Advanced German: Expanding Perspectives (Foreign Cultural Literacy)
Topics / Contexts / Cultural Products
- Issues of social significance in contemporary Germany (problems connected with reunification, multiculturalism, gender issues, globalisation, role of Germany in the EU, remembering the holocaust, identity and nation, science and technology) are the explicit topical focus of these courses.
- Where possible, these issues should be placed in their historical contexts, and the second semester could explore a single topic diachronically, through the distant and more recent past.
- Cultural representations from popular and high culture (art, architecture, music, poetry, film, TV, news-media, literature). Focus on distinguishing features of different media and genre (e.g. soap opera vs. Familienserie).
Texts
- Articles from slightly more challenging newspapers / magazines / journals; short stories; TV shows (various genre); books; songs; Internet; Jugendliteratur, etc.
- At least one full-length novel or play in each semester (e.g. Die Geschichte von Herrn Sommer [Suesskind], Der Vorleser [Schlink], Homo Faber [Frisch]).
- At least 3 full length films each semester.