German Courses |
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First Year Seminars The 199Y1 and 199H1 seminars are designed to provide the opportunity to work closely with an instructor in a class of no more than twenty-four students. These interactive seminars are intended to stimulate the students’ curiosity and provide an opportunity to get to know a member of the professorial staff in a seminar environment during the first year of study. Details here. Notes: (a) All students with previous knowledge of the German language, as well as students returning from extended stays in German-speaking countries, are required to take a placement test offered at the Department. (b) The Department reserves the right to place students in the language course appropriate to their level of language skill. (c) More detailed course descriptions and reading lists for the various courses are available from the instructor. GER100Y1 This is the language course to take if you have had no previous experience of the German language before. The emphasis is on comprehension, speaking, reading, writing, vocabulary and basic grammar. This course can be counted towards all programs in German. GER101H1 This course is intended for students with some prior knowledge of German. It is equivalent to the Spring Term of GER100Y1. The emphasis is on comprehension, speaking, reading, writing, vocabulary and basic grammar. GER150H1 This course taught in English is intended for students who are unfamiliar with German culture. It examines historical, political and cultural developments in Germany from abOUT 1871 to the present focusing on literary and non-literary texts. GER200Y1 This course continues the work done in GER100Y1 / GER101H1. It further expands on basic grammar and vocabulary, practice in comprehension, composition, and conversation. GER205H1 This course offers a transition from the language courses to the topic courses on THE 300-level. It introduces students to German literature and provides them with working methods and analytical tools relevant for the study of German literary texts in the original German. GER220H1 This course taught in English offers a survey of German literature focusing on key works or introducing a relevant main topic. It is suited for students with little or no prior knowledge of German literature and culture. GER240H1 This course taught in English offers a general survey of German drama from the period of Bourgeois Realism in the middle of the 19th century to the contemporary scene based on representative plays from the German speaking countries. Cross-listed with the Drama Department. GER250H1 Focusing on a specific era of film production (e.g.Weimar cinema, Nazi era and postwar, feminist filmmaking, New German Cinema or Postwall), this course explores the relationship between social movements and film form and style. Taught in English. Cross-listed with the Cinema Studies Program Innis College. GER260Y1 This course introduces Yiddish language, literature, music, theater, and cinema through interactive multi-media seminars, designed to build proficiency in reading, writing and comprehending. No prior knowledge of Yiddish is required. GER261H1 This course traces the history of Yiddish cinema from its beginnings in 1911 to the end of the twentieth century. There will be 2 hours viewing time and 2 hours lectures per week. Cross-listed with the Cinema Studies Program Innis College. GER299Y1 This is a credit course for supervised participation in faculty research project. Details here. GER300Y1 Continuing the work done in GER100Y1 and GER200Y1, this course offers German at the intermediate level focusing on extension of vocabulary, specific problems of grammar, essay-writing, reading and conversation. The Department reserves the right to place students in the appropriate course in the series GER200Y1 AND300Y1. GER305H1 Building on the work of GER205H1, this course offers a survey of German literature and culture from the eighteenth to the twentieth century. Within a chronological framework, students read and analyze excerpts from representative works of major German writers. GER310H1 This course focuses on contemporary German culture as expressed through a variety of media. It approaches Germany and Germany’s position within Europe and the world mainly (but not exclusively) through non-literary texts. GER320H1 Goethe and his contemporaries saw themselves faced with a rapidly changing world. This course examines the innovative literary experiments they developed in response to these changing times. GER321H1 This course focuses on German authors of the nineteenth century. Literary, political and philosophical texts are analyzed as a discussion of political uprisings, the industrial revolution and the emergence of German nationalism. GER322H1 Franz Kafka’s texts are read in the literary, historical, and philosophical context of fin-de-siècle Prague and central Europe. GER323H1 This course focusing roughly on the period fROM 1918 to 1945 examines literary and artistic movements like Dada, Bauhaus, the ‘Golden Age in German film’ in the decades between World War I and Nazism. GER326H1 An examination of post-World War II German literature and culture from “Zero Hour” through