German studies

German studies is the field of humanities that researches, documents, and disseminates German language and literature in both its historic and present forms. Academic departments of German studies often include classes on German culture, German history, and German politics in addition to the language and literature component. Common German names for the field are "Germanistik", "Deutsche Philologie", and "Deutsche Sprachwissenschaft und Literaturwissenschaft." In English the terms Germanistics or Germanics are sometimes used, but the subject is more often referred to as "German studies", "German language and literature", or "German philology".

Modern German studies is usually seen as a combination of two sub-disciplines: German linguistics and Germanophone literature studies.

German linguistics

German linguistics is traditionally called philology in Germany, as there is something of a difference between philologists and linguists. It is roughly divided as follows:
* Old High German ("Althochdeutsch") 8th - 11th centuries
* Middle High German ("Mittelhochdeutsch") 11th - 14th centuries
* Early New High German ("Frühneuhochdeutsch") 14th - 17th centuries
* Modern German (Standard German, German dialectology) 18th - 21st centuries

In addition, the discipline examines German under various aspects: the way it is spoken and written, i.e. spelling; declination; vocabulary; sentence structure; texts; etc. It compares the various manifestations such as social groupings (slang, written texts, etc.) and geographical groupings (dialects, etc.).

German literature studies

Literary studies is divided into two parts.Fact|date=February 2007 "Ältere Deutsche Literaturwissenschaft" deals with the period from the beginnings of German in the early Middle Ages up to post-Medieval times around AD 1500, while the modern era is covered by "Neuere Deutsche Literaturwissenschaft". The field systematically examines German literature in terms of genre, form, content, and motifs as well as looking at it historically by author and epoch. Important areas include edition philology, history of literature, and textual interpretation. The relationships of German literature to the literatures of other languages (e.g. reception and mutual influences) and historical contexts are also important areas of concentration. "The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory: Fourth Edition" (ISBN 0-14-051363-9) is printed in English but contains many German-language literary terms that apply cross-culturally in the field of literary criticism; quite a few of the in terms in the book originated in German but have since been adopted by English-language critics and scholars.

German media studies

In recent years, German has looked for links with the fields of communications, cultural studies and media studies. In addition, the sub-branch of film studies has established itself.

History of German studies

As an unsystematic field of interest for individual scholars, German studies can be traced back to Tacitus' "Germania". The publication and study of legal and historical source material, such as Medieval Bible translations, were all undertaken during the German Renaissance of the sixteenth century, truly initiating the field of German studies. As an independent university subject, German studies was introduced at the beginning of the nineteenth century by Georg Friedrich Benecke, the Brothers Grimm, and Karl Lachmann.

ee also

*German literature
*Sturm und Drang
*New Objectivity
*Germanisches Nationalmuseum
*German Studies Association
*Modern Austrian Literature and Culture Association
*Area studies
*Delta Epsilon Phi Secondary German Honor Society in the US
*Delta Phi Alpha Collegiate German Honor Society in the US

Bibliography

Books

* Atlas Deutsche Sprache [CD-ROM] . Berlin: Directmedia Publishing. 2004.
* Hartweg, Frédéric G.: "Frühneuhochdeutsch: eine Einführung in die deutsche Sprache des Spätmittelalters und der frühen Neuzeit". Tübingen: Niemeyer. 2005.
* "Die Deutschen Klassiker" (CD-ROM).
* Burger, Harald: "Sprache der Massenmedien". Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. 1984.
* Ernst, Peter: "Germanistische Sprachwissenschaft". Wien: WUV. 2004.
* Hickethier, Knut: "Film- und Fernsehanalyse". Stuttgart, Weimar. 1993.
* Hickethier, Knut (ed.): "Aspekte der Fernsehanalyse. Methoden und Modelle." Hamburg: Lit Verlag. 1994.
* Kanzog, Klaus: "Einführung in die Filmphilologie". Munich. 1997.
* Muckenhaupt, Manfred: "Text und Bild. Grundfragen der Beschreibung von Text-Bild-Kommunikation aus sprachwissenschaftlicher Sicht". Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag. 1986.
* Prokop, Dieter: "Medienproduktanalyse. Zugänge - Verfahren - Kritik". Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag.
* Beutin, Wolfgang: "Deutsche Literaturgeschichte: von den Anfängen bis zur Gegenwart". Stuttgart: Metzler. 1992.
* Fohrmann, Jürgen Fohrmann and Wilhelm Voßkamp (eds.): " Wissenschaftsgeschichte der Germanistik im 19. Jahrhundert". 1994.
* Marven, Lyn: "Body and narrative in contemporary literatures in German : Herta Müller, Libuse Moníková, and Kerstin Hensel". 2005.
* Shitanda, So: "Zur Vorgeschichte und Entstehung der deutschen Philologie im 19. Jh.: Karl Lachmann und die Brüder Grimm," in "Literarische Problematisierung der Moderne", ed. by Teruaki Takahashi. 1992.
* Bogdal, Klaus-Michael, Kauffmann, Kai, and Mein, Georg (unter Mitarbeit von Meinolf Schumacher und Johannes Volmert): "BA-Studium Germanistik. Ein Lehrbuch", Reinbek bei Hamburg: Rowohlt 2008 ISBN 978-3-499-55682-1

