ENGLISH 381: TOPICS IN FILM,
VIDEO, AND MOVING-IMAGE CULTURE:
GERMAN CINEMAS
Spring 2009, UWEC,
Professor Bob Nowlan
M, 12-3:30 pm
(Screenings) and W, 12-2:30 pm (Discussions), HHH 323
Office: HHH 425,
Office Phone: (715) 836-4369
Office Hours: T
2:40-4:30, W 2:40-3:30 pm, and By Appointment
ranowlan@uwec.edu
http://www.uwec.edu/ranowlan
English 381, “Topics in Film, Video, and
Moving-Image Culture: German Cinemas” offers an introductory survey of
German film production and reception from the post-WWI Weimar Republic,
through the post-unification present. We will make sense of
German films by situating these in historical and cultural
context. At the same time, we will also approach German film as a
significant–and, especially, prospectively significantly revealing–way
of engaging with major issues in 20th to 21st century German history
and culture. We will explore German cinemas–and particular German
films comprising the principal constituents within these larger
cinemas–as offering representations of social identity and social
unity, social difference and social division, social conflict and
social struggle, and the resolution and dissolution of social
contradiction. We will explore German cinemas–and German
films–as reflections and refractions of dominant, sub-dominant,
and counter-dominant social interests. And we will explore
German cinemas–and German films–as instruments, and agents, of ideology
and ideology critique. We will screen and discuss significant
films from Weimar Cinema (1919-1933), Third Reich Cinema (1933-1945),
Postwar Cinema (1945-1961), East German Cinema (1961-1990), West German
Cinema (1962-1990), and Post-Unification Cinema (1990 through the
present). The course aims therefore, in sum, to help you learn
not only about German film but also about modern and contemporary
German history and culture through
film.
2.
English 381 is an umbrella course that changes focus
from offering to offering but all sections of English 381 always
concentrate on making sense of film and video in cultural context.
Let me take a little space now to explain what that
means.
Culture
includes everything that we, as human beings, have created in
the course of our entire history, in distinction from what nature
itself has given us. Specific cultures (as
well as specific
subcultures) comprise the sum total of the particular
knowledges, capacities, fields of work (and fields of play), customs
and habits, traditions, values and attitudes, social roles and
identities, and shared ways of thinking, feeling, acting, interacting,
and behaving that characterize and, more importantly than merely
characterize, that internally unify and externally differentiate,
particular regions, classes, and other social groups.
Film and video constitute principal constituents of
1.) moving-image
culture (i.e., culture produced, distributed, exchanged, and
consumed in the form of constellations of moving- images), 2.) human culture at large,
and 3.) myriad specific
national, regional, local, racial, ethnic, class, gender, sexual,
generational, political, religious, artistic, philosophical,
recreational, and avocational cultures (and subcultures).
(From this point forward in this course explanation statement I use, as
a matter of convenience, “film” when referring to films, videos, and
other similar kinds of moving-image culture productions.)
What
does this mean for how we proceed in English 381?
Here’s what. We examine the ways that films provide pleasure for
their audiences, seeking to understand how and why films produce these
pleasures in the ways that they do–while also seeking to understand
what else always happens, simultaneous with the provision of pleasure,
as a result of the kinds of pleasures and the ways of providing
pleasures films offer. We in fact give considerable, and in fact
often priority, attention to the many other effects–other than
providing pleasure–that films can and do achieve, whether deliberately
so or not. In particular, we inquire into films as providing us
valuable knowledge about the real historical societies and associated
specific cultures out of which films emerge and into which they exert
their impact-even where offering this kind of insight does not
constitute a conscious aim of the film makers themselves, and even when
we must critique the film's representations in order to produce this
knowledge.
Let me put this last point in another context.
Throughout the history of world cinema, three principal objectives have
driven forward the production, distribution, exhibition, and reception
of film:
1.) the provision
of entertainment, especially as diversion, distraction, and
amusement;
2.) artistic
expression and communication–concerned with aesthetic issues
such as capturing and conveying the felt experience of the ordinary and
the extraordinary, the everyday and the unusual, the familiar and the
unfamiliar, and, especially, "the beautiful" and "the sublime"–in both
the natural world and human society; and
3.) social
commentary and critique–as contribution to, and instrument of,
social reproduction and social transformation.
Many films, as well as many cinemas, aspire to meet
two or all three of these goals, often employing one as means toward
the achievement of at least one of the other two (e.g., artistic
expression as a vehicle of social critique). (“Cinema” here
refers to a particular institutional form governing the production,
distribution, exhibition, and reception of a series of related films,
especially a series of films sharing common subjects, styles, social
vantage points, and cultural backgrounds: e.g., “German Expressionist
Cinema,” “Classical Narrative Realist Hollywood Cinema,” “Italian
Neo-Realist Cinema,” “French New Wave Cinema,” “Dogme 95 Cinema,”
“1960s American Underground Cinema,” “British Free Cinema,” and “The
New Queer Cinema.”)
It is important that we examine film critically
because, over the course of the past nearly 120 years, audio-visual
texts, especially audio-visual texts organized around the moving image,
have come to exert an extremely powerful impact upon the shape and
substance of individuals' lived experience of their relationship to the
conditions of their own existence. This impact is today as
powerful, if not indeed considerably more powerful, than that exerted
by traditional print media. In fact, film, television,
video, and "cyberspace" have become principal sites within our
contemporary capitalist societies for the production and dissemination,
as well as the reproduction and reinforcement, of meanings, values,
ideas, ideologies, and social modes of thinking, understanding,
feeling, believing, acting, and interacting, even when presented to us
as "sheer entertainment." That means, in sum, that film and other media
that comprise the constituents of ‘moving-image culture’ exert a huge
shaping impact over all of our lives. Our broad aim in English
381 is to help you better understand what that impact happens to be.
