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The annual Seminar in German Studies serves as an introduction to the increasingly diverse and interdisciplinary field of German Studies. The goal of the seminar is to help students critically examine significant themes
in the culture of the German-speaking countries through a variety of media and genres (literature, film, photography, journalism, the internet, visual art, criticism, philosophy, historiography). The course will have a
substantial
methodological component, emphasizing the improvement of analytic and interpretive skills and the expression of complex problems in a concise and lucid fashion.
The topic for 2005 is "States of Crisis, Narratives
of Transgression"
We
will investigate how - throughout the history of the German-speaking regions of Europe - states of crisis (at the levels of the individual, the family, class, gender, ethnicity, and the nation) have engendered narratives
of transgression, ranging from merely "deviant" behavior to radical otherness to violent revolt and, ultimately, to terrorism. Cases to be studied include: war and the dissolution of social and political order, madness,
crime
and punishment, the crisis of political legitimacy and the terrorist response, the transgression of taboos and social conventions, the crisis of communicative language and the artistic response, sexual transgressions.
COURSE FORMAT: Seminar
Level: UGRD Credit: 1 Gen Ed Area Dept: HA GERM Grading Mode: Graded
Prerequisites: NONE
Last Updated on MAR-30-2006
Copyright Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, 06459