Faculty of Arts & Sciences

An introduction to German language and culture designed for students with little or no knowledge of the language. Encompasses all four skills: speaking, listening, reading, and writing. Class sessions emphasize the development of oral proficiency. Instruction is supplemented by literary and non-literary texts, videos, and Internet activities.

Development of reading proficiency for students with little or no knowledge of German. Emphasizes translation of academic German prose into English.

A complete first-year course in one term for students with no knowledge of German. Provides an introduction to German language and culture encompassing all four skills: speaking, listening, reading, and writing, as well as an introduction to the culture of the German-speaking countries. Class sessions emphasize the development of oral proficiency. Instruction is supplemented by literary and non-literary texts, videos, and Internet activities.

Aims at enhancing students' proficiency in all four skills, with special emphasis on speaking/discussion. The course also offers a thorough grammar review. Course materials consist of literary and non-literary texts and films that address a broad range of cultural topics.

Continuation of German Ca. Discussion materials include literary and non-literary texts and film. Emphasis on speaking proficiency and on strengthening writing skills. Course includes a review of selected grammatical structures and exercises in vocabulary building.

A complete second-year course in one term for students with a basic knowledge of German. Focuses on enhancing students' proficiency in all four skill areas with special emphasis on speaking/discussion. Extensive vocabulary-building exercises, a thorough grammar review, and an introduction to various cultural topics of the German-speaking countries through the use of literary and non-literary texts, Internet, multimedia resources, and film.

This course focuses on the full production of a German play. Introduction to performance theories and practices and intensive pronunciation practice. Students participate on stage and collaborate on different aspects of the production, including costumes, set, sound, and program. Two performances take place at the end of the term.

Advanced instruction in German through systematic study of the rules of grammar, their nuances, and their exceptions. Application of this knowledge through readings of short selections of sophisticated texts (Goethe, Kant, Kleist, Heine, Marx, Nietzsche, Kafka, Mann) prepares students for courses and other work requiring advanced German reading comprehension. This course is prerequisite to advanced German speaking and writing, which students can then pursue in German 62.

This course is designed to further students' spoken and written German at the advanced level. Students will analyze and practice the stylistic and rhetorical features of various written and spoken genres. By focusing on aspects of contemporary society in the German-speaking countries, students will broaden and refine their vocabulary and idiom, become sensitized to different registers, as well as hone points of grammar.

Immersion into German language and culture through German Kabarett of the 20th century. Introduction to the writing and performance techniques of German cabaret artists, including the analysis of comedic skits, political and social satire, parody, and humorous poetry. The final project involves a performance of a Kabarett revue.

Through close readings of central texts from the Age of Goethe to the late 19th century, this course introduces students to key concepts of literary analysis. Readings include Goethe, Schiller, Kleist, Hoffmann, Buchner, and Nietzsche.

The course focuses on central texts in 20th-century German literature. Readings include works by Freud, Rilke, Kafka, Brecht, Celan, Bachmann, Bernhard, Jelinek, and Muller. The course provides an historical overview, introduces core concepts in literary analysis, and sharpens German reading and writing skills.

Individualized study of a Germanic language not ordinarily taught. Contact hours with language tutor. Emphasis on literacy.

Advanced reading in topics not covered in regular courses.

Open to concentrators writing an honors thesis under faculty supervision. Students are expected to enroll for the entire year. Permission of the Director of Undergraduate Studies is required.

This course examines female expression in literature from the German speaking area in the Middle Ages and comprises Yiddish literature as well as Middle High and Middle Low German texts. We focus on thorough close readings and the history of textual transmission in secular and religious spheres. The women's voices shall be enacted in a performance at the end of the term.

What provokes laughter in German culture? This course explores the genre of comedy from the 18th century to the present through major dramatists, satirists, stand-up comedians, and recent comedic films in German-speaking Europe. Introduction to forms, techniques, and theories of comedy, as well as workshops on techniques of comic performance.

Major movements in German literature and thought from the mid-18th to early 19th century: Enlightenment, Sentimentalism, Storm and Stress, Classicism, Romanticism. Readings include Kant, Klopstock, Lessing, Goethe, Lenz, Schiller, Holderlin, Kleist, Schlegel, Novalis.

Examines the fragments and (w)holes of romantic literature, focusing on the productive tension between forms of decomposition, dismemberment, wounding, on the one hand, and ideas of ideality, unity, healing, on the other. Includes a study of conflicting traditions of romantic criticism and their preferences for either fragmentation or wholeness. Authors include Novalis, Brentano, Gunderrode, Hoffmann, Arnim, Heine, as well as other key figures of the Goethezeit such as Holderlin, Jean Paul, Kleist.

