Germanic Languages and Literatures

This course explores fascism through an interdisciplinary, trans-historical lens. Beginning with Germany’s Third Reich, we will examine fascism’s history and foundations in social, political, religious, and scientic developments. We will explore various theories—ranging from psychoanalytic to philosophical—which try to explain the rise and spread of fascism. To help conceptualize fascism, we will analyze its complex relationship with race, ideology, and nationalism, and in particular, its deployment of technology, aesthetics, and propaganda. We will apply our own working denition of fascism to the contemporary moment by analyzing current populist, authoritarian movements around the globe. Taught in English. 

Netflix Culture

“Whether you are in Sydney or St. Petersburg, Singapore or Seoul, Santiago or Saskatoon, you now can be part of the internet TV revolution. No more waiting. No more watching on a
schedule that’s not your own. No more frustration. Just Netflix.” (Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, 2016)

The word “Netflix” refers not simply to the American online video store that became a streaming service in the twenty-first century's first decade and an international production company in the
second. It is a synecdoche for the widespread popularization of Internet TV seen in the success of SVODs (subscription video-on-demand services) like Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, and Apple TV+. The course will focus on the pioneering role of the Netflix streaming service and its dominant role in the creation and distribution of popular film and television content. In recent years, the success of internationally acclaimed productions has signaled a renewed interest in global histories and cultures, many of which were produced by Netflix and made available worldwide through its streaming service. The course discusses how processes of distribution and redistribution set in motion by the streaming service call for us to reconsider and reapproach ideas advanced by cultural studies that now seem unsuitable for delineating the full scope of Internet TV’s proliferation. We analyze Netflix series in the global scene and examine how global contents are tied to the emergence of unique genres. How do recent Netflix productions change, modify, or reimagine the narratives of national histories and cultures globally? Has the international online platform and film market more generally changed national images and stereotypes? More specifically, which genre conventions emerge from global politics and these new modes of streaming services? How have the series assimilated to international market conditions and audiences? Has the serial dispositive of television (as opposed to film), as well as the different viewing venues (private space of one’s home) and mode of consumption (binging), changed how global contents are presented?

Each week will focus on a different genre and analyze central episodes from two different series.

Nearly fifty years after the publication of Edward Said’s groundbreaking work Orientalism, the book is as relevant as ever. At the same time, there have been countless attempts to broaden the scope of inquiry to explore constructions of the Middle East and Asia from different cultural, historical, and theoretical perspectives, including feminist and Marxist revisions of Said’s conceptualization as well as important work examining the role of race and religion.

Focusing on the Germanophone context, this seminar traces the interrelationship between Orientalism—the study of the Orient—and the evolution of German scholarship and empire. Without having an imperial presence in the Middle East, Germany quickly developed an authoritative role in the study of many Orientalist fields, prompting several questions. Can Said’s framework be used to describe the experience of non-colonial powers in the Middle East? To what extent was German Orientalism informed by Germany’s colonial experiences—its belated acquisition of overseas colonies and its quasi-colonial relationship with Eastern European states? How does Orientalism reflect Germany’s own nation-building efforts to fabricate a mythic,
ancient past? How did Nazi Orientalism perpetuate and exploit these myths?

With the contemporary resurgence of anti-Semitism and Islamophobia in the Middle East and West, these questions take on renewed importance. Concluding with a discussion of the “migrant crisis” in Europe, this seminar proposes that a historical study of Orientalism can increase sensitivities to the cultural complexities of today’s global environment. Through an interdisciplinary focus on literature, visual arts, and theory, this seminar critically examines the role of scholarship and academia in exploring how humanities can shape and alter such perceptions. Does the study of Orientalism unwittingly contribute to the problem by perpetuating stereotypes and myths while undermining the agency of colonized or non-Western peoples?

Comparative media is an emergent approach intended to draw upon and interrupt canonical ideas in film and media theory. It adopts a comparative approach to media as machines and aesthetic practices by examining contemporary media in relation to the introduction of earlier technologies. The class also extends our focus beyond the U.S. and Europe by examining other cultural locations of media innovation and appropriation. In doing so, it decenters normative assumptions about media and media theory while introducing students to a range of media practices past and present.

