German and Norwegian - BA (Hons)

UCL (University College London)

This module belongs to German. This is a language module that develops a range of core linguistic skills, including spoken and written German, reading comprehension, and translation from German into English. The module consists of 3 components: Discussion and Essay: students write essays and give presentations on selected literary, historical and cultural themes. Translation and Reading Comprehension: this seminar introduces translation techniques, addresses linguistic differences between English and German, and develops techniques for reading and understanding German texts. German Grammar: this seminar will focus on the structure and use of the German language. Topics include word order, case, adjectival endings and verb forms.

This module belongs to German. This module will examine a representative selection of German films made, mostly before 1989, by prominent post-war directors in the Federal Republic of Germany, such as Herzog, Wenders, Fassbinder and Tykwer. These films pay particular attention to German history and society and we will discuss as an ongoing theme the ways in which they reflect contemporary perceptions of Germany and its troubled past. The course will thus introduce students to post-war German culture more broadly, as well as to techniques of film analysis.

This module belongs to German. The module will provide an introduction to linguistic concepts and topics which help us to understand the structure and use of the German language in contemporary times. The fields studied in the module include: phonetics and phonology; inflection and derivation; syntax; lexical structure, lexical borrowing, and sociolinguistic variation. Although the main focus of the module will be on the German language, comparisons with contemporary English will also be made where relevant. Primary material will be taken from newspapers and magazines, television and the internet where necessary. Students will be encouraged to find their own examples of linguistic phenomena from these sources. An essential part of the module will involve background reading of secondary material to consolidate understanding of guiding linguistic theories and principles.

This module belongs to German. This module builds on work completed in the first year, using translation and comprehension exercises to enhance fluency in reading, writing and understanding contemporary German, as well as continuing to explore its relation to English. Passages for translation and comprehension will include contemporary literary, historical and journalistic texts.

This module belongs to German. In this class, students will grapple with the significance of the Weimar and Nazi eras for modern German history. Topics will include the characteristic features of Weimar culture and politics, the origins of the National Socialist movement and its rise to power, the National Socialists? utopian vision and their various efforts to implement it, and the relationship between state and society. Students will also consider the nature of everyday life, the persecution of Jews and other minorities, the uses of terror, the horrific culmination of the Nazi regime?s ideological goals in the Second World War and the Holocaust, and, finally, the memorialization of the period.

This module belongs to German. This module will cover major narrative and lyric texts from the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period. Consideration will be given to both predominant themes (courtliness and heroism; conflicting demands of love and society; transgression) and broader literary theoretical questions (alterity; developments in medieval narrative technique; textual in/stability).

This module belongs to German. This module will examine a representative selection of German literature from the Enlightenment to the late 19th century, focusing on the question how important literary epochs, from the Enlightenment itself to Poetic Realism, have engaged with and 'debated' the concept of Enlightenment. The module introduces students to texts by the century's most acknowledged authors, including Kant, Lessing, Goethe, Schiller, Eichendorff, Heine, Kleist, Bchner, and Keller. The module thus offers a broad overview over and explicitly links the century's most important literary and intellectual movements, while at the same time complementing the core modules GERM0013- Love, Violence and Laughter: Medieval and Early Modern German Literature and Culture up to 1740 and GERM0015- The Challenge of Modernity: Literature and Culture from 1870 to the Present.

This module belongs to German. This course explores some of the most exciting - and disturbing - ideas and artworks of the fast-moving modern age. It reflects the ways in which, from the late nineteenth-century onwards, the German-speaking world seemed to be turned upside-down by shocking historical events, radical ideas and new cultural forms. The works studied in this course show how these developments could be experienced as exhilarating, disturbing, liberating, traumatic - or all of these at once. The module begins with writing from the German Empire after 1871, and then considers classic texts of early modernism, to the Weimar years and the rise of Nazism, to the Third Reich. Finally, it looks at important currents in cultural and socio-political life of the post-1945 period.

This module belongs to German. This is an integrated language-culture module for second-year students. It is taught entirely in German and designed as preparation for university-level study or work experience during the Year Abroad. As such, it functions on two levels: Content: This module aims to provide students with the literary, cultural and political history of the two capitals of Germany and Austria. The module will teach analytical skills in German using several texts, from literary genres (poetry, drama, prose) to non-literary genres (newspaper articles, political speeches, editorials). Language acquisition: All work for this module (reading, writing, speaking) must be done in German.

This module belongs to German. The New German Cinema is associated with some of the biggest names in twentieth-century film-making and beyond, like Werner Herzog, Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Wim Wenders. While the works of the New German Cinema are extremely diverse, they share a drive to set themselves apart from the art and storytelling of the past, in terms of both themes and style. Its key themes include German histories of violence; the Nazi past; the family, its secrets and the stories it tells about itself; the so-called Economic Miracle; outsiders and society; revolt and protest; and gender, ethnicity and identity.

