GRN3090 - German Studies 9

Leader: Heinz Kreutz

Offered

Clayton First semester 2007 (Day)

Synopsis

Component 1: Spoken and written German. Areas covered will be politics, history, social issues, environmental issues, humour, literature and literary figures. Attention will also be given to general aspects of daily life, including colloquial language and proverbs, and to technical language. Component 2: The focus is on the artistic and intellectual developments in German and Austrian culture from the Fin du Siecle until the end or World War 2. This period covers styles such as Naturalism, Expressionism and 'Neue Sachlichkeit' as well as the rise of psychoanalysis or modern sociology.

Objectives

Component 1: Upon successful completion of this subject and its sequel in semester 2, students should have extended and deepened their knowledge of the German language and German culture; improved their knowledge of the finer points of German grammar; extended their vocabulary as much as possible through wide reading of various types of texts, including television and radio materials; acquired practice in using German in both spoken and written form to discuss topics of current interest, based principally on the reading of a wide range of newspaper articles; become familiar with language containing varying degrees of dialect influence; acquired the ability to translate complicated, non-specialist German texts into idiomatic English, and to translate fairly complicated English texts into German. Students should also have gained a knowledge of the relationship between the German language and its speakers, a knowledge of the differences between dialect and standard German, a knowledge of the phonetics of Modern Standard German and a knowledge of the International Phonetic Alphabet as applied to Modern Standard German. After completion of component 2, students should also have

1. gained an understanding how intellectual life and cultural discourses evolved from 18th and 19th century traditions into their contemporary forms,
2. developed appreciation of the artistic and intellectual achievements during this process
3. achieved the ability to recognise styles, genres, intellectual preoccupations in their socio-historical contexts, and
4. developed their oral and writing skills to engage in informed discussion of German culture, using appropriate terminology and applying the range of language skills pertinent to component 1.

Assessment

Essay (1000 words): 20%
Class paper: 15%
Test (45 min.): 15%
Exam (1 hour): 20%
4 homework exercises: 20%
Oral assessment: 10%

Contact hours

4 hours (2 x seminars and 2 x tutorials) per week

Prerequisites

GRN2080 or equivalent

Prohibitions

GRN1090, GRN2090, GRN3050, GRN3070