Fundamentals of grammar, reading, speaking, and comprehension of the spoken language. During the spring term supplementary reading is selected according to students' needs.

Fundamentals of grammar, reading, speaking, and comprehension of the spoken language. During the spring term supplementary reading is selected according to students' needs.

Prerequisites: DTCH UN1101-UN1102 or the equivalent. Continued practice in the four skills (aural comprehension, reading, speaking, and writing); review and refinement of basic grammar; vocabulary building. Readings in Dutch literature.

Prerequisites: DTCH UN1101-UN1102 or the equivalent. Continued practice in the four skills (aural comprehension, reading, speaking, and writing); review and refinement of basic grammar; vocabulary building. Readings in Dutch literature.

This advanced course is a content-based language course, and is centered around the history of the Low Countries. Each week focuses on a specific era, such as the counts of Holland in the 13th century and the Reformation in the 16th century. Students will read texts about history and literature of the historical periods.

Students will read texts at home and discuss them in class, explore history-related websites and watch short video clips.

Attention will be paid to advanced grammar issues and vocabulary.

Fundamentals of grammar and lexicon. Building proficiency in aural comprehension, reading, speaking, and writing. Linguistic structures in the cultural context.

Prerequisites: No prior German.

German 1101 is a communicative language course for beginners, taught in German, in which students develop the four skills -listening, speaking, reading, and writing- and a basic understanding of German-speaking cultures. Emphasis is placed on acquiring the four language skills within a cultural context. Upon successful completion of the course, students will be able to understand, speak, read, and write German at a level enabling them to communicate with native speakers and provide basic information about their background, family, daily activities, student life, work, and living quarters. Completion of daily assignments, which align with class content, and consistent work are necessary in order to achieve basic communicative proficiency. If you have prior German, the placement exam is required.

Prerequisites: No prior German.

German 1101 is a communicative language course for beginners, taught in German, in which students develop the four skills -listening, speaking, reading, and writing- and a basic understanding of German-speaking cultures. Emphasis is placed on acquiring the four language skills within a cultural context. Upon successful completion of the course, students will be able to understand, speak, read, and write German at a level enabling them to communicate with native speakers and provide basic information about their background, family, daily activities, student life, work, and living quarters. Completion of daily assignments, which align with class content, and consistent work are necessary in order to achieve basic communicative proficiency. If you have prior German, the placement exam is required.

Prerequisites: No prior German.

German 1101 is a communicative language course for beginners, taught in German, in which students develop the four skills -listening, speaking, reading, and writing- and a basic understanding of German-speaking cultures. Emphasis is placed on acquiring the four language skills within a cultural context. Upon successful completion of the course, students will be able to understand, speak, read, and write German at a level enabling them to communicate with native speakers and provide basic information about their background, family, daily activities, student life, work, and living quarters. Completion of daily assignments, which align with class content, and consistent work are necessary in order to achieve basic communicative proficiency. If you have prior German, the placement exam is required.

Prerequisites: No prior German.

German 1101 is a communicative language course for beginners, taught in German, in which students develop the four skills -listening, speaking, reading, and writing- and a basic understanding of German-speaking cultures. Emphasis is placed on acquiring the four language skills within a cultural context. Upon successful completion of the course, students will be able to understand, speak, read, and write German at a level enabling them to communicate with native speakers and provide basic information about their background, family, daily activities, student life, work, and living quarters. Completion of daily assignments, which align with class content, and consistent work are necessary in order to achieve basic communicative proficiency. If you have prior German, the placement exam is required.

Prerequisites: No prior German.

German 1101 is a communicative language course for beginners, taught in German, in which students develop the four skills -listening, speaking, reading, and writing- and a basic understanding of German-speaking cultures. Emphasis is placed on acquiring the four language skills within a cultural context. Upon successful completion of the course, students will be able to understand, speak, read, and write German at a level enabling them to communicate with native speakers and provide basic information about their background, family, daily activities, student life, work, and living quarters. Completion of daily assignments, which align with class content, and consistent work are necessary in order to achieve basic communicative proficiency. If you have prior German, the placement exam is required.

