Nineteenth Century German Literature for Undergraduates

Abstract

It is within my own memory as an undergraduate that any attention has been paid in the American College to nineteenth century German literature. Of course, twenty years or so ago, 'Read in part before the German section of the Modem Language Associa-'George Saintsbury-A History of Criticism, N. Y., 1904. 'Brander Matthews-The Short-Story, N. Y. tion of America at the meeting held at New Haven, December 1917. 111-569. 1907, p. 399. (248) Nineteenth Century Gemzan Literature for Undergraduates 249 while and to counteract the indifference of departments of English and Comparative Literatures. The problem of the presentation of literature normally presents itself under two rubrics: the What and the How ? First, what should we read in a nineteenth century German course? Looking over the announcements for 1915-17 of about thirty representative colleges in the United States and assuming that the normal advanced Freshman course follows three to four years of High School preparation, we find the following courses in nineteenth century literature : I. Open to Freshmen (=4th to 5th year):

'Language of the Enemy': Foreign Language Education and National Identity

“…Rather, they 320 Bilingual Education and Bilingualism argued that 'the value of conversational ability, so far as the American student is concerned, is ornamental' (Cerf, 1922: 436). Consequently, they advocated a move away from the Direct method towards the focus on reading skills, declared to be of greater importance and intellectual value (Cerf, 1922;Heuser, 1918;Perry, 1938). Heuser (1918) stated that it is unrealistic to require that after three years of high school German college students study entirely in German; he also pointed out, inter alia, that courses that stress oral proficiency are patronised largely by German-American and Jewish students (and thus may contribute to undesirable language maintenance).…”

We have room for but one language here: Language and national identity in the US at the turn of the 20th century

“…Since at the time only 20 percent of the children continued their education past elementary school (Gordy 1918), this curricular change effectively limited foreign language instruction to the most privileged segment of the population, typically middle-and upper-middle class Anglo children. The ideological shift also affected foreign language teaching approaches: while prior to World War I, the Direct Method was slowly making its way in, raising the level of oral communication skills, in the aftermath of the war, reading skills were once again declared of greater importance and intellectual value (Cerf 1922;Heuser 1918;Kramsch and Kramsch 2000). One of the arguments in defense of the focus on reading skills was the fact that German classes with the stress on the spoken language had been largely patronized by German-American and Jewish students (Heuser 1918) and thus may have inadvertently contributed to immigrant language maintenance.…”

“…The ideological shift also affected foreign language teaching approaches: while prior to World War I, the Direct Method was slowly making its way in, raising the level of oral communication skills, in the aftermath of the war, reading skills were once again declared of greater importance and intellectual value (Cerf 1922;Heuser 1918;Kramsch and Kramsch 2000). One of the arguments in defense of the focus on reading skills was the fact that German classes with the stress on the spoken language had been largely patronized by German-American and Jewish students (Heuser 1918) and thus may have inadvertently contributed to immigrant language maintenance. Furthermore, to ensure the ideological purity of foreign language classes, it was argued that modern language instruction should be taken away from 'foreigners who seldom are able to acquire the point of view of their pupils' (Fitz-Gerald 1918: 58) and entrusted to American-born teachers (Whitney 1918).…”

The Avatars of Literature in Language Study

“…Class discussion, according to German scholars of the time, was ultimately best done in English. Heuser (1918) specified: "Let the instructor himself use German as much as he is able . .…”

“…This view of texts translated into an attack on teachers who used literary texts as a way to make their students practice the language. In an article entitled "19th Century German Literature for Undergraduates," Heuser (1918) wrote:…”