Skip to main content

What is GSLL offering this semester?

Every semester GSLL offers undergraduate students:

  • First-Year Seminars;
  • Beginning, Intermediate, and Advanced Language Courses;
  • English-Language Seminars and Lectures on Language, Linguistics, Literature, Film, Philosophy, and Culture;
  • Language, Linguistics, Literature, Film, Philosophy, and Culture Seminars taught in the Target Language;
  • Individual Seminars on Independent Readings;
  • Honors Thesis Mentoring.

GSLL also offers every semester for graduate students German- and English-language courses in Literature, Linguistics, Theory, Film & Media Studies.

The following catalogue of current courses is organized according to language and level.

In the event you have questions, contact the director of undergraduate or graduate studies.

 

FALL 2023 COURSE DESCRIPTIONS

 

 

Courses for First-Year Students

GSLL 51.                First-Year Seminar: Stalin and Hitler: Historical Issues in Cultural and Other Perspectives.

This course deals with critical issues,  in the broadest possible context,  that dominated the 20th  century:  the rise of fascism from the carnage of World War One and the Bolshevik revolution to which the war and Czarist Russia’s involvement in it helped contribute.  Drawing on a variety of historical and documentary films and literature (memoirs, novels), we will take a comparative look at singular personalities like  Lenin, Stalin, and Hitler and examine the role played by such key figures in historical events of this magnitude.  Toward the end of the semester, we glance briefly at the situation created in Western and Eastern Europe by the defeat of fascism and contemplate the origins and evolution of the cold war.  We conclude with a consideration of the dissolution and democratization of Eastern European countries, the collapse of the Soviet Union, and, against the tragic background of the past, the general outlook for democracy in the future.

IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FY-SEMINAR.

Making Connections Gen Ed: HS, GL.

Pike. TTH 2:00 – 3:15.

GSLL 68. Intensity, Vitality, Ecstasy: Affects in Literature, Film, and Philosophy.

This course focuses on three powerful affects: intensity, vitality, and ecstasy. We will examine philosophical, literary, and artistic representations of these affective states without being tempted to produce an absolute definition of them.

We will also consider the ramifications of these affects when authors attempt to integrate them into social, political, and imaginative practices. Emphasis will be placed on creative responses to texts that can be difficult and obscure.

Authors include: Plato, Sappho, Plotinus, Marcus Aurelius, Hildegard von Bingen, Mechthild von Magdeburg, Meister Eckhart, Bruno, Pascal, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Pessoa, Cixous, and Deleuze/Guattari, among others.

All readings and class discussions in English.

Gen Ed: FC-Knowing or FC-Values

Trop. TR 12:30 – 1:15 PM.

GSLL 76.                First-Year Seminar: Uncharted Territory: Underworlds in Literature and the Visual Arts. 

This course examines concepts and representations of underworlds in literature and the visual arts from the ancient world to the Middle Ages and Renaissance to modernity. Our journey will take us to the realms of the afterlife as well as into the abyss of the human psyche and the shady areas of underground criminal activities. We will explore how the desire to know the beyond has triggered people’s imagination, inspired literary and artistic traditions.

IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FY-SEMINAR, FC-AESTH or FC-PAST.

Prica. MWF 11:15 AM – 12:05 PM.

 

IDST 190.020         The Future of Food.

You’ve probably been offered almond milk, but have you heard of potato milk? It’s coming. The ways we make, eat, and think about food are constantly changing. What will food look like a decade or century from now? This course combines perspectives from science fiction, anthropology, public policy, and marine ecology to address related questions: How has our love of and need for food influenced our social and political structures, trade and conflict among cultures, and exploration of our planet? How does food affect our relationships and shape our sense of who we are? How do policy choices shape the food we eat? How can we feed 8 billion humans without sacrificing the environment? How might technology and innovation shape our future food? This class will probably make you really hungry, and it might even change how you think about the food you eat.

Rose, Krome-Lukens, O’Connell. MWF, 10:10 AM – 11:00 AM.

 

 

Beginning, Intermediate, and Advanced Language Courses

BCS 401.                Elementary Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian Language I.    

This course is designed for new learners and heritage speakers of BCS who wish to develop elementary proficiency in four major language competencies: listening, speaking, reading and writing. It introduces key linguistic and sociocultural aspects of contemporary BCS and will be an asset to students looking to reconnect with their family heritage, visit the region or simply get acquainted with this major Slavic language and the culture(s) behind it.

