German
Course Descriptions
Second Year B.A. Students
2015/16
Year coordinators:
N.N. (semester 1)
Dr. Tina Pusse, MA., Room AM 346. Telephone: 495874;
email: tina.pusse@nuigalway.ie
Entry requirements: First Arts Students having attained a total mark of 40% or more will
be admitted to Second Arts German courses.
Compulsory Modules: Students are obliged to take all six modules on offer. All
modules have the value of 5 ECTS.
For further details, please check our Departmental website:
www.nuigalway.ie/german
Important Dates
First Semester
Start of teaching
Monday, 7th September, 2015
End of teaching
Saturday, 28th November, 2015
Study Week
Monday, 30th November – Saturday, 5th December, 2015
Examinations –Semester 1
Monday, 7th – Friday, 18th December, 2015
Christmas Vacation
Saturday, 19th December, 2015 – Sunday, 10th January, 2016
Second Semester
Start of Teaching period 1
Monday, 11th January, 2016
End of Teaching period 1
Saturday, 19th March, 2016
Easter Holidays
Thursday, 24th – Tuesday,29th March, 2016.
Start of Teaching period 2
Monday, 4th April, 2016
End of Teaching period 2
Saturday, 16th April, 2016
Study Week
Monday, 18th – Saturday, 23th April, 2016
Examinations – Semester 2
Monday, 25th April - Wednesday, 11th May, 2016
Autumn Examinations
Tuesday,2nd – Friday, 12th August, 2016
2
Semester 1
All modules are compulsory. All modules have the value of 5 ECTS.
Module
Components
GR236 German Language I
GR239 History of German
Literature and Culture I
Students have to choose one of
the two optional components.
Family Fiction (core)
Märchen (optional)
Childhood under Nazi control (optional)
60%
40%
40%
GR238 German Studies I
Students have to choose one of
the two optional components.
Research Skills (core)
Old and New Media: From Consuming
to Producing Information (optional)
Write, Act, Podcast: Producing and
presenting German Texts (optional)
50%
50%
50%
Semester 2
All modules are compulsory. All modules have the value of 5 ECTS.
Module
Components
GR237 German Language II
GR235 History of German
Literature and Culture II
Students have to choose one of
the three optional components.
Wiener Moderne (core)
Kafka, Der Prozess (optional)
Heinrich Heine (optional)
Introduction to Linguistics (optional)
60%
40%
40%
40%
GR240 German Studies II
Both components are
compulsory.
Landeskunde
Intercultural Communications
50%
50%
3
Semester I
GR236
German Language I (4 hrs. per week)
Lecturer: Tina Pusse.
Course description: This course (level B1+) will reinforce and build on your language
skills acquired in first year. It will help you to become more comfortable and
articulate in your practical use of German while deepening your understanding of
grammar, vocabulary and structure.
Prerequisites: 40% or more in First Arts German, or the equivalent.
Teaching and learning methods: The course is based on language exercises and text
production, including aural, oral and written language work, conversation and oral
presentations, listening comprehension. Attendance is vital. As students are required
to participate fully in all elements of the course, 50% of all marks are given for
continuous assessment. Former beginners will be given additional support.
Methods of assessment: Two-hour written examination and oral examination 50%;
continuous assessment (written assignments, grammar exercises, in-class tests) 50%.
Core texts: Michaela Perlmann-Balme & Susanne Schwalb, Sicher! B1+ in two
volumes: Sicher! B1+ Kursbuch, (Hueber) ISBN 978-3-19-001206-0) and Sicher!
B1+ Arbeitsbuch mit Audio-CD (Hueber) ISBN 978-3-19-011206-7;
Dreyer, Hilke & Schmitt, Richard, A Practice Grammar of German (Hueber) ISBN
978-3-19-327255-3
GR239
History of German Literature and Culture I
Components:
Family Fiction (core)
60%
Märchen (optional)
40%
Childhood under Nazi control (optional)
40%
Family Fiction (2 hrs. per week)
Lecturer: Tina Pusse
Course description: The struggles and the dynamics in families have always been a
major topic of literary exploration. Although it is not inevitable that at the end of a
drama an entire family lays slaughtered on the stage, like in Hamlet, families, at least
4
in literature, are seen as social units where conflicts, sometimes devastating, arise.
