GERM 174 - Deep Dives into German Culture

Semester Offered: Fall
0.5 unit(s)

Topic for 2024/25a: Literary Cuisine: Savoring Our Way Through the Literature and Culture of German-Speaking Europe. From the Brother Grimms’ “Hansel and Gretel” to Heinrich Heine’s love song to cholent (“Cholent is God’s bread of rapture,/ It’s a kosher-type ambrosia”) to singer Herbert Grünemeyer’s ode to Currywurst to Rafik Schami’s “Kebab is Culture” and beyond, evocations of food and eating are central to literary and cultural production in German-speaking Europe. By the same token, cookbooks are themselves fascinating cultural artifacts that help cultivate familial, regional, ethnic, national, and transnational identities. In this Intensive, we explore literary and cinematic representations of meals from about the last two hundred years, and try our hand making a variety of German/Austrian(-Jewish/ -Turkish/ -American…) dishes, past and present. We also address the theme of hunger that is so important to writers and artists like the Grimms, Käthe Kollwitz, and Franz Kafka. Some knowledge of German is helpful but not required. Elliott Schreiber.

Prerequisite(s): Permission of the instructor.

One 2-hour period and individual conferences with the instructor.

Course Format: INT