printer friendly pageGERMAN 174: The Poem as Medium (GERMAN 374)
Since Marshall McLuhan formulated his theory of "media" as "extensions of ourselves," we've come to understand the history of human communication in terms of its physical carriers, tools, and technologies. From cuneiform, hieroglyphs, and logographic writing systems, to the alphabet, to algorithms; from clay tablets, to papyrus, to LED screens; from scrolls, to books, to the gramophone, to DNA - the medium and the message shape how we store and communicate information. Poetry's place in this history of media has been both elusive and strangely consistent. In media theory, the poem, which Hans Magnus Enzensberger once called an "archaic medium" and Niklas Luhman a "paradoxical form of communication," often serves as an example of the non-ordinary, of opacity, untranslatability, self-mediation, or hypermediacy. We will read (often lesser known) texts by media theorists (McLuhan, Kittler, Flusser, Benjamin, Luhmann, Siegfried J. Schmidt, Hayles) and a selection of pre-media theory texts on the mediality and mediacy of poetry (Lessing, Hegel, Herder Schleiermacher, Hamburger), as well as one poem each week as we explore the relation between medium and message, content and form. Taught in German.
Last offered: Spring 2020
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II
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: Renaissance Florence, Golden Age Madrid, Colonial Mexico City, Enlightenment and Romantic Paris, Existential and Revolutionary St. Petersburg, Roaring Berlin, Modernist Vienna, and bustling Buenos Aires. 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 Primary materials for this course will consist of literary, visual, sociological, and historical documents (in translation); authors we will read include Boccaccio, Dante, Sor Juana, Montesquieu, Baudelaire, Gogol, Irmgard Keun, Freud, and Borges. Note: To be eligible for WAYS credit, you must take the course for a Letter Grade.
Terms: Sum
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
Instructors:
Daub, A. (PI)
;
Surwillo, L. (PI)
;
Plaza Parrochia, J. (TA)
;
Vialle-Giancotti, C. (TA)
GERMAN 181: Philosophy and Literature (CLASSICS 42, COMPLIT 181, ENGLISH 81, FRENCH 181, ILAC 181, ITALIAN 181, PHIL 81, SLAVIC 181)
What, if anything, does reading literature do for our lives? What can literature offer that other forms of writing cannot? Can fictions teach us anything? Can they make people more moral? Why do we take pleasure in tragic stories? This course introduces students to major problems at the intersection of philosophy and literature. It addresses key questions about the value of literature, philosophical puzzles about the nature of fiction and literary language, and ways that philosophy and literature interact. Readings span literature, film, and philosophical theories of art. Authors may include Sophocles, Dickinson, Toni Morrison, Proust, Woolf, Walton, Nietzsche, and Sartre. Students master close reading techniques and philosophical analysis, and write papers combining the two. This is the required gateway course for the Philosophy and Literature major tracks. Majors should register in their home department.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
Instructors:
Landy, J. (PI)
;
Peacocke, A. (PI)
;
D'aguanno, D. (TA)
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Instructors:
Landy, J. (PI)
;
Peacocke, A. (PI)
;
D'aguanno, D. (TA)
;
Friesacher, A. (TA)
;
McDonald, T. (TA)
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?
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
Instructors:
Kramer, K. (PI)
;
Stephen, M. (PI)
GERMAN 188: In Search of the Holy Grail: Percival's Quest in Medieval Literature (COMPLIT 188, COMPLIT 388, GERMAN 388)
This course focuses on one of the most famous inventions of the Middle Ages: the Holy Grail. The grail - a mysterious vessel with supernatural properties - is first mentioned in Chrétien de Troyes' "Perceval," but the story is soon rewritten by authors who alter the meaning of both the grail and the quest. By reading three different versions, we will explore how they respond differently to major topics in medieval culture and relevant to today: romantic love, family ties, education, moral guilt, and spiritual practice. The texts are: Chrétien de Troyes' "Perceval," Wolfram von Eschenbach's "Parzival," and the anonymous "Queste del Saint Graal." All readings will be available in English.
Last offered: Winter 2020
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II
GERMAN 206: Turkish-German Literature, Cinema, and Theater (GERMAN 106)
One in five people in Germany now has, as it is termed, a background of migration. Immigration from Turkey is probably the most prominent not only in terms of its massiveness and demographic consequences, but also for its significant role in changing Germany's overall cultural, social, and economic landscape. In this course, through analyzing selected literary works, films, and plays produced by Turkish-German writers and artists, we will discuss complex ideas like migration, ethnicity, race, religion, gender, and class, resorting not to oversimplifications and binary thinking but instead to relevant literary concepts and formative historical moments which have shaped the Turkish-German experience. Remote synchronous with plenty of opportunities to participate in group and breakout room discussions and creative projects.
Terms: Sum
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II
Instructors:
Deniz, M. (PI)
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.nnTo satisfy a Ways requirement, this course must be taken for at least 3 units. In AY 2020-21, a letter grade or "CR" grade satisfies the Ways requirement.
Last offered: Winter 2019
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
GERMAN 215: The Queer 20th Century: German LGBTQ Literature and Film (FEMGEN 115A, FEMGEN 215A, GERMAN 115)
What was it like to be queer in 20th-century Germany? This course examines the rich and sometimes surprising LGBTQ culture of 20th-century Germany, featuring stories that are often left out of traditional seminars. Through literature and film, we will learn about pioneering gay rights activists, persecution under National Socialism, emancipation movements under capitalism and socialism, and debates that are shaping queer life in contemporary Germany. Taught in English; students of all backgrounds are very welcome. Remote synchronous, with plenty of opportunities for breakout rooms, student discussion, Zoom breaks, and off-screen work.
Terms: Sum
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
Instructors:
Armstrong, J. (PI)
GERMAN 222: Myth and Modernity (COMPLIT 222A, GERMAN 322, JEWISHST 242G, JEWISHST 342)
Masters of German 20th- and 21st-Century literature and philosophy as they present aesthetic innovation and confront the challenges of modern technology, social alienation, manmade catastrophes, and imagine the future. Readings include Nietzsche, Freud, Rilke, Musil, Brecht, Kafka, Doeblin, Benjamin, Juenger, Arendt, Musil, Mann, Adorno, Celan, Grass, Bachmann, Bernhardt, Wolf, and Kluge. Taught in English. Note for German Studies grad students:
GERMAN 322 will fulfill the grad core requirement since
GERMAN 332 is not being offered this year. NOTE: Enrollment requires Professor Eshel's consent. Please contact him directly at eshel@stanford.edu and answer these 2 questions: "Why do you want to take this course?" and "What do you think you can add to the discussion?" Applications will be considered in the order in which they were received. Enrollment is limited to 20 students.
Last offered: Spring 2020
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II
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.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
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