Dzumhur. TTH 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM.

 

BCS 403.                Intermediate Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian Language I.  

The second year of BCS instruction will continue to build grammar and communication skills for intermediate low and heritage speakers. We will revisit and review many of the grammar concepts from the previous year while gradually incorporating new vocabulary and developing cultural competencies through a variety of authentic sources in the target language (comics, films, music and others).

Prerequisite, BCS 402; permission of the instructor for students lacking the prerequisite.

Dzumhur. TTH 3:30 PM – 4:45 PM.

CZCH 401.              Elementary Czech I.  

Proficiency-based instruction at the elementary level that develops the four language skills (speaking, listening, reading, writing). In addition to mastering basic vocabulary and grammar, students will communicate in Czech about everyday topics.

Piskačová. MWF 9:05 AM – 9:55 AM.

DTCH 402.             Elementary Dutch.  

Wees gezellig en leer Nederlands! Did you know that UNC is one of only a few universities in the US where you can learn Dutch?

DTCH 402 is the place to start. Doe je mee?

The first course in the Dutch language sequence, DTCH 402 is a rapid introduction to modern Dutch with emphasis on all fundamental components of communication. Completion of DTCH 402 fulfills level 2 of a foreign language.

Thornton. MWF 2:30 PM – 3:20 PM.

 

GERM 101.            Elementary German I.  

Develops the four language skills (speaking, listening, reading, writing) in a cultural context. In addition to mastering basic vocabulary and grammar, students will communicate in German about everyday topics.

001: Staff. MW 10:10 AM – 11:00 AM and TTH 10:00 AM – 10:50 AM.

002: Staff. MW 11:15 AM – 12:05 AM and TTH 11:05 AM – 11:55 AM.

004: Staff. MW 12:20 PM – 1:20 PM and TTH 12:30 PM – 1:20 PM.

005: Staff. MW 1:25 PM – 2:15 PM and TTH 1:30 PM – 2:20 PM.

 

GERM 102.            Elementary German II.  

This continuation of GERM 101 emphasizes speaking, listening, reading, writing in a cultural context. Students enhance their basic vocabulary and grammar and will regularly communicate in German about everyday topics.

Prerequisite, GERM 101; permission of the instructor for students lacking the prerequisite.

001: Staff. MW 10:10 AM – 11:00 AM and TTH 10:00 AM – 10:50 AM.

002: Staff. MW 11:15 AM – 12:05 AM and TTH 11:05 AM – 11:55 AM.

003: Staff. MW 1:25 PM – 2:15 PM and TTH 1:30 PM – 2:20 PM.

 

GERM 203.            Intermediate German I.  

Students acquire necessary materials and opportunities to develop further their language skills in a cultural context. They review and expand upon the basic grammar covered in beginning German.

Prerequisite, GERM 102; permission of the instructor for students lacking the prerequisite.

001: Staff. MWF 10:10 AM – 11:00 AM.

003: Staff: MWF 11:15 AM – 12:05 PM.

004: Staff. MWF 1:25 PM – 2:15 PM.

005: Staff. MWF 2:30 PM – 3:20 PM.

 

GERM 204.            Intermediate German II.    

Emphasizes further development of the four language skills (speaking, reading, writing, listening) within a cultural context. Discussions focus on modern Germany, Austria, and Switzerland in literature and film.

IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-AESTH.

Prerequisite, GERM 203; permission of the instructor for students lacking the prerequisite.

001: Staff. MWF 10:10 AM – 11:00 AM.

002: Staff: MWF 11:15 AM – 12:05 PM.

GERM 301.            Advanced Applied German: Life, Work, Fun.  

Advanced German language and culture course:

  • Improve your discussion and presentation skills in German;
  • Broaden your vocabulary;
  • Review and practice German grammar;
  • Read and interpret an array of texts;
  • Practice writing in different genres.

Introduction to present-day German-speaking societies with an emphasis on practical contexts of everyday life (business, media, culture). The course initiates a sustained reflection on class, gender, race, and political economy and prepares students for studying and interning in German-speaking Europe. Further goals include improvement of pronunciation and the mastery of grammar.

IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-GLOBAL or FC-KNOWING, COMMBEYOND.

Making Connections Gen Ed: CI, NA.

Prerequisite, GERM 204; permission of the instructor for students lacking the prerequisite.

von Bernuth. TTH 3:30 PM – 4:45 PM.

GERM 302.            Advanced Communication in German: Media, Arts, Culture.  

Introduction to contemporary German society, emphasizing sustained reflection on family structures, class, gender, race, demography, and the political economy of present-day Germany.

Emphasis is on advanced communication and writing based on shorter readings from contemporary life and culture in German-speaking societies. The readings provide subject matter for in-class discussion and regular written compositions that explore a variety of practical genres (report, article, essay).

IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-GLOBAL, COMMBEYOND.

Making Connections Gen Ed: SS, CI, NA.

Prerequisite, GERM 204; permission of the instructor for students lacking the prerequisite.

Layne. MWF 10:10 AM – 11:00 AM.

GERM 304.            Business German.  

An introduction to the language and culture of German business, commerce, and industry. Special emphasis is given to the acquisition of advanced business-related language skills.

Course conducted in German.

IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-GLOBAL, COMMBEYOND.

Making Connections Gen Ed: NA.

Prerequisite, GERM 204; permission of the instructor for students lacking the prerequisite.

Staff. MW 3:35 PM – 4:50 PM.

PLSH 401.              Elementary Polish I.  

Proficiency-based instruction at the elementary level that develops the four language skills (speaking, listening, reading, writing). In addition to mastering basic vocabulary and grammar, students will communicate in Polish about everyday topics.

Majewska. MWF 10:10 AM – 11:00 AM.

 

PLSH 403.              Intermediate Polish I.  

Continuation of the proficiency-based instruction begun in elementary Polish.

Prerequisite, PLSH 402; permission of the instructor for students lacking the prerequisite.

Majewska.  MWF 9:05 AM – 9:55 AM.

RUSS 101.              Basic Russian Communication I.  

Essential basics of Russian for everyday conversations. Lays foundation for development of four language skills (speaking, writing, listening, and reading) indispensable for communication on everyday topics in a variety of contexts. Fosters interaction through acquisition of essential communicative and conversational strategies. Introduces learners to structure of contemporary standard Russian through culturally relevant materials.

001: McGarry. MWF 11:15 AM – 12:05 PM and TH 11:05 AM – 11:55 AM.

002: McGarry. MWF 1:25 PM – 2:15 PM and 1:30 PM – 2:20 PM.

003: Staff. MWF 1:25 PM – 2:15 PM and 1:30 PM – 2:20 PM.

004: McGarry. MWF 2:30 – 3:20 PM and TH 2:30 – 3:20 PM.

 

RUSS 203.              Intermediate Russian Communication I.  

Transitional skills for fluent speaking, writing, listening, and reading for intermediate learners. Furthers learners’ competency for communication on everyday topics. Prepares learners for communication on subjects beyond their immediate needs. Expands interactive skillset necessary to maintain conversations and present individual opinions using complex structures. Employs adapted and non-adapted learning materials to promote mastery of contemporary standard Russian.

Prerequisite, RUSS 102; permission of the instructor for students lacking the prerequisite.

001: Magomedova. MWF 10:10 AM – 11:00 AM.

002: Magomedova. MWF 11:15 AM – 12:05 PM.

RUSS 409.              Intermediate-to-Advanced Russian Communication, Conversation, and Composition in Context I.  

Intermediate-to-advanced communication, conversation, composition, phonetics, and grammar in contemporary cultural context. Meets the needs of learners looking to expand their practical knowledge of contemporary standard Russian in the context of present-day culture, while developing active applied skills pertaining to comprehension, production of, and communication in Russian.

Making Connections Gen Ed: BN.

Prerequisite, RUSS 204; permission of the instructor for students lacking the prerequisite.

001: Chernysheva. MWF 11:15 AM – 12:05 PM.

002: Chernysheva. MWF 1:25 PM – 2:15 PM.

RUSS 411.              Advanced Communication, Conversation, and Composition in Contemporary Standard Russian I.  

Develops and maintains advanced skills for speaking, writing, listening, and reading in contemporary standard Russian in a variety of communicative situations. Assists advanced learners in solving a wide range of communicative tasks with the aid of unadapted authentic cultural materials.

