Yale University | Department of German


			Graduate Courses Spring 2012 GMAN 585 01 (25264) /GMAN336/CPLT585 Intro to Middle HighGerman Lit William Whobrey TTh 11.35-12.50 STOECK 211 GMAN 614 01 (21085) /GMST333/GMAN222 Kleist's Here and Now Rudiger Campe T 3.30-5.20 WLH 004 The course provides a comprehensive introduction to the work of the German Romantic writer Heinrich von Kleist. We read major instances of his narrative prose, his dramatic work, and his journalism. Particular attention is given to Kleist's fascination with the immediate presence of "Here and Now": this fascination occurs as well in what we can call the invention of modern journalism (Berliner Abendblätter) as in his most radical literary experiments. GMAN 645 01 (21086) /GMST294/HUMS272 Fakes Kirk Wetters Th 3.30-5.20 WLH 203 Starting from Orson Welles's "F for Fake," which articulates the main questions of the course, we examine some of Welles's immediate sources of inspiration: Clifford Irving (including the recent film about his forged biography of Howard Hughes, The Hoax) and the art forger Elmyr de Hory. From there we look back at the literary tradition of the con artist: eighteenth-century German texts (particularly Goethe and Schiller) inspired by the figure of Cagliostro, Herman Melville's The Confidence-Man, Thomas Mann's Confessions of Felix Krull, Confidence Man, and André Gide's The Counterfeiters. To conclude the seminar, the class collectively chooses an additional contemporary con (perhaps James Frey's A Million Little Pieces) to investigate in detail. The final meetings are devoted to the Grand Inquisitor scene from Dostoevski's Brothers Karamazov and Ben Stiller's Tropic Thunder. GMAN 648 01 (20782) /CPLT648 Repetition Rainer Nagele W 1.30-3.20 HGS 303 Repetition emerges in the nineteenth century as a particular preoccupation. We concentrate on some specific philosophical and theoretical texts: Karl Marx (the Eighteenth Brumaire), Kirkegaard, Nietzsche, Freud. But we also discuss some of the ramifications of repetition in poetry, literature, and rhetoric (rhythm, rhyme, refrain, and literary motifs). GMAN 662 01 (21087) Baroque Theater: The Stage and the Text Rudiger Campe Th 1.30-3.20 WLH 115 Focusing on the German Baroque tragic drama (Gryphius, Lohenstein), we study also Spanish and Italian works of the period (Monteverdi, Calderón). Walter Benjamin's Origin of the German Tragic Drama (Trauerspiel) is discussed with reference to political theory, allegory, and the emblem. The course is designed as a general introduction to the Baroque, including more recent work such as Deleuze, Buci-Glucksmann, and others. Prerequisite: reading knowledge of German; Spanish and Italian desirable. GMAN 900 02 (25901) Directed Reading: Mass & Representation Rudiger Campe By arrangement with the faculty. GMAN 900 03 (25902) Directed Reading: Niklas Luhmann Rudiger Campe By arrangement with the faculty. GMAN 900 04 (25903) Directed Reading: Lacan Rainer Nagele By arrangement with the faculty. GMAN 900 05 (25904) Directed Reading: Heidegger: Being & Time Paul North 2 HTBA By arrangement with the faculty.