Barnard German Department: Germany's Traveling Cultures

Main features:

The course is taught in English and all readings are in English (3 credits).

This course is open to all students with an interest in cultural studies; no knowledge of the German language is required for the readings and discussions but there is a weekly extra session for students who want to become a German major

It is designed for a general audience in different disciplines. Students enrolled in programs such as Africana Studies, Anthropology, Comparative Literature or Latin American Cultures who want to know more about how travel and displacement have shaped Germanophone cultures from the age of transcontinental exploration to now or how social mobility and multiculturalism influence contemporary Central European cultures today will find a range of topics they can tie to their own field of interest.

The key issues: Our discussions will revolve around the central question of how mobility (tourism, migration, and colonialism) shapes the (bi)cultural identity of mobile subjects in Central Europe, Africa, and South America. In broader terms we will address the issue of how cultures travel (“traveling cultures”) and to what extent a culture is defined by location and globalization.

COURSE DESCRIPTION:

(1) The main topics:

In concrete terms, we will examine intercultural encounters between travelers and natives and explore the concrete experiences of tourist and migrants as well as local residents who live abroad at different locations or who are trying to find a place in between two cultures. A variety of sources allow you to discuss and critically assess the impact of mobility on modern society and itinerants. In particular, we will read travel writings, analyze films, study exhibitions and look at photographs that might reveal how individuals deal with an important change of location in their lives. For example, by examining the particular ways by which Turkish Germans in Berlin or Jewish Germans in Istanbul define themselves and how German migrants in South America or Africans in Central Europe carve out their niche in society, we get a sense of how travel and migration have transformed or fostered a sense of cultural identity over time. Being exposed to different latitudes and locations can also mean that travelers or residents with hybrid cultural affiliations are confronted with complex social expectations which might question or even challenge a person’s identity. Due to conflicting norms within society or due to concrete measures taken by oppressive political regimes, the culture of travelers and traveling cultures are inextricably linked to crossing borders, thus turning each individual into citizen, guest or alien.

(2) Readings and sequence of topics:

We start out with a discussion of German travel experiences in the New World in the age of discovery and then examine the journeys between Africa and Central Europe in the era of colonialism. The selection of short texts and images helps us to characterize the different facets of the colonial enterprise. The emphasis is on the African experience and on constructions of white and black identity before and after 1900. In moving from Wilhelmine imperialism to the entertainment industry of the Weimar Republic in the Roaring Twenties and from there to the beginnings of organized travel under the totalitarian regime of the Third Reich, you will become familiar with the view of African-Germans who lived through these difficult times. It will be particularly illuminating to study depictions of black colonial subjects and read autobiographical accounts of Africans who grew up in early 20^th-century Germany. In the last third of the semester, we will turn our attention to the era of global tourism, multiculturalism, and cosmopolitanism. Various writers, photographers, and film-makers have approached the question of how Germany’s cultures—or we might say cultures in Germany—have changed in the last third of the 20^th century. The forms of self-representation will also include memories of an old German-American family, photographs of Germans posing in front of the camera as Native Americans, and a film about the German-Turkish Hiphop scene. Readings: Our itinerary will take us from Alexander von Humboldt (in South American) to Stefan Wackwitz (reporting about Namibia), from refugees in Istanbul and Shanghai to Berlin’s fairs, zoos, exhibits, from Josephine Baker and the African-German Hans Massaquoi to Turkish-German filmmaker Fatih Akin and Hiphop musician Aziza A

(3) Special features for German Majors and Minors:

Note: German majors and minors can add an extra session; all texts are available in German (4 credits). [Time and place of extra session to be discussed in the first week of the semester]

German majors and minors have the opportunity to become acquainted with a variety of cultural manifestations (exhibits, photographs, films by learning to understand their general significance through lectures in English and by discussing the key issues in weekly extra-sessions in German. This is why this course is well suited for majors and minors who have just completed the intermediate-level courses and wish to pursue the German Studies track or who are simply interested in discussing journalistic, documentary or visual responses to the issue of cultural identity, based on race, ethnicity, and gender.

Contact: Department of German, BARNARD COLLEGE

The office is located at Milbank Hall 320. Tel. (212) 854-5415

Instructor: Professor Erk Grimm, Email: egrimm@barnard.edu