Germanic Languages and Literatures
W. L. Harkness Hall, 432.0788
M.A., M.Phil., Ph.D.
Chair
Brigitte Peucker
Director of Graduate Studies
Ingeborg Glier [F] (305 WLH, 432.0782, ingeborg.glier@yale.edu)
Eric Schwab [Sp] (304 WLH, 432.0781, eric.schwab@yale.edu)
Professors
Ingeborg Glier (on leave [Sp]), Cyrus Hamlin, Carol Jacobs
(on leave [Sp]), Winfried Menninghaus (Visiting), Brigitte
Peucker
Assistant Professor
Matthias Konzett
Assistant Professors
Eric Schwab, Kirk Williams
Fields of Study
Fields include medieval literature, German literature
and culture from the Reformation to the twenty-first century
in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland; literary theory; literary
sociology; film.
Special Admissions Requirement
All students must provide evidence of mastery of German upon application.
Requirements for the Ph.D. Degree
Students are required to demonstrate, besides proficiency
in German, a reading knowledge of two other foreign languages,
one at the end of the second term, the other by the fifth
term of study. Recommended are Latin and French, although
other relevant languages may be substituted for these. The
faculty in German considers teaching to be essential to the
professional preparation of graduate students. Students in
German teach in their third and fourth years, at least. Students
are normally expected to teach undergraduate language courses
under supervision beginning in the third year of study. An
oral examination must be passed not later than the end of
the sixth term of study, and a dissertation prospectus should
be submitted soon thereafter, but not later than the seventh
term of study. All students will be asked to defend the prospectus
in an informal discussion with the faculty. The defense will
take place before the prospectus is officially approved, usually
in November or early December of the seventh term. Students
are admitted to candidacy for the Ph.D. upon completion of
all predissertation requirements, including the prospectus.
After the submission of the prospectus, the student’s
time is devoted to the preparation of the dissertation. A
dissertation committee will be set up for each student at
work on the dissertation. It is expected that students will
periodically pass their work along to all members of their
committee, so that faculty members in addition to the dissertation
adviser can make suggestions well before the dissertation
is submitted.
Two concentrations are available to students: Germanic Literature and German Studies.
Special Requirements for the Germanic Literature Concentration
During the first two years of study, students are
required to take sixteen term courses, four of which may be
taken outside the department.
Special Requirements for the German Studies Concentration
During the first two years of study, students are
required to take sixteen term courses, seven of which may
be taken outside the department. Students are asked to define
an area of concentration upon entry, and will meet with appropriate
advisers both from within and outside the department.
Master's Degrees
M.Phil. See Graduate
School requirements. Alternatively, the Department of
Germanic Languages and Literatures offers, in conjunction
with the Medieval Studies program, a joint M.Phil. degree.
For further details, see Medieval Studies.
M.A. (en route to the Ph.D.). Students enrolled in
the Ph.D. program may qualify for the M.A. degree upon completion
of a minimum of eight graduate term courses and the demonstration
of reading knowledge in either Latin or French.
Master's Degree Program. For the terminal master's
degree students must pass eight term courses, six of which
must be in the department, and demonstrate a reading knowledge
of either Latin or French. A comprehensive written examination
will be given at the end of the second term.
Program materials are available upon request to the Director of Graduate Studies,
Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures, Yale University, PO Box 208210,
New Haven CT 06520-8210; german@yale.edu.
Courses
GMAN 534a, Gottfried von Straßburg and the
Tristan Tradition. Ingeborg Glier. W 3.30–5.20
The seminar focuses on Gottfried von Straßburg’s
Tristan und Isold, which is the most sophisticated
and most puzzling of all medieval European Tristan versions.
We also examine other French and German Tristan texts before
and after Gottfried, then briefly discuss some late medieval
and early modern Tristan versions, and finally examine the
reception of Gottfried in the late nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries (Richard Wagner and Thomas Mann).
GMAN 560a, Poetics of Representation: Sebald, Rilke,
Yeats. Carol Jacobs. T 1.30–3.20
Readings of the works of three twentieth-century authors
who, in very different ways, challenge conventional modes
in which to consider the relationship between literature and
what we tend to call reality. Inevitably we have to take into
account on the one hand Sebald’s and Yeats’s difficult
stances toward what we tend to call the political, as well
as Rilke’s apparent withdrawal from the realm of such
worldly concerns. We necessarily also ask how to think the
performance of art and its implicit theorizations as crucial
to these questions. Also CPLT 531a.