3.
Why focus on “German Cinemas”?
Undoubtedly, this question could prompt many answers, including many
lengthy and elaborate ones. But let me keep this short and
simple. Since the beginning of motion pictures in the mid-1890s
film and cinema from Germany has been one of the most influential,
innovative, and widely critically acclaimed of that coming from any
nation in the world. And few nations–and few national
cultures–have likewise exerted greater influence over the course of the
late 19th through the early 21st centuries than Germany–for better and
worse. This has been an extremely tumultuous history (and, for
that reason, among others, it is more accurate to identify and discuss
German cinemAS as opposed to identifying and discussing German
cinemA). At the same time, it will frequently be worthwhile to
draw points of comparison and contrast between German and American
politics, society, history, and culture–including where we might find
disturbing or troubling points of commonality or difference; often this
kind of comparison and contrast can enable us to develop a much more
rigorously critical self-awareness about who we are, what we are about,
where we are situated, and where we are coming than would be the case
without the advantage of such an opportunity for comparison and
contrast. To conclude this section, though, for me personally,
traveling to Berlin for a week in the summer of 2007 and then to
Germany and Austria for five weeks in the summer of 2008, when I had a
chance to spend time in Frankfurt, Cologne, Hamburg, Leipzig, Munich,
Stuttgart, Vienna, and Berlin was an amazing experience– fantastically
stimulating and exciting. It sparked an interest to want to learn
steadily more and more about German film, literature, music, art,
culture, history, politics, and society. And teaching a course is
always one of the greatest ways to exponentially advance one’s learning
of any subject.
4.
This class does not require any knowledge of the
German language, although if you do maintain any such knowledge–and
fluency–you are welcome, and encouraged, to make use of that not only
to advance your own learning but also to help everyone else, myself
included. All films will be screened with subtitles–and,
possibly, occasionally, dubbed–in English. Although this is a 300
level class, and I expect an intellectually serious level of interest
and effort, as well as some prior familiarity with either
interpretation of film or of other cultural texts, this is a general
education course, and, once again, an introduction,
to the subject it focuses on. In fact, it has been
extraordinarily difficult to limit the selection of films–and the
selection of readings–to what I have, as Germany has, from the
beginning, been a major contributor to world cinema, and an enormous
number of further films could be included, while the scholarship
devoted to German film and cinema, not to mention to 20th to 21st
century German history and culture, has been enormous. (Limits of
time–and of space–also explain why we are starting with Weimar Cinema,
as opposed to starting with Wilhelmine Cinema, and why we are starting
with German history and culture after World War I as opposed to
starting with the foundation of modern Germany in 1871.)
But, in sum, relax and keep in mind this is simply an upper-level general education introduction to
German film in historical and cultural context.
I do recommend you take the time, carefully, to do
the assigned readings ahead of the screenings on Monday, and then to
review these before our discussions on Wednesday; doing so will help
you in making useful sense of the screenings as you are watching and
listening to them. Also, although I certainly think all of the
films we will screen and discuss are very interesting and important,
you should be prepared for the fact that films from earlier
periods–even when these were historically innovative and
ground-breaking in technological terms at the time of their release–do
not maintain the kind of production values that are commonplace in
contemporary entertainment cinema. Plus, these films are products
of a different (than American, including Hollywood) cinematic culture,
and that means they will often emphasize different conventions, styles,
and sensibilities than are commonplace within American entertainment
film. And, finally, not all of the films we will screen were
conceived, not by any means, with the end of ‘entertaining’ their
audiences–and, at times, even when this was an ostensible aim, the
conception of what ‘entertainment’ means the film makers were working
with was quite different than what we have all learned from familiarity
with mainstream Hollywood. So, in sum, you’ll need to be somewhat
patient, now and then, working to make sense of these films on their
own terms, and, especially, try to think about what they meant in the
specific times and places where they were produced, and initially
distributed and exhibited.
I am excited for this class. English 381 has
from the beginning been one of my all-time favorite classes, without a
doubt, and the students I have taught in past offerings of English 381
have been great–making wonderful contributions to my own as well as to
their individual and collective learning. I have had a great time
together with these people. I am confident you will be great too
and also make similarly wonderful contributions.
TEXTS
The following books are required and
are available for purchase at the UWEC Bookstore:
1. Beimer, Robert C., Reinhard Zachau, and Margit
Sinka. German Culture Through
Film: an Introduction to German Cinema. Newburyport, MA:
Focus Publishing/R. Pullins Company, 2005. ISBN#: 1-58510-102-8.
2. Hake, Sabine. German National Cinema. 2nd
Edition. New York: Routledge, 2008. ISBN#:
978-0-415-42098-3.
3. Bergfelder, Tim, Erica Carter, and Deniz
Göktürk, eds. The
German Cinema Book. London: British Film Institute,
2002. ISBN#: 0-85170-946-X.
4. Orlow, Dietrich. A History of Modern Germany.
6th Edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall,
2008. ISBN#: 978-0-13-615400-6.
5. Burns, Rob, ed. German Cultural Studies: an Introduction.
New York: Oxford University Press, 1995, 2007. ISBN#:
978-0-19-871503-0.