Prerequisites: No prior German.

German 1101 is a communicative language course for beginners, taught in German, in which students develop the four skills -listening, speaking, reading, and writing- and a basic understanding of German-speaking cultures. Emphasis is placed on acquiring the four language skills within a cultural context. Upon successful completion of the course, students will be able to understand, speak, read, and write German at a level enabling them to communicate with native speakers and provide basic information about their background, family, daily activities, student life, work, and living quarters. Completion of daily assignments, which align with class content, and consistent work are necessary in order to achieve basic communicative proficiency. If you have prior German, the placement exam is required.

Prerequisites: GERM UN1101 or the equivalent. If you have prior German outside of Columbia’s language sequence, the placement exam is required. German 1102 is the continuation of Elementary German I (1101). It is a four-skill language course taught in German, in which students continue to develop listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills in German and an understanding of German-speaking cultures. Emphasis is placed on acquiring the four language skills--listening, speaking, reading and writing--within a cultural context. Students expand their communication skills to include travel, storytelling, personal well- being, basic economics, recent historical events, and working with movie segments. Completion of daily assignments, which align with class content, and consistent work are necessary in order to achieve basic communicative proficiency.

Prerequisites: GERM UN1101 or the equivalent. If you have prior German outside of Columbia’s language sequence, the placement exam is required. German 1102 is the continuation of Elementary German I (1101). It is a four-skill language course taught in German, in which students continue to develop listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills in German and an understanding of German-speaking cultures. Emphasis is placed on acquiring the four language skills--listening, speaking, reading and writing--within a cultural context. Students expand their communication skills to include travel, storytelling, personal well- being, basic economics, recent historical events, and working with movie segments. Completion of daily assignments, which align with class content, and consistent work are necessary in order to achieve basic communicative proficiency.

Prerequisites: GERM UN1101 or the equivalent. If you have prior German outside of Columbia’s language sequence, the placement exam is required. German 1102 is the continuation of Elementary German I (1101). It is a four-skill language course taught in German, in which students continue to develop listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills in German and an understanding of German-speaking cultures. Emphasis is placed on acquiring the four language skills--listening, speaking, reading and writing--within a cultural context. Students expand their communication skills to include travel, storytelling, personal well- being, basic economics, recent historical events, and working with movie segments. Completion of daily assignments, which align with class content, and consistent work are necessary in order to achieve basic communicative proficiency.

Prerequisites: GERM UN2101 or the equivalent. If you have prior German outside of Columbia’s language sequence, the placement exam is required.

Intermediate German UN2102 is conducted entirely in German and emphasizes the four basic language skills, cultural awareness, and critical thinking. A wide range of topics (from politics and poetry to art) as well as authentic materials (texts, film, art, etc.) are used to improve the 4 skill. Practice in conversation aims at enlarging the vocabulary necessary for daily communication. Grammar is practiced in the context of the topics. Learning and evaluation are individualized (individual vocabulary lists, essays, oral presentations, final portfolio) and project-based (group work and final group project).

Prerequisites: GERM UN2101 or the equivalent. If you have prior German outside of Columbia’s language sequence, the placement exam is required.

Intermediate German UN2102 is conducted entirely in German and emphasizes the four basic language skills, cultural awareness, and critical thinking. A wide range of topics (from politics and poetry to art) as well as authentic materials (texts, film, art, etc.) are used to improve the 4 skill. Practice in conversation aims at enlarging the vocabulary necessary for daily communication. Grammar is practiced in the context of the topics. Learning and evaluation are individualized (individual vocabulary lists, essays, oral presentations, final portfolio) and project-based (group work and final group project).

Prerequisites: GERM UN2101 or the equivalent. If you have prior German outside of Columbia’s language sequence, the placement exam is required.

