Course Description

While early German films like The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) and Metropolis (1927) were famous for their androgynous monsters and sexualized automata, the image of the uncanny Other – and its uncanny gender(s) – seems to disappear from later German film history. This course focuses on the question of gender to trace the evolution of the “uncanny” from the Weimar period to the present. Although we will start with Weimar film and Freud’s analysis of das Unheimliche in fairy tales, the core of this class involves thinking about the afterlives of the uncanny in a wide range of films stretching from 1920 to 2020. The questions we’ll investigate include: Does the uncanny have a gender? What new kinds of uncanny gender(s) emerge after Weimar film ends? How do directors from different eras invoke the traditional understanding of the uncanny in their films?

Directors will include Ernst Lubitsch, Robert Wiene, Lotte Reiniger, Ulrike Ottinger, Maria Schrader, and Christian Petzold. Readings will be drawn from a wide range of historical and contemporary texts, including canonical film theory, contemporary criticism, and digital writing. This course will also introduce students to German-language vocabulary around gender, sexuality, and queerness, as well as vocabulary specific to film analysis. Films, discussions, and readings in German.

Course Goals

1. View and analyze a diverse and wide range of German films. These films stretch from 1919 to 2021, are directed by men, women, and queer filmmakers, and include canonical, obscure, auteur/arthouse, low-budget, and popular films, giving students a unique perspective on the history of German cinema.
2. Critically define the “uncanny,” historicize its emergence, identify its presence in a wide range of German-language contexts, and examine its historical relationship to gender(s).
3. Develop advanced vocabulary related to (a) film criticism and technique, and (b) gender, sexuality, etc., including “geschlechtergerechte Sprache” (gender-neutral language).
4. Read and analyze a variety of formal and informal film criticism in German, including newspaper reviews, film theory, and blog posts; practice writing and speaking about film in a variety of styles and tones, both conversationally and formally.
5. Continue to improve and refine skills in advanced German, including reading, writing, grammar, listening, and speaking.