PDF of the 2012-2013 Academic Catalog - Scripps College

112 Courses of Study German Studies Scripps College Catalog
146. Fairy Tales and the Female Storyteller. In the oral tradition of fairy tales women create a
female discourse by regendering patriarchal myths, transforming domestic space into imaginary
territories of hollow trees and magic kingdoms. Desires and constraints are represented in
multifaceted characterizations of mother, stepmother and witch, orphaned daughters, and wicked
stepsisters. Male scholars, such as the Brothers Grimm, reappropriate the fairy tale and domesticate
it into children’s stories. R. Burwick.
151. Modern German Poetry. More radically than any other literary and artistic tradition, 20thcentury
German lyric poetry has used formal and semantic experiments to explore the extreme
limits of truth, beauty, meaning, and human experience. Prerequisite: German 44 or equivalent.
Offered in alternate years. Staff.
152. Drama as Experiment. Beginning with the Naturalists, 20th-century dramatists delved
ever further into topics previously considered off limits: class war, sexuality, and the problematic
nature of human communication. The formal elements traditional to drama were also continually
undermined, until the very notions of character, plot, and dramatic performance were themselves
called into question. Works by Hauptmann, Schnitzler, Hofmannsthal, Wedekind, Sternheim,
Kaiser, Brecht, Borchert, Frisch, Duerrenmatt, Weiss, and Handke. Lectures, discussion, oral
reports. F. von Schwerin-High.
154. Great German Fiction. This course introduces students to some of the greatest works of
19th-and 20th-century German literature. Close reading of literary works by such authors as Kleist,
Keller, Mann, Rilke, Kafka, Hesse, Böll, Frisch, Grass, Wolf, and others is combined with key ideas
of selected representatives of the German intellectual tradition: Marx, Nietzsche, Freud, Adorno,
and others. Prerequisite: German 44. R. Burwick.
*161. Nationbuilding and Nationalism: A German Cultural History. Historical, cultural,
political, and psychological inquiry into nationalism, that central and controversial aspect of
German (cultural) history. German unifications, then and now. The shifts and rifts between
community and society, town and country, native and foreign that marked Germany’s transition
to modernity. The Germans’ sense of regional belonging and the creation of a national identity.
Analysis of the concept of “Heimat.” Materials include film as well as written accounts from
history, politics, culture, and literature, from around 1800 to the present. Emphasis on the 20th
century. H. Rindisbacher.
*162. Rich, Pretty, and Orderly? - What Makes Switzerland Tick. The doughnut hole of Europe
- in the middle but largely unfamiliar. This interdisciplinary course provides a comprehensive
account of the role of Switzerland in the European as well as global cultural and political
framework. We will study (literary) texts, films, historical and economic sources and analyze the
country’s political system, its neutrality and significant international presence. H. Rindisbacher.
*167. Metropolis: Imagining the City. Whether pictured as labyrinth, stage set, utopian pleasuredome
or gigantic living room, the urban landscape has played a crucial role in the attempt of 20thcentury
writers and artists to come to terms with modernity. The course will move from the squares
of 19th-century Berlin, the grid of Manhattan, to the malls and theme parks of Los Angeles, using
fiction (Poe, Kafka, Wm. Gibson), film (Lang, Wenders, R. Scott), essays (Eco, Didion), and urban
theory (Sennett, Choay) to investigate how changes in the perception of the city reflect the ways
modernity sees itself. M. Katz.
*170. The Culture of Nature. Historical, cultural, and political constructions of nature and human
roles in nature, from romanticism to the present. Ambivalence about naturalness and artificiality,
preservation and exploitation, economy and ecology. Emergence of modern ecological-political
movements and their roots in 18th-century romanticism, 19th-century nationalism, and 20thcentury
political correctness. Readings from history, politics, literature, and the social sciences. H.
Rindisbacher.
*176. Moscow-Berlin/Berlin-Moscow: Europe in Transformation. Addresses the changing
relationship between Germany and Russia (the Soviet Union) and how it has affected the countries
of Eastern Europe during the 20th century. Explores such issues as the political, cultural, and
military histories of the two countries, their literary and cultural traditions, and the many forms
of their interactions over time. No prerequisites. (See also German 189, German Across the
Curriculum). H. Rindisbacher, L. Rudova, C. Kliotschkine.