Very often family conflicts reflect general problems related to gender issues and to
concepts of masculinity and femininity. The course will analyse family conflicts in
their historical contexts in novellas and short stories from Romanticism to
contemporary German literature.
Methods of assessment: 20% attendance with active participation including a short
presentation, 80% take home essay (the essay assignment will be broken down into
four steps, each of them will build 20% of your essay grade).
Core texts: Franz Kafka: Die Verwandlung. Stuttgart: Reclam 2006 (ISBN: 978-3-15009900-1); Ludwig Tieck: Der blonde Eckbert. Der Runenberg. Stuttgart: Reclam 2006
(ISBN: 978-3-15-007732-0); E.T.A. Hoffmann: Der Sandmann. Stuttgart: Reclam (ISBN
3-15-000230-3): Elfriede Jelinek: Die Klavierspielerin (Excerpt will be provided).
Märchen (1 hr. per week)
Lecturer: Hans-Walter Schmidt-Hannisa
Course description: The course will start with a brief introduction to the fairy tale as a
literary genre. It will then focus on Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm’ collection of Kinderund Haus-Märchen, published between 1812 and 1858 in six editions and one of the
most well-known German books of all times. We will read and discuss the Vorrede of
the collection which points out the Grimm’s understanding of the genre as a national
treasure and explains what had motivated the brothers to collect and preserve tales
originally emerging from an oral tradition of storytelling. The myth launched by the
Grimms that the texts in their collection are manifestations of an original and pristine
German “Volksgeist” will be dismantled and their true political and moral intentions
will be reconstructed. We will then analyse a selection of popular and lesser known
fairy tales included in the Kinder- und Haus-Märchen, such as Rotkäppchen and Hans
im Glück.
In a second part of the course we will explore the difference between
“Volksmärchen”, i.e. fairy tales emerging from oral tradition, and “Kunstmärchen”
which are authored texts using forms and motifs from the Volksmärchen tradition. As
an example of Kunstmärchen we will read Adelbert von Chamisso’s Peter Schlemihls
wundersame Geschichte (1813).
Methods of assessment: Two in-class tests
Core texts: Brüder Grimm: Kinder- und Haus-Märchen; Adelbert von Chamisso’s
Peter Schlemihls wundersame Geschichte. All texts will be made available on
Blackbroard.
5
GR239 Childhood under Nazi control. Autobiographical Writings by Ruth
Klüger and Christa Wolf (1 hr. per week)
Lecturer: Jeannine Jud
Course description: This module will focus on Ruth Klüger’s memoir Weiter leben.
Eine Jugend, and Christa Wolf’s semi-autobiographical novel Kindheitsmuster. In her
book Klüger explores her experiences of life in Vienna as a Jewish child under Nazi
control, followed by life in the Ghetto Theresienstadt and the concentration camps
Auschwitz-Birkenau and Christianstadt. In Kindheitsmuster Christa Wolf examines
her experience as an Aryan German child in Nazi German, exploring concepts of
childhood indoctrination, how much the Germans really knew about the atrocities that
were happening and the trauma of war. This seminar will compare and contrast the
experiences brought to paper by these two authors concerning very different
childhoods, growing up under the same regime. It will consider set notions of victims
and perpetrators and will aim to offer a personal insight into this complex historical
period.
Assessment: in-class test (70%), active participation and continuous assessment
(30%).
Core texts: Christa Wolf: Kindheitsmuster; Ruth Klüger: Weiter leben. Eine Jugend.
Texts will be provided as handouts.
GR238
German Studies I
Components:
Introduction to Research Skills (core)
50%
Old and New Media (optional)
50%
Write, Act, Podcast (optional)
50%
Introduction to Research Skills (1 hr. per week)
Lecturer: Áine Ryan
Course description: You will learn to conduct research effectively from the initial
stages of framing a research question to the practicalities of using library resources,
referencing and developing good writing skills to finally writing your own research
proposal on an element of D-A-CH culture (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) chosen
by you. Independent learning is the primary aim of this course; in addition the skills
acquired should help in carrying out essay writing including devising and completing
your final-year extended essay.
6
Methods of assessment: 30%: In-class test, 40%: Take-home assignment - Writing a
Research Proposal, 20%: Attendance and Participation.
Core texts: Handouts supplied in class and on Blackboard.