You may feel free to acquire these books other than through the UWEC
Bookstore, including by means of on-line outlets, as long as you do
obtain them in time to use for class. I will supply copies of all
videos–in DVD and VHS formats–we will use in class, including for the
interview conference and final group projects. I will also supply
guides to facilitate study, discussion, and review.
SCHEDULE
*** Interview Conference assignments will
happen in Week 3 or 4; These conferences we will schedule to take place
within 2-3 weeks of these assignments. ***
Key for Readings:
German Culture Through Film=GCTF;
German National Cinema=GNC; The
German Cinema Book=GCB; German
Cultural Studies=GCS; and A
History of
Modern Germany, 1871 to Present=HMG.
Week 1
M 1/26: Introduction and Orientation; Screening, Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari (The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari).
W 1/28: Discussion, Das Cabinet des
Dr. Caligari (The Cabinet of
Dr. Caligari) and Issues Concerning German Expressionism and an
Introduction to German Cinemas.
Read
for Class, W 1/28:
* GCTF, Chapter 1 (Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari), pp.
7-13.
Week 2
M 2/2: Screening, Berlin: die
Sinfonie der Großstadt (Berlin:
Symphony of a City) and Metropolis.
Read
for Class, M 2/2 and W 2/4:
* GCTF, Chapter 3, pp. 25-31 (Berlin: die Sinfonie der Großstadt).
* GNC, Selections from Chapter
2, “Weimar Cinema 1919-33,” pp. 27-41 (Introduction to the Chapter and
“Weimar Cinema as Art Cinema”).
* GCS, Selections from Chapter
2, “Weimar Culture: the Birth of Modernism,” pp. 53-77 (Introduction to
the Chapter, “Defending Tradition: The Reaction against Modernity,”
“Weimar Germany’s Modernist Political Project: Theory and Practice,”
“Definitions of Culture,” “Modernism and its Malcontents,” and “Neue Sachlichkeit: The Weimar
Structure of Feeling”).
W 2/4: Discussion of Berlin: die
Sinfonie der Großstadt (Berlin:
Symphony of a City), Metropolis,
and Assigned Readings.
Week 3
M 2/9: Screening, Der Blaue Angel (The Blue Angel) and M.
Read
for Class, M 2/9 and W 2/11:
* GCTF, Chapters 4-5 (Der Blaue Angel and M), pp. 33-49.
* HMG (Historical Background
Reading), Chapters 4-5, pp. 105-160 (Revolution, Inflation, and
Putsches: The Search for a New Consensus, 1918-1923" and “Fool’s Gold:
The Weimar Republic”).
W 2/11: Discussion of Der Blaue
Angel (The Blue Angel),
M, and Assigned Readings.
Week 4
M 2/16: Screening, Kuhle Wampe oder
wem gehört die Welt (Kuhle
Wampe, or Who Owns the World) and Mädchen in Uniform (Girls in Uniform).
Read for Class, M 2/16
and W 2/18:
* GCTF, Chapter 6, pp. 51-58 (Kuhle Wampe oder wem gehört die Welt).
* GNC, Selections from Chapter
2, “Weimar Cinema 1919-33,” pp. 42-59 (“Weimar Cinema as Popular
Cinema” and “Film, Politics, and the Coming of Sound”).
* GCS, Selections from Chapter
2, “Weimar Culture: The Birth of Modernism,” pp. 77-97 (“The Social
Fabric of the Weimar Stage,” “The Cinema and Brecht’s Kuhle Wampe,” and “Weimar
Criticized: Three Culture Critics on the Rise and Fall of the
Republic”).
* GFB, Chapter 4 (Robert Kiss),
“Queer Traditions in German Cinema,” pp. 48-56 and Chapter 15 (Marc
Silverman), “Political Cinema as Oppositional Practice: Weimar and
Beyond,” pp. 165-172.
W 2/18: Discussion of Kuhle
Wampe oder wem gehört die Welt (Kuhle Wampe, or Who Owns the World),
Mädchen in Uniform (Girls in Uniform), and Assigned
Readings.
*
W 2/18: Learning and Contribution Reflection Paper #1 Assigned. *
Week 5
M 2/23: Screening, Jud Süß
and Selections from Other Nazi Propaganda Films.
Read
for Class, M 2/23 and W 2/25:
* GCTF, Chapter 8, pp. 67-73 (Jud Süß).
* GNC, Selections from Chapter
3, “Third Reich Cinema 1933-45,” pp. 64-81 (Introduction to the
Chapter, “The Restructuring of the Film Industry,” and “Third Reich
Cinema as Popular Cinema”).
* GCS, Selections from Chapter
3, “Culture and the Organization of National Socialist Ideology,” pp.
101-123 (“The Fatal Plausibility of Anti-Democratic Rhetoric in 1933,”
“The Shock of Modernism and the Myth of the Volk,” “The Gleichschaltung and the Media of
the Reichskulturkammer,” and “The 1936 Olympiad and the Thingspiel”).
* HMG (Historical Background
Reading), Chapter 6, “From Authoritarianism to Totalitarianism,” pp.
161-195.
W 2/25: Discussion of Jud
Süß, Selections from Other Nazi Propaganda Films, and
Assigned Readings.
Week 6
M 3/2: Screening, Baron
Münchhausen (The
Adventures of Munchhausen) and Kolberg.
