Course overview
Taught through the Department of European Languages, and Linguistics, this course provides a comprehensive introduction to contemporary Germany through the prisms of history, politics, society, and culture. It is designed to contribute to your understanding of how a modern German citizen thinks and feels in the twentieth-first century. Taught in German at the intermediate level, the course provides opportunities for students to improve their language skills in the areas of speaking, writing, listening and reading. Through this course you will develop: 1) an understanding of some of the most important issues currently facing Germany 2) an awareness of Germany's place in the world, and 3) an appreciation of Germany's diverse and dynamic culture.
For students enrolling through German Studies, Contemporary Germany will focus on various aspects of the society and culture that are distinctively German. These include constructions of regional and national identities, questions of German citizenship and immigration, educational and political structures in contemporary Germany. The range of topics also includes the social market economy and welfare state underpinning contemporary German society, as well as present environmental debates. We will also focus on the capital city Berlin as a symbol of Germanys broader transformation since reunification. Frequently located at the symbolic centre of the European Union, Germany is often regarded as the epitome of the successful modern European State. We examine that success (or otherwise) as a function of Germanys ability to work through its twentieth-century traumas. Workshops and Seminars will be in German.
Course learning outcomes
- In-depth knowledge of some of the issues central to an understanding of contemporary German society, culture and language
- Ability tolocate, organise and evaluate primary and secondary sources of information pertaining to the study of issues central to an understanding of contemporary German society, culture and language
- Ability to work independently and cooperatively to further their understanding of German society, culture and language
- Ability to communicate information, ideas and arguments about aspects of contemporary Germany cogently and coherently
- Awarenness of cultural differencs and its impact on German society, but also on their own
- Capacity to understand the complex nature of contemporary German society and of the cultural productions that represent or criticise it