German Language & Literature
The study of German language and literature at New College begins with a two-year, four-course sequence (four full-semester courses: Elementary German I & II and Intermediate German I & II). For students who have either completed the above sequence or can demonstrate the appropriate proficiency in German, faculty regularly offer advanced-level courses, such as Advanced German: Die deutsche Lyrik; German Culture: The New Germany, German Culture: Berlin and the New Germany; and Advanced German: Kulturgeschichte der Bundesrepublik, as well as individual and group tutorials in advanced language skills, German literature in the original, and cultural topics.
In addition to the curriculum in German language and literature in the original, there is usually one course each semester on a German Studies topic that is accessible to students with no background in the language. Recent courses taught in English translation include: Thomas Mann, Franz Kafka, Arthur Schnitzler, and Robert Musil and the Crisis of Identity in Early 20th Century Central Europe; Race in Eighteenth-Century Germany; Women and Seduction in 18th- and 19th-century German Drama; From Caligari to Run Lola Run: A Cultural History of German Cinema; The Theatre of Bertolt Brecht (a survey of twentieth-century Austrian, German, Swiss, and East German drama, with a focus on dramaturgy before and after Brecht's "Epic Theatre"); The Age of Goethe (a study of works by Lessing, Lenz, Goethe, Schiller, Kleist, and contemporary women authors); and Poems Before and After Auschwitz
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