Read
for Class, M 3/2 and W 3/4:
* GNC, Selection from Chapter
3, “Third Reich Cinema 1933-45,” pp. 81-91 (“Third Reich Cinema as
Popular Cinema”).
* GCS, Selections from Chapter
3, “Culture and the Organization of National Socialist Ideology,” pp.
123-144 (“Literature and Philosophy in the Nazi Era,” “The Aesthetics
of Art and Music in Everyday Life,” “The Uses of Cinema Under National
Socialism,” and “Culture as Mass Deception”).
* GCB, Chapter 16 (Julian
Petley), “Film Policy in the Third Reich,” pp. 173-181.
* HMG (Historical Background
Reading), Chapter 7, “Conquest, Death, and Defeat, 1938-1945,” pp.
196-225.
W 3/4: Discussion of Baron
Münchhausen (The
Adventures of Munchhausen), Kolberg,
and Assigned Readings.
*F
3/6: Learning and Contribution Reflection Paper #1 Due by 12 noon in my
English Department Mailbox, HHH 405 *
Week 7
M 3/9: Screening, Die Mörder
sind unter us (The Murderers
are Among Us) and Berlin–Ecke
Schönhauser (Berlin–Schönhauser
Corner).
Read for Class, M 3/9 and W 3/11:
* GCTF, Chapter 9, pp. 75-85 (Die Mörder sind unter us) and
Chapter 10, pp. 87-95 (Berlin–Ecke
Schönhauser).
* GNC, Chapter 4, “Postwar
Cinema, 1945-1961,” pp. 92-122.
* HMG (Historical Background
Reading), Chapter 8, “Condominium of the Allied Powers 1945-1949,”
226-260.
W 3/11: Discussion of Die
Mörder sind unter us (The
Murderers are Among Us), Berlin–Ecke
Schönhauser (Berlin–Schönhauser
Corner), and Assigned Readings.
Week 8
M 3/23: Screening, Die Legende von
Paul und Paula (The Legend of
Paul and Paula) and Das
Fahrrad (The Bicycle).
Read
for Class, M 3/23 and W 3/25:
* GCTF, Chapter 14, pp. 119-124
(Die Legende von Paul und Paula).
* GNC, Selections from Chapter
5, “East German Cinema 1961-90," pp. 127-147 (Introduction to the
Chapter, “The New Waves and the Eleventh Plenary,” and “The 1970s: the
Discovery of Everyday Life”).
* GCS, Selections from Chapter
4, “The Failed Socialist Experiment: Culture in the GDR,” pp. 147-186
(Introduction to the Chapter, “Cultural Renewal and National
Aspirations,” “Cold War Constraints,” “The Achievements of the ‘Thaw’
Years,” “Repression in the Guise of ‘Cultural Revolution’,” “The
Emergence of a Distinctive GDR Culture,” “The Eleventh Plenum and
Repressive Cultural Practices in the Second Half of the 1960s,” and “No
Taboos?”).
* GCB, Chapter 13 (Horst
Claus), “DEFA-State, Studio, Style, Identity,” 139-147.
W 3/25: Discussion of Die Legende
von Paul und Paula (The Legend
of Paul and Paula), Das
Fahrrad (The Bicycle),
and Assigned Readings.
*W
3/25: Learning and Contribution Reflection Paper #2 Assigned *
Week 9
M 3/30: Screening, Das Leben
der Anderen (The Lives of
Others) and Select Underground Short Films from the DDR (The
German Democratic Republic–East Germany).
Read for Class, M
3/30 and W 4/1:
* GNC, Selection from Chapter
5, “East German Cinema, 1961-90,” pp. 147-152 (“”The 1980s: The Decline
of Cinema as a Public Sphere”).
* GCS, Selections from Chapter
4, “The Failed Socialist Experiment: Culture in the GDR,” pp. 186-204
(“The Biermann Affair and the ‘Lex Heym’,” “The Threat to Peace and the
Environment,” “The Limits of Female Emancipation,” “Modernism and the
Challenge to Official Culture,” and “The Final Crisis”).
* HMG (Historical Background
Reading), Chapter 10, “The German Democratic Republic, 1949-1990,” pp.
299-333.
W 4/1: Discussion of Das Leben der
Anderen (The Lives of Others),
Select Underground Short Films from the DDR (The German Democratic
Republic–East Germany), and Assigned Readings.
Week 10
M 4/6: Screening, Aguirre, Der Zorn
Gottes (Aguirre, the Wrath of
God) and Die Ehe der Maria
Braun (The Marriage of Maria
Braun).
Read
for Class, M 4/6 and W 4/8:
* GFTC, Chapter 13, pp. 111-117
(Aguirre, Der Zorn Gottes) and
Chapter 17, pp. 141-148 (Die Ehe der
Maria Braun).
* GNC, Selections from Chapter
6, “West German Cinema 1962-90,” pp. 153-163 (Introduction to the
Chapter and “The Oberhausen Manifesto and the Young German Cinema”).
* GCS, Chapter 5,
“Reconstruction and Integration: The Culture of West German
Stabilization,” pp. 209-253.
* HMG (Historical Background
Reading), Selections from Chapter 9, “The Federal Republic of Germany,
1949-1990," pp. 261-290 (“The Adenauer Era, 1949-1963"; “The Changing
of the Guard, 1963-1974"; and “Culture and Society”).
W4/8: Discussion of Aguirre,
Der Zorn Gottes (Aguirre, the
Wrath of God), Die Ehe der
Maria Braun (The Marriage of
Maria Braun), and Assigned Readings.
