printer friendly pageGERMAN 111: The End of the Western World (as we know it): German Responses to Global Challenges
Germany defines its foreign policy being based on two pillars: being a part of an integrated Europe and belonging to the Western World. For decades, America and Europe have remained closely connected politically, economically, and culturally. This close working relationship, however, now risks coming to an end, or getting substantially weakened. When asked to identify his "biggest foe globally right now," President Trump put the European Union on the list, along with China and Russia. Not only deeds but already words have far reaching consequences for Germany in a number of respects. The course addresses the question whether "The Western World" is coming to an end and discusses root causes and possible implications. As the course unfolds, we will cover a number of timely topics, including the future of NATO and why multilateralism matters, how an open society can survive the rising tide of populism, how migration is changing demographics and politics on both sides of the Atlantic, and the prospects for finding political solutions to climate change. We will even address German and European approaches to dealing with digitization and the protection of private data. The course will be discussion based, and include a number of illuminating studies; our goal is to increase students' understanding of the major challenges facing the decades-old American-European alliance and how Germany is dealing with them. Students will need no prior knowledge of Germany and the European Union. Knowledge of the American perspective is welcome but not required.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-5
Instructors:
Bruckner, U. (PI)
GERMAN 116: Writing About Germany: New Topics, New Genres
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.
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr
| Units: 3-5
Instructors:
Starkey, K. (PI)
GERMAN 120B: Fairy Tales
In this course, we will explore the fairy tale genre both from a systematic and historical perspective. We will start by asking how fairy tales differ from other short prose texts like legends and fables. We will then focus on bigger themes allowing us to discern differences within this literary form, namely: the fantastic and the real, motif constancy and variation, narration and orality, animality and the human. Over the course of the seminar, we will not only delve into the world-famous folk tale collection of the Grimm brothers, but also the more stylized Romantic `Kunstmärchen¿ tradition (Goethe, Brentano, Hoffmann). Examples from the later 19th-century (Keller, Storm) and the 20th century (Hofmannsthal, Kafka, Döblin, Bachmann) demonstrate attempts to reformulate the fairy tale tradition by transgressing its boundaries. Taught in German. Prerequisite: GERLANG3 or permission of instructor.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-5
Instructors:
Forke, R. (PI)
GERMAN 133: Marx, Nietzsche, Freud
We read and discuss selections from works by the key master thinkers who have exerted a lasting influence by debunking long-cherished beliefs. Do these authors uphold or repudiate Enlightenment notions of rationality, autonomy and progress? How do they assess the achievements of civilization? How do their works illuminate the workings of power in social and political contexts? Readings and discussion in German.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II
Instructors:
Bruckner, U. (PI)
GERMAN 141: The Magic Mountain: Your Travel Guide to a Great Novel
In this course, students will read their way through one of the great German novels, Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain (Der Zauberberg, 1924) an epic stock-taking of European thought and sensibility between the world wars. Students will meet and discuss the novel weekly, each time under the guidance of a different tour guide Stanford faculty, superfans and professors from other institutions. No final paper, no readings other than the novel required. All readings in German (though an English translation will be made available), class discussion in English.
Terms: Win
| Units: 1-3
Instructors:
Goodling, E. (PI)
GERMAN 155: Global Black Feminism (AFRICAAM 155J, CSRE 155J, FEMGEN 155J)
Students will examine the long history of Black feminists in a variety of international spaces (including Europe, Asia, the Caribbean, and the U.S). Students will see how these international spaces have informed the ideology of many Black feminists. In particular, students will read from Miss Mary Seacole, Mary Church Terrell, Audre Lorde, May Ayim, Angela Davis, and many more.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-5
Instructors:
Watkins, J. (PI)
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: Win
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
Instructors:
Daub, A. (PI)
;
Edelstein, D. (PI)
;
Capra, A. (TA)
...
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Instructors:
Daub, A. (PI)
;
Edelstein, D. (PI)
;
Capra, A. (TA)
;
Hoff, C. (TA)
;
Vialle-Giancotti, C. (TA)
GERMAN 199: Individual Work
Repeatable for Credit. Instructor Consent Required
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr, Sum
| Units: 1-12
| Repeatable
for credit
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.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-5
GERMAN 231: German Literature (1700-1900) (GERMAN 331)
How the literature of the period between 1750 and 1900 gives voice to new conceptions of selfhood and articulates the emergent self understanding of modernity. Responses to unprecedented historical experiences such as the French Revolution and the ensuing wars, changes in the understanding of nature, the crisis of foundations, and the persistence of theological motifs. Lessing, Herder, Goethe, Schiller, Holderlin, Kleist, Heine, Buchner, Keller, and Fontane. Taught in English, readings in German.
Terms: Win
| Units: 1-5
| Repeatable
for credit
Instructors:
Berman, R. (PI)
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