Students take 4 courses per term for 2 years, with a total of 16 courses required. Students should consult with the Director of Graduate Study (DGS), who must approve each schedule. One or two credits may be in Directed Reading courses under the supervision of a faculty member, with the approval of the DGS. Up to 4 credits may be awarded for prior work done at the graduate level, provided the student’s first-year record at Yale is very good.
The German Literature Track: 4 courses may be taken outside the department.
The German Studies Track: 7 courses may be taken outside the department. There should be some coherence in the choice of outside courses.
By the beginning of the third semester of study, students are required to give evidence of a reading knowledge of one language (other than their native language) that is highly relevant to the study of German literature and culture. The department strongly recommends French, but other languages may possibly be approved on consultation with the DGS.
Students who are not native speakers of German must pass a written and oral examination in German before beginning to teach German at Yale. A departmental examination, both written and oral, will be administered in the 3rd term of study, so that there will be ample time for improvement, should that prove necessary.
Students are expected to begin teaching in the third year of study, while preparing for the oral examination. It is advised that they teach at least one additional year: if, for instance, they hold a fellowship for study abroad during the 4th year, they should teach during the 5th year.
The Oral Examination (or qualifying examination) assesses the student’s knowledge and understanding of the discipline. Students are required to pass the oral examination by the end of the 6th term of study, usually in early May of that year. The examination is divided into the following parts:
I. Three historical sections are intended to give the student an overview of the field:
1. Medieval through Baroque;
2. Enlightenment through Romanticism;
3. Biedermeier to the present
II. Three sections are based on the interests and course work of the student, thus allowing students to deepen their knowledge of areas of special interest.
III. A final section is geared towards the dissertation topic. It is intended to prepare students for writing the dissertation prospectus.
Each section is 20 minutes long. Reading lists are compiled by each student in close consultation with the DGS and the examiners, and with particular attention to the range and coverage of the field and subfields.
After the student has passed the Oral Examination, the student may apply for fellowships for study abroad for an entire academic year. For students in their first and/or second year, the department offers 8-week fellowships for study in Baden-Wuerttemberg universities during the summer.
The prospectus for the dissertation must be submitted by September 15th of the 7th term of study. It should be approximately 10-12 pages in length. It should:
1. provide an overview of the dissertation project,
2. situate the project within the relevant secondary literature,
3. describe the scholarly contribution that the dissertation is expected to make,
4. give an overview of what each chapter is expected to focus upon, and
5. it must include a bilbliography of relevant primary and secondary texts.
The prospectus should be written in close consultation with the dissertation advisor, who must approve it before it is submitted to the rest of the faculty.
Shortly after the student has submitted the prospectus, the entire faculty will convene to discuss the prospectus with the student. If serious objections to the project are raised, the student is expected to revise the prospectus to meet these objections. The prospectus must be approved early in the 7th term of study.
7. The Dissertation and the Dissertation Fellowship:
The culmination of the student’s work is the dissertation. Each student will choose a dissertation committee of three people, one or two of whom will serve as the student’s primary advisor(s). Drafts of each chapter must be submitted in a timely fashion to all members of the student’s committee: the first chapter must be submitted to the committee by April 1st of the fourth year of study; the second chapter must be submitted by January 1st of the fifth year. Formal chapter reviews will be held for each of these chapters, during which the student will discuss his or her work with the members of the dissertation committee.
It is expected that the student will present the first chapter of the dissertation to the Graduate Student Forum in September of the 5th year of study. The Graduate Student Forum is designed to give students a chance to present papers, talks, and dissertation chapters to their peers and to faculty members.
The dissertation is ideally 200-250 double-spaced pages in length.