Equal Opportunity Statement

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is committed to equality of educational opportunity and does not discriminate against applicants, students, or employees based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, age, or handicap. Any complaints alleging failure of this institution to follow this policy should be brought to the attention of the Assistant to the Chancellor (tel. 919/962-1219). Moreover, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is open to people of all races and actively seeks to promote diversity.

Application, Admission, Financial Support

Application. Application should be made through the Graduate School website. In order to be fully considered for competitive Graduate School fellowships, applicants should have all application materials in by January 1. In order to be considered for departmental funding (Teaching Assistantships), applications should be complete by January 31. The Graduate School requires, in addition to the application form, transcripts from all institutions previously attended and three letters of recommendation from instructors familiar with your academic work. Current, official scores for the GRE and TOEFL exams (for international students) are also required. The Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures asks that students submit a writing sample (in either English or German); generally a substantial paper that demonstrates advanced critical and analytical skills, as well as a 2-3 page Statement of Purpose. Students may submit these materials through the department's online application form at http://www.unc.edu/depts/german/admissions/gradsup-text.htm .

For additional funding, please see the Mellon Fellowships in Humanistic Study website. DEADLINE: December 1st

Admission . An undergraduate major in German or a related field is generally the prerequisite for admission to the M.A. program, and it is expected that applicants already have highly developed German language skills. Admission directly to the Ph.D. program requires either an M.A. in German or the equivalent. Admission decisions are based on a careful assessment of all components of the application, with particular emphasis placed on letters of recommendation, performance in previous course work, the statement of purpose, the writing sample, and GRE scores.

Financial Support . While some students choose to enroll without support from UNC, most incoming students receive a stipend of some kind. The department nominates extremely well-qualified applicants for competitive university-wide fellowships. Within the department, we offer a variety of teaching and non-teaching fellowships, including Kent James Brown fellowships that suppement funds from other sources. Fellowships are generally for a nine-month period. Students who make satisfactory progress towards the completion of the M.A. can expect two years of support; those who make satisfactory progress toward the PhD, including those with degrees from other institutions, can usually expect to receive continued funding for three years past the M.A.. Students taking both the M.A. and PhD at Carolina may thus generally expect a total of five years of financial aid.

Advising

During their first semester, students consult regularly with both the Chair and the Director of Graduate Studies (DGS). By the end of the second semester, the DGS generally pairs up students with an appropriate primary advisor, usually a faculty member whose research and teaching interests coincide most closely with those of the student. Since the Ph.D. program tends to be more specialized, the DGS matches new Ph.D. students with advisors in their first semester. Students are expected to plan their courses of study carefully in consultation with both their primary advisor and the DGS.

Teaching and Teacher Training

Teacher training is a central component of the graduate program at UNC. The department provides rigorous training in foreign language teaching methodology. TAships are normally available to second-year students who are making satisfactory progress towards the completion of their degree and occasionally to qualified first-year students as well. It is crucial that teaching assistantships have highly advanced language skills. Students who teach in their first year will generally have their German assessed by the Director of Graduate Studies and the Director of the Elementary Language Program the spring before they start teaching. Students who do not teach during their first year will meet with the Director of Graduate Studies and the Director of the Elementary Language Program during their first semester at UNC to have their language skills assessed. Beginning TAs generally teach German 101 or 102 and take the Teaching Methods course concurrently with their first semester of teaching. The course begins with a pre-semester workshop and continues throughout the fall semester, meeting once a week for discussion of the coming week's teaching, general pedagogical theory, and practical matters relating to teaching. In later semesters, graduate students often teach German 203 and 204, and occasionally more advanced undergraduate courses as well (Conversation and Composition, Introduction to German Literature). Summer school teaching opportunities in German 101-102 and 203-204 are generally available for experienced TAs on a competitive basis. General policies for Teaching Assistants.

