Courses of Study:
See German Language and Literature
See Russian Language and Literature

Department website: http://www.brandeis.edu/departments/germanic_slavic_lang/

Faculty

Stephen Dowden, Chair
German modernism. Romanticism. The Novel: Kafka, Bernhard, Thomas Mann, Broch, Musil, Goethe. Austrian literature.

Joan Chevalier, Language Coordinator (Russian)
Foreign language pedagogy. Second language acquisition. Slavic linguistics. Sociolinguistics.

Christine Geffers Browne, Language Coordinator (German)
Second language acquisition. German realism. Christianity and literature. German-Jewish identity.

Robin Feuer Miller, Undergraduate Advising Head, Russian
Dostoevsky and Tolstoy. Nineteenth-century Russian literature and comparative literature. The novel. Reader-response criticism.

Andrew Swensen
Nineteenth- and 20th-century Russian literature. Russian and comparative Romanticism. Russian and comparative literature of the fantastic.

Sabine von Mering, Undergraduate Advising Head, German
Eighteenth- and 19th-century German literature. German women writers. Feminist theory. Language pedagogy. Drama.

Courses of Study:
Minor
Major (B.A.)

Germanic and Slavic Languages Department website: http://www.brandeis.edu/departments/germanic_slavic_lang/

The German section of the Department of Germanic and Slavic Languages offers instruction in the German language and literature aimed at providing access to many aspects of the culture, past and present, of Germany, Austria, and parts of Switzerland. German has always been one of the prime languages of international scholarship, and the reunification of Germany in 1990 has drawn renewed attention to the European and worldwide importance of that country. German majors have gone on to graduate school in German literature to prepare for a career of teaching and research or to professional schools in law, medicine, or business, entered government work, or found employment with publishing companies or business firms with international connections.

How to Become a Major

The department welcomes all students to become majors in German language and literature. Non-majors and majors are offered computer-aided instruction in German, and work in the classroom and the Language Media Center is supplemented with regular German-speaking events. Majors in German literature are encouraged to spend their junior year in Germany or any other German-speaking countries. In addition to the major in German literature, the section offers a minor in German literature and participates in the program in European Cultural Studies. (The abbreviation GECS denotes German and European Cultural Studies courses.)

Requirements for the Major (German)

A. ECS 100a (European Cultural Studies: The Proseminar) to be completed no later than the junior year.

B. Advanced language and literature study: Required are: GER 103a and 104a, plus any six German literature/culture courses above GER 104a, at least two of which must be conducted in German.

C. Majors wishing to graduate with departmental honors must enroll in and complete GER 99d (Senior Thesis), a full-year course. Before enrolling students should consult with the coordinator. Candidates for departmental honors must have a 3.50 GPA in German courses previous to the senior year. Honors are awarded on the basis of cumulative excellence in all courses taken in the major and the grade on the honors thesis. One semester of the Senior Thesis may be counted towards the six required upper-level courses.

A major in German may obtain the Massachusetts teaching certificate at the high school level by additionally completing requirements of the Education Program (q.v.). Interested students should meet with the program director.

Requirements for the Minor in German Literature

GER 103a or 104a is required, plus three German literature/culture courses above GER 104a. Successful completion of GER 30a, GER 39a, GER 50b, or a departmental language exemption exam is a prerequisite for the minor.

Courses of Instruction

(1-99) Primarily for Undergraduate Students

GER 10a Beginning German
Enrollment limited to 18.
Intended for students with little or no previous knowledge of German. Emphasis is placed on comprehending, reading, writing, and conversing in German and the presentation or basic grammar. Class work is enhanced by various interactive classroom activities and is supplemented by extensive language lab, video, and computer-aided exercises. Usually offered every year in the fall.
Ms. Geffers Browne