* F 4/10: Learning and Contribution Reflection Paper #2 Due by 12
noon in my English Department Mailbox, HHH 405. *
Week 11
M 4/13: Screening, Die bleierne Zeit
(Marianne and Julianne,
or The German Sisters) and Der Amerikanische Freund (The American Friend).
Read
for Class, M 4/13 and W 4/15:
* GCTF, Chapter 19, pp. 159-166
(Die bleierne Zeit).
* GNC, Selection from Chapter
6, “West German Cinema 1962-90,” pp. 163-178 (“The 1970s: the Emergence
of New German Cinema”).
* GCS, Chapter 6, “The
Federal Republic 1968 to 1990: From the Industrial Society to the
Culture Society,” pp. 257-322.
* HMG (Historical
Background Reading), Selections from Chapter 9, “The Federal Republic
of Germany, 1949-1990," pp. 290-298 (“Troubled 1970s and 1980s,” “Im Mittelpunkt: Günter Grass,”
and “Conclusion”).
W 4/15: Discussion of Die bleierne
Zeit (Marianne and Julianne,
or The German Sisters), Der Amerikanische Freund (The American Friend), and Assigned
Readings.
Week 12
M 4/20: Screening, Der Himmel
über Berlin (Wings of
Desire) and Lola rennt
(Run Lola Run).
Read
for Class, M 4/20 and W 4/22:
* GCTF, Chapter 21, pp. 175-180
( Der Himmel über Berlin)
and Chapter 27, pp. 217-224 (Lola
rennt) .
* GCB, Chapter 1 (Johannes von
Moltke), “The Heimat Genre,”
pp. 18-28 and Chapter 19 (Ian Garwood), “The Autoren Film in Contemporary
German Cinema,” pp. 202-210.
* GCS, Chapter 7, “Unification
and its Aftermath: The Challenge of History,” pp. 325-347.
W 4/22: Discussion of Der
Himmel über Berlin (Wings
of Desire), Lola rennt (Run
Lola Run), and Assigned Readings.
Week 13
M 4/27: Screening, Das schreckliche
Mädchen (The Nasty Girl)
and Good Bye Lenin!
Read
for Class, M 4/27 and W 4/29:
* GCTF, Chapter 22 (Das schreckliche Mädchen), pp.
181-186, and Chapter 31, pp. 249-254 (Good
Bye, Lenin!).
.
* GNC, Selection from Chapter
6, “West German Cinema 1963-90,” pp. 178-185 (“The 1980s–Crises and
Transformations”) and Selections from Chapter 7, “Post-Unification
Cinema 1990-2007," pp. 190-216 (Introduction to the Chapter,
“Film-making in the New Germany and a Unified Europe,” “Elements of
Popular Cinema: the Return to Genre,” and “Once Again: Coming to Terms
with the Past(s)”).
W 4/29: Discussion of Das
schreckliche Mädchen (The
Nasty Girl), Good Bye Lenin!,
and Assigned Readings.
*
W 4/9: Learning and Contribution Reflection Paper #3 Assigned *
Week 14
M 5/4: Screening, Gegen die Wand
(Head On) and Auf der Anderen Seite (The Edge of Heaven).
Read
for Class, M 4/27 and W 4/29:
* GNC, Selection from Chapter
7, “Post-Unification Cinema,” pp. 216-221 (“The Future of National
Cinema”).
* GCB, Chapter 23 (Deniz
Göktürk), “”Beyond Paternalism: Turkish German Traffic in
German Cinema,” pp. 248-256.
* HMG (Historical Background
Reading), Chapter 11, “Germany Since Reunification: Euphoria and
Disillusionment, 1990-Present,” pp. 336-379, and Chapter 12,
“Conclusion,” pp. 380-384.
W 5/6: Completion of Screening, Auf
der Anderen Seite (The Edge
of Heaven), and Discussion of Gegen
die Wand (Head On), Auf der Anderen Seite (The Edge of Heaven), and Assigned
Readings.
*** Sunday 5/10:
English 381, Topics in Film, Video, and Moving-Image Culture: German
Cinemas Class Conference–Presentation and Discussion of Group
Projects–in a room and for a period of time to be announced. ***
*
F 5/15: Learning and Contribution Reflection Paper #3 Due by 12 noon in
my English Department Mailbox, HHH 405 *
***
THIS SCHEDULE IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE ***
ORGANIZATION AND CONDUCT OF CLASS
SESSIONS
Monday afternoons we will screen films. We will take
a short (five-minutes long maximum) break in between the screening of
each film. We’ll be tight for time, so please don’t stretch this
beyond five minutes; if you need a break, for whatever reason, other
than at this time right between the two films, feel free to take it,
but try to be quick, and also try not to be too distracting as you
leave–for instance, please try not to block the projection as you walk
past it on your way out. You may bring cushions, pillows,
blankets, fold-up chairs, and any other kind of material that you might
find more comfortable to sit on during these screenings than the seats
already available in the classroom. You do not need to do this, but you
may if you wish. You may also bring snacks as long as you try not to
make a mess and as long as you clean up after yourself. PLEASE DO
NOT USE CELL PHONES DURING SCREENING SESSIONS– INCLUDING TO TEXT
MESSAGE–TURN THEM OFF! DOING THIS IS MORE DISTRACTING THAN
YOU MAY REALIZE AND ALSO TO MY MIND A CLEAR SIGN THAT YOU ARE NOT
ENGAGED AS YOU SHOULD BE WITH THE MATERIAL FOR THE CLASS–AND IT WILL
THEREFORE NEGATIVELY AFFECT YOUR COURSE GRADE TO A SUBSTANTIAL DEGREE
IF YOU DO IT. As you are watching and listening to screenings,
taking notes can prove quite helpful–although it is better not to take
too many, or too detailed notes, such that this interferes with your
ability to watch and listen carefully.