GMAN 583bu, Mania and Mass Psychology. Eric
Schwab. W 3.30–5.20
Exploration of the correlation between traditional concepts
of mania (from enthusiasm to bipolar disorder) and the psychology
of human masses (from groups and crowds to mass culture and
religious and political movements). Readings from theoretical
and literary works (including Freud, Kant, Benjamin, Brecht,
Reich, Schreber, Canetti, Theweleit) as well as films (Metropolis,
Triumph of the Will, Kuhle Wampe) that attempt to describe,
explain, and/or transform the “mass” mentality
in some way. Topics include rhetoric and propaganda, communism
and fascism, violence and sexuality, schizophrenia and mass
media. Also CPLT 583bu.
GMAN 598au, Thomas Mann’s Novels: The Crises of
Modernity. Ingeborg Glier. MW 11.30–12.45
Analysis and comparison of three novels from Mann’s
early, middle, and late period: Königliche Hoheit, Der
Zauberberg, Doktor Faustus; their relation to Mann’s
other writings (essays, narratives) and their reflections
on the crises of the early twentieth century (in history,
literature, and music). Readings in German and English; conducted
in German.
GMAN 613bu, The Drama and Theater of Bertolt Brecht. Cyrus
Hamlin. TTh 11.30–12.45
The major plays by Bertolt Brecht are studied in the context
of their performance in the theater under his direction, specifically
in Berlin during the 1920s and after World War II from 1949
to 1956. Among the works to be studied are Baal, Drums
in the Night, In the Jungle of the Cities, Man Is Man, Threepenny
Opera, Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, The Measures
Taken, Saint Joan of the Stockyards, Mother Courage and Her
Children, Life of Galileo, The Good Woman of Setzuan,
and Caucasian Chalk Circle. Reading and discussion
in English. Occasional viewing of video materials. Also
CPLT 530bu.
GMAN 621au, European Bestsellers in Contemporary Fiction. Matthias
Konzett. M 1.30–3.20
This course examines recent European novels from the
1980s to the present, focusing on the growing sense of a shared
transnational European legacy and identity. Particular attention
is given to themes of historical memory, cultural identity,
postcolonial legacies, transformation of traditional European
culture, the opening toward Eastern Europe, and the negotiation
of multiculturalism. Authors include Kundera, Ransmayr, Kertesz,
Kureishi, Barnes, Mulisch, Jelinek, Sebald, Eco, Sarraute,
Chamoiseau, Ishiguro, Faschinger, and Cela.
GMAN 671bu, Ornament and Crime in Cosmopolitan Vienna. Matthias
Konzett. M 1.30–3.20
Expanding on Adolf Loos’s critique of the discrepancy
between official pomp and ornament in turn-of-the-century
Viennese architecture, and the substandard living conditions
of the city’s masses, an examination of the social and
aesthetic contradictions that surround Vienna’s metropolis
and its cosmopolitan culture. Works by Loos, Freud, Herzl,
Hofmannsthal, Kraus, Wittgenstein, Schoenberg, Klimt, Schiele,
and others; well-known studies on Vienna, and critical theories
on Cosmopolitan and migrant identities.
GMAN 675b, Walter Benjamin’s Literary Criticism. Winfried
Menninghaus. T 3.30–5.20
Walter Benjamin’s literary criticism provides a
critical transformation of both aesthetic concepts (beauty,
semblance, the sublime), and rhetorical figures (irony, allegory).
It puts into question the relations of myth, literature, philosophy,
dream, and history. The seminar focuses on a discussion of
Benjamin’s highly influential basic concepts while at
the same time drawing on some of the literary works he deals
with. The second half of the class is devoted to the way the
later Benjamin of the “Arcades Project” transforms
his modes of literary readings into a new kind of reading
societal “dream energies” in fashion, technology,
architecture, interior design, and trends of the visual arts.
Also CPLT 950b.
GMAN 720bu, The Films of Fassbinder, Herzog, and Wenders. Brigitte
Peucker. Th 1.30–3.20
The three major directors of the New German Cinema. Topics
include postmodernism; high and low culture; film’s
relation to the other arts; issues of gender, race, and national
identity; the influence of Hollywood. Also FILM 763bu.
GMAN 730au, German Cinema 1945–1965: Cold War
Film Culture. Katie Trumpener. TTh 11.30–12:45
Juxtaposing East and West German films, this course explores
their diverging accounts of Nazi and postwar life; the theory
and practice of socialist filmmaking; cinema culture; questions
of genre; the emerging New Waves. Also CPLT 932au, FILM
729au.
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