Curriculum
[brackets indicate previous course numbering system, in effect through July 2006]

The Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures offers comprehensive training in German literary and cultural studies from the medieval period to the present. In general, every effort is made to meet, within the broad requirements of the department, the individual needs of the student. Students in the department may participate in the University Program in Cultural Studies, take courses in the Curriculum of Comparative Literature, the Department of History and other relevant departments across campus, and at nearby Duke University as well. The department welcomes the collaboration of students pursuing degrees in Comparative Literature with a specialization in German. Interested applicants should consult the requirements of the Curriculum in Comparative Literature.

The Department offers graduate courses in literature at three different levels, each having a distinct purpose and structure :

1) Courses at the 600 level are designed to provide a firm foundation in the principal movements and issues of a portion of German literary history. While these courses are not surveys, strictly speaking, and do not purport to cover every author and work of significant interest, they do offer a representative sampling. These courses also assist students in the acquisition of a critical overview of the specific fields covered, providing them not only with a firm foundation in a particular period in literary history, but also raising introductory questions about critical and theoretical approaches appropriate to that period. As a rule, courses at this level (with the exception of 615 [111] and 616 [112]) are offered with variable credit. Students have the choice of registering for 3 credit hours, in which case a final examination is required, or for 4 hours (by adding German 705, for an additional credit hour), in which case they present instead of an exam a paper of about 20 pages as their principal work product.

2) Courses at the 800 level are organized around specific topics and are therefore more specialized than those at the 600 level. A topic might be a particular author, genre, issue, or field of critical/theoretical inquiry. As a rule the topic will correspond to an area of the instructor's special expertise and therefore will engage the most recent research. The kind of work done will vary with the topic, as for example a combination of close textual reading with survey of critical commentary in a topics course on "Faust" or extensive viewing of films and reading of theoretical writings in a course on "Feminism and Film". Ordinarily, all students write substantial final papers on a topic not already treated, or not adequately treated, in published research.

3) Seminars are offered relatively rarely. Their purpose is to involve a small number of students in a process of discovery in collaboration with a faculty member. By their nature, seminars work at the edge of knowledge and involve occasional forays over that edge. They are open only to doctoral students already possessing a substantial background in the area of the seminar and require substantial participation by every individual. The normal requirement is an essay presenting a substantial piece of original research.

In addition to their regular course work, some students may wish to engage in independent study. Such study may be undertaken under the direction of an appropriate faculty member by registering for German 896 [299] or such other course as may be recommended by the DGS. Students wishing to consider independent work should consult their primary advisor, the DGS, and the proposed supervising faculty member before registering.

Courses numbered 400 to 499 may count toward the M.A. or Ph.D. only with special approval of the DGS.

Roster of Graduate Courses

NOTE: This listing represents a complete roster of potential offerings. Not every course is offered every year. Students should check with the DGS or the department office for the latest information about specific courses to be offered in the coming semester.

Literature and Culture (600 Level)

German 615 [111]: History of German Literature I

German 616 [112]: History of German Literature II

German 625 [115]: Early Modern Literature

German 630 [120]: Eighteenth-Century Literature

German 640 [125]: Early Nineteenth-Century Literature

German 645 [130]: Later Nineteenth-Century Literature

German 650 [135]: Early Twentieth-Century Literature

German 655 [140]: Later Twentieth-Century Literature

Literature and Culture (800 Level)

German 820 [210]: Topics in Medieval Literature

German 825 [215]: Topics in Early Modern Literature

German 830 [220]: Topics in Eighteenth-Century Literature

German 840 [225]: Topics in Early Nineteenth-Century Literature

German 845 [230]: Topics in Later Nineteenth-Century Literature

German 850 [235]: Topics in Early Twentieth-Century Literature

German 855 [240]: Topics in Later Twentieth-Century Literature

German 865 [245]: Topics in German Cultural Studies

German 870 [246]: Topics in Gender Studies

German 875 [247]: Topics in German Jewish Studies

German 880 [248]: Topics in German Cinema

German 860 [250]: Topics in Aesthetics and Criticism

Pedagogy (700 Level)