Departmental guidelines for essay writing: http://www.nuigalway.ie/colleges-andschools/arts-social-sciences-and-celtic-studies/language-literaturesculture/disciplines/german/undergraduate-courses/ba-joint-honours-international/
Old and New Media: Moving From Consuming to Producing Information (1 hr.
per week)
Lecturer: Colm Whelan
Course description: This course will focus on television and film; it will address
topics such as ideology, advertising and access to the production of media content.
The course will explore convergence culture and participation culture in which
various types of media interact and lead on from one another. We will discuss how
media viewing and consumption has changed with technology and internet access.
The course will address the question Is new media more democratic?- everbody has
access to phones and social mediaInformation is now constantly emerging from
multiple sources as everybody can produce and participate in creating it.
Teaching and learning methods: We will read and discuss relevant texts. In a group
project students will create on-line accounts and produce news, images, art, stories,
and drama themselves.
Methods of assessment: Group project incl. individual report (40%), in-class test
(60%).
Language of instruction: English
Core texts: Excerpts from:
Walter Benjamin, The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction; Henry
Jenkins, Convergence Culture
Any texts used in the course will be provided as links or on blackboard.
Write, Act, Podcast: Producing and Presenting German Texts (2 hrs. per week)
Lecturer: Vincent O’Connell
Course Description: In this multimedia course students will learn to write short scenes
in German, perform them and record them as podcasts. In one unit of the course
students will creatively write about everyday situations as they might occur, for
example, during their year abroad. In a second unit short literary texts such as poems,
short stories or fairytales will be used as source material from which dramatic
7
sketches can be developed. Performances of such sketches will be recorded as
podcasts and uploaded to Blackboard.
The course will enable students to build up confidence in their language and
communication skills. Speaking and acting will help students to become in particular
more aware of German intonation and pronunciation.
Methods of assessment: Attendance 10%, written dialogues 30%, scene enactment
30%, podcasts 30%
Attendance is crucial. Please note that due to the nature of the course, there will
be no opportunity to repeat this module.
Please note: Students have to register for this course by sending an email to
Geraldine.smyth@nuigalway.ie. 20 is the maximum number of students for this
class. Places will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.
Core texts: Handouts will be supplied by the lecturer.
Semester II
GR237
German Language II (4 hrs. per week)
Lecturer: Michael Shields.
Course description: Continuing from GR236, this course (level B1+) will build up
fluency and accuracy in your German language. It will help you become more
comfortable in the practical use of German while deepening your understanding of
grammar and vocabulary.
Prerequisites: Erasmus students arriving in Semester 2 who are interested in doing this
module should consult the lecturer.
Teaching and learning methods: The course will involve language exercises and text
production, including aural, oral and written language structure work, writing in a
range of text types, conversation and oral presentations, listening comprehension.
Attendance is vital. As students are required to participate fully in all elements of the
course, 45% of all marks are given for continuous assessment.
Methods of assessment: Two-hour written examination and oral examination: 55%;
continuous assessment (written assignments, grammar exercises, 45%.
Core texts: Michaela Perlmann-Balme & Susanne Schwalb, Sicher! B1+ in two
volumes: Sicher! B1+ Kursbuch, (Hueber) ISBN 978-3-19-001206-0 and Sicher! B1+
Arbeitsbuch mit Audio-CD (Hueber) ISBN 978-3-19-011206-7
Dreyer, Hilke & Schmitt, Richard, A Practice Grammar of German (Hueber) ISBN
978-3-19-327255-3
8
GR235
History of German Literature and Culture II
Components:
Wiener Moderne (core)
60%
Kafka, Der Prozess (optional)
40%
Heinrich Heine and Germany (optional
40%
Introduction to Linguistics (optional)
40%
Literature and Culture of the Wiener Moderne (2 hrs. per week)
Lecturer: Hans-Walter Schmidt-Hannisa
Course description: The module introduces students to the literature and culture of
Vienna in the period 1890-1930. It provides a portrait of the Hapsburgian Capital
including aspects like the political and economical situation, urban sociology and
architecture. The major thematic focus of the module will be the representation of
women in contemporary literature, art, and theory. It introduces major representatives
of contemporary art (Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele), and music (Gustav Mahler,
Richard Strauss, Arnold Schönberg). The module analyses major texts of various
genres (narration, poetry, drama) by various authors (Arthur Schnitzler, Hugo von
Hofmannsthal, Peter Altenberg). These texts will be discussed in the context of
relevant contemporary theories such as psychoanalysis, and the criticism of language.