Wednesday
afternoons we will discuss readings as well as the screenings from the
previous Monday afternoon. Discussion will proceed
according to a variety of formats. I will usually prepare a
packet for you of questions and other materials for study, discussion,
and review that I’ll give to you at the start of class, right before we
begin our screenings, each Monday. I will design these packets to
help you make sense of readings and screenings, and we will use
these to structure our discussions on Wednesdays. At times I will
make relatively short, informal presentations, but I prefer not to
lecture at length; instead I want to work with you so that we can
together come to grips with the issues this course addresses. I
may prepare and post occasional written texts of extended length on
Desire2Learn or the W (the Student-Faculty Shared Drive) for you to
study and review on your own. At times I may ask students to do
some short writing before or during class to help facilitate
discussions, and frequently students will work for portions of our
Wednesday classes in small groups. At times as well we will watch
clips from films previously screened, and we will also, on occasion,
watch clips from additional films as well as DVD extras from the films
we have just previously screened on the preceding Monday.
In short, we’ll aim to do all kinds of things in class on Wednesday to
keep it interesting. I will maintain ultimate responsibility,
authority, and control for the direction of our class discussions, yet
I will do my best to make sure we hear extensively from everyone
else. You all have much to offer of value–we all gain from you
sharing and us engaging with your observations, reflections,
interpretations, and other perspectives.
GENERAL EXPECTATIONS OF STUDENTS
I expect students in this course to strive to become
sincerely interested in learning about the subject matter of this
course, and to be consistently intellectually serious as well as
academically diligent in their pursuit of this learning. And I
expect you to let me know right away when and if you have any questions
or problems about any aspect of how you are doing in and with the
course, so that I can do whatever I possibly can to help answer these
questions and solve these problems.
In addition, students should keep in mind that the
higher educational academy is not a "safe space" separate from the rest
of the "real world" where you can expect to be sheltered from
encountering anything you might find disagreeable or
objectionable. After all, disturbing positions and practices
exist extensively outside of the classroom as well as in what we read,
see, hear, and otherwise confront in and for class; what we confront in
class exists in this institutional space as symptomatic of positions
and practices that operate beyond the confines of the classroom, the
course, and the university. If and when you find any text or
topic genuinely upsetting, you maintain the ethical responsibility not
simply to try to hide from but rather to engage with it in an
intellectually serious, responsible, mature adult way. Students
should expect therefore that you will on occasion encounter
representations that you will find troubling, in this UWEC course and
in many others as well; within this Department you will receive no
right of exemption from engaging with these and absolutely no welcome
for simply complaining (especially to a higher administrative
authority) about their inclusion. After all, great works of
art–including of literature–are often created with the deliberate aim
of disturbing, even shocking many people who will encounter these;
often the intent here is to provoke strong response, as well as
thought–and action–that goes beyond what has become familiar,
conventional, commonsensical, and, especially, merely “safe.”
Finally, students should also be prepared to deal
with that fact that a professor differs from a high school teacher in
many respects, but one key difference is that we maintain a principal
professional, ethical responsibility forthrightly to represent the most
advanced knowledges in our fields of expertise and to proceed from
there to work toward their further development and
dissemination. In short, we must create, advocate for, and profess these knowledges; you
should expect that your professors may from time to time take
controversial positions on difficult and challenging issues, eschewing
the pretense of disinterested neutrality. To do anything less
than assume this responsibility would be to shirk our professorial
responsibility and to render ourselves unworthy of maintaining our
professorial positions.
GOALS OF THE BACCALAUREATE
These are the five most important,
official goals all UWEC undergraduate courses are designed to help you meet:
1. Knowledge of Human Culture and the Natural World
2. Creative and Critical Thinking
3. Effective Communication
4. Individual and Social Responsibility
5. Respect for Diversity Among People
These goals require your striving to
meet them. Striving means learning actively and deliberately,
completing assignments in a thorough and timely fashion, participating
in class discussion, and making connections between what we do while
meeting in class and what you do when engaged outside of the classroom.
SPECIFIC REQUIREMENTS FOR THE COURSE
GRADE
Introduction
In evaluating all work done for this course, I will
take account of how carefully, seriously, intelligently,
enthusiastically, and imaginatively students engage with the concepts,
issues, positions, and arguments addressed in the course and
represented by the texts we read, the films we screen, by me, and by
each other.
Learning and Contribution/Learning and
Contribution Reflection Papers
My foremost aim in teaching this course is to help
you to learn something of significance and value. I will judge
you to a significant degree on what you learn, how–and how hard–you
strive to learn, and on how–along with how well–you contribute to the
learning for the rest of the class.
Class participation represents an important
opportunity to learn, not just a place in which to demonstrate what you
have learned. By raising questions, testing and trying out ideas,
taking risks and making mistakes, you learn a great deal–and help
others learn a great deal as well. You learn through talking, not
just talk to show what you have learned. Don't hesitate to speak
forth in class if you have anything at all to throw into the mix.