GER 20b Continuing German
Prerequisite: GER 10a or the equivalent. Enrollment limited to 18.
Continuation of comprehending, reading, writing, and conversing in German, with an emphasis on basic grammar concepts. Special attention is paid to the development of speaking skills in the context of cultural topics of the German speaking countries. Extensive language lab, video, and computer-aided exercises are supplementing this course. Usually offered every year in the spring.
Ms. Geffers Browne

GER 30a Intermediate German I
[ fl ]
Prerequisite: GER 20b or the equivalent. Enrollment limited to 18.
In concluding the development of the four language speaking skills: comprehending, writing, reading, and speaking, this course focuses on finishing up the solid grammar foundation that was laid in GER 10 and GER 20 as well as endeavoring in additional audio and video material, films, radio plays, newspaper and magazine articles as well as in a variety of extensive interactive classroom activities. Usually offered every year in the fall.
Ms. Geffers Browne

GER 50b Advanced German
[ hum ]
Prerequisite: GER 30a, GER 39a, or the equivalent. Enrollment limited to 18.
Continued enhancement of the various language skills through reading, writing, class discussions, and group activities. Significant expansion of vocabulary and focus on sensitive grammar points. Individual presentations in the field of students' choice. Usually offered every year. Last offered in the spring of 2002.
Ms. Geffers Browne

GER 98a Independent Study
May be taken only with the permission of the chair or the advising head. Signature of the instructor required.
Readings and reports under faculty supervision. Usually offered every year.
Staff

GER 98b Independent Study
May be taken only with the permission of the chair or the advising head. Signature of the instructor required.
Readings and reports under faculty supervision. Usually offered every year.
Staff

GER 99d Senior Thesis
Signature of the instructor required. Students should consult advising head.
Usually offered every year.
Staff

(100-199) For Both Undergraduate and Graduate Students

The abbreviation GECS denotes German and European Cultural Studies courses.

GER 103a German Grammar and Composition
[ hum ]
Prerequisite: GER 30a, GER 39a, or the equivalent.
Focuses on increasing speed of reading, using literary and nonliterary texts, on grammar, composition, and on further developing oral and written communication skills. Usually offered every year. Will be offered in the fall of 2002.
Ms. von Mering

GER 104a German Readings and Conversation
[ hum ]
Prerequisite: GER 30a, GER 39a, or the equivalent.
Intensive study and exercise of contemporary spoken German with an emphasis on fluency of expression, idiomatic accuracy, and proper pronunciation. Oral reports, discussions, speeches, and debates on a variety of intellectually challenging topics will be based on material derived from dramatic dialogues, radio plays, films, essays, the daily press, and guest speakers. Usually offered every second year. Last offered in the spring of 2002.
Ms. von Mering

GER 110a Goethe
[ hum ]
Intensive study of many of Goethe's dramatic, lyric, and prose works, including Goetz, Werther, Faust I, and a comprehensive selection of poetry. Usually offered every third year. Last offered in the fall of 2000.
Mr. Dowden

GECS 118a The German Tradition I: Lessing to Nietzsche
(formerly GECS 108a)
[ hum ]
Conducted in English. This course may not be repeated for credit by students who have taken GECS 108a in previous years.
Explores the dialectic of reason and the irrational from the late 18th century in Germany and Austria until their collapse in World War I. Works by Beethoven, Kant, Mendelssohn, Goethe, Lessing, Mozart, Heine, Novalis, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Thomas Mann, and others. Usually offered every third year. Last offered in the fall of 2000.
Ms. von Mering

GECS 119b The German Tradition II: Nietzsche to Postmodern
(formerly GECS 109b
[ hum ]
Conducted in English. This course may not be repeated for credit by students who have taken GECS 109b in previous years.
Explores the dialectic of reason and the irrational from the late 19th century in Germany and Austria to the present. Works by Adorno, Benjamin, Brecht, Celan, Habermas, Heidegger, Junger, Kiefer, Thomas and Heinrich Mann, Nietzsche, Schoenberg, Spengler, and Expressionist painting and film. Usually offered every second year. Last offered in the spring of 2001.
Mr. Dowden