This is an intermediate course in Norwagian language.

This is a Norwagian language module. The Intermediate Project Work in a Scandinavian Language provides a module of guided learning for students who have completed the Intermediate language module or otherwise reached the B2/C1 level (CFR) in their target language. It offers an opportunity to broaden linguistic proficiency in four core areas (reading, writing, translation/grammar, aural) while covering a number of topics and areas connected to the language region. The module also aims to develop communicative skills by setting tasks (both formative and as part of the portfolio assessment) designed to give opportunity for writing different type of texts, constructing audience-targeted material, and engaging with a variety of different practices of language usage.

Your third year is spent abroad. This will not only bring the language and culture you are studying to life, but also strengthen your resourcefulness and self-reliance. You will normally spend this year studying at a university in your chosen country (or countries if you are studying two languages), but alternatives, such as work placements, may be possible.

This is a German module. This is an advanced final year / MA German language module which combines intensive language work (reading, writing, listening, speaking) with the discussion of complex topics ranging from "Erinnerung" to "Identit?. The module focuses on German essay writing on an academic level as well as the oral discussion and presentation of the topics dealt with in class.

This is a German module. The module will focus on the medieval German text of Parzival in its entirety. We will refer to Wolfram?s treatment of his French source (of which passages may be read in English translation) and will set him in his historical context - literary, political, social and religious. Topics to be covered will include narrative strategies, codes and techniques; history and fictionality; ideologies of chivalry and nobility; gender; courtly culture; religious belief.

This is a German module. In Austria the period between approximately 1890 and 1938 was not only one of enormous political upheavals (the collapse of the Habsburg Empire, the founding of the First Austrian Republic, and its subsequent annexation to Nazi Germany), it was also a time of intense cultural and intellectual ferment. Focusing on key works of the fin de si?e and of the interwar period, this course will explore some of the distinctive preoccupations of Viennese modernism ? sexuality and the gendered self, aestheticism, and Sprachkrise ? as well as examining literary responses to questions of national identity and cultural tradition.

This is a German module. The module will examine the complex relationship between language, power, and ideology in Germany society, and will trace how language has been employed in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries by individuals, groups, organisations, and institutions to exercise power and to communicate a particular ideology or world-view. During this module, we will address a variety of linguistic topics and issues, including political discourse, defining 'propaganda' or 'ideological language'; the ?misuse? of language; the nature of linguistic groups; language planning. The analysis of primary texts will draw upon aspects of linguistic theory, including sociolinguistics, pragmatics, discourse analysis, and semantics.

This module looks at three major twentieth-century novels in detail. All three books explore the problem of interpretation and raise questions about how reality can be understood and represented. In each novel the narrative technique is a crucial tool for undermining the reader's expectations, both in relation to specific historical events and in relation to the process of textual interpretation itself. The books challenge our desire for clarity and explanation in an era when the category of truth has been profoundly relativized.

This is a German module. This module examines the interaction between psychology and German literature in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. We will analyse a selection of literary texts that have either been inspired by psychological findings or have been the subject of psychological interpretations. This will not only give an insight in the psychological theories of literature, but also help to understand the formation of psychology as a science in the second half of the nineteenth century and the crucial role literature played for the development of psychoanalysis around 1900. At the same time, the module will investigate some of the ways in which psychoanalytic and psychotherapeutic theories influenced the work of major writers such as Arthur Schnitzler, Stefan Zweig and Hermann Hesse.

This is a German module. This module examines the development of an African diaspora in the German lands from the Middle Ages to the present-day, with emphasis on the dramatic shifts in regimes of the past 200 years. Along with surveying contexts in which Africans and their descendants came to German-speaking lands, we will consider the diverse ways in which they have shaped and been shaped by a society that variously tolerated, rejected, or accepted them on specific terms. By paying due attention to transnational contexts, the module will complicate ideas of a single black experience as well as a monolithic and consistent idea of ?Germanness?.

This is a German module. In this module we will explore the problem and the promise of surveillance in German-language culture in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Students will encounter crucial and often opposing theories of the forms surveillance can take, and test the applicability of these theories to the changing representations of surveillance in literary texts and films made in the German-speaking context. The theoretical approaches and primary texts handled in the module will give students a grounding in the contributions that German-language culture has made to discussions of how surveillance shapes behaviour, and the narratives and forms that literature and film in German create for living with and responding to surveillance.

This is a German module. This module focuses on key films of the Weimar and Nazi eras. Weimar-era films have had a lasting impact on world cinema. They range from documentary to horror to sci-fi, and their often spectacular, startling or challenging themes, to be explored here, include automata, madness, the modern metropolis, technology, new images of women in modernity, sexuality, performance and gender politics. The module then goes on to explore the varied ways in which film production in the Nazi era which followed reflected and interacted with the regime?s (cultural) policy.

