Department of German

Chair

Michael W. Jennings

Director of Graduate Studies

Sara S. Poor

Professor

Stanley A. Corngold, also Comparative Literature

Robert P. Ebert

Walter H. Hinderer

Michael W. Jennings

Nikolaus Wegmann

Associate Professor

Brigid Doherty, also Art and Archaeology

Thomas Y. Levin

Sara S. Poor

Assistant Professor

Devin A. Fore

Arnd Wedemeyer

Senior Lecturer

James W. Rankin

 

Graduate instruction in the Department of German is designed to enable the student to become an effective teacher and a productive scholar in German literature and culture. The graduate seminars provide students with in-depth instruction in these fields of study and also permit them to concentrate in particular areas. Each student’s course of study is individually planned to suit his or her background, interests, and abilities.

General Requirements

To qualify for graduate work in the department, the student should be proficient in the German language. By the beginning of the second year, he or she shall demonstrate a reading knowledge of one language other than English and German, normally French or Latin.

Students in German literature and culture should be acquainted with the broad outlines of German cultural and social history and familiar with representative works of the chief writers. As an added qualification, the department welcomes a broad training in the humanities, especially a familiarity with other European literatures, the main features of European civilization, and the methodologies of other disciplines.

Program of Study

Students entering the department without previous graduate work normally spend about two and one half years preparing for the general examination, and about two and one half years writing the dissertation. Those entering with unusually strong preparation, such as previous graduate work or extended foreign study, may shorten the period of study and take the general examination at an earlier date.

Program in German Language and Literature

First and Second Years. At the beginning of each term, the student plans a course of study in consultation with the departmental director of graduate studies. The work normally comprises at least three seminars each term, taken for credit and chosen so as to broaden the student’s knowledge of the major areas of study in language, literature, and culture. During these years and the summer months, students work independently on the departmental reading list for the first part of the general examination.

Third Year and General Examination. In October of the third year, students write the first part of the general examination, a six-hour examination based on the departmental reading list, which is made available upon admission to Princeton. Shortly after the written examination, there is a 45-minute oral examination based on the written one. During this term students also prepare for a six-hour special-topic examination. The topic should reflect the area of planned dissertation research; the preparation is supervised by a committee of three faculty members. These faculty members serve as examiners on this examination, to be taken in January of the third year. This special-topic examination constitutes the second part of the general examination.

For those students who have not successfully completed courses in the history of the German language and Middle High German, there is a third part of the general examination: a four-hour written examination on the history of German and Middle High German.

A student may be recommended for the Master of Arts degree after having successfully completed all course work and language requirements, and passed all parts of the general examination, except the special-topic examination.

Dissertation and Final Public Oral Examination

Students are urged to make tentative plans for the dissertation early in their graduate studies. The topic should normally result from seminar work and preparation for the general examination. In April of the third year, the student submits a written dissertation prospectus and gives an oral presentation of the dissertation topic before the department. After completing the dissertation, the student is given a final public oral examination, which permits the department to make a final estimate of the student’s abilities as a scholar and a critic.

Teaching Experience and Assistantships

The department gives each graduate student training in undergraduate teaching, and stipulates that each student teach under supervision for a total of at least five term hours as a requirement for the Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.). This experience normally takes the form of instruction in elementary or intermediate courses in language, literature, or linguistics. In addition, students normally enroll in GER 506, concurrent with their first teaching assignment. Each year several teaching assistantships are available, normally for students who have completed at least one year of residence.

Equipment and Facilities

The Firestone Library contains an excellent collection of books and periodicals for the study of German literature and linguistics. It is especially strong in 19th- and 20th-century materials, and has recently been enriched by the extensive and steadily growing von Kienbusch Collection of 17th- and 18th-century German literature. Graduate students have at their disposal two German seminar rooms and, after the first year, may be assigned carrels in the library.

The department sponsors lectures by visiting scholars and organizes regular colloquiums at which members of the faculty and graduate students meet for the purpose of having an informal exchange of opinions on common scholarly interests.

Courses

GER 505 Structure and History of the German Language

Robert P. Ebert

Provides an introduction to the linguistic analysis of German, basic work with historical texts, and a survey of the development of German from the earliest documents to the present, with emphasis on the rise of the standard language.

GER 506 Second Language Acquisition and Pedagogy

Robert P. Ebert, James W. Rankin

Provides an introduction to research on second-language acquisition and to the teaching of German as a foreign language.