Examines the Western secular tradition through the work of three seminal figures whose critiques of religion - in social and political theory, philosophy, and psycho-analysis and anthropology - are motivated by ethical concerns. Introductory readings of Kant, Hegel, and Feuerbach ground analysis of Marx's, Nietzsche's, and Freud's ethical atheism. Students do not develop or debate formulae for behavior, but rather become critically aware of ethical considerations that underlie actions and that are negotiated vis-a-vis prevailing moral codes. Readings include The German Ideology, The Communist Manifesto, The Gay Science, Beyond Good and Evil, On the Genealogy of Morals, The Anti-Christ, Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality, Totem and Taboo, The Future of an Illusion.

Readings and discussions of Nietzsche's major works (in translation), including The Birth of Tragedy, Untimely Meditations, Human, All Too Human, The Gay Science, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Beyond Good and Evil, The Genealogy of Morals, Twilight of the Idols, The Antichrist, and Ecce Homo.

Addresses Mann's short stories and novellas (in translation) individually and as a body of work, as well as in their various literary, cultural, intellectual, and historical contexts. Texts: "Death in Venice," "Tonio Kroger," "Tristan," "Disillusionment," "Little Herr Friedemann," "Gladius Dei," "The Blood of the Walsungs," "Disorder and Early Sorrow," "Mario and the Magician," among others. Term papers may address stories discussed in class or one of Mann's novels (e.g. Buddenbrooks, The Magic Mountain, Doctor Faustus).

The New German Cinema would become internationally prominent during the 1970s. This class will focus on exemplars of the movement and also important films that preceded and followed it, features by Staudte, Fassbinder, Herzog, Kluge, Schlondorff, von Trotta, Wenders, Dorrie, Tykwer, and Petzold. What meanings do these works (both as single entries and as functions of a collective national ensemble) have for us today? No previous course work in film studies is required or presumed.

This course traces the infamous bloodsucker's bite-marks through European literature from the 18th to the 21st century, exploring how the notion of vampirism is inextricably linked with the emergence of what Michel Foucault has termed `biopolitics'. How do the `body politic' and a vampiric aesthetics mutually condition each other? We pursue this question by engaging in a dialogue between literature, film, science, and critical theory. Authors include Goethe, Byron, Hoffmann, Baudelaire, Stoker, Nietzsche, Doblin, Tawada.

The course offers an historical overview of theories of interpretation from Luther to Gadamer and Merleau-Ponty, with specific focus on metaphors of incarnation, embodiment, and revelation. In tracking the shift from interpretation as an auxiliary art to hermeneutics as a philosophical universal, the literary readings broach questions concerning theories of the verbal sign, understanding, self-consciousness, phenomenology, and the human condition - all in relation to the theological paradigms that have persistently motivated and shaped these investigations.

Tracing the emergence of German colonial aspirations from mid-nineteenth century to nostalgic recollections of the colonies after World War I, the course examines novels, short stories, autobiographical and travel writings, essays, films, propaganda and advertising. These materials are selected to shed light on controversies about key terms such as imperialism, colonialism, decolonization, racism, and genocide. Attention is also paid to the implications of the colonial past for German society today.

Diverse characters, astonishing crimes, and tireless efforts to detect and uncover them. An exploration of narratives that lack clear solutions and traditional detective figures. Course materials range from classic 19th-century novellas to modern readings and film, plus selected excursions beyond the German tradition. Works by Schiller, Kleist, Hoffmann, Poe, Droste-Hulshoff, Fontane, Doblin, Lang, and Borges.

In reading through major works of literature and philosophical prose, this course critically interrogates the persistent fascination that ancient Greek literature and culture exerted on the modern German imagination from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries. Areas of discussion include antiquarianism, the formation of national identity, genius and the classical tradition, pedagogy and politics, aesthetics and reception theory. Cross-listed with Comparative Literature.

Introduction to the relationship between 'German' music, history, society and politics. By analyzing texted (vocal) music in various settings - historical, political, filmic, literary - this course revisits important and often controversial moments in musical history that have shaped German cultural and national identity. Musical genres include the Lied, folk song, the choral symphony, opera, cabaret, post-war popular music, and contemporary hip-hop.

The course will explore the interplay between innovation and tradition in German poetry from 1770 to the present, focusing on such topics as originality and authenticity, difficulty and hermeticism, and poetic responses to crisis. Authors include Goethe, Holderlin, Heine, Morike, Droste, George, Rilke, Benn, and Celan.

European Baroque art and German Baroque literature. Revolutions of excess and devolutions of system in architecture, painting, sculpture, poetry, drama, narrative. Undergraduates welcome.

