GERM 303 - Topics in German Literature

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SP. This course focuses on reading text, primarily the literary text. Since it is an entryway to upper-level study, we also spend time on skill development and vocabulary acquisition. Students are introduced to significant literary texts in German from a range of periods; major works are read in their entirety. Attention is given to the particular demands of reading each genre, allowing the course to serve both as an introduction to significant works and also as an introduction to the processes and skills of interpreting literary texts in German. Students learn how to describe and evaluate the aesthetic dimension of a literary work such as its genre, its style, its dramatic structure, its narrative perspective, or its use of metaphors and symbols. Students read, analyze, and discuss texts in their historical and cultural setting. Attention is given to discerning and articulating the world-and-life view informing each text through close reading, and also to the virtues of hospitality, care and attentiveness bound up with such close reading. Students learn to discover and articulate how each author in his or her period presents questions such as the nature of the human person, the nature of good and evil, and the presence or absence of redemptive forces in the world. The course provides students the opportunity to develop their oral and written communication skills. They will give oral plot summaries, write reflection papers in German and English, and do creative writing activities. The course is conducted mainly in German. Prerequisite(s): GERM 202 or equivalent.