At the same time, just talking a great deal does not
necessarily mean that you are making a quality contribution to the
class by aiding the learning that we aim to accomplish. Quality
of participation is much more important than quantity, although a
sufficient quantity is indispensable to insure quality. Still, I
want to emphasize here that I perceive talking for talking’s
sake–especially talking which pulls us off on far-fetched tangents,
which remains disconnected from and disengaged with the reading and the
rest of the class, or which effectively silences others–to be negative
participation. Quality class participation does not, moreover,
involve merely asking questions of me and responding to my questions;
quality class participation requires you to work to advance a serious
and substantial discussion with your peers about the films, readings,
and issues subject to discussion.
Contribution to the class certainly can extend far
beyond mere speaking in class: it may include a variety of ways in
which you can bring to bear your insights to help yourself as well as
the rest of us gain from the experience of this course. Excellent
writing for class is also a valuable way to contribute to class.
At the same time, listening carefully, respectfully, and thoughtfully
in class discussions is yet another important means of contribution–as
is taking time to meet and talk with me outside of class. In
fact, meeting and talking with me outside of class can be an excellent
way to contribute–as well as to show us me how seriously interested in
and engaged with the course material you are.
Learning and contribution will constitute a
significant proportion of your overall course grade. As part of
this grade, you will write three
short learning and contribution reflection papers. For
these papers I will ask you, simply, to assess 1.) what, most
importantly, you have been learning over the preceding third of the
semester, 2.) how, along with how well you have been contributing to
your own learning and to the collective learning of the class over the
preceding third of the semester. As I see it, these short papers
provide you a useful opportunity to communicate with me how you are
doing with the course, and to demonstrate your critical
self-reflexivity, the hallmark of a liberal arts education. As
you are assessing your own learning and contribution, you may include
thoughts in reaction to issues raised in class discussion that you did
not have the opportunity or did not feel comfortable enough to share in
class; these additional reflections can help me get a better sense of
what you have been thinking about and how you have been responding to
class discussions, as well as to the readings. I will take into
account what you write in determining your learning and contribution
grade for the preceding half-semester; performance on these papers
represents a vital component of your learning and contribution grade.
I will provide you specific directions in the
assignments I give you for each of these papers. Length will be
quite flexible, but I suggest you can imagine approximately 5-7
double-spaced, typed pages (or approximately 2500 to 3500 words) as a
reasonable target in each case. Each learning and contribution
grade (including each learning and contribution reflection paper) will
be worth 17.5% of
the overall course grade, making for a combined total worth 52.5% of the
overall course grade.
Interview Conference
For this assignment, I will ask you to meet in
conference outside of class with me to engage in an extended, serious,
critical discussion of one German film we have not yet previously
screened together this semester. I estimate we will talk together
for approximately one hour. You will work on this assignment as
part of a group of three to four students from our class.
Group assignments will take place either during week
three or four of the semester. At that time I will also give each
group a copy of the film it will be working with so that you can screen
it individually, as well as collectively, and review it–as well as
special features on the DVD–in preparation for the conference. I
will also give you the specific questions ahead of time that I want you
to come to the conference prepared to address. The conference
will happen approximately two to three weeks later at a mutually
convenient time for all of us, and it will take place in my
office. Tentatively, the films I am thinking of making available
for this purpose are as follows (with titles in English): Triumph of the Will; Olympia; Somewhere in Berlin; Naked Among Wolves; The Gleiwitz Case; and The Bridge.
This assignment will be worth 20% of the
overall course grade. I will give you individual grades
for this assignment (although they most likely will turn out to be the
same, unless different members of the group clearly put in
substantially different amounts of work on this
assignment). I will give you all copies of a written form
after the conference providing each of you an opportunity individually
to evaluate (in confidence) each other member’s contribution to the
group’s work–as well as to evaluate yourself. I will take into
account these evaluations in determining your individual grades.
Final Group Project and Class
Conference
Once again, you will work together with a group of
two to three fellow students from our class on this project.
Groups may consist of three to four students. I will give each
group three German films we have not screened together as part of the
course. Your task will be to prepare a presentation that uses
these films as a point of departure, reference, and return in order to
help illuminate, as well as stimulate, thinking and discussion, in
relation to a.) a significant issue in German cinema studies, as
well as b.) a significant issue in German history, society, politics,
and/or culture. You yourselves, in your groups and in
consultation with me, will determine, based upon what the films you are
working with suggest, precisely what these specific issues will
be. At the end of the semester you will present what you have
come up with as part of a public class conference; you will have
approximately 45 minutes time to
present, followed by approximately 30 minutes time to engage in–and
lead–discussion. This class conference
will take place on Sunday May 11 in a room and at times to be
arranged. It will be open to the public to attend as
interested and able.
These projects may involve incorporation of original
creative work, depending upon the interests and talents of the members
of your group. For instance, you may create and present a.) your
own short video (or film); b.) an exhibition of visual or plastic
art; c.) a music, theatre, dance, and/or spoken word performance; and
d.) other kind of collages or montages from multiple, mixed
media. You certainly do not need to create and present any of
this kind of material, as long as you can find a way successfully to
illuminate and stimulate (as I described in the preceding
paragraph). In other words, you can present the results of
research and critical analysis to us, together with the screening of
illustrative clips, along the lines of what you would commonly find at
a professional academic conference (and you may prepare the same kind
of poster or array of posters that many academic conferences often
include at “poster sessions,” or that UWEC features at its annual
‘Student Research Day[s]’ in April). [I mention the ‘creative’
options here solely because past 381 students have wanted to make these
kinds of additional contributions to their final group projects, not
because I myself necessarily expect them. I’m not one to stifle
creativity and enthusiasm, so if you want to do something like that,
I’ll support you, but if not, no problem whatsoever.]