to present-day debates about the Holocaust and its memorialization within a German context. GER330H1 This course offers an introduction and exploration of German poetry from all ages. The focus lies on poems which pick as a central topic the self in its relation to itself, others, and society. GER332H1 An analysis of the artistic confrontation with deviance, madness, and outsiders. The course covers expressions of this confrontation in a variety of genres. GER336H1 This course offers an exploration of the cultural developments of one of the most exciting capitals of the world, from the Bismarckian era to German reunification and beyond. GER340H1 The course offers close reading, rehearsing and staging of a play. Students will become familiar with the different steps of a theater production, be introduced to basic acting and staging techniques and get acquainted to leading theories of theater. GER350H1 This course presents students with a survey of the history and development of the German cinema. It examines major trends of German cinematography focusing on thematic and formal aspects. GER354Y0 The topics of this course taught in English and open to students from other disciplines vary from year to year. Interested students can address questions to Woodsworth College. GER355Y0 Students who wish to petition the department for credit toward a specialist or major program in German will be required to do part of their work in German. GER360H1 The course conducted in Yiddish offers a review of basic grammar, stylistics, study of short literary texts. GER361H1 An overview of the major figures and tendencies in modern Yiddish literature and culture from the beginning of the 19th century to the present. Readings (in English) of modern Yiddish prose, poetry, drama and cinema. GER362H1 The course focuses on Soviet Jewish culture betwEEN 1917 AND 1991. Works in translation by Soviet Yiddish writers and poets, performances of central Yiddish theatres, and publications in central Yiddish periodicals will be analyzed as expressions of Soviet ideology and of ethnic identity. GER365H1 The course examines the pre-modern cultural contacts (and conflicts) between Jews and Germans by analyzing important Yiddish and German narrative traditions from the 12th-17th centuries. GER370H1 The course offers an in introduction to the use of German in the professional/business context and has been designed to provide students with practical experience applying to jobs in German-speaking countries. The emphasis lies on oral and written communication. GER371H0 An intensive internship in Berlin, focusing on work/study and intercultural learning. GER372H1 Intensive development of the linguistic skills needed in the context of a German business environment. GER398H0 GER399Y0 An instructor-supervised group project in an off-campus setting. Details here. GER400H1 This is a course for advanced learners of German reviewing complex features of the language and introducing to aspects of German stylistics. The emphasis lies on oral and written communication. GER410H1 This course taught in English offers an examination of key moments and themes in German intellectual history from the Enlightenment to the present. GER411H1 The course familiarizes students with some of the key issues in critical theory today. Focusing on current debates, it will provide the background to these debates. GER421H1 With the representation of gender as its focus, this course will examine key works of modern German literature, where typical themes range from love, lust and treachery to masochism, cross-dressing and other forms of gender trouble. GER423H1 This course investigates contemporary German culture by paying attention to its ‘other’ or alternate voices and perspectives, i.e. those not usually prevalent in mainstream cultural and sociopolitical discourses. GER425H1 This course introduces to the literature and some philosophical tenets of Romanticism (rougHLY 1798-1830) as an occasionally thorough and challenging critique of Enlightenment, modern science, and modernity. GER426H1 This course offers an introduction to the language, literature and culture of Medieval Germany. The reading and translation of exemplary medieval German texts will introduce to Middle High German and provide an insight into epochal concepts like courtly love and chivalry as well as courtly and monastic designs of identity. GER429H1 An open course which explores specific topics in Medieval literature and culture. It serves to introduce to seminal premodern texts and discourses. GER430H1 An open course which explores specific aspects of German literature and culture. GER462H1 This course conducted entirely in Yiddish focuses on advanced reading, writing, vocabulary and conversation, the study of poetry, short fiction, and memoir literature by leading authors. Selected advanced grammatical topics are presented in conjunction with the study of texts. GER490H1 A reading & research project in Germanic literature and/or culture involving a substantive research component. GER491Y1 A scholarly project chosen by the student and supervised by a member of the staff. The form of the project and the manner of its execution are determined in consultation with the supervisor. |