Prerequisite, RUSS 410; permission of the instructor for students lacking the prerequisite.

Magomedova: MWF 2:30 PM – 3:20 PM.

RUSS 515.              Advanced Russian Communication, Composition and Grammar in the Professions I.  

Provides advanced learners with opportunities to develop linguo-cultural skills necessary to practice their profession in Russian. While engaged in academic discourse in contemporary standard Russian, learners research topics in their academic majors, prepare and give presentations and lead discussions focusing on their areas of professional competence. In addition to student-centered segments, the course comprises instructor-led discussions of current affairs and academic subjects.

Readings, viewing materials, and discussions in Russian.

IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: RESEARCH, COMMBEYOND.

Making Connections Gen Ed: BN, EE- Mentored Research.

Prerequisites, RUSS 412 or permission of the instructor for students lacking the prerequisite.

Chernysheva: MWF 3:35 PM – 4:25 PM.

 

 

Undergraduate English-Language Seminars & Lectures

GERM 216.            The Viking Age.  

This is a lecture and discussion course that deals with culture, mythology, exploration, and projection of power in northern Europe during the Viking Age (ca. 750-1066 CE). Our source material is the literature of medieval Iceland (ca. 1120–1400), the settlement of which is itself a product of Norse exploration and colonization. We shall seek to extrapolate from this literature—supplemented by historical information—a composite picture of cultures, values, and societies of the Atlantic North during the Viking Age.

Readings and discussions in English.

Making Connections Gen Ed: HS, NA, WB.

Roberge. MWF 10:10 PM – 11:00 PM.

GERM 266.            Weimar Cinema.  

Between World War I and II, from a politically unstable Germany emerged stylistically innovative films with characters transgressing established sexual, moral, legal, gender, even human boundaries- vampires, androids, demons, criminal masterminds, queers, weak men and fatal women.

We will study these films, their innovative set designs, camerawork and montage, and the emergence of film theory in the context of the tumultuous Weimar Republic and the global film landscape        Films with English subtitles; readings and discussions in English.

Making Connections Gen Ed: VP, NA.

Pollmann. TTH 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM.

GERM 283.            Freedom, Terror, and Identity: Modern Philosophy from Kant to Arendt.  

This course investigates how philosophical thought motivates, inspires, and generates forms of agency and identity against cultural tendencies that limit or erode freedom.

Readings, lecture, and discussion in English.

No background in Philosophy necessary.

Making Connections Gen Ed: PH, NA.

Trop. TTH 11:00 PM – 12:15 PM.

GSLL 212.              “Game of Thrones” and the Worlds of the European Middle Ages.  

“Game of Thrones” is one of the most successful shows in TV history. In this course we will focus on examining the European medieval history behind the show and ask how literary and cinematic adaptation works. We will discuss topics such as family, politics, religion, violence, gender, slavery, outcasts, knighthood, travel, heroes, myths and magic.

Readings and discussions in English.

IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-AESTH or FC-PAST.

Making Connections Gen Ed: LA, WB.

Prica. TTH 2:00 PM – 2:50 PM.

Recitation Required:

601: Staff. F 9:05 AM – 9:55 AM.

602: Staff. F 10:10 AM – 11:00 AM.

GSLL 255.              Germany and Cold War: Occupation, Division, Reunification, Renewed Conflict with Russia (1945-Today).  

This course investigates the central role played by the “German question” in the break-up of the wartime alliance, the emergence of East-West political blocs, the subsequent dissolution of the USSR, and the return to new Russian-Western antagonisms.

Readings and discussions in English.

Making Connections Gen Ed: HS, GL, NA.

Pike. 3:30 PM – 4:45 PM.

GSLL 271.              Vampires and Empires.  

Explore the vampire’s role as a migrating metaphor for the visual and literary cultures of Eastern Europe, North America, and beyond. We will examine the vampire’s folkloric roots alongside its popular adaptions in television and film. Together, we will map the vampire’s changing meanings as a repeating social and political allegory across the centuries.

All materials and discussions in English.

Making Connections Gen Ed: BN.

Rose. MW 3:35 PM – 4:50 PM.

RUSS 276.              Mystery and Suspense in Russian Literature.  

Through the works of major Russian writers, this course investigates the development of mystery and suspense in Russian literature of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Readings and class discussions in English.

IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-AESTH.

Making Connections Gen Ed: LA, BN.

Lapushin.  TTH 3:30 PM – 4:45 PM.

RUSS 278.              Russian and Soviet Science Fiction.   (Cancelled)

RUSS 280.              Russian Villains, Western Screens: Ethno-Cultural Stereotypes on Page and Stage, in Movies and Minds.  

A survey of the fascinating history of Hollywood stereotypes of Russian villainy from Elizabethan England to Boris Badenov, Natasha Fatale, Ivan Drago, and Xenia Onnatop. What do these theatrical buffoons, cartoon-movie monsters, and cinematic seductresses tell us about Russia — and about ourselves as consumers of stereotypes?

Readings, visuals, and discussions in English.

IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-AESTH or FC-GLOBAL.

Making Connections Gen Ed: VP, BN.

Recitation Required.

SHVABRIN. MW 9:05 AM – 9:55 AM.

Recitations:

601: Staff. F 11:15 AM – 12:05 PM.

602: Staff. F 12:20 PM – 01:10 PM.

Upper-Level Undergraduate Seminars taught in the Target Language

GERM 303.            German Literature and Culture.  

An overview of German literature, culture, and politics, highlighting works from various periods. Students will engage in discussions about German literature, and will be encouraged to think and re-think the significance of literary production in different contexts and media.

Readings, discussions, and essays in German.

IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-AESTH or FC-PAST.

Making Connections Gen Ed: LA, CI, NA.

Pre- or corequisite, GERM 301 or 302; permission of the instructor for students lacking the prerequisite.

Trop. TTH 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM.

GERM 383.            Adaptations of the Past: Literature of the German Democratic Republic.  

Explores the practice in East Germany of adapting earlier literatures and setting contemporary narratives in distant times. East German authors used cultural heritage as a screen for utopian sentiments and for pursuing the relationships between everyday life, historical conditions, and political circumstances.

Readings and discussions in German.

Making Connections Gen Ed: NA.

Prerequisite, GERM 303.

von Bernuth. TTH 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM.

 

 

Dual-Level Seminars Taught in English

RUSS 445.              19th Century Russian Literature and Culture.  

An action-packed tour of some of the greatest texts ever written, with stops at: Chekhov, Gogol, Turgenev, Dostoevsky, and Tolstoy.

A survey of the major novels and stories of 19th century Russian fiction, which have entered the canon of world classics and redefined the idea of literature.

Taught in English; some readings in Russian for qualified students.

IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-AESTH or FC-PAST.

Making Connections Gen Ed: LA, BN.

Lapushin. TTH 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM.

 

RUSS 477.              Wicked Desire: Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita, on Page and Screen.  

Vladimir Nabokov’s novel Lolita (1955) became a global phenomenon due to its unflinching portrayal of pedophilia. This course will delve deeper into the novel’s moral complexity, its international context, and its reflection in mass culture, including movies by Stanley Kubrick (1962) and Adrian Lyne (1997).

Taught in English; some readings in Russian for qualified students.

IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-AESTH.

Making Connections Gen Ed: LA, NA.

Shvabrin. TTH 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM.

 

 

 

Courses in Other Departments Taught by GSLL Faculty

CMPL 120H.          Great Books I: Epic, Myths, and Fairy Tales (honors).

This course will focus on a reading of epic, myths, and fairy tales from antiquity to the 18th century.  Texts will include Genesis; Homer’s Odyssey; Ovid’s Metamophoses, the Thousand and One Nights, and Grimm’s Fairy Tales.

IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-AESTH or FC-PAST.

Making Connections Gen Ed: LA, WB.

Downing.  TTH 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM.

LING 444.              Origin and Evolution of Human Language.

Surveys current thinking on such questions as,

  • When and how did language first appear?
  • What do other animal communication systems share with language?
  • Do restricted linguistic systems (e. g., pidgins, homesigns) preserve “fossils” of early human language?

Prerequisite: LING 101 or equivalent.

Recommended: At least one higher-level course in linguistics.

Making Connections Gen Ed: HS, WB.

Roberge.  MW 3:35 PM – 4:50 PM.

 

 

Carolina-Duke Graduate Level Courses

GERM 616.            Foundations in German Studies III.  