German 700 [205]: Methods of Teaching German

German 703 [206]: Advanced Topics in Foreign Languages Pedagogy

Language and Linguistics (500-700 Level)

German 500 [160]: History of the German Language

German 501 [165]: Structure of German

German 502 [171]: Middle High German

German 505 [272]: Early New High German

German 508 [270]: Old High German

German 511 [275]: Old Saxon

German 514 [260]: Old Norse I

German 515 [261]: Old Norse II

German 517 [255]: Gothic

German 520 [155]: Stylistics

German 521 [175]: Variation in German

German 542 [172]: Pidgins and Creoles (Linguistics 542 [172], Anthropology 542 [192])

German 545 [180]: Problems in Germanic Linguistics

German 549 [285]: Topics in Germanic Linguistics

German 605 [280]: Comparative Germanic Grammar

Reading Courses, Seminars, Thesis and Dissertation Credit

German 896 [299]: Readings Course

German 980 [345]: Seminar in German Literature

German 985 [361]: Seminar in Germanic Linguistics

German 993 [393]: Master's Thesis

German 994 [394]: Doctoral Dissertation

Job Market for Ph.D. Candidates

Candidates for the Ph.D. should ordinarily plan on going on the job market during their third year of Ph.D. study. At the beginning of that year, students should establish a dossier in the UNC Career Planning and Placement office, asking at least three professors who know their work well to write letters of recommendation on their behalf. It is generally a good idea to have at least one recommendation that can speak in detail about teaching. Job applicants should plan on putting together a curriculum vitae and drafting a sample cover letter well before the MLA Job Information List comes out in mid-October. Students going on the market are encouraged to consult frequently with faculty members while preparing job-hunting credentials. The department conducts periodic job-hunting workshops to provide practical advice and caveats for those undertaking a job search.

Degree Requirements for the M.A.

The M.A. requires a minimum of 30 semester hours, which generally amounts to 9 or 10 courses, one of which is thesis credit. Graduate courses at UNC are usually three credit hours. (But see above, under Curriculum, regarding variable credit for 600-level courses.) As the timetable below illustrates, the M.A. degree is designed to be completed in four semesters. Students who do not teach during their first year may, if they wish, take four courses each semester; those who do teach should not take more than three. All students take the M.A. exam at the beginning of their fourth semester and complete and defend their thesis at the end of their second year.

1. Required Courses:

1-2) German 501 [165], Structure of German; and German 502 [171], Middle High German. One of these courses will be offered every year, on a rotating basis. In special circumstances, where scheduling makes it difficult for both of these courses to be taken in the M.A. curriculum, students may, in sonsultation with the DGS, either substitute another course for 501 [165] or 502 [171] or take either substitute another course for 501 [165] or 502 [171] or take either 501 [165] or 502 [171] during the first year of Ph.D. coursework.

3-4) German 615 [111] and 616 [112], History of German Literature . This requirement may, in rare instances, be waived upon recommendation of the DGS for those students who already have a thorough training in the history of German literature substantially equivalent to mastery of the M.A. Reading List (see appendix). Students granted such a waiver will substitute two appropriate courses approved by the DGS.

5) German 700 [205], Methods of Teaching German.

6) German 993 [393], M.A. Thesis Credit.

Exceptions to these requirements are granted only in rare cases.

In addition to these six courses M.A. students take three or four additional courses numbered 500 or higher, totaling 12 credit hours.

Ordinarily it is expected that students will write a minimum of 3 course papers during the first year.

Students may take, with the approval of the DGS, up to two courses in other departments, when appropriate.

