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GERMAN 137: Green Germany

Since the unification of modern Germany in 1871, the history of German environmental movements has been beset with political, cultural, and racial tension. Some of the earliest environmental activists, such as the composer and conservationist Ernst Rudorff, explicitly conceived of conservation as Heimatschutz; or, protection of the homeland. While Rudorff opposed jews and women from participating in the founding of his Heimatschutz organization, the creator of the modern Umwelt concept, the theoretical biologist Jakob von Uexkill, became an early supporter of the Nazi regime. How do we interrogate this disturbing alliance between racial purity, environmental protection, and nation? What does the history of concepts such as Uexkill's Umwelt or Alexander von Humboldt's natural monument, or Naturdenkmal, have to teach policymakers and intellectuals today in the face of environmental crisis? How does does the relationship between race and environment inform current issues about conservation and energy policy in the present? Taught in English with some readings in German.
Terms: Aut | Units: 3-5 | UG Reqs: WAY-A-II
Instructors: Norton, B. (PI)

GERMAN 141A: Mephisto: Your Travel Guide to a Great Novel

In this course, students will read their way through one of the most disputed German novels in the postwar Federal Republic, Klaus Mann's "Mephisto" (1936 published in exile in Amsterdam) a satirical novel about opportunism and the German theater scene during the NS-Regime. Students will meet and discuss the novel weekly, each time under the guidance of a different tour guide Stanford faculty 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. NOTE: This course must be taken for a minimum of 3 units and a letter grade to be eligible for Ways credit.
Last offered: Winter 2020 | UG Reqs: WAY-A-II

GERMAN 149: Babylon Berlin

Berlin, 1929. A police inspector and his unlikely partner, a typist and aspiring homicide detective, turn up the case of a lifetime: a far-reaching political conspiracy in the capital of a democracy on the edge. Part noir detective thriller, part historical drama, the blockbuster German television series Babylon Berlin (2017) will serve as our springboard to understand the culture, politics, and society of the Weimar Republic (1918,1933), a fifteen-year experiment in democracy that preceded the rise of the Third Reich. From corruption and criminality to sociopolitical upheaval and a remarkable arts scene: Berlin of the Roaring Twenties, a study in contrasts and conflicts, had it all. Does the Netflix hit harbor, almost eerie parallels to the present, as one German newspaper recently suggested? Weekly viewings of the complete seasons one and two will be accompanied by close study of the era's literature, cinema, and visual arts. Readings will include texts by Alfred Döblin, Hans Fallada, Erich Kästner, Mascha Kaléko, Irmgard Keun, Siegfried Kracauer, Gabriele Tergit, and Kurt Tucholsky. Throughout the term we will also pay careful attention to the media-theoretical implications of the series: What is 'quality TV?' How does seriality influence storytelling and viewing? In what ways does Babylon Berlin reflect on film as a medium? What role do montage and collage play? Assessment will be based on active class participation; a series of short viewing and reading reflections; a midterm scene analysis assignment; and a final research project that will delve into specific historical intertexts (figures, sites, objects) taken up in Babylon Berlin.
Last offered: Autumn 2022 | UG Reqs: WAY-A-II

GERMAN 153: Marx: Politics and Culture (GERMAN 335)

Few thinkers can lay claim to the level of sustained impact Karl Marx has achieved. From eco-socialist movements to contemporary investigations of digital capitalism, Marx's grip on the political and cultural imagination has only been further solidified in recent years. While seeking to come to terms with such relevance, this course turns first and foremost to the writings of Marx himself in order to gain insight into how he responded to the pressing issues of his own day. How does Marx deal with topics related to identity and nation in "On the Jewish Question," for example? How does Marx theorize new forms of value creation enabled by automation in the "Fragment on Machines"? In order to properly appreciate Marx's contemporary relevance, this course seeks to suggest, we must first understand his writings as a product of their own time and place. Readings will be available in both German and English.
Last offered: Spring 2023 | UG Reqs: WAY-A-II

GERMAN 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, 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 181: Philosophy and Literature (CLASSICS 42, COMPLIT 181, ENGLISH 81, FRENCH 181, ILAC 181, ITALIAN 181, PHIL 81, SLAVIC 181)

Can novels make us better people? Can movies challenge our assumptions? Can poems help us become who we are? We'll think about these and other questions with the help of writers like Toni Morrison, Marcel Proust, Jordan Peele, Charlie Kaufman, Rachel Cusk, William Shakespeare, and Samuel Beckett, plus thinkers like Nehamas, Nietzsche, Nussbaum, Plato, and Sartre. We'll also ask whether a disenchanted world can be re-enchanted; when, if ever, the truth stops being the most important thing; why we sometimes choose to read sad stories; whether we ever love someone for who they are; who could possibly want to live their same life over and over again; what it takes to make ourselves fully moral; whether it's ever good to be conflicted; how we can pull ourselves together; and how we can take ourselves apart. (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

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 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. Taught in English and German.
Terms: Spr | Units: 3-5 | UG Reqs: WAY-A-II
Instructors: Deniz, M. (PI)
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