GER 508, 509 Middle High German Literature

Sara S. Poor

Based on one specific text, the first term provides an introduction to language, metrics, manuscript tradition, and textual criticism. The second deals with special topics in German literature between 1150 and 1450, or interdisciplinary topics such as orality and literacy, and word and image.

GER 511 German Literature in the 17th Century

Staff

German literature in the Counterreformation period, with attention to neighboring literatures. In addition to drama, lyric, and prose narratives, other, more overtly “occasional” forms, are examined. Themes include courtliness and self-display, cultural styles, and the relationship of generic to moral intentions.

GER 512 German Literature in the 18th Century

Walter H. Hinderer

A study of changes in the philosophical and literary discourses of major movements from the Enlightenment to Sturm und Drang, along with special issues, problems, and works of the century.

GER 513 German Classicism

Stanley Corngold

The period of German Classicism, with special concentration on Goethe, Schiller, Wieland, and Hölderlin.

GER 514 German Romanticism

Arnd Wedemeyer

A study of representative texts in the context of general Romantic thought and culture.

GER 515 Studies in 19th-Century Literature and Culture

Arnd Wedemeyer

Representative writers and literary movements from 1830 to 1890, with special attention given to the political, social, and cultural background of a specifically German version of Realism.

GER 516 Topics in Twentieth-Century Literature

Stanley Corngold, Michael W. Jennings

The course examines a wide range of literary forms and problems in the modern era and in the years following its demise. Topics include the modern German novel, modernist literature and photography, Viennese modernism, politics and the avant-garde in the 1960’s, and contemporary literature.

GER 517 Modernism and Modernity

Brigid Doherty, Michael W. Jennings

Explores the rise of modernism in the arts in the German-language world. Emphasis on the intellectual sources of the modernist movement in thinkers such as Nietzsche and Freud and theorists of modernity such as Weber, Simmel, Andreas-Salomé, and Benjamin.

GER 518 Politics and Culture in the Weimar Republic

Brigid Doherty, Michael W. Jennings

Gives an interdisciplinary examination of continuity and change in the culture and the cultural politics of Germany between 1919 and 1933. Topics include expressionism in the visual arts and literature, dada, the Conservative Revolution, the Bauhaus and mass housing, montage in film and literature, the political theater, and the optics of the modern metropolis.

GER 519 German Literature After 1945

Walter H. Hinderer

A study of representative works and writers, with special attention given to the intellectual, cultural, and social context.

GER 520 Topics in Literary and Cultural Theory

Brigid Doherty, Thomas Y. Levin

Treats a wide range of theoretical and historical issues concerning the interpretation of literary and cultural materials. Topics include psychoanalytic approaches to literature, the Frankfurt School and its legacy, feminist theory, German-Jewish Acculturation, relations between literature and the other arts, theories of literary reception, and fascism and culture.

GER 521 Topics in German Intellectual History

Stanley A. Corngold

Examines in their entirety mostly short texts that advance solutions to the intellectual problems preoccupying major German religious thinkers, writers, and philosophers, viz. justification, selfhood, theodicy, play, contingency, asceticism, estrangement, malaise, authenticity.

GER 522 Dramatic Art and Theory

Walter H. Hinderer

Treats representative works of dramatic art and theory from the 18th century to the present, with special attention given to political, social, and cultural issues.

GER 523 Lyric Poetry

Staff

Explores the development of lyric poetry from Klopstock to the present. Special attention is given to representative genres, which include elegy, ode, and Lied.

GER 524 Forms of Fiction

Stanley A. Corngold, Walter H. Hinderer

Explores representative German works of fiction from the 18th century to the present in their biographical, social, and critical dimensions within the context of European literary and intellectual history, with special attention given to questions of genre and narrative theory.

GER 525 Studies in German Film

Thomas Y. Levin

Explores movements in German cinema, with attention given to the cultural and ideological contexts as well as recent debates in contemporary film theory. Topics may focus on pivotal developments such as Weimar or the New German cinema, issues in German film theory, questions of film and Nazi culture, and avant-garde cinema as well as genres such as the “Heimatfilm,” the “Street Film,” and works by women and minority filmmakers in Germany.

GER 526 Topics in German Literature

Staff

“The Faust Theme in German Literature,” “Hölderlin and His Critics,” and “Uses of the Past in Postwar German Literature” are all courses that have been previously offered.