German

MDLL1004A - Basic German Language and Culture (Semester 1 / E-diagonal)

This unit introduces German language and culture to beginners. The language periods will be orientated around central themes that will assist students to learn to speak, read, write and understand German. Parallel to the language periods, there will be a tutorial and 1 further culture period where students will be introduced to the contemporary culture of Germany and other German-speaking countries (Austria and Switzerland).

MDLL1010A - Intermediate German Language and Culture (Semester 2 / E-diagonal)

This unit builds on MDLL1004A and continues the introduction to German at an intermediate level. In addition to the study of German language, students will partake in culture periods. The culture periods further the understanding of culture and politics of Germany and other German-speaking countries, building on the culture periods in MDLL1004A.

MDLL2003A - German Language and Text Production IIA (Semester 1 / D-diagonal)

In the language periods, students will strive to achieve language level A2.1. In the literature periods, students are introduced to different genres of Literature by reading and discussing a selection of graphic novels, poetry, and short stories in German. Furthermore, the literary periods serve as an introduction to the field of Literary Studies.

MDLL2004A - German Language and Text Production IIB (Semester 2 / D-diagonal)

This unit continues with the reinforcement of language skills. In the two double language seminars you will enhance your reading, listening, speaking and writing skills. The literature lectures are a continuation of the first semester, but longer and more complex texts will be analysed. The lectures will be mainly in German with English explanations where necessary.

MDLL3012A - Selected Topic in German: The Contemporary Novel (Semester 1 / C-diagonal)

This course is divided into two parts focussing on literature with relevance to the African continent: In the first teaching block, the crime fiction genre will be critically discussed. In the second teaching block, the critically acclaimed novel by the Black-German author Sharon Dodua Otoo’s “Adas Raum”, that spans five centuries from 15th century Ghana to present-day Berlin will be analysed with reference to postcolonial theory as well as its innovative narrative style.

MDLL3002A - Advanced German Composition and Stylistics (Semester 1 / C-diagonal)

Four lecture periods per week deals with the reinforcement of German grammar, text production and spoken language at an advanced level (B1.1). In the Composition & Stylistics lecture period, various texts will be read and produced from a stylistic point of view, sensitising students to ways in which language mediates our perception of the world and especially contemporary German culture.

MDLL3006A - German Classicism and Romanticism (Semester 2 / C-diagonal)

This course aims to introduce two key periods of German literature and culture whose texts are still being used as inspiration in various fields to this day. German Classicism is considered to be the period of Goethe’s and Schiller’s friendship from the late 18th century to Schiller’s death (1805). The tragedy “Faust I” by Goethe will be discussed as a work of the German Klassik. Beauty, truth and virtue combined with harmony, objectivity and formal perfection were the ethical and aesthetic ideals of the German Classical period that was a synthesis of the rationalism of the Aufklärung and the emotionalism of the Sturm und Drang. Against this, Romanticism can be viewed as a rupture, which stresses the subjective, irrational side of the psyche and which strives in its aesthetic towards the infinite (“Universalpoesie”) which encompasses an amalgamation of all genres. Selections from Grimms’ Fairy Tales will be discussed as examples of the German Romantik.

MDLL3009A - German Negotiating Language (Semester 2 / C-diagonal)

This unit builds on MDLL3002A and furthers the reinforcement of German grammar, text production and spoken language at an advanced level (B1.2), with an emphasis on advanced grammar, text writing and translation.