German BA Degree Programme at Swansea University
Cultural Modules
The German BA degree programme at Swansea falls into two overlapping and mutually enriching
areas. In the first you practise advanced language skills in a variety of practical and intellectual
contexts. In the second you expand your knowledge of the German language to explore selected
aspects of the German-speaking states, their culture, cinema, history, and literatures in the modern
and contemporary era.
The teaching of language skills is led by our dedicated German language tutor, Frau Ute Keller, and
a Lektorinwho is part-sponsored by the DAAD (the Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst or
German Academic Exchange Service), currently Frau Christiane Günther from Berlin. General
Language, covering speaking, reading, writing, and listening and taught mainly through the medium of
German, is compulsory at all levels and in all programmes. In addition you have the opportunity to
develop your linguistic proficiency in two further strands: German for Vocational Purposes and
Translation Workshop, both of which are available at all three levels (that is from year 1 to year 4) and
are compulsory on some BA programmes. At level 3 (that is in your fourth after you return from your
year abroad) you may also study Interpreting. The skills set that you acquire on these language
modules prepare you to use German in the world of work or for entry to one of our suite of MA
programmes which specialise in professional translation and interpreting, such as the MA in
Language Technology and Translation (MALTT).
Developing language skills always entails some element of intercultural study, or finding out about
aspects of life, society, business, and culture in the German-speaking countries. In joint honours and
single honours degrees the other half of your study time is taken up exclusively with modules
dedicated to the understanding of modern Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. At Swansea there are
two focal points: Cultural History, from roughly 1890 to the present day, covering songs and poetry,
drama, cinema, and short prose fiction; and Contemporary German Studies, which is linked to our
renowned Research Centre into Contemporary German Culture (founded in 1993). One distinctive
feature of the way that these modules are taught from level 2 onwards is the use of German in
lectures and some assessments. In this side of your degree, you continue to practise German
language skills, especially reading, and you also develop powers of argument and analysis in English,
as students of other disciplines in the Arts and Humanities do. In your final year you may also opt to
write a dissertation on a subject of your choice, which is usually linked to a topic that you have studied
either at Swansea or on your year abroad.
The intercultural modules currently offered at levels 2 and 3 include:
Power and the Personal: Shifting Identities in Modern German Culture
This module seeks answers to a number of questions: how far are contemporary German identities
still shaped by memories of the Second World War and the Cold-War division of Europe which
followed? Or are the influences of global and youth culture more significant? Is German national
identity inevitably associated with guilt? What part is played in identity formation by gender, migration
and generation? What is it like to be Jewish in Germany today? Is there still a place for religion in
expressions of ‘Germanness’? Is it still possible to talk of a west and an east German identity, or has
that divide been overcome? How intimately are German identities still influenced by questions of
`Heimat' (home / belonging / place)? These questions and others are posed in the texts and films on
this module, all of which are outstanding examples of German cultural expression in the new Berlin
Republic. At the heart of the module is the question: how is the personal sphere of identity bound up
with the workings of power?
Modernism and Desire in Germany, 1890-1933
During the period of Modernism in Germany some of the most influential writers in the language were
at work, such as Kafka, Rilke, Brecht, and Mann. In the Weimar Era, from 1920 and 1933, the UFA
film studios at Babelsberg on the edge of Berlin rivalled Hollywood for the range of their production
and cinematic innovation. It was also a time of great social and cultural change when gender roles
and codes of sexual identity and behaviour were in flux and conventions open to challenge. In life as
in art, experimentation was the order of the day. Writers and film-makers found it easy --- and
necessary --- to shock and their work often caused controversy, resulting in calls for censorship. In
1933 with the Nazi Machtergreifung, their books were burned, their films banned, and they
themselves were obliged to flee. You study two plays, two short novels, and four films, and may
specialise in either textual or visual formats for assessment.
Underground Vienna: Subterranean Views of a Twentieth-Century City
Visions of Vienna as a twentieth-century city have varied greatly in the last one hundred years but
writers and film-makers have often illuminated less glorious aspects of its life and tradition than the
city's authorities have celebrated. The underside of Habsburg architectural splendour included
poverty, racism and persecution of minorities, especially Viennese Jews, and an acceptance of
cruelty and moral double standards. Since 1945 Thomas Bernhard's love-hate attitude to his country
as a whole has been typical of intellectuals and artists as a whole and their treatment of Vienna in
particular. These bleaker assessments are countered by depictions of instances of heroism in
everyday life and moral resilience among the population. The tradition of Red Vienna contrasts with
that of Mayor Karl Lueger and his pupil, Adolf Hitler. The plays, short novels and films selected for
study on this module are rooted in the street life of the working-class and Jewish quarters and were
produced in the main by outsiders to the city, predominantly of Jewish origin. Persecution and its
legacy are recurrent themes. The material, which is rarely joyous, portrays the city and its inhabitants
in challenging and critical ways, supplying a series of snapshots of a fascinating and tumultuous
period.
Twentieth-Century Berlin: Myth and Reality
Berlin has been called ‘the capital of the twentieth century’ (Webber, 2008) and was the site of
insurrection and imperial ostentation, siege and invasion, partition, persecution, ideological
polarisation, and, finally, the return of democratic normality in the ‘short twentieth century’ (19141989). It was a German capital for nearly ninety years between 1900 and 2000 and for much of that
time a magnet for writers and artists and consequently a centre of cultural activity. Iconic images of
Berlin were produced especially in film but all material studied in this module contributed to
constructions of the city’s identity and character. The key events and themes selected for study are:
subservience to authority; dystopia; crime and unemployment; war-time destruction and survival; the
monotony of everyday life in the East; protest in the West. The Expressionist, Neue Sachlichkeit,
documentary, neo-realist and noir styles inflected a number of texts and films and will thus be
recurrent reference points. You write a film review in German; give a class presentation on an
historical aspect of Berlin life; and write a project in English on two of the books or films we have
studied.
German Song Cultures
From ‘Stille Nacht’ to ‘Mackie Messer’, from ‘Erlkönig’ to ‘99 Luftballons’, from Lili Marlene to MIA,
from Luther’s hymns to the ‘Deutschlandlied’ – there are songs from every phase of German culture
which reflect popular feelings and standpoints on political and social questions. Many have become
part of popular memory; some have had international impact. Germany's turbulent political history has
been accompanied by songs both of official propaganda and of popular resistance. Song culture is
now fragmented, with subcultures including Schlager, Liedermacher, Rock, Pop, Rap, Techno to
name but a few. The market is dominated by US, UK and other imports. But German national history
still has a song-based memory sound-track, and songs can still be controversial. The German state
routinely bans songs deemed 'dangerous to young people'. You will research how songs reflect
events, or topics such as national identity, gender roles, nature and ecology, deviance and violence,
economic and political injustice, migration and cultural diversity.