GER 120a German Enlightenment and Classicism
[ hum ]
Prerequisites: GER 39a, A- or better in GER 30a, or the equivalent.
Careful reading and discussion (in German) of some of the most moving dramatic scenes and lyrical poems written by Lessing, Klopstock, Lenz, Goethe, Schiller, Hölderlin, and others will provide an overview of those fertile literary and intellectual movements--Enlightenment, Storm and Stress, and Idealism--that eventually culminated in German Classicism. Usually offered every third year. Will be offered in the fall of 2002.
Ms. von Mering

GER 121a German Lyric Poetry
[ hum ]
Focuses on poets, poems, and cycles of poems in the German lyric tradition since Goethe, and introduces the various forms of poetry. Acquaints the student with some important critics of German lyric, including Adorno, Benn, Gadamer, Heidegger, Heller, Hofmannsthal, Kommerell, Szondi, and others. Usually offered every third year. Last offered in the spring of 2002.
Mr. Dowden

GECS 150a From Rapunzel to Riefenstahl: Real and Imaginary Women in German Culture
[ hum ]
Conducted in English.
Exploring German cultural representations of women and real women's responses. From fairy-tale princess to Nazi filmmaker, from 18th-century infanticide to 20th-century femme fatale, from beautiful soul to feminist dramatist, from revolutionary to minority writer. Readings include major literary works, feminist criticism, and film. Usually offered every third year. Will be offered in the fall of 2002.
Ms. von Mering

GECS 167a German Cinema
[ hum ]
Conducted in English. This course may not be repeated for credit by students who have taken GECS 165a in fall of 2001.
From silent film to Leni Riefenstahl and Nazi cinema, from post-war cinema in East and West to New German film after unification, this course traces aesthetic strategies, reflections on history, memory, subjectivity, political, cultural, and film-historical contexts. Usually offered every second year. Will be offered in the fall of 2003.
Ms. von Mering

GECS 170a Viennese Modernism 1890-1938
[ hum ]
Conducted in English. Enrollment limited to 20.
An interdisciplinary exploration of cultural and intellectual life in Vienna from the end of the Habsburg era to the rise of Nazism: film, music, painting, theater, fiction, philosophy, psychology, and physics. Works by Berg, Broch, Canetti, Freud, Hofmannsthal, Klimt, Kraus, Mach, Mahler, Musil, Schoenberg, Webern, Wittgenstein, and others. Usually offered every fourth year. Last offered in the fall of 2001.
Mr. Dowden

GECS 180b European Modernism and the German Novel
[ hum ]
Conducted in English.
A study of selected novelists writing after Nietzsche and before the end of World War II. This course will explore the culture, concept, and the development of European modernism in works by Broch, Canetti, Döblin, Jünger, Kafka, Mann, Musil, Rilke, and Roth. Usually offered every second year. Last offered in the spring of 2001.
Mr. Dowden

GER 181a Franz Kafka
[ hum ]
Prerequisites: B- or better in GER 39a, or the equivalent. (GER 103b is recommended.)
A detailed exploration of Kafka's works, life, and thought. Emphasis will be given to his place in the larger scheme of literary modernism. Usually offered every third year. Last offered in the spring of 2001.
Mr. Dowden

GECS 185b German Fiction after 1945
[ hum ]
Explores the postmodernist rejection of the German tradition in fiction after World War II, a multi-faceted confrontation with German history and organized amnesia that has continued into the present. Works by Koeppen, Grass, Johnson, Bernhard, Handke, Bachmann, Seghers, Treichel, Sebald, and others. Usually offered every year. Will be offered in the spring of 2003.
Mr. Dowden

Cross-Listed Courses

ECS 100a
European Cultural Studies: The Proseminar

MUS 65a
The Music, the Arts, and Ideas in Fin-de-Sciècle Vienna