Maryland Faculty Director Course

For Fall 2009, Dr. Guenter Pfister, Professor Emeritus in the Department of Germanic Studies at the University of Maryland, will teach the FU-BEST 17: Special Topics course. All interested FU-BEST students are welcome to enroll in Dr. Pfister's course.

The Individual and the Demands of Global Cultural Existence
(FU-BEST 17. UM Course: GERM439J)

The study of culture begins with the discussion of the environmental factors that influenced choices made in the earliest societies in varied locations across the globe and how cultural organization evolved.  Focus is then narrowed on the development of Western civilization beginning with the Greeks, including the contributions of the Romans, and covering the cultural changes within medieval Europe, the impact of the Renaissance, Reformation and Scientific Revolution.  American and German culture will be discussed within this framework.  Students trace, analyze, and master the individual building block of culture defining what constitutes ‘culture’.  Insights gained can test present assumptions and future choices in constructing “personal reality”.

Rational: Traditionally, culture has been studied through the schools of thought of anthropology, semiotics, and sociology.  The school of anthropology seeks to construct a personal view of cultural reality by examining what one must do and how one must act to fit into the society in which s/he is born. 

 

Semiotics studies the interpretation of signs as perceptions, associations, and cognitive interpretations, all innate, thus allowing for personal construction of reality.  We study and master the art of translating signs and concentrate on cultural interpretation.

 

Finally, the third school of thought, sociology, examines what is the norm and socially acceptable within a cultural framework. 

 

Course readings will include handouts, articles and chapters by G. Pfister, J. Diamond and R. Tarnas.