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posted 25 September 2006 - Use “course documents” link at left to see information about 2 texts to order as soon as you are sure you will be in the course

Some thoughts about the course (will later be moved to a course description on the “Course Documents” page):

What is (and is not) “Age of Goethe - the ‘Humboldt Project’”?

Courses titled “Age of Goethe / Goethezeit” have been around for decades. Customorily they, like other upper-division courses in the German major, have focused on literary texts and their backgrounds, however “background” might be conceived (other literary texts, social circumstances, intellectual circumstances, the life of the author). “Goethezeit” courses would then focus, obviously, on the literary of the time of Goethe, and most often largely on what he wrote (unless the program also had specific Goethe courses, including sometimes the famous “Faust Seminar” taught by a departmental giant). The “Age of Goethe” offered a big canvas to paint on - Goethe lived more than 80 years, had such a multi-dimensioned personality, and knew so many of the major figures of the time.

Our course isn’t structured that way. The literature of the time will receive some attention, yes. But for several reasons I have chosen another organizing principle: We will explore the Age of Goethe by following the life and work of two people: 1) Alexander von Humboldt, the German explorer, scientist, anthropologist (the list goes on and on). He too lived a long time too, and unlike Goethe he traveled far beyond the boundaries of his own Europe. 2) Thomas Jefferson, the American scientist, statesman (the list goes on and on). He too lived a long time, and he also traveled far beyond the boundaries of his American homeland. Humboldt brought the Old World to the New World, and then brought the New World back to the Old World. Jefferson brought the New World to the Old World, and he also brought the Old World back to the New World. That, too, provides a big canvas (or two of them?) to paint on.

Here are some of the more specific reasons, either for the course itself or for my approach to courses like this:

1) If we concentrate overly on just the literature, we can easily fail to see it in its context. But that’s a relatively minor point, compared to the next two.

2) We are members of an American university, and most of us are Americans. While we must try to view the culture(s) of the German-speaking world through their own eyes (never more than partially possible, of course), we should also view that world in comparison to our own American culture and our experiences in it. That comparison can easily be ignored, and it is very conceivable that we need to learn more about our own culture and its past.

3) Studying German also means learning the language, with the considerable likelihood that one will teach it (or teach English in a German-speaking country). There is now much discussion in the teaching profession about how to teach language (and also how to teach literature!) in the upper-division curriculum. I believe strongly in encouraging students to monitor their own language-learning and to think about how to teach language and culture.

4) The comparison of people and cultures allows us (requires us?) to related our specific area of German to other areas of study and other kinds of learners. German is no longer taught in schools, colleges, and universities as a matter of course. It takes a lot of work now to maintain the language and the culture in the curriculum. I hope to show you that with our course we can do exciting things to reach out to others, both for their benefit, and also for our own, for that of our subject area, however you may spend the rest of your life and career, and also for the sake of having careers in this area at all, which is a matter of concern to several of you.

The course will be as rigorous intellectually as other courses, but it will not be as “academic” as many are. You’ll be doing some pretty dynamic things with what you learn. More about that soon.

What's this about a group project, a “Humboldt Project”?

Participants in the course will work as a team (and also as individuals and probably also as sub-teams) to develop a teaching and learning resource that will summarize the learning done in the course and present it in a useful way to another community of learners. The priority project is a presentation about Alexander von Humboldt that kids in schools named for him (and not just schools in America!) can use to find out more about him and relate him to their cultural heritage. In the background here, of course, are Lewis and Clark, whose expedition could not have happened without either the Enlightenment and Reason or Revolution.

In many of my courses there are such final projects, and presenting them publicly replaces the final exam. Some courses also present their work in other public venues: German 320, the German business simulation, appeared at the PSU early-May Tech Fair for several years.

The group projects often serve as the basis for grant applications, as has the German business simulation, which attracted funding several years ago to expand to other languages. In 2004 that course, and the GER399 German Science Fiction course, won one of the two PSU prizes for Teaching with Technology. I have also sent in a proposal to do a conference presentation about such courses, including this one, at at the Fifth Annual International Humanitities Conference in early January, 2007.

How will the course meetings be organized and sequenced?

