Film Studies & German Studies will kick off their annual film series with Christian Petzold’s enigmatic thriller, Yella (2007). It “offers a surreal X-ray vision of cutthroat capitalism in 21st-century Germany.” – Stephen Holden, The New York Times
Powell Family Cinema, CFS, Wednesday, February 22, 2012, 7 p.m., with an introduction by Leo Lensing
We will continue our series in March with Maren Ade’s comedy drama, Everyone Else (2009). “…watching the film is to watch the emergence of a very particular and potentially galvanic cinematic talent.” – Glenn Kenney, The Los Angeles Times
Powell Family Cinema, CFS, Tuesday, March 27, 2012, 7 p.m., with an introduction by Katja Straub
The German department will show Uli Edel’s film The Baader Meinhof Complex (with English subtitles) on Monday, November 28, at 7:00 p.m., in Fisk 210. The film is based on Stefan Aust’s book of the same title. Prof. Leo Lensing will give an introduction to this thought-provoking film.
Germany in the 1970s: Murderous bomb attacks, the threat of terrorism and the fear of the enemy inside are rocking the very foundations of the yet fragile German democracy. The radicalised children of the Nazi generation lead by Andreas Baader, Ulrike Meinhof and Gudrun Ensslin are fighting a violent war against what they perceive as the new face of fascism: American imperialism supported by the German establishment, many of whom have a Nazi past. Their aim is to create a more human society but by employing inhuman means they not only spread terror and bloodshed, they also lose their own humanity. The man who understands them is also their hunter: the head of the German police force Horst Herold. And while he succeeds in his relentless pursuit of the young terrorists, he knows he’s only dealing with the tip of the iceberg. Written by Constantin Film
The German Studies Department and the Writing Center invite you to meet Christopher Kloeble on Tuesday, October 18, 2011, at 6:00 p.m., in the Shapiro Center/Allbritton 311. Join us for stories by Christopher Kloeble and a sneak preview of his latest novel, Almost Everything Very Fast, which will be published in March 2012. Mr. Kloeble will read in English and German. English translations will be available for the parts he reads in German. A discussion will follow.
Christopher Kloeble grew up in Königsdorf, a small town in Bavaria. He has studied in Dublin and at the Literary Institute in Leipzig. Recently, he also attended the International Writers Program at the University of Iowa. For his debut novel, Amongst Loners, published in 2008, he received the Juergen Ponto-Stiftung Prize. A collection of 11 short stories followed a year later. His plays have been staged in major theaters in Vienna, Munich, Leipzig, Heidelberg and Nuremberg. The film,Inclusion, for which he wrote the movie script, will air on December 12, 2011, on BR-alpha, a German television station owned by the regional broadcaster Bayrischer Rundfunk. Kloeble lives and works in Berlin.
Relax, speak German, and enjoy coffee and cake at the German House on 65 Lawn Ave. The German House is inviting to “Kaffee und Kuchen” on Friday, October 7 from 4:30 – 6:00 PM.
Interested in studying abroad in Regensburg, Germany?
Join us for an informal information session on Wednesday, September 21 from 5-6 p.m. in Fisk 414. You will meet former Wesleyan students who have studied in Regensburg and our German exchange student Stefanie Schaffler. We will start with a presentation on living and studying in Regensburg and then will have time for questions.
Anya Olson ’11 and William Krieger ’11 present their Honors theses in Uli Plass’ garden to a spellbound audience.
Anya Olson “Gender and Society in Selected Works by Irmtraud Morgner, Christa Wolf, Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Heinrich Böll”
William Lawrence Krieger, IV: “Framing the Dilettante: The Art of Martin Kippenberger”
Anya received a Baden-Württemberg scholarship and will be studying in Tübingen next year. Will received a Fulbright scholarship to study and do research at Humboldt University in Berlin next year.
We celebrated the following German Studies Majors
Matthew Alexander – COL Short Story Prize
William Krieger – Fulbright Fellowship, Beulah Friedman Prize, Blankenagel Prize
Benjamin LaFirst – Fulbright Teaching Fellowship to teach English at a high school in Linz, Austria, Prentice Prize
Anya Olson – Baden-Württemberg-CT Sister State Exchange, Scott Prize
Catherine Steidl – Baden-Württemberg-CT Sister State Exchange, and Blankenagel Prize
The German Consulate Book Awards were presented to
Isadora Danim, Mari Jarris, Steven Le, Hannah Overton, Oscar Takabvirwa, Alexandra Scherbl, and Carmen Yip
American Sign Language and German Movie Night with an introduction by Sheila Mullen and Iris Bork-Goldfield
April 6, at 4:30 p.m. – Fisk 302
Beyond Silence (1998) directed by Caroline Link. Starring Sylvie Testud, Tatjana Trieb, Howie Seago is a German movie with English subtitles. Acclaimed by critics and audiences everywhere, BEYOND SILENCE is the powerful Academy Award-nominated story of a young woman’s battle for independence and her deaf parents’ struggle to understand her gift for music. Given a clarinet by her free-spirited aunt, Lara is immediately consumed by a new passion her parents cannot share. Determined to follow her dreams, Lara’s ongoing pursuit of music creates an ever-widening rift that eventually threatens to tear apart her once close-knit family.
Organized by the Program in Social, Cultural, and Critical Theory. Co-sponsored by German Studies, History, COL, Sociology, English, the Dean of the Social Sciences, and the Center for the Humanities
Eva Geulen’s talk will examine the historically and conceptually fraught relationship between law and literature from four points of view: 1. The common history and shared heritage of law and literature; 2. law as literature; 3. literature vs. law; 4. literature in law.
Eva Geulen received her Ph.D. from the Johns Hopkins University and has taught at the University of Rochester and at New York University. Currently, she is professor of modern German literature at Bonn University. She has published widely in the areas of modern narrative prose, discourses of education, gender studies, and aesthetics. Her books include The End of Art: Readings in a Rumor after Hegel (Stanford UP 2006) and Giorgio Agamben zur Einführung [Introducing Giorgio Agamben] (Junius 2005; second, revised edition 2009).