This is a German module. This is an enhanced module in translation from and into English. The material used is taken from literary works and journalistic texts, reflecting different styles of writing, old and modern, and varying linguistic registers. All material can be accessed via Moodle.

This is an advanced final year / MA language module in translation from and into German. It enhances understanding of idiom, style and register, and develops advanced language mediation skills.

This is a German module. This is an enhanced module in translation from and into English. The material used is taken from literary works and journalistic texts, reflecting different styles of writing, old and modern, and varying linguistic registers. All material can be accessed via Moodle.

The expatriate German writer W.G. Sebald (1944-2001) is considered one of the great world writers of recent decades. His writing addresses questions which are central to the modern condition as he saw it. These issues include nature and its destruction, crime, mental disturbance, decay, social outsiderdom, art, violence and history. Sebald?s writing is also about beauty, travel, art, friendship and quirky, utopian refuges from the struggles of the world. It is fascinating too for its highly unusual style, such as the enigmatic use of images, photographs and documentary material and curious narrators. Sebald was born and brought up in (West) Germany, and wrote his literary texts in German. However, he is of special interest to readers of literature in London, for he lived and worked throughout almost all his adult life in England, and his work demonstrates profound engagement with a wide range of modern European literature and history. This module explores his major works.

The cultural representation of deviant, particularly criminal, women reveals much about what a society considers the norm for acceptable female behaviour. During Germany?s eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, women?s role in society was debated more ardently than ever before. ?Erudite? women (weibliche Gelehrte) were admired in the eighteenth century and vilified in the nineteenth; Schiller?s ?demure housewife? (zchtige Hausfrau) was the laughing stock of educated readers of the early nineteenth century and the expected norm twenty years later. Much of the age?s fluctuating definition of femininity was developed on the back of a specific type: the female criminal.

This is a Norwagian language module. The aim of this module is to develop skills in the reading and comprehension of mainly bokm?to near native proficiency and to raise the learner's awareness of foreign language learning processes and strategies. During the module the students will be exposed to different types of original fictional and non-fictional texts and materials, including articles, literary texts, TV debates, films, and speeches. Students will reflect on the differences and similarities between different genres and will gradually be able to imitate different styles and registers.

This is a Norwagian language module. The module aims to expand the vocabulary, oral skills and written skills of students who already have a high level of fluency and proficiency in their chosen language. It is designed to challenge all students at their individual level and give them the maximum opportunity to develop their own strengths within the framework of the module, while at the same time give the students the opportunity to undertake a longer and more in-depth study of a specific topic that relates to their main language.

This is a Norwagian language module. This module is designed to (a) provide practice in translation from the three languages, (b) identify strategies for using knowledge of one Scandinavian language to develop comprehension of the other two, and (c) introduce translation theory and apply it to practical translation tasks. The module is timetabled for one hour per week throughout the academic year, in order to provide ample time to develop skills. The first five weeks focus on translation theory, using a range of authentic translations to identify approaches most relevant in the Scandinavian context. Thereafter, classes cover a range of text-types and genres across the three languages, organised in three language-specific blocs of five weeks each. The module is team-taught by language specialists and with occasional guest appearances from practising Scandinavian-English translators. Students may be able to attend events relating to translation throughout the year, including one or more briefing sessions on translation careers and technological tools for translators.

This is a Norwagian language module. The dissertation is a compulsory element of the Scandinavian Studies degree. It is an original academic work on a topic completely of your choosing. You can write on any topic you like (so long as a staff member is willing to supervise it) but are encouraged to write on a topic relating to your specialism (the language, literature, culture, history etc. of the Scandinavian country you have focused on during your studies).

Norse myths and medieval sagas have been the source for ?popular? cultural trends since the first nationalistic approach of the Romantics in 19th century Europe. Today, such Norse-based representations have established a distinct visual and thematic identity within popular culture transcending national and cultural boundaries. Through study of the source myths combined with theoretical analysis of various popular texts such as fantasy and graphic novels, comic books, film, music, video games and MMORPGs (massively multiplayer online role-playing games), this module will guide students to situate these depictions within a larger theoretical framework of Nordic studies and cultural theory, while simultaneously enabling them to analyse their own relationship with the various representations of the ?popular Norse?.

This is a Norwagian language module. This module builds on the foundation laid by SCAN1102 Introduction to Linguistics and the Scandinavian Languages, and is aimed at students in their second or fourth year of study. Exploring the structures and usage of the Scandinavian languages in their modern form, the module covers areas such as language form, language meaning and language in context. The module seeks to offer students a theoretical grounding in the broad field of Linguistics and neighbouring disciplines, and a solid introduction to their methods and applications (including the study of speech, dialects and sociolects), with a key feature being cross-linguistic comparison between the Scandinavian languages.