GER 396

Fall 2010 All Classes

All Classes

Special Topics German Studies

Credit: 3 hours.

Introductory study in such topics as individual authors, selected literary movements or periods, modes of inquiry in literary study, minor genres, subgenres, extraliterary influences, etc.

Same as CWL 328. May be repeated to a maximum of 6 hours if topics vary. Prerequisite: Reading fluency in German beyond the fourth-semester college level.

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GER 396 class schedule data for fall 2010
	CRN	Type	Section	Time	Day	Location	Instructor	Section Details
	56655	Lecture-Discussion	T	3:30PM -4:50PM	TR	Location Pending	Nielsen, K	Part of Term: 1 Date Range: 08/23/10-12/08/10 Section Info: Topic: Visual Cultures of Totalitarianism. This upper-level undergraduate seminar seeks to investigate totalitarianism as a contested term and understand its application in historical texts and current scholarship. Focusing on officially sanctioned visual cultural projects the course will explore theories of propaganda and dictatorship as they pertain to the cultures of the Third Reich and German Democratic Republic. It will stress the ways in which these two regimes, relying on the promise of technology and mass politics, used visual productions, art and media, as tools of seduction. The course takes its primary examples from painting, sculpture, architecture, posters, photography, literature, and film, as well as collective experiences that emphasize presence, such as sports events, inaugural ceremonies for public monuments, speeches, marches, and art exhibitions. Course topics include the role of terror, the importance of a cult leader, the depiction of the male hero in Nazism and Stalinism, and the reception and resistance to these models. Key questions framing the course material concern, then, the idea of governing through images and society in toto: How did the regimes attempt to portray complete subservience to the system? What is the relationship between form and content in transmitting a controlled message? And, finally, how might we reframe the concept of totalitarianism today? No knowledge of German is required for this course. The course will be taught in English and students of German will be able to conduct their readings in German. Meets with JS 399 T, CWL 328 and SLAV 452 and CWL 453.