Beyond the “Two Cultures Model”: German...

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Beyond the “Two Cultures Model”: German Literature/EcologyCharlotte Melin

Department of German, Scandinavian and DutchUniversity of Minnesota-Twin Cities

The Case for German + Sustainability Studies

German 3441—Course Description

Readings

Course Objectives

Forum Discussions

Active Learning Assessments

Student-generated Glossary

Global Connections On-line

Works Cited

Contact information

Goodbody, Axel. Nature, Technology and Cultural Change inTwentieth-Century German Literature. Palgrave: McMillen,2007.

MLA Ad Hoc Committee on Foreign Languages. “ForeignLanguages and Higher Education: New Structures for a ChangedWorld.” Profession. New York: Modern Language Association ofAmerica, 2007.

Snow, C. P. The Two Cultures. Cambridge: Cambridge UniversityPress, 1998.

Umweltbundesamt. http://www.umweltbundesamt.de/index-e.htm

Volcanic eruptions in Iceland, local food, oil exploration, pollutedwaters, aluminum factories, Chernobyl, global warming—if youfollow the news in the past year, these items have been on yourradar, but did you know that these issues have been important inGerman literature in the long 20th century? In this course, we willexplore environmental issues through the lens of German literary,film, and nonfiction texts. Our readings will include poetry,Enzensberger’s epic poem about the limits of technologicalprogress, Der Untergang der Titanic (The Sinking of the Titanic),short novels and novellas. We will begin with Kaminer’s satire aboutgardening, local food, and Thoreau, Mein Leben im Schrebergarten(My Life in the Garden Plot). Turning our attention to Raabe’sPfisters Muehle (Pfister’s Mill) from 1884, which describes the linkbetween factory construction and water pollution, we will encounterwhat is considered to be the first text in German aboutenvironmental issues. Thomas Mann’s “Tristan” (1901), a story thattakes place in an alpine sanatorium, introduces us to the ways inwhich landscape has been imagined to shape identity.Leutenegger’s Kontinent (Continent) records the impressions of afictional journalist assigned to research the community near to aSwiss aluminum plant, Wolf’s Stoerfall (Accident: A Day’s News)meditates on the implications of Chernobyl in terms of human life,and Falkner’s Bruno takes a wry look at the handling of a rougebear incident as well the issue of global warming. Parallel to theliterary our reading of texts, we will analyze several cinematictreatments of ecological issues and examine essays in ecocritism(Goodbody) that will guide our analysis of texts.

“Literary intellectuals at the one pole—at the other scientists . . .” —C. P. Snow, The Two Cultures (1959)

“. . . language is understood as an essential element ofa human being’s thought processes, perceptions, and self-expressions; and as such it is considered to be at the core of translingual and transcultural competence. . . . Language is a complex multifunctional phenomenon that links an individual to other individuals, to communities, and to national cultures.” —MLA Ad Hoc Committee on Foreign Languages (2007)

“Germany is global leader in exports of environmental protectionproducts” —Umweltbundesamt/The Federal Environmental Agency (2008)

Course premise: The majority of German majors are double majorsand many students who minor in the department have majorsin fields that intersect with sustainability studies, such as Global Studies, Journalism, Ecology and related science disciplines.Internationalization of the curriculum connects theseareas of educational concentration.

Charlotte MelinDepartment of German, Scandinavian and DutchUniversity of Minnesota-Twin Cities

melin005@umn.edu

In this course students will:

expand abilities to read, interpret, and appreciate literary

and multi-media texts related to environmental topics.

exercise effective communication skills in German and English

in ways that lead to the development of critical literacy skills

explore the complex relationships among the

formal/aesthetic dimensions of literature, the social/historical

contexts of works we read, and the global perspectives relevant

to addressing environmental issues today.

Each week students participate in a discussion blog written in German. The topics ask students to connect the assigned readingswith other aspects of their learning and experience. Students who have engaged in study abroad add contrastive perspectives.

Sample questions:

Kaminer uses descriptions of photographs at the beginningof his work to contrast the relationship to nature of generations in and past and people today. Select two photographs that show the relationship between man and nature and describe them in German.

Compare the understanding of environmental issues inPfisters Muehle with the situation today. To what extent do we seeenvironmental questions similarly? How do we view progress today differently from Raabe’s characters?

Consumer goods play an important role in the work weare reading as an indication of our impact on the environment. Select an object and analyze its potential impact on the environment. What do you thinkit means to think of consumption as a sustainabilityissue?

For grade credit, students contribute vocabulary items to a glossary located at the course website. Entries include key terminology, grammatical information (such as noun gender), definitions, anexample of how the word can be used in a sentence, andappropriate citations.

Sample (in English translation):

der Schrebergarten: small garden in a garden colony, named afterDr. Daniel G. M. Schreber (1808-61). The Schrebergarten is a microcosm of Switzerland today <http://www.swissinfo.ch>.

Links from the course website facilitate exploration of international connections through supplementary readings,video, and audio materials. Students have opportunities tocritically evaluate the reliability of websites, use on-line reference sources, and encounter dialectical variations in spoken German.

Students research materials for oral reports and collaborativefinal project. (Sample courtesy of Jennifer Decker)