3.0

credits

Average Course Rating

From the middle ages to the present day, Jews have spoken German, been part of whatever it has meant to be German, and produced German culture. Yet this thousand-year history was repeatedly marred by persecution, murder, and expulsion, including the Holocaust. This course aims to survey the culture (primarily literature, but including music, visual art, and film) that resulted from this complicated history, focusing on the period from the 18th century to the present. We will look at highlights of German culture, from the philosophy of Moses Mendelssohn to the music of his grandson Felix, from the novels of Franz Kafka to the films of Hollywood director Ernst Lubitsch and beyond. We will examine the complicated ways identity is formed and shaped and the aesthetic and social consequences of the ways it has been contested. What it has meant to be German will be as much a subject of this course as what it has meant to be Jewish. All texts in translation.