How did individuals experience love throughout history? How do novels reflect this evolution of love through the ages? And, most significantly, how have French novels shaped our own understanding of and expectations for romantic love today? The course will explore many forms of love from the Ancien R¿gime to the 20th century. Sentiment and seduction, passion and desire, the conflict between love and society: students will examine these themes from a historical perspective, in tandem with the evolution of the genre of the novel (the novella, the sentimental novel, the epistolary novel, the 19th-century novel, and the autobiographical novel). Some texts will be paired with contemporary films to probe the enduring relevance of love "¿ la fran¿aise" in the media today. Readings include texts by Lafayette, Pr¿vost, Laclos, Dumas fils, Flaubert, Colette, Yourcenar, and Duras. This is an introductory course to French Studies, with a focus on cultural history, literary history, interpretation of narrative, thematic analysis, and close reading. Undergraduate students should enroll for
FRENCH159, while graduate students may enroll for
FRENCH256. Readings and discussion in English.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
Instructors:
Edmondson, C. (PI)
GERMAN 109: The End of Europe (as we know it) - Germany and the Future of the European Union
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. The 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.
Last offered: Autumn 2016
| UG Reqs: WAY-SI
GERMAN 120: Contemporary Politics in Germany
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.
Last offered: Spring 2020
| UG Reqs: GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
GERMAN 132: Politics in 20th Century German Literature
Is there a difference between art and propaganda? How do writers express their political values? Who gets to decide what counts as literature? Or who counts as German? This introductory course will focus on these questions and more as we discuss works of prose, poetry, theater, and film from the German-speaking world in the context of 20th century political developments, including the World Wars and the Holocaust, the Cold War and German Reunification, and the rise of multiculturalism. Course materials in the original German include selections from Franz Kafka, Bertolt Brecht, Ingeborg Bachmann, May Ayim, and others. Taught in German.
GERLANG 3 or equivalent required.
Last offered: Winter 2023
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
GERMAN 175: CAPITALS: How Cities Shape Cultures, States, and People (COMPLIT 100, DLCL 100, FRENCH 175, HISTORY 206E, ILAC 175, ITALIAN 175, URBANST 153)
This course takes students on a trip to major capital cities at different moments in time, including Renaissance Florence, Golden Age Madrid, colonial Mexico City, imperial Beijing, Enlightenment and romantic Paris, existential and revolutionary St. Petersburg, roaring Berlin, modernist Vienna, and transnational Accra. 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).
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
GERMAN 185: Understanding International Politics Today: From the German Philosophers to Modern Social Science
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?
Last offered: Spring 2021
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
GERMAN 213: Medieval Germany, 900-1250 (GERMAN 313, HISTORY 213F, HISTORY 313F)
(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. This course must be taken for a minimum of 3 units and a letter grade to be eligible for Ways credit
Terms: Spr
| Units: 1-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
Instructors:
Kamenzin, M. (PI)
GERMAN 253: Hannah Arendt: Facing Totalitarianism (COMPLIT 353B, GERMAN 353, JEWISHST 243A)
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
The Origin of Totalitarianism,
The Human Condition, Between Past and Future,
Men in Dark Times,
On Revolution,
Eichmann in Jerusalem, and
The Life of the Mind, 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.
Last offered: Autumn 2020
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
GERMAN 275: Outer Space Exploration in Germany in the Twentieth Century (HISTORY 237G)
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.
Last offered: Autumn 2017
| UG Reqs: WAY-SI
GERMAN 287: Hope in the Modern Age (COMPLIT 287, JEWISHST 287)
Immanuel Kant famously considered "What may I hope?" to be the third and final question of philosophy. This course considers the thinkers, from Immanuel Kant to Judith Butler, who have attempted to answer this question from within the context of modernity. Has revolution replaced religion as the object of our hope? Has Enlightenment lived up to its promises? These topics and more will be discussed, with readings from thinkers including Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche, Benjamin, Adorno, and Arendt, alongside the literature of writers such as Kafka, Celan, Nelly Sachs, among others, and with particular focus on the question of hope within the German-Jewish tradition.
Last offered: Autumn 2021
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
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