Global Arc

What defines life? And where do we locate the boundary between its proper and improper instances, between the natural and the monstrous? First emerging in the early 19th century, the prospects of artificial life continue to provoke both exhilaration and anxiety today. By examining works of philosophy, literature and film over a historical period ranging from early Romanticism to contemporary nanoculture, this seminar explores humanity's desire to become like the gods, fashioning species, companions, and slaves at will, even as these creations menace us through their intractability and threaten to take on an uncanny life of their own.

Study of literary and non-literary models of style, development of advanced proficiency in expository writing and skill in oral presentation and argumentation, pronunciation work as needed, brief survey of literary styles from the 17th through the 20th centuries.

The course will introduce students to recent theories of second language acquisition (SLA) by way of critical reading and discussion; it will show how SLA theories manifest themselves in various teaching approaches by influencing instructional syllabi and classroom methodology; and it will provide an opportunity for course participants to apply the insights gained to a real pedagogical context. Each student in the class will be paired with a community member for weekly tutoring in ESL, so that the experience of teaching will inform (and be informed by) our discussions of SLA theory.

Why did rugged mountains long regarded as ugly suddenly appear sublime to Romantic observers? What made mountain motifs attractive for nationalist ideologies in German-speaking countries? And what do representations of mountains reveal about changing attitudes toward nature? This course explores German culture's long-standing fascination with mountains in different media, including an eighteenth-century poem that shaped modern attitudes toward the Alps, Romantic narratives that negotiated individual freedom and its limits, landscape painting as a genre that modeled a new outlook on nature, as well as propaganda film and Alpine architecture.

Why did Munich and the Free State of Bavaria become a symbolic locus of the National Socialist movement and, for a time, Adolf Hitler's personal administrative unit? How did fascist aesthetics and the desire to restructure society affect the organization of the city? What forms of resistance arose in an intellectual climate Thomas Mann once ascribed to the reactionary qualities of a "dumb city"? This course examines architecture, society, and intellectual life in the so-called Capital of the Movement through various disciplinary lenses and media, including historical sources, literature, film, and visits to municipal and regional sites.

Seminar will examine the Weimar Republic in Germany through the eyes of the so-called 'new woman,' a voting, contraceptive-using, wage-earner. Much more than a bohemian intellectual, or cabaret-going 'flapper,' the new woman existed in offices, factories, the bedroom, and the kitchen. Focusing on new freedoms (to vote, to work, to make reproductive choices), we will examine their relation to the industrialization and mechanization of post-WWI society both as depicted in fiction (Kästner, Seghers, Keun, Baum, Fleisser) and reported on by journalists of the day (Tergit and others). READINGS AND CLASS DISCUSSION IN GERMAN.

Works central to the tradition of modern European literature, including Goethe's Faust, Byron's Don Juan, Flaubert's Sentimental Education, Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil, and Mann's Doctor Faustus. Each work treats the quest for greatness; each will be examined as to its form and place in the history of ideas. Two 90-minute seminars.

Exploration of German medieval literature. Topics may include medieval German Arthurian literature and the relationship between gender and power in the medieval epics.

Seminar on quintessential German epic, the Nibelungenlied (1200). We will read the modern German translation while visiting sites in and around Munich related to historical background and geography of story. Students examine myth of German hero as epitomized in Siegfried and Hagen (later adopted in nationalist discourses) as well as vilification of heroines Brunhild and Kriemhild. Field trips address medieval notions of learning (manuscripts), space (castle, monastery), and art (objects, paintings, and sculptures in local museums). At conclusion of the course, students consider the transformation of tale in modern re-workings (Wagner, Lang).

The seminar is devoted to a type of tragedy commonly called Schicksalsdrama, somewhat short-lived but highly popular at a crucial turning-point of European history--the Napoleonic wars. In characteristically horrid scenes, they present a world caught between chance and necessity. We will study these highly improbable and lurid plots as a riddle that remained unsolved until Sigmund Freud developed his conception of psychoanalysis at the very end of the 19th century.