Working Through Working

Catalog description

This seminar, taught in German, 1) continues the rigorous trajectory of language study by introducing students to longer literary texts and full-length movies; by introducing students to theoretical, critical, academic discourses in German; 2) introduces students to the rich archive of German-speaking theoretical, literary, and cinematic engagement with the question of work's place in the life of individuals and society: From Marx and Engels, via Weber's analysis of Protestant ethics as basis for the rise of capitalism, Kracauer's depiction of the new class of employees in the Weimar Republic, to the diverging valorizations of workers in the 2 Germanies; up to current discussions about the precarity of work, the post-pandemic "great refusal", and the renewed emphasis on gendered differences regarding waged work and care work. We will pay particular attention to questions like: How are work and workers represented? Who speaks for the workers? Can we imagine work differently?