This course offers a survey of modern German literary, cultural, and intellectual currents, as well as an introduction to argumentation and analysis. Students will examine numerous issues and questions central to defining the complexity of modern German culture. R5A satisfies the first half of the Reading and Composition requirement, and R5B satisfies the second half.

"Is there something objectively good about great art? What does it mean to say that taste is subjective? What is the purpose of art – and does it even need one? What does the media we consume say to us? What does it say about us? In the mid-18th century, the German philosopher Alexander Baumgarten coined the term “aesthetics” to designate a theory of sensibility that produces a certain kind of knowledge, that is, knowledge derived from our sensual perceptions. This course will survey the next 200 years in the German tradition of aesthetics and the philosophy of art, exploring its central concerns about the relationship of art and entertainment to truth and how our interaction with media reflects and even shapes the way we experience reality as a whole. At each meeting we will analyze a short excerpt from theories of art by poets, playwrights, novelists, filmmakers, and philosophers. The research component will familiarize students not only with secondary scholarship, but also with artworks by these theorists and their contemporaries. Students will come out of the course having cultivated the research, vocabulary, and argumentation skills necessary to write convincing academic papers. All readings and written assignments are in English. R5B satisfies the second half of the Reading and Composition requirement."

Requisites

• Previously passed an R_A course with a letter grade of C- or better. Previously passed an articulated R_A course with a letter grade of C- or better. Score a 4 on the Advanced Placement Exam in English Literature and Composition. Score a 4 or 5 on the Advanced Placement Exam in English Language and Composition. Score of 5, 6, or 7 on the International Baccalaureate Higher Level Examination in English.

Credit Restrictions

Students will receive no credit for GERMAN R5B after passing GERMAN 5B.

Repeat Rules

Course is not repeatable for credit.

Requirements class fulfills