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Syllabus German Culture Film and Theater - 54806
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Last update 06-09-2017
HU Credits: 4

Degree/Cycle: 2nd degree (Master)

Responsible Department: cont. german studies:politics, soc.&cult

Semester: 2nd Semester

Teaching Languages: English

Campus: Mt. Scopus

Course/Module Coordinator: Dr. Tobias Ebbrecht-Hartmann


Coordinator Office Hours: Wednesdays, 8:00-10:00

Teaching Staff:
Dr. Tobias Ebbrecht Hartmann

Course/Module description:
The course introduces German contemporary culture in its different forms including theater, television, cinema, photography and visual arts.

Course/Module aims:
The course gives an insight into different sections and media of contemporary German culture. Furthermore it introduces theoretical approaches in order to understand and conceptualize German postwar culture.

Learning outcomes - On successful completion of this module, students should be able to:
- contextualize and analyze German culture, film and theater
- compare and evaluate cultural changes and developments in German and German speaking countries
- reflect the importance of culture for (shifting) identities
- read and understand theoretical concepts of culture

Attendance requirements(%):
80

Teaching arrangement and method of instruction: The course is mainly based on key texts from German media theory, social science, communications and critical theory. The post-war development of German culture, film and theater will be discussed through influential works (theater, film, and visual arts), technologies (photography, film), media systems (television) and theories. Students contribute with different tasks: presenting specific plays, films and artworks, reconstructing cultural debates, introducing theoretical articles

Course/Module Content:
- German post-war culture
- Epic theater
- Documentary theater
- East- and West-German Cinema
- Docudrama and Event-Television
- Rubble Film
- GDR cinema
- New German Cinema
- Post-unification cinema
- Trends in German documentary film
- East and West German Visual Arts
- Richter and Kiefer
- West German Photography
- GDR Photography

Required Reading:
Rob Burns and Wilfried van der Will, 'The Federal Republic 1968 to 1990: From the Industrial Society to the Culture Society,' German Cultural Studies: an introduction. Ed. Rob Burns (Oxford, 2007): 257-323.

Theodor W. Adorno, 'Cultural Criticism and Society,' The Adorno Reader, Ed. Brian O'Connor (Oxford, 2000), 195-210.

Walter Benjamin, The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility (Cambridge: Harward Univ. Pr., 2008), 19-55.

Leo Lowenthal, 'Historical Perspectives of Popular Culture,' American Journal of Sociology 55:4 (1950), 323-332.

Jürgen Habermas, 'The Public Sphere: An Encyclopedia Article (1964),' New German Critique 3 (1974), 49-55.

Alexander Kluge, 'On Film and the Public Sphere,' New German Critique, 24/25 (1981/1982), 206-220.

Hans-Magnus Enzensberger, 'Constituents of a Theory of the Media,' New Media Reader. Ed. Noah Wardrip-Fruin & Nick Montfort (Cambridge: MIT, 2003), 259-275.

A full reading list will be provided at the beginning of the seminar.

Additional Reading Material:

Course/Module evaluation:
End of year written/oral examination 0 %
Presentation 10 %
Participation in Tutorials 0 %
Project work 50 %
Assignments 10 %
Reports 30 %
Research project 0 %
Quizzes 0 %
Other 0 %

Additional information:
 
Students needing academic accommodations based on a disability should contact the Center for Diagnosis and Support of Students with Learning Disabilities, or the Office for Students with Disabilities, as early as possible, to discuss and coordinate accommodations, based on relevant documentation.
For further information, please visit the site of the Dean of Students Office.
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