This intensive graduate seminar surveys German-speaking cinema and literary history between the years of 1900 and the present. Instead of beginning with literary modernism, this seminar starts by introducing students to the birth of cinema and will proceed by bringing film into productive dialogue with both literature and theory. Grasping German literary history throughout the twentieth and twenty-first century will accordingly seek out the productive points of contact with other bodies of thought as well as other mediums. In addition to early narrative and experimental cinema, the course will explore the cinema of the Weimar Republic, Nazi cinema, rubble cinema, the cinema of divided Germany, as well as post-unification cinema like the Berlin School. Similarly, the course will also introduce students to the plurality of styles around 1900, the historical avant-gardes, New Objectivity, Nazi literature, rubble literature, Gruppe 47, socialist realism, documentary literature, new subjectivities, postmodernism, and pop literature.

Readings in German; class discussions in German and English.

Permission of the instructor for undergraduates.

Langston. TTH 3:10 PM – 4:25 PM.  Carolina Campus.

GERM 640.            Get Real! Or not…  German Poetic Realism.

This course will focus on the rise of Realism and the wake of Romanticism in German-language literature of the second half of the nineteenth century. Emphasis will be on the delineation of realist literary strategies, with a special focus on the genre of the novella, on the political and historical complicities of the movement in terms of both overt (e.g., the rise of nationalism, regionalism) and indirect (e.g., visual practices, gender politics); the relation to other cultural fields (e.g., philosophy, historiography, education, art history); and the relation to other nineteenth-century realist movements in England and France. I have a particular interest in issues of inheritance I hope we can explore: as part of this, we will be asking why Romanticism, the supposedly superseded movement of the earlier part of the century, continued its afterlife in the Realism period.

Although mostly focused on our primary texts, we will also consider various theoretical approaches to the problem of realism in general.

Readings in German, Class Discussions in English.

Permission of the instructor for undergraduates.

Downing. TH 4:40 PM – 7:10 PM.  Carolina Campus.

 

GERMAN 790-4.    The History of Ideology.

                              The nineteenth century saw the rise of multiple ideologies or “-isms” that continue to shape our world: nationalism, liberalism, socialism, communism, conservatism, feminism, anti-Semitism, racism, and so on. This seminar will explore the origins, values, and impacts of these nineteenth-century ideologies by looking at key figures and texts in the German context. It will also examine the history and meaning of the concept of ideology itself.

Discussions in English, readings mostly in German.

Norberg. W 3:20 PM – 5:50 PM.  Duke Campus.

 

GERM 880.            Topics in German Cinema.   

In this seminar, we will explore the intersections, in light of contemporary theory as well as historical frameworks, of aesthetics and the environmental, with a particular emphasis on film.

The seminar takes its starting point from the claim that mediation is environmental, and, conversely, the environment a medium. Mood and milieu are media in this sense: they both negotiate inside and outside, mediation and expression. In scientific texts of the 19th and 20th century, milieu is described as medium of life, while form and behavior of the living figured as expression of this medium. Mood, or Stimmung, likewise mediates between the internal and subjective (as mood), can describe a social space or landscape (as atmosphere) and also encompasses the exchange and resonance between internal and external Stimmungen (as attunement). Mood and milieu are thus historical and critical media techniques.

We will ask to what an extent film can be described as environmental medium, and how film aesthetics mobilizes mood and milieu to express the shifting understanding of human, technical and geological forces with respect to environmental agency, climate change, and the digital. How might an aesthetic, understood environmentally, help us grasp the diminished human agency in ubiquitous digital cultures, and the increased human agency in planetary matters?

We will read media theory and aesthetic theory – by Siegfried Kracauer, Béla Balázs, Leo Spitzer, Marshall McLuhan, Friedrich Kittler, Lev Manovich, Adrian Ivakhiv, Mark Hansen, Steffen Hven, Rosalind Krauss etc. – alongside texts about ecology, Anthropocene and politics – by George Canguilhem, C. S. Holling, Melinda Cooper, Dipesh Chakrabarty, etc. – and accompany our readings with a diverse German and global film corpus (Murnau’s Faustus, Ophüls’ Sans lendemain, Antonioni’s Red Desert, Schanelec’s Marseille, Reichardt’s Night Moves, and others).

Pollmann. F 10:05 AM – 12:35 PM.  Carolina Campus (subject to change).