Examines selected major works, including poetry, essays on art, literature, and science, dramas, and at least one novel.

Kafka's relation to his literary and cultural context, his characteristic narrative modes, humor and parody in his works, and the challenges his texts pose for readers.

Explores German literature from the Wendezeit to the present, focusing on a number of texts that we will define as `body literature' or `corpoetics'. Rather than directly addressing the fall of the Wall, these texts employ a transgressive poetics that tears down the walls between text and body in the search for authentic communication.

This course offers a comprehensive survey of German film history from its beginnings to the present. Each of our sessions will provide interactive discussions of selected sequences from exemplary films. These exercises will acquaint students with the tools, methods, and emphases of close analysis. This careful formal scrutiny will go together with an equally painstaking investigation of the discursive places assumed by individual film texts within film history and history at large. In that endeavor we will also take recourse to pertinent film theoretical paradigms.

Close study of Sebald's narrative and poetic works, as well as a selection of his scholarly essays, against the backdrop of recent literary theory.

In this language course, the students learn how to read and understand Middle High German literature. We work closely with a range of texts (poetical, religious, scientific), translating and analyzing them as well as discussing their cultural context.

Examines pre-Christian religions of the Germanic peoples, with an emphasis on Old Norse sources (especially Snorra edda, and eddic and scaldic poetry) but also with references to non-Scandinavian materials (e.g.Heliand; Old English metrical charms).

This course takes a historical perspective on Scandinavian culture, introducing it through texts and art from the Viking Age until the present day. It also discusses how history has shaped and continues to shape contemporary Scandinavian identity and the relationships between the countries. We will be reading primary sources as well as fiction, in translation, watching films and making use of Harvard's library and museum collections.

Individualized study of a Scandinavian language at the elementary, intermediate and advanced levels. Contact hours with language coach. Emphasis on literacy. Any language not listed as a course is taught under this number.

Individualized study of Danish at the elementary, intermediate and advanced levels. Contact hours with language coach. Emphasis on literacy.

Individualized study of Finnish at the elementary, intermediate, and advanced levels. Contact hours with a language coach. Emphasis on literacy.

Individualized study of Norwegian at the elementary, intermediate and advanced levels. Contact hours with language coach. Emphasis on literacy.

Advanced reading in topics not covered in regular courses.

Group or individual tutorial designed to supplement course work and acquaint students with appropriate analytical methods.

Group or individual tutorial designed to supplement course work and to develop analytical techniques.

Open to concentrators writing an honors thesis under faculty supervision. Students are expected to enroll for the entire year.

Examines the historical events in Europe A.D. 800 to A.D. 1100, and the resulting heroic legacy in medieval poetry and Icelandic sagas. The course focuses on Viking Age figures as warriors, kings, poets, outlaws and adventurers; pre-Christian religion, the Viking raids and the Norse experience in "Vinland" carefully considered.

Introduction to the language and literary culture of medieval Scandinavia, emphasizing works treating the Viking Age and their valorization of an heroic ideal. In addition to basic language skills, students acquire familiarity with key critical tools of the field. Readings include scaldic poetry, selections from Egils saga and the Vinland sagas, and various runic monuments.

Builds on Scandinavian 160a, continuing the language study and cultural survey of the first term, but now considers mythological texts relating to Viking religious life, mainly selections from the prose and poetic Eddas. Special attention is paid to scholarly tools and debates concerned with the interpretation of these cultural monuments.

Advanced readings in topics not covered in regular courses.

A basic course focusing on listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills. During fall term, pronunciation and listening comprehension will be emphasized, as well as regular writing assignments. Literary, film, music and other cultural texts will be introduced relatively early on. By semester's end, students will have achieved a basic literacy in everyday Swedish.

Continuation of the basic course focusing on a basic mastery of listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills. During spring term, the emphasis is on more advanced conversation and an exploration of Sweden's culture and civilization through selected texts and video. By semester's end, students will be able to carry on conversations in everyday Swedish, read news articles, and write letters and produce substantial creative work.

Sweden and Swedish Finland have produced some of the most translated and beloved works of children's fiction in the world. In this intermediate Swedish language course, we will review the essentials of Swedish grammar and vocabulary as we explore some of these classic works of children's fiction, film, and comic books and the aspects of Swedish culture they illuminate. The final project for this class involves producing your own work of children's fiction or film.

In this fourth semester Swedish course, the theme is immigration and emigration from a Swedish perspective. We will be studying the Swedish emigration to America in the 19th century, both in fiction and through letters sent home to Sweden, the so-called amerikabrev. Modern day immigration will be discussed through recent authors who have written about their experiences moving to Sweden. We will also be following the political debate about immigration through reading news stories and opinion pieces.