Intermediate German UN2102 is conducted entirely in German and emphasizes the four basic language skills, cultural awareness, and critical thinking. A wide range of topics (from politics and poetry to art) as well as authentic materials (texts, film, art, etc.) are used to improve the 4 skill. Practice in conversation aims at enlarging the vocabulary necessary for daily communication. Grammar is practiced in the context of the topics. Learning and evaluation are individualized (individual vocabulary lists, essays, oral presentations, final portfolio) and project-based (group work and final group project).

Prerequisites: GERM UN2101 or the equivalent. If you have prior German outside of Columbia’s language sequence, the placement exam is required.

Intermediate German UN2102 is conducted entirely in German and emphasizes the four basic language skills, cultural awareness, and critical thinking. A wide range of topics (from politics and poetry to art) as well as authentic materials (texts, film, art, etc.) are used to improve the 4 skill. Practice in conversation aims at enlarging the vocabulary necessary for daily communication. Grammar is practiced in the context of the topics. Learning and evaluation are individualized (individual vocabulary lists, essays, oral presentations, final portfolio) and project-based (group work and final group project).

Prerequisites: GERM UN2101 or the equivalent.

Intermediate German UN2102 is conducted entirely in German and emphasizes the four basic language skills, cultural awareness, and critical thinking. A wide range of topics (from politics and poetry to art) as well as authentic materials (texts, film, art, etc.) are used to improve the 4 skill. Practice in conversation aims at enlarging the vocabulary necessary for daily communication. Grammar is practiced in the context of the topics. Learning and evaluation are individualized (individual vocabulary lists, essays, oral presentations, final portfolio) and project-based (group work and final group project).

Prerequisites: GERM UN2101 or the equivalent.

Intermediate German UN2102 is conducted entirely in German and emphasizes the four basic language skills, cultural awareness, and critical thinking. A wide range of topics (from politics and poetry to art) as well as authentic materials (texts, film, art, etc.) are used to improve the 4 skill. Practice in conversation aims at enlarging the vocabulary necessary for daily communication. Grammar is practiced in the context of the topics. Learning and evaluation are individualized (individual vocabulary lists, essays, oral presentations, final portfolio) and project-based (group work and final group project).

An intensive study of key features of German grammar, with an emphasis on skill-building exercises and practical solutions to common problems of writing and speaking on the intermediate level; aims at building confidence in using simple and more complex sentence structures.

An intensive study of key features of German grammar, with an emphasis on skill-building exercises and practical solutions to common problems of writing and speaking on the intermediate level; aims at building confidence in using simple and more complex sentence structures. For an additional point, students will hand in a weekly 150-200 word summary in German in which they highlight what they have learned, explain the rules and applications of the linguistic feature on hand. In the last portion of the summary students will reflect on their learning process during each week to document their progress. Individual meetings with the Professor to clarify and practice student specific grammar issues will be scheduled.

Prerequisite: Completion of 1102 or equivalent. If you have prior German outside of Columbia's language sequence, the placement exam is required.

Desire to speak lots of German! Students in Intermediate Conversation should have completed the equivalent of two semester of college German or placed at the Intermediate level at Columbia. This conversation group is designed for students are either taking Intermediate German I or II and would like additional practice or who take only this class because they wish to maintain their spoken German.

The course is designed to improve your ability to speak and understand and manage German in everyday situations; to provide opportunities to participate in conversational situations on any topics you are interested in; to strengthen and acquire skills to understand German spoken at normal conversational speed; to expand active and passive vocabularies speaking skills; and to maintain a certain level of written German through short written activities. This is a 2-point course and does not count towards the language requirement.

Prerequisites: GERM UN2102. If you have prior German outside of Columbia’s language sequence, the placement exam is required. Note: UN3001 and UN3002 are not sequential.

