UCLA
The Department of Germanic LanguagesPhoto credit: Patricia Wiley
The UCLA Department of Germanic Languages offers a variety of undergraduate and graduate courses in English and German. For information about specific section times and locations please view the UCLA Schedule of Classes.
For a complete listing and description of department courses visit the UCLA General Catalog.
Lecture, four hours; language laboratory. Requisite: course 103A. Introduction to standard language of Netherlands and one of three standard languages of Belgium. Practice in grammar, listening, speaking, reading, and writing. P/NP or letter grading.
Lecture, four hours. Requisite: course 101A. P/NP or letter grading.
Lecture, five hours; laboratory, one hour. P/NP or letter grading.
Lecture, five hours; laboratory, one hour. Enforced requisite: course 1. P/NP or letter grade.
Lecture, five hours; laboratory, one hour. Enforced requisite: course 3. P/NP or letter grading.
Lecture, four hours; laboratory, one hour. Enforced requisite: course 4. P/NP or letter grading.
Seminar, one hour. Discussion of and critical thinking about topics of current intellectual importance, taught by faculty members in their areas of expertise and illuminating many paths of discovery at UCLA. P/NP grading.
Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. Taught in English. Introduction to strains of German philosophy and political thought that focus on the concept of cosmopolitanism. Departing from the “great man” model of history, the course explores the different historical and philosophical engagements with cosmopolitan projects. P/NP or letter grading.
Lecture, three hours. Taught in English. Tuesday/ Thursday 9:30-10:45am.
Topic: Germany and Europe.
In this course, we will examine the significance of Europe for postwar Germany and of Germany for postwar Europe through a wide variety of materials, from the founding documents of the EU and other policy papers to films, literary works, music, cartoons, and art performances. The emphasis will be on particularly contentious and recurring issues: borders and identities, history and memory, and the impact of migratory movements. You will learn about the shifting place of Germany in Europe since 1945 and understand European predicaments from the vantage point of the most populous and economically most powerful country on the continent. This course is taught entirely in English and requires no prior knowledge of Germany or of the EU.
Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. Taught in English. German philosophy, which may generally be characterized as philosophy that takes activity rather than passive subsistence to be fundamental nature of all things, is one of Germany’s greatest gifts to humanity. Exploration of first half of two-century history of German philosophy–period from Kant to Nietzsche, including Hegel, Kierkegaard, and Marx. Letter grading.
Lecture, three hours. Enforced requisite: course 152. Taught in English with German proficiency required. In-depth investigation of one topic in field of Germanic linguistics, such as phonetics and phonology, morphology and syntax, semantics and pragmatics, social and spatial variation (i.e., sociolinguistics and dialectology of German), or history of German. May be repeated for credit. Letter grading.
Lecture, three hours. Requisite: course 152 or 153. Taught in German. Reading and discussion of representative works (except Faust) from Goethe’s early period (Die Leiden des jungen Werther) through maturity and old age (West-östlicher Divan). Students work with digital humanities methods to improve German language competency and evaluate Goethe’s global influence on Western intellectual history. Letter grading.
Lecture, three hours. Requisite: course 152 or 153. Taught in German. Tuesday/ Thursday 12:30-1:45pm.
Topic: Art and Politics. Can art help solve political problems? Or does it distract and serve to cover them up? These questions have preoccupied German artists and thinkers for the last two centuries in a distinct way. In this course, you will learn about German culture, develop your analytical skills, and practice speaking and writing in German by diving into the topic through three cases studies. Thematic clusters will center around: 1) art between complicity and resistance; 2) the longing for Heimat and the significance of nature in art: utopian or reactionary? 3) contemporary art activism and the lessons of the past. Targeted grammar review and vocabulary building exercises will further support your language learning.
Seminar, three hours. Taught in English. Examination of work of Hannah Arendt in political theory with emphasis on connection between forms of government and precarious lives of others–Jews, the stateless, pariahs. Evaluation within comparative and transnational context of political action, public sphere, amor mundi, moral judgment, individual or collective responsibility, violence, and literature. Letter grading.