GERM 355 - Advanced Seminar

Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)

Topic for 2016/17b: Migration and Exile - Stories of Displacement and New Homelands. The recent wave of refugees to Europe is part of a long history of mass migrations in this part of the world. While Germany has been an attractive destination for many refugees lately, it has also been the cause of large-scale war, terror, and mass displacements in recent history. This course examines a variety of narratives dealing with the notions of place, exile and refuge both from the perspective of immigrants in Germany and German expatriates. In comparing accounts of refugees in contemporary Germany with the literature of guest workers and their descendants, we examine the causes and impacts of displacement on immigrants and how these in turn shape their sense of place, belonging, and home. We also analyze how Germans in exile related to their new surroundings and viewed the country they left behind. In addition to literature, poetry, and film, students work with non-fictional accounts and scholarship on interculturalism. Authors and filmmakers may include Akin, Baykut, Domin, Kaminer, Mann, Seghers, Yousefi, Zaimoglu. Lioba Gerhardi.

Prerequisite(s): GEOG 260 or GERM 270 or the equivalent.

Two 75-minute periods.