Journals

* "The Journal of English and Germanic Philology"
* "Journal of Germanic Linguistics"
* "Muttersprache"
* "New German Critique"
* "Zeitschrift für deutsche Philologie"
* "Zeitschrift für Germanistik"

External links

* BUBL Link (UK-based) Catalogue of Internet Resources Concerning the German Language: http://bubl.ac.uk/link/g/germanlanguage.htm (well organized; covers many aspects of the language and the study of it)
* http://www.library.adelaide.edu.au/guide/hum/german/german_net.html (University of Adelaide's categorized guide to German Area Studies online)
* http://www.dartmouth.edu/~wess/wesslit.html (Dartmouth's German-Studies Web links, annotated and arranged by topic)
* http://libadm87.rice.edu/ref/german.cfm (Rice University's guide to German studies, including printed literature and links to German newspapers and magazines)
* http://www.germanistik.net/ germanistik.net (tries to get the user straight to the best sources of help; in German)
* Germanistik im Netz - Erlanger Liste (The 'Erlanger Liste' is currently the largest collection of links to the various aspects of G***, including such archives, publishers, etc.; in German)
* Literaturwissenschaft online ("Literaturwissenschaft online" Kiel University's e-learning site with live and archived lectures; free of charge; in German.)
* [http://www.bdsl-online.de Bibliographie der Deutschen Sprach- und Literaturwissenschaft] ("BDSL Online" is the electronic version of the largest bibliography in the field of German language and literature studies. Access to report years 1985-1995 is free of charge.)
* http://www.doaj.org/ljbs?cpid=8 (DOAJ Directory of Open Access Journals, Literature and Languages)
* http://www.sign-lang.uni-hamburg.de/Medienprojekt/Literatur/9.med.analy.html (University of Hamburg site with media studies bibliography)
* Departmental Ratings http://chronicle.com/stats/productivity/page.php?year=2007&primary=10&secondary=174&bycat=Go

University departments and research institutions

* "Categorical list of German Departments around the world": http://www.germanistik.net/universitaten.htm
*Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures, The University of Virginiahttp://www.virginia.edu/german/
* Department of German Language and Literature, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario: http://www.queensu.ca/german/
* Hamburg University, Germany: http://www.slm.uni-hamburg.de/Stuplan/DeutSprachLit_eng.html
* Jawaharlal Nehru University, India: http://www.jnu.ac.in/Academics/Schools/SchoolOfLanguage/GermanCenter.htm
* Department of German, University of California, Berkeley, U.S.A.: http://german.berkeley.edu/index.php
* Department of Germanic Languages, University of California, Los Angeles, U.S.A.: http://www.germanic.ucla.edu/
* Department of German Studies, Cornell University: http://www.arts.cornell.edu/german/index.asp
* Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures, Harvard University: http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~german
* Department of German, New York University, New York, New York, U.S.A.: http://www.nyu.edu/fas/dept/german/
* Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures, University of Pennsylvania, U.S.A.: http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/german/index.html
* Department of German, Princeton University, U.S.A.: http://german.princeton.edu/
* Department of Germanic Studies, University of Texas at Austin: http://www.utexas.edu/depts/german/main.html
* Department of Germanic Languages and Literature, University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.: http://www.pitt.edu/~germanic
* Department of Germanic and Slavic Languages, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.: http://german.la.psu.edu/
* Department of Germanic and Slavic Languages, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, U.S.A.: http://sitemason.vanderbilt.edu/german/
* Department of Germanics, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, U.S.A.: http://depts.washington.edu/uwgerman/
* Department of German, Yale University: http://www.yale.edu/german/german.html
* German and Scandinavian Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst: http://www.umass.edu/germanic/index.html
* Department of German, Scandinavian, and Dutch University of Minnesota: http://www.gsd.umn.edu
* Department of German, National University of Ireland - University College Cork, Cork, Ireland: www.ucc.ie/german
* Department of Germanic Studies, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL: http://www.uic.edu/depts/germ/german2.html