Winter 2009

German 210: From the Shadows: Guerilla Warfare from Heindrich von Kleist to Heiner Müller and Beyond
Wolf Kittler
M 4:00-6:50pm, Phelps 6320 (23101)
Prerequisite: Graduate Standing.
When such words as strategy, tactic, and counterinsurgency have become key terms of presidential campaigns, it may be time to step back for a moment and take a look at the history of the partisan, the guerilla, and the terrorist within the discourses of literature, law and philosophy. Readings will include selected texts by Hegel, Buck-Morss, von Kleist, von Clausewitz, Benjamin, Brecht, Schmitt, and Foucault. The possibility of including other documents such as the new U.S. Army manual for counterinsurgency warfare will be discussed at the beginning of the quarter.

German 210: City Matters/City Minds - the Modern Metropolis in Literature and Film
Klaus Scherpe
W 4:00-6:50pm, HSSB 1231 (23119)
Prerequisite: Graduate Standing.
The big city is an archetype of the human imagination. Modernist and postmodernist cityscapes have created a great variety of narrations beyond the metanarratives of the metropolis (Joyce, Doeblin, Dos Passos), idiosyncracies of perception (Wordsworth, Rilke, modes of mapping and mythicising (Bauhaus, Barthes, Calvino), a rhetoric of walking, the flaneur (Poe, Benjamon, de Carteau), a characterology of the city dwellers (Simmel, Brecht), construction of the urban experience, the economic process and cultural vision in the Berlin screenings of Fritz Lang ("Metropolis"), Walter Ruttmann ("Symphonie de Grosstadt"), and Wim Wenders ("Wings of Desire). The seminar witll take a selection from these materials.

German 262A: Applied Linguistics
Dorothy Chun
W 1:00-4:00pm, Phelps 6320 (51656)
Prerequisite: Graduate standing. Same course as INT 262A.
Overview of the basic theoretical principles of second language acquisition as they apply to language teaching and learning. Discussion of different methodologies of foreign language teaching and the history of those used in the U.S. Special emphasis on current methodologies.

German 270: Theories of the Modern: 20th Century Abstraction and Its Discontents
Sven Spieker
R 4:00-6:50pm, Arts 2622 (23127)
Prerequisite: Graduate Standing. Same course as Art History 296A
This seminar investigates a crucial chapter in the history of modernism, the rise of abstraction and non-objectivity.Focusing on the visual arts (painting, film) and literature/philosophy, we will be concerned with abstraction/non-objectivity as a broad epistemological category or model, and its role in modernism's ultimate demise. Our primary focus is on the early 1920-es, the first cruicial moments in 20th century modernism, including later responses to that moment, such as Clement Greenberg's reduction of early 20th century non-objectivity, and Malevich's cosmic universalism to the work of art as its own model. While we will cover a broad swath of abstraction/non-objective theory and practice, from Polish constructivism (Kobro, Strzeminski) to futurism in Italy and Russia as well as Western trends (Kandinski, de Stijl), the approach of the seminar assumes that abstraction and non-objectivity in art may be understood in part as disruptions of an historical/historicist trajectory. No previous knowledge of any of these specific names or movements will be assumed.

German 500: Practicum for Teaching Assistants
Cornelia Becher
M 1:00-2:50pm, Phelps 6320 (23135)
Subject oriented, designed to relate directly to the teaching of a particular course in progress, to improve the skills and effectiveness of the department's teaching assistants. Units earned in this course, which is required of all teaching assistants, do not apply toward completion of the M.A. or Ph.D. requirement.

German 596: Directed Reading and Research
Staff (Instructor codes)
2-4 units (23143)
Prerequisites: graduate standing; consent of instructor, graduate advisor, and department chair. Letter grade only.
Individualized instruction. A written proposal must be approved by department chair, to include a description of the course content and a reading list.

German 597: Individual Study for Master's Comprehensive Examinations and Ph.D. Examinations
Staff (Instructor codes)
1-12 units (23150)
Prerequisites: graduate standing; consent of graduate advisor. No unit credit allowed toward advanced degree(s). Enrollment limited to 12 units per examination.
Instructor should normally be the student's major professor or chair of the doctoral committee. Enrollment must be approved by graduate advisor.

German 598: Master's Thesis Research and Preparation
Staff (Instructor codes)
1-6 units (23168)
Prerequisite: consent of instructor. May be repeated for credit to a maximum of 12 units, but only 4 units may apply toward masters degree in German.
Instructor should be chair of student's thesis committee.

German 599: Ph.D. Dissertation Research and Preparation
Staff (Instructor codes)
2-8 units (23176)
Prerequisites: advancement to candidacy; consent of graduate advisor. S/U grading only.
Only for preparation of the doctoral dissertation. Instructor should be the chair of the student's Ph.D. committee.