GERM 318 – JEWISH LIT & CULT/20TH C. EURO
Unit(s): 4
Taught in English. Fulfills Core-C Literature requirement. Listed as elective for Jewish Studies and Social Justice, International Studies, and European Studies. This course examines some of the most important issues involving ethnicity, heritage, and identity by focusing on major expressions by writers and artists of Jewish background in Western and Eastern Europe. The class is interdisciplinary in scope, using literature, theater, film, art, music, and other media to define concepts that have shaped significant contributions by Jewish artists, thinkers and intellectuals, particularly in the German and Yiddish vernacular. Against the changing historical backgrounds, the class seeks to gain a deeper understanding of what it meant to be Jewish in the early part of the century, and to distinguish different forms of acculturation and/or assimilation. It then moves on to discuss literary testimonies of Holocaust survivors and ends with examples of the burgeoning Jewish culture in post-wall Germany.