2. M.A. Exam, M.A. Thesis and M.A. Thesis Defense

The M.A. exam is designed to test a student's broad knowledge of German literary history from the High Middle Ages to present. The reading list for part one of the M.A. exam consists of a list of about 25 titles, compiled by the student in consultation with his/her advisor, and representing all the major periods of German literature. These 25 titles may include as many from the reading list of German 615-616 [111-112] (= the M.A. Reading List: see appendix) as the student deems suitable. The examination committee is comprised of those two faculty members who most recently taught German 615-616 [111-112] and either the DGS or a third faculty member selected by the DGS; alternatively, the DGS may approve an exam committee identical to the M.A. thesis committee. The exam will be taken during the second week of classes in the spring semester and consists of an hour-long oral examination. The language of the bulk of the exam will be English, unless other arrangements have made in advance. For non-native speakers of German, a significant portion of the exam will be in German as well, for the purposes of language assessment. Departmental support staff will schedule the exam, in consultation with the student and the DGS.

For the M.A. Thesis, a scholarly paper not normally less than 45 pages in length, students are encouraged to expand and rework a paper written for one of their courses. Students are expected to begin work on their thesis as soon as possible, choosing a potential topic in consultation with their advisors by the end of their second semester. In addition to the advisor, two other faculty members participate on the thesis committee. By the beginning of their third semester, student should have completed work on a tentative outline and a provisional bibliography. Students can then devote much of their academic energy during the third and fourth semesters to the thesis. However work progresses, it is expected that an advanced draft of the entire thesis be submitted to the student's thesis advisor by early March, and that the final draft be made available to the committee a full two weeks before the scheduled hour-long thesis defense. Students graduating in May generally have to defend and turn in their M.A. theses by mid April, which ordinarily means a thesis defense in the first week of April, and an official application to graduate filed with the Graduate School earlier in the semester, generally in February. Students should pay close attention to the Graduate School's official deadlines. Formal requirements regarding the format and submission of the M.A. thesis are found in the Graduate School's "Guide to the Preparation of Theses and Dissertations". It should be noted that the Graduate School normally expects all theses to be written in English, unless of course other arrangements are made. The M.A. thesis defense will likewise be conducted in English, except in cases where the advisor, student and DGS agree German would be appropriate.

All incompletes must be resolved before the M.A. thesis defense.

3. Timetable and Checklist:

TIMETABLE:

**For students who have received preliminary admission to the PhD. Those not going on to the PhD need not register for such courses.

CHECKLIST:

4. Admission to the Ph.D. Program:

Before the end of their third semester, students who wish to continue for the Ph.D. should write a brief preliminary letter of application to the DGS and the Chair stating clearly their goals. Students intending to continue and who have already made substantial progress on their thesis are encouraged to begin Ph.D. course work in their fourth semester. Formal admission to the Ph.D. program follows the completion and defense of the M.A. thesis and is based on: 1) performance on the M.A. exam; 2) the M.A. thesis and defense; 3) performance in course work more generally; and 4) performance in the teaching program.

Degree Requirements for the Ph.D.

1. General Requirements:

The Ph.D. requires a total of 6 courses (18 hours) beyond those required for the M.A., numbered above 500, plus an additional 6 hours of Ph.D. dissertation credit. Students with non-UNC-CH M.A.s must take German 700 [205] as one of their six courses.

In addition, Ph.D. students must demonstrate reading knowledge of one language other than German (ordinarily French) deemed relevant to a particular course of study. Competence in the additional language may be demonstrated either by exami­nation or by passing an appropriate course with a grade of P or higher.

Students who have earned M.A. degrees at other institutions must also meet the minimum residency requirement established by the Graduate School. This ordinarily consists of 4 semesters of continuous registration at a minimum of 9 hours per semester, but students should consult the Graduate School Handbook for specifics.

For the most part, students working towards the Ph.D. pursue an individualized program of study, choosing courses in consultation with their advisor so as to focus on potential areas of concentration, to be exposed to different periods, and to gain familiarity with a variety of different critical and theoretical approaches to the study of literature and culture. We have only one general requirement: that Ph.D. students are expected to enroll in no fewer than four courses (beyond those taken for the M.A.) for which they write a final paper.

Certain courses from other departments may be counted toward the degree, their exact nature and number to be determined by the student's individual needs. Acceptance of such courses beyond two requires the recommendation of the student's primary advisor and formal approval of the DGS.

