MONASH UNIVERSITY FACULTY HANDBOOKS
Arts Graduate Handbook 1996
Published by Monash University
Clayton, Victoria 3168, Australia
Caution
Copyright © Monash University 1996
ISBN 1320-6222
Authorised by Academic Registrar, April 1996
Department of German Studies and Slavic Studies
Head: Professor Philip Thomson
Graduate coordinator: Professor David Roberts
The Department of German offers three postgraduate courses leading to research
degrees: MA by coursework and thesis, MA by thesis, and PhD. All courses may be
taken full-time or part-time. Students can specialise in German literature or
German linguistics.
Members of staff and their fields of special interest
SILKE HESSE Franz Kafka; baroque literature; Grimmelshausen; women's
literature.
HEINZ KREUTZ applied linguistics; sociolinguistics, social dialectology; second
language acquisition; contrastive rhetoric and cross cultural communication;
discourse and text analysis; business German and German for special purposes;
language teaching.
PAVEL PETR Kafka; German literature of Prague; theory of the comic; empirical
studies of literature.
KATE RIGBY romanticism; modernism; postmodernism; literary theory; cultural
criticism; feminist theory; drama and theatre studies.
DAVID ROBERTS Heinrich Mann; Goethe, Canetti; theory of the German novel;
realism in literature; contemporary German literature; theory of parody;
postmodernism.
PHILIP THOMSON the grotesque; modern German poetry; literary theory; B. Brecht;
contemporary German and Australian fiction.
WALTER VEIT medieval and baroque studies; comparative literature; literary
theory; poetics; aesthetics, rhetoric and intercultural studies.
MONTY WILKINSON German synchronic and diachronic syntax and phonology; older
stages of Germanic languages; grammatical relations and linguistic
universals.
Doctor of Philosophy
For students with a BA honours degree (H2A or above) or equivalent, or an MA or
equivalent. Candidates are required to write a thesis on a topic approved by
the department. They will be asked to deliver papers at research seminars
designed to discuss problems of research in progress, and prepare for regular
discussion with their supervisor.
Master of Arts by thesis only
For students with a BA honours degree (H2A or above) or equivalent. Students
are required to write a thesis on a topic approved by the department, to attend
seminars relevant to their area of research and prepare for regular discussions
with their supervisor.
Master of Arts by research and coursework
The MA by coursework and thesis is designed to give all MA candidates an
introduction to and experience in modern research methods, to give candidates
proceeding to the PhD a broader background in their chosen subject and to offer
those for whom the MA is the final goal an opportunity to extend their
professional knowledge. Students pursue a supervised course of reading in their
chosen options, and will be required to write a number of essays. They will be
asked to prepare for and actively participate in regular seminars conducted by
specialists, and in Part II of the MA will write a thesis on a topic connected
with one of the options selected.
MA Part I
Compulsory subjects
GNM4400 is compulsory for German linguistics students; GNM4600 is compulsory
for German literature students; GNM4020 and GNM4030 are compulsory for both.
For students entering with a three-year bachelor degree with credit results in
the third part of the major sequence. Students complete forty-eight points of
coursework.
+ GNM4020.06 Advanced German language I
+ GNM4030.06 Advanced German language II
+ GNM4180.12 German drama, theatre and society
+ GNM4200.12 Medieval language and literature
+ GNM4360.12 The cultural critics
+ GNM4380.12 Language and society: sociolinguistics from a German language
perspective
+ GNM4400.12 German phonology and morphology
+ GNM4600.06 Theory of literary criticism I: the theory
+ GNM4610.06 Theory and practice of literary criticism II: the practice
+ GNM4660.12 Special reading course in German
+ GNM4760.12 Women and German writing
+ GNM4780.12 German for business and trade
MA Part II
Students with a BA honours degree with a grade of H2A or above, or equivalent,
may be permitted to go straight into Part II. Two of the following subjects
will be undertaken plus a 66 per cent thesis of 25-35000 words. Some of the
coursework subjects are available in both first and second semesters.
Students specialising in literature
+ GNM5010.08Medieval German literature
+ GNM5020.08 Sixteenth and seventeenth-century German literature
+ GNM5040.08 Classical German literature
+ GNM5050.08 Romanticism in German literature
+ GNM5070.08German literature 1900 to 1945
+ GNM5080.08 German literature 1945 to the present day
+ GNM5160.08 Special topic (in consultation with the staff)
Students specialising in linguistics
+ GNM5100.08 German syntax
+ GNM5150.08 Special topic (in consultation with the staff)
Students interested in interdisciplinary studies may, with the permission of
the faculty and the departments or centres concerned, count graduate work
undertaken in other departments and centres towards this degree.
Facilities
The library
The Monash University library has a large collection of books in the field of
German studies and subscribes to the main scholarly journals. There are also
good stocks of German books and journals in the Baillieu Library of the
University of Melbourne and in the State Library of Victoria. In the field of
German, the Monash library has concentrated on the period from the eighteenth
to the twentieth centuries and has in particular an excellent collection of
modern German linguistics and contemporary German literature. There is also a
well established interlibrary loan system.
Interdisciplinary activities
The department works in close collaboration with the Centre for European
Studies, the Centre for Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies and the
Centre for Women's Studies, all of whose seminars are open to German Studies
students and staff.
Conferences
On the national level there are a number of conferences relevant to German
linguistics, literature, area studies and the history of ideas. Students are
encouraged to attend such conferences and may apply for financial assistance.
Proceedings of some conferences are published.
Studies abroad
All graduate students are strongly encouraged to conduct a part of their
studies in a German speaking country. The department will assist in obtaining
scholarships and has made arrangements with German universities enabling
students to continue their courses under supervision and with a maximum of
assistance.
| Details of subjects Part 1
| Arts Graduate handbook
| Monash handbooks
| Monash University