NO GERMAN REQUIRED FOR THIS COURSE
My name is Chris Chiasson, and I will be teaching) the Introduction
to German Cultural History (GER-E 121) in the first summer session. The
course fulfills IUB GenEd World Culture
Credit, the COLL S&H Breadth
of Inquiry Credit, or the COLL
Global Civ and Culture Credit in the first summer session.
GER-E 121 Freaks, Geeks, and Misfits: An Introduction to German
Cultural History
Loners, gypsies, hopeless romantics, losers, &
punks---they are the core
material of German culture, but why? The misfit has a unique
place in German cultural history because s/he represents Germany (and
German-ness) itself: Germany did not achieve the status of a nation-state until
1871, centuries after France, England, and Spain had done so, and Austria did
not emerge from the medieval bureaucracy and quasi-statehood of the
multi-ethnic Austro-Hungarian Empire until 1918. Germans have both taken pride
in their difference and been ashamed of their “backwardness,” often at the same
time. The figure of the misfit thus embodies their own relationship to their
more “enlightened” neighbors to the west.
In this class, we will follow the figure of the misfit in
various forms, guises, and media from the emergence of German national
consciousness in the 1770s to today. We will start from the question: how are
the normal and the everyday defined, and how is the abnormal created? Looking
at literary, sociological, medical, biological, psychological, philosophical,
and political texts, as well as art and architecture, film and music (if people
are willing), and one graphic novel, we will consider in a broad sweep the fate
of the outsider in German culture, whether it is the revolutionary of the
1840s, the hysteric of the 1890s, the terrorist of the 1960s, or the Turkish
minority of today.
Students will write two 3-5 page papers, make one
presentation, and take a final exam.
The two texts that students need to purchase are:
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang. The Sorrows of Young Werther.
Trans. Burton Pike. Modern Library Classics, 2004.
ISBN: 978-0812969900
Lutes, Jason. Berlin: City of Stones. Drawn and Quarterly,
2001.
ISBN: 978-1896597294
All other readings will be available either through Oncourse
or e-reserve and should be printed out and brought to class. Any questions
regarding this course should be addressed to Chris Chiasson at cchiasso@indiana.edu.