Assessment: Take-home essay: 80%, two in-class-tests: 20%.
Core texts: Arthur Schnitzler, Fräulein Else; Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Poems;
handouts.
Franz Kafka: Der Process (1 hrs. per week)
Lecturer: Tina Pusse
Course description: Students will be introduced to one of the highlights of early 20th
century prose, Franz Kafka’s Der Process, in which a man is arrested and prosecuted
by an inaccessible authority that does not reveal the nature of his crime to him.
Students will learn about Kafka and his life as a Jewish-German writer in early 20th
century Prague. However, the focus of the course will be a close reading of the
(unfinished) novel.
Method of assessment: Attendance and continuous assessment (40%), written exam
(60%)
Core text: Franz Kafka, Der Process. Edited by Ralf Kellermann. Reclam XL – Text
und Kontext. ISBN: 978-3-15-019126-2
9
Heinrich Heine and Germany (1 hr. per week)
Lecturer: Michael Shields
Course description: In 1843 Heine travelled to Germany from Paris, where he had
spent over ten years as a political refugee and met Karl Marx and other progressive
thinkers. His travel poem Deutschland. Ein Wintermärchen (first published in 1844
and banned in Prussia the same year) is a satirical description of the impressions of
such a journey, and contains hilarious descriptions of the contrast between the
revolutionary poet and the conservative figures he meets. The course will focus on
this canonical poem and the literary, political and cultural influences that helped
shape its representation of Germany.
Teaching and learning methods: Starting with a close reading of the text, students will
be introduced to different ways of approaching it and will develop techniques for
understanding and analyzing it, comparing interpretations and translations and
branching out to consider related texts where relevant. We will approach it as a
spoken and written work and discuss how best to use the wide range of interpretative
tools available in the library and online.
Methods of assessment: Written exam (60%), take-home essay (40%).
Core texts: Heinrich Heine, Deutschland. Ein Wintermärchen. Edited by Werner
Bellmann ,(Reclam) ISBN: 978-3-15-002253-5
Introduction to Linguistics and Linguistic Analysis: (1 hr. per week)
Lecturer: Mel Boland
Course description: What do we mean when we say that we ‘know’ a language? These
introductory classes on the field of linguistics examine the idea of native speaker
competence, exploring key areas of analysis such as phonetics, phonology, morphology
and syntax.
Methods of assessment and examination: In-class examination, to take place in the
final class.
Core Text: Keith Allan et al, The English Language & Linguistics Companion (Palgrave
Macmillan, 2010).
10
GR240
German Studies II
Components:
Landeskunde
Intercultural Communication
50%
50%
Landeskunde (1 hr. per week in)
Lecturer: Áine Ryan
Course description: This course will examine elements of everyday German life and
culture with the aim of giving you insights which will prepare you for your Erasmus
year in Germany. It has a practical focus as well as an aim of making you familiar
with German culture and society. We will look at student life at a German university,
how to prepare yourself before you go as well as the cultural elements of various
regions in Germany. There will be sessions in the multi-media lab as we work with
authentic material available online as well as YouTube videos and other visual/audio
material.
Methods of assessment: In-class test 50%, take-home essay 30%, attendance and
homework 20%
Core Texts: Handouts provided in class and on Blackboard
Intercultural Communication (1 hr. per week)
Lecturer: Áine Ryan
Course Description: The aim of this module is for you to increase your understanding
of how to communicate with people from diverse ethnical backgrounds and to gain an
insight into other cultures as well as examining your relationship to your own culture.
There will be a particular focus on Germany and Ireland as you will be spending a
year abroad in Germany. The course will contain a mixture of class-room teaching,
group-work and individual student contributions. We will also make use of media like
film and podcasts.
Methods of assessment: Take-home essay 40%, in-class test 40%, attendance and
participation 20%.
Teaching and Learning Methods: Team work, discussions, text analysis, reflection on
cultural experiences and encounters. Students are expected to read prescribed material
each week before coming to class. Material is also available on Blackboard.
Core Texts: Jane Jackson, Introducing language and intercultural communication.
London: Routledge, 2014; Larry A Samovar, Richard E Porter, Edwin R McDaniel,
Communication Between Cultures. Wadsworth Publishing, 2009, 7th edition.
11