German Studies 360 - ADVANCED TOPICS IN GER STUDIES

Each topic will focus on a particular literary epoch, movement, genre or author from German literary culture. All sections taught in German. Is humor incompatible with the German character? Why is there no German Shakespeare or Moliere? If there is such a thing as German humor, is it connected to Jewishness? George Eliot raises such questions in her seminal essay on Heinrich Heine, "German Wit" (1854), which will provide the starting point for a consideration of wit, humor, irony, satire, comedy in the literature, opera, and film of German-speaking countries. Writings by, for example, Lessing, Heine, Buchner, Nestroy, Freud, Th. Mann, Kafka, Brecht, Durrenmatt, Frisch, Bernhard; operas by Mozart, Wagner, and R. Strauss; films by Ernst Lubitsch, Billy Wilder, Doris Dorrie, and Dani Levy. Conducted in German.

Topic: German Wit. Permission Instructor/Chair. Not open to first-years, sophomores