German UN3001 is an ambitious socio-cultural exploration of Berlin. Designed to follow up the language skills acquired in first- and second-year language courses (or the equivalent thereof), this course gives students greater proficiency in speaking, reading, and writing German while focusing on topics from German society today through various German media, such as internet, film, and literature through the lens of Germany’s capital, Berlin. Topics discussed include: cultural diversity in Berlin's multi-cultural neighborhoods; questioning and reflecting upon Berlin's recent past; developing your own Berlin experience and presenting your interests in various forms, such as presentations, an essay, your CV, an application letter and interview for an internship in Berlin. The course represents a gateway class to literature courses and counts towards the major and concentration in German. Taught in German.

This German-language course for students on the Advanced proficiency level will offer students the opportunity to improve their comprehension of German media language through viewing, reading, writing and digital film production. Course materials will be drawn from German-language periodicals, newspapers, TV newscasts, TV documentaries and features digitally available. Students will hone their media competence by analyzing the material at hand and write, film and edit their own digital newscasts and documentaries in German. Through this process students will acquire the media literacy needed to understand cultural differences in media production and presentation and how to successfully communicate and convey messages in a digital format. Finally, students will familiarize themselves with the technical aspects of filming and will learn how to edit digital material. The cultural aspect of the course will give students greater insight into current issues and discourses in German-speaking countries and in the U.S. In the final project students apply their skills and findings, after conducting research in German and working with German, Austrian and Swiss cultural institutions, newspapers, companies, cultural centers located in New York. At the end of the semester, students will create and write their own German-language documentary film, edit the documentary and present it to the class and other students of German.

Examines accounts of traveling or living in South America, Africa, and Germany from a postcolonial and transnational perspective. Discussion of German explorers, colonialism, global tourism, multiculturalism, focusing on the relationship between mobility and the formation of African, Jewish, Turkish bicultural identities in different historical contexts and geographical settings. Close attention to the role of language, ideology, and itinerary in visual, aural, and written records by A.v.Humboldt, Merian, J. Baker, Massaquoi, Wackwitz, Oezdamar, Akin. [In English]

Prerequisites: GERM UN2102 or the equivalent. Examines short literary texts and various methodological approaches to interpreting such texts in order to establish a basic familiarity with the study of German literature and culture.

Prerequisite OR Corequisite: GERMUN3333

This class will provide an introduction to the rich and varied forms of literary production between 1750 and 1900 by focusing on the culture of Sensibility, the Enlightenment, Storm and Stress, Romanticism, the “Vormärz” and Realism. We will situate major literary innovations of the 18th century in the context of changing reading and theater cultures and focus primarily on Lessing’s innovative domestic tragedy, and on poems and an epistolary novel by Goethe. Then we will discuss the literary production of the 19th century by analyzing changing concepts of art, music and literature during those times of great social and political change. We will study (and translate) poems, and read pamphlets and novellas by Tieck, Kleist, Hölderlin, Novalis, Brentano, Eichendorff, Günderrode, Droste-Hülshoff, Heine, Büchner, Mörike, Keller and Fontane.

**This course is taught entirely in German.

This introduction to German film since 1945 (in its European contexts) deploys a focus on feelings as a lens for multifaceted, intersectional investigations of cinematic history. We will explore how feelings have been gendered and racialized; how they overlap with matters of sex (as closely associated with political revolt in Western Europe, while considered too private for public articulation in the socialist East, especially when queer); and how they foreground matters of nation and trauma (for example via the notions of German ‘coldness’ and inability to mourn the Holocaust). Simultaneously, the focus on feelings highlights questions of mediality (cinema as a prototypically affective medium?), genre and avant-garde aesthetics: in many films, ‘high-affect’ Hollywood cinema intriguingly meets ‘cold’ cinematic modernism. In pursuing these investigative vectors through theoretical readings and close film analysis, the course connects affect, gender, queer, and cultural studies approaches with cinema studies methodologies. The films to be discussed span postwar and New German Cinema, East German DEFA productions, the ‘Berlin School’ of the 2000s, and contemporary transnational cinema.

Proseminar for Graduate Students only.