Students are generally expected to complete the six courses required for the Ph.D. in two semesters, taking their Ph.D. exams during their third semester of Ph.D. study and passing the dissertation proposal defense examination no later than the week before Spring Break of the fourth semester. (See timetable below.) NB: Continuation of fellowship support depends on timely completion of these requirements. Students' progress will be evaluated each year in late February, and those not meeting departmental standards may be advised by the Chair that support will not be renewed.

2. Ph.D. Examinations:

The Ph.D. exam allows students to specialize in areas of particular interest, exploring fields and issues they may want to pursue further in their dissertation. In the interest of maximum flexibility, and as a way of best reflecting each student's personal interests, the Department has very few binding guidelines for the Ph.D. exam. During their first semester in the Ph.D. program, doctoral students are expected, in consultation with their primary advisors and the DGS, to begin developing of list of proposed special areas for the Ph.D. exam. Ordinarily, two areas will be chosen, representing periods, authors, genres, movements, critical or theoretical interests, or any other appropriate categories germane to the student's particular fields of interest. Reading lists should generally consist of no fewer than 25 titles for each of the two areas. Titles will ordinarily include an appropriate mix of primary and secondary literature, and the degree of acceptable duplication or overlap with the titles of books read in specific courses shall be determined by the student's primary advisor in consultation with the student. Preliminary reading lists should be put together during the first semester of Ph.D. course work, with final versions submitted to the student's advisor at some point during the first half of the second semester of Ph.D. work. The student, meeting with the DGS and the primary advisor, will then consider which faculty would be best suited to serve as examiners. Normally, there are three examiners in addition to the primary advisor and the DGS. It is the responsibility of the student's primary advisor, not the student, to ensure that each of the three additional examiners approve of the final reading list, and to coordinate scheduling of the exam with departmental support staff.

Students take the Ph.D exam no later than the third semester past the M.A.. The Ph.D. exam is a take-home, open-book exam, consisting of two substantial questions, one on each field, given every other day. Students are given 24 hours per question and are expected to write for each question an original essay of roughly 15 pages on the assigned topic. Student are encouraged to make use of all available technology and of any materials, resources, data bases, etc., they would normally consult while doing research. The exams should be written in English, unless other arrangements have been made with the student's advisor and the DGS.

Graduate School regulations stipulate that students must be officially admitted to the oral exams after the written comprehensives. Faculty will be given approximately 10 days to read the exams and admit students to the orals. The oral portion of the exam consists of a one-hour examination, conducted in English, and generally scheduled for approximately 2 weeks after the written examinations. For non-native speakers of German, a significant portion of the exam will be in German as well, for the purposes of language assessment.

3. Dissertation:

Dissertation Prospectus:

Since the function of the Ph.D. exam is to allow students to specialize in their particular fields of interests, students complete their exams in an excellent position to begin dissertation research. Students are expected to begin formal discussions with their advisor about their dissertation proposal, accordingly, immediately after the completion of the Ph.D. oral examinations. In consultation with their primary advisor and the DGS, students select three other faculty members to serve on their dissertation committee; in some instances, of course, the dissertation committee may coincide with the examination committee, but it need not.

A final draft of the dissertation prospectus should be submitted to the committee no later than 2-3 months after the Ph.D. oral examinations. The dissertation prospectus ordinarily consists of a narrative description of the dissertation project approximately 2,500 words in length (10 double-spaced pages) and a substantial bibliography of approximately 10 double-spaced pages. The prospectus must 1) present the thesis and outline the argument of the dissertation project; 2) engage with relevant scholarship to explain why the proposed work needs doing and what the potential significance of the results might be; 3) elaborate a methodology for the proposed research; 4) offer a chapter-by-chapter overview of the dissertation; and 5) demonstrate the student's broad familiarity with relevant primary and secondary literature. The language of the dissertation and the prospectus and of all oral examinations in conjunction with the dissertation project must be English, unless other arrangements have been made with the student's primary advisor and the DGS.