I will make more specific suggestions to you for
this project as you proceed to work on it. And I will also later offer
you a more detailed explanation of how I conceive of the goals of this
assignment as well as the criteria for evaluation I will use.
Also, group as well as individual members from groups are welcome–and
indeed encouraged–to meet with me in conference as you are thinking
through and working on the presentation so I can help assist you in
your planning and preparation. I do recommend, however, that you
right away start paying attention to ideas addressed in the readings
and screenings for the course that particularly interest you, so that
you may well be able to pursue these further with your final group
project. I will give you some choice over what films you will
work with, but this will be limited to titles which I own copies of and
which I think will prove especially stimulating for our purposes,
including supplementing and extending beyond what we were able to cover
together in class.
So you can start thinking about this early on, here
are the sets of films (with titles in English) that I am tentatively
thinking of making available as possibilities for these projects: 1.) I Was Nineteen; Europa, Europa; and The Ninth Day; 2.) Rosenstrasse, Aimee and Jaguar, and Sophie Scholl; 3.) The Tin Drum, Mephisto, and Germany, Pale Mother;
3.) The Boat, Stalingrad, and As Fast as My Feet Will Carry Me;
4.) The Consequence, Querelle, and The Blue Hour; 5.) Coming Out; The Virgin Machine, and Summer Storm; 6.) Stroszek, Woyzeck (Herzog Version), and Nosferatu (Herzog Version); 7.) The Edukators, Bandits, and Changing Skins; 8.) Hot Summer, Sun Alley, and Solo Sunny; 9.) Just Don’t Think I’ll Cry, Sun Seekers, and The Architects; 10.) The Rabbit Is Me, She Was Born in ‘45, and Trace of Stones.
This assignment will be worth 27.5% of the
overall course grade. Once again, I will give you
individual grades (although they may well turn out all the same), and
once again I will give you all copies of a written form after your
presentation providing each of you an opportunity individually to
evaluate (in confidence) each other member’s contribution to the
group’s work–as well as to evaluate yourself. I will, as with the
earlier interview conference, take into account these evaluations in
determining your individual
grades.
Finally, each student is required to attend and
participate actively in discussion for one other group’s project
presentation besides your own. * You will receive 2.5%
extra credit for each additional group project presentation you attend
and engage with in discussion beyond the one required of you. *
Class Field Trip/Extra Credit
*** We will take a class
field trip on either Saturday April 18 or Saturday April 25 (still to
be determined) to attend the annual Minneapolis-St. Paul International
Film Festival–where we will aim to focus on films from Germany and/or
from other German-speaking nations and regions–as well as have dinner
at a German restaurant in the Twin Cities, along with participating in,
potentially, some other German-related activities. *** We
will leave from the Hibbard Humanities Hall parking lot in the early
morning and return to that location in the late evening of the same
day. We will travel together, to and from the Twin Cities, aboard
a charter bus which I will pay for. I will also be willing to
help pay for other students’ expenses (tickets, meals) as possible and
as need be. Friends are most welcome–and in fact strongly
encouraged–to come along and join us. *** Students will earn 7.5%
extra credit just for attending the field trip. Students
can earn an additional 2.5% extra credit by helping make arrangements
for the field trip–for the bus, with the Film Festival, with the
restaurant, and elsewhere we might visit. *** We always take a
similar field trip in every English 381 class I teach–and, increasingly
often as well, in every English 181 class I teach too.
These class field trips–especially for English 381–are always a great
time, and I hope as many as possible of you will be able to make it.
CONFERENCES/EXTRA HELP
I encourage you to meet with me in conference during
office hours or at another mutually convenient time to discuss any
issue of interest or concern that you develop as a student in this
course and as a member of this class. I recognize the value of
learning that takes place in conferences; I know this can at times be
equally as important, and in fact occasionally even more important,
than what takes place in class. It also provides you an
opportunity to contribute beyond what you say in class and write for
class. So please do not hesitate to meet with me at any time you
think this might be helpful to you–or whenever you’d just like to talk
further with me. I want to help you in your understanding
of issues addressed in screenings, readings, and discussions, as well
as in your writing and participation. And you may certainly also
feel free to contact me by e-mail or by (my campus office) phone as
well.
I really do like to get to know my students;
students at this university continually demonstrate impressive ability,
talent, knowledge, experience, insight, vitality, and good
character. I am lucky to get to know you; it enriches me.
*
Any student who has a disability and is in need of classroom
accommodations, please contact the instructor and the Services for
Students with Disabilities Office. *
CONCLUSION
In the interest of accountability–me to you–I am
here providing you links: 1.) to my statement of philosophy as a
college teacher: http://www.uwec.edu/ranowlan/philosophy.htm;
2.) to my autobiographical profile: http://www.uwec.edu/ranowlan/PROFILE_.htm
and http://www.myspace.com/insurgentseanmurphy
(if you too are on myspace feel free to contact me to become myspace
friends); and 3.) to my professional vita (the academic equivalent of a
resume): http://www.uwec.edu/ranowlan/VITA.htm.
I encourage you to check these sites out; it is useful for you to know
who your teacher is, what he’s about, and where he’s coming from–and I
like to be very open, honest, and forthright with you about all of
that. I look forward to a great semester working together with
you!