One organizing principle will probably be thematic: I'll probably select a theme for each week (natural science, music, etc.), and we'll follow that theme in our focus on Humboldt and Jefferson, and in the selection of literary texts. The other organizing principle will be the “Humboldt Project”: what needs to be done on it, and in what order, so that it can come to fruition when it needs to. The first organizing principle is independent of the outside world: it is dictated only by the course. The second organizing principle is tied to the outside world: Once the parameters of the “Humboldt Project” have been set, its content and the organizing of its contents are determined by what our "clients" must see when they open up “box”.

What about the language learning?

There will be quite a range of German (and English) skills in our course. During the first week I'll be evaluating German speaking and writing skills, and then adjusting the course both to fit and to challenge them

I will expect the graduate students to take over some responsibility for teachng literature to the undergraduates. That's because a 400/500 course must have different requirements for the two groups, and because graduate students are making serious moves toward a career in teaching culture, language and literature.

The nature of the “Humboldt Project” demands the varied exercise of language skills, including the ability to re-express in German what one has read in English (and maybe some of the other languages that Humboldt used), and to re-express in English what one has read in German (and maybe some of the other languages that Humboldt used. Since some of our envisioned “clients” are younger learners, and even non-native speakers of English or German, the course also needs the skill of re-tailoring language over the spectrum of simplicity to complexity, and even allowing for differences of cognitive development.

What will we do and learn?

Something we will NOT do is study our topic in isolation: 1) not in isolation from our own time and environment; 2) not as literary texts unrelated to other kinds of texts or other cultural phenomena; 3) not as an "academic" subject unrelated to the teaching and learning of language and literature - anyone who has pursued that subject far enough to be taking upper-division courses in it should be thinking about vocational, professional and career dimensions.

Nor will you be assigned a term paper. But you will most certainly do as much or more researching, learning and writing as you would do to write a term paper. You will likely like it better this way, and almost certainly you will learn more this way.

Yes, there will be some "academic" reading and writing (and talking and listening and, of course, thinking). But we won't neglect the more personal and affective dimension, or that of group undertakings. You can expect to do some reflective writing, to do individual and group presentations, and to undertake a group project that will deliver our topic to a larger audience and relate it to the teaching and learning of language, literature and culture.

During class you will be expected and encouraged to join in the discussion - just as would the scholars and artists and other leaders of the Age of Goethe.

What will we read and what other sources of knowledge will we use?

Excerpts or short works from original sources, in translation where necessary; three modern books as case studies and sources of background knowledge; various other books and articles for incidental reference; visual and audio materials; the usual range of internet resources (and maybe some unusual ones)

Many of the shorter texts will be distributed as photocopies; if the class stays small, I will use my faculty photocopy allowance to absorb the cost. If we need larger quantities, we'll set up a rotating system of making copies and collecting for them.

Who are some of the other people we will encounter?

Among the general European and American culture, maybe not all of the following, but many of them, and certainly some others: Pascal, Kant, Jefferson, Voltaire, Diderot, Goethe, Franklin, Gibbon, Cook, Frederick the Great, Alexander von Humboldt, Lafayette, DeToqueville, Condorcet, Lyell, Paine, Maria Theresia, Handel, Haydn, Napoleon, Rousseau, Johnson, Blake, Madame de Stael, Trumbull, Copley, David, Ingres, Catherine the Great, Mozart.

Among the writers of German literature: Goethe, of course, and Schiller, of course, but also - though more incidentally - some of the less major writers of the time.

Ourselves - individualy and as each other

What are testing and grading like?

There are no tests, in the sense of written bluebook exams. All your learning and what you do to communicate and document it will be evaluated by scoring guides with multiple rubrics that use the standard 6-level rating system.

In that system, 6 is A+. It is "exemplary" - so wonderful that the instructor wants to save it forever and show it off to everyone. To get that "A" you have to AmAze me and the rest of the class. But you'll have to figure out how to do that, because if I tell you what will amaze me and then you do that, I won't be amazed. But I can give you examples.

4 is B-. It is "sufficient" - the basics and the essentials are evident but not strong, and there are significant shortcomings in understanding and presentation.

For many activities there is the possibility of revision and rescoring.