Once the final version of the dissertation proposal has been completed, students meet with the committee for a one-hour oral examination in which they present and defend their dissertation prospectus. In order to be admitted to Ph.D. candidacy, students must submit a proposal that in the judgment of their committee meets these standards, and they must defend their proposal successfully in the oral examination. The committee may, at its discretion, require revision as a condition of final acceptance, and in some cases reexamination.

Dissertation Completion:

Dissertations should ordinarily be between 200 and 350 pages, printed in a standard font such as Times-New Roman 12, in the format that conforms to the requirements stipulated by the Graduate School. Once a complete penultimate version has been approved by the student's advisor, the dissertation will be distributed to members of the committee, and a defense will be scheduled. The defense will usually be held as soon after the submission of the penultimate version as is practical.. It is crucial, however, that students submit the penultimate version of their dissertations to the committee a full four weeks before the scheduled defense. The examination will be conducted by the primary advisor and the four other members of the dissertation committee. The result of the defense may be one of the following: 1) pass with acceptance of the penultimate version as the final draft, or with the expectation that the student complete minor revisions; 2) pass with recommendation for moderate to extensive revisions; 3) fail. In case 2), the primary advisor will oversee the revisions, and no further defense will be necessary. In case 3), the student will be allowed to retake the examination once.

Students should pay close attention to the graduate school's official deadlines, including the deadline for applying for graduation. Formal requirements regarding the format and submission of the Ph.D. thesis are found in the Graduate School's "Guide to the Preparation of Theses and Dissertations".

4. Timetable and Checklist for the Ph.D

5. Evaluation of Progress

Every year, the department faculty reviews all graduate students with a view toward assessing progress toward their degrees. Continuation of financial support depends on timely completion of requirements. Students' progress will be evaluated each year in late February, and those not meeting departmental standards may be advised by the Chair that support will not be renewed.

6. Degree Deadlines

Each year, the Graduate School sets deadlines for the filing of the necessary paperwork for graduation. Students planning to receive their degrees in a given semester must fill out an Application for Admission to Candicacy and Degree Card (obtainable from the department office) and submit them to the Graduate School by the stipulated deadline, which falls early in the term (e.g., January for May graduation). Submission of the required number of copies of the final, defended M.A. thesis or Ph.D. dissertation, signed by the advisor and committee members, is also subject to fixed, inflexible deadlines set by the Graduate School (e.g., in April for May graduation). It is the responsibility of students to inform themselves of these deadlines and plan accordingly. Please familiarize yourself with the Graduate School's information.

As a purely practical matter, students should not count on being able to defend their theses and dissertations during the summer months, since faculty members are often not available. If a summer defense is absolutely unavoidable, students should consult with committee members well in advance.

Appendix

M.A. Reading List, German Literature

1. Medieval and Early Modern

Nibelungenlied (in modern German translation)

Wolfram von Eschenbach, Parzival (selections in modern German translation)

Middle High German Poetry (in modern German translation)

Hanns Sachs, Fastnachtspiele (sel.)

Sebastian Brant, Narrenschiff (sel.)

Historia von D. Johann Fausten (sel.)

Opitz, Buch von der deutschen Poeterey

Baroque Poetry selection

Grimmelshausen, Courasche

2. The Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries

Lessing, Laokoon (sel.), Emilia Galotti

Herder, Shakespeare

18th-Century Poetry selection

Romantic Poetry Selection

Heine Poetry Selection

3. The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries

Hebbel, Maria Magdalene

Keller, Romeo und Julia auf dem Dorfe

Storm, Der Schimmelreiter

Fontane, Irrungen, Wirrungen

Hauptmann, Die Weber

Nietzsche, Die Geburt der Tragšdie

Schnitzler, Leutnant Gustl

Modernist Poetry Selection

Rilke, Die Aufzeichnungen des Malte Laurids Brigge and selected poetry

Kafka, Die Verwandlung, Der Prozeβ

Hesse, Siddhartha

Grass, Katz und Maus

Wolf, Kassandra

Sebald, Die Ausgewanderten