 

The goal of this course is to introduce students to the Swedish language as it is spoken in Sweden today. The class will also introduce important aspects of contemporary Swedish culture, historical figures and events, and Swedish traditions. Upon the completion of the course, students who have attended class regularly have submitted all assignments and taken all tests and quizzes should be able to: provide basic information in Swedish about themselves, families, interests, food, likes and dislikes, daily activities; understand and participate in a simple conversation on everyday topics (e.g. occupation, school, meeting people, food, shopping, hobbies, etc.); read edited texts on familiar topics, understand the main ideas and identify the underlying themes; pick out important information from a variety of authentic texts (e.g. menus, signs, schedules, websites, as well as linguistically simple literary texts such as songs and rhymes); fill in forms requesting information, write letters, notes, postcards, or messages providing simple information; provide basic information about Sweden and the rest of the Nordic countries (e.g. languages spoken, capitals, etc); use and understand a range of essential vocabulary related to everyday life (e.g. days of the week, colors, numbers, months, seasons, telling time, foods, names of stores, family, common objects, transportation, basic adjectives etc.) pronounce Swedish well enough and produce Swedish with enough grammatical accuracy to be comprehensible to a Swedish speaker with experience in speaking with non-natives. use and understand basic vocabulary related to important aspects of contemporary Swedish culture and Swedish traditions (e.g. Christmas traditions, St. Lucia, etc.). Methodology The class will be taught in a communicative way. It will be conducted primarily, but not exclusively in Swedish. In-class activities and homework assignments will focus on developing speaking, reading, writing, listening skills, and a basic understanding of Swedish culture through interaction. Authentic materials will be used whenever possible.

This course offers an introduction to the language that has been spoken by the Ashkenazi Jews for more than a millennium, and an opportunity to discover a fabulous world of Yiddish literature, language and culture in a fun way. Using games, new media, and music, we will learn how to speak, read, listen and write in a language that is considered one of the richest languages in the world (in some aspects of vocabulary). We will also venture outside the classroom to explore the Yiddish world today: through field trips to Yiddish theater, Yiddish-speaking neighborhoods, Yiddish organizations, such as YIVO or Yiddish farm, and so on. We will also have Yiddish-speaking guests and do a few digital projects. At the end of the two-semester course, you will be able to converse in Yiddish on a variety of everyday topics and read most Yiddish literary and non-literary texts. Welcome to Yiddishland!

Prerequisites: YIDD UN1101-UN1102 or the instructor's permission. This year-long course is a continuation of Elementary Yiddish II. As part of the New Media in Jewish Studies Collaborative, this class will be using new media in order to explore and research the fabulous world of Yiddish literature, language, and culture, and to engage in project-oriented activities that will result in creating lasting multi-media online presentations. In addition to expanding the command of the language that has been spoken by the Ashkenazi Jews for more than a millennium, i.e. focusing on developing speaking, reading, writing and listening skills, and on the acquisition of more advanced grammatical concepts, students will also get some video and film editing training, and tutorials on archival research. The class will continue to read works of Yiddish literature in the original and will venture outside of the classroom to explore the Yiddish world today: through exciting field trips to Yiddish theater, Yiddish-speaking neighborhoods, YIVO, Yiddish Farm, and so on. And we will also have the Yiddish native-speaker guest series. Welcome back to Yiddishland!

Prerequisites: YIDD UN2101-YIDD UN2102 or the instructor's permission. Reading of contemporary authors. Stress on word usage and idiomatic expression, discussion.

The course focuses on developing skills in reading and translating Yiddish texts for academic research. It starts with an accelerated review of Yiddish grammar, accompanied by short texts and grammar and translation exercises, and then continues with reading a variety of more advanced literary and scholarly texts. Some of the material listed on the syllabus may be substituted by texts suggested by the students. The objective of the class is to acquire solid grammar base as well as reading proficiency that goes beyond word-for-word translation, includes skills of making reasonable guessed based on the context, and develops reading strategies. The course is designed primarily for graduate students who need to conduct research in Yiddish but it is open to everyone. No knowledge of Yiddish required but some background is strongly recommended.