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.

"Refugee Narratives in a Transmedia World" In recent years, creative texts and new media projects have challenged the proliferation of a certain kind of popular refugee narrative. The structure of this narrative, which appears as digestible reels on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok, or as news segments on CNN and Tagesschau—Germany’s most-watched television news program—is generally as follows: a displaced person successfully flees a war-torn country through the humanitarian embrace of a Western nation-state and, upon arrival, assimilates to their new society. If a refugee resists this narrative, they are deemed “ungrateful” or “bad.” In this course, we will study the work of artists and activists who work around this dominant narrative, while considering how the figure of the refugee works its way trans-medially across public discourses, news reels, and creative engagements. Throughout the semester, we will ask: does it matter who tells our stories of flight and asylum? How does the ethics of representation change when refugees initiate artistic projects themselves; at the same time, how might refugee artists be relieved of the burden and social pressure to act as political spokespeople? As cultural consumers of these texts, we will consider both the limits and promises of an empathetic practice of reading and film-viewing, in which one supposedly becomes immersed within the world of another. This course is divided into 4 units: literature, film, graphic novels, and new media. We will engage with a variety of forms, including critical essays, novels, films, graphic novels, poetry, art, VR, social media, and digital projects. Students will develop and practice the appropriate analytical and compositional strategies for engaging with these various forms, while developing their own ideas and theories about the course’s overall theme.

Requisites

• Satisfaction of the Entry Level Writing Requirement.

Credit Restrictions

Students will receive no credit for GERMAN R5A after passing GERMAN 5A.

Repeat Rules

Course is not repeatable for credit.

Requirements class fulfills