THE AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY

FACULTY OF ARTS

DEPARTMENT OF GERMANIC .. LANGUAGES

ANNUAL RE~ORT 1975

General Comments

64/1976

Th~ decline of foreign-language studies in the highschools seems to be continuing, despite efforts by bodies such as the Modern Language Teachers Association of th.~ ... ACT, and the reorganisation of teaching in what used to be called Fifth and Sixth Forms that will take effect in 1976 offers little hope for our discipline. We are not so much worried by the disappearance of a common enforced standard, which will be a likely consequence of the abolition of the Higher School Certificate and the increased autonomy of individual schools, as by the proliferation of superficially attractive courses and the virtual absence of a common academic core in the syllabus. Subjects such as foreign languages, which are

-· ijot a prerequisite for the most "desirable" faculties (medicine, law, and science) but have a reputation, rightly or wrongly, of being demanding, are bound to be the first to suffer. - ·

It may be hasardous to generalise on such a small samp1e· -as our students represent, but it seemed to us that first-year students in the last couple of years tended to be fairly passive in ciass, with full attendance being an exception rather than the rule, - but doing better than expected iri written work, with some of them writing very ambitious essays. On the other hand, maybe as a result of the pressures of continuing assessment, interest for, and participation in, voluntary extra activities was markedly low. ,1···:

Courses No new courses or major changes were introduced in 1975. Most students who took Reading German did so within the framework of History IE, with pleasing results • . The Swedish Institute in Stockholm continued .giving support to the cours·e in Swedish, as did the .Goethe Society (Canberra) and the Scandinavian-Australian Society with prizes for outstanding students. · ·

Enrolments and Examination results Enrolment figures were slightly below.the 1974 level. For the first time in over a decade, this Department did not have any Fourth-Year students ·. ·. The tendency on the part of marginal students to withdraw during the year rather than risking failure in the final examination continued.

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Student participation

The Departmental Committee, with student representation from all courses, met three times in Second Term and one time each in First and Third Terms. A graduate student was elected Deputy Chairman, and a staff member kindly acted as Secretary. The main topics of discussion were workloads, assessment, grading systems, and prescribed texts. It may be worth mentioning that the Committee found it necessary to discuss how to improve the attendance rate of student representatives at such mee~ings. The students organised a "German weekend" at Perisher Valley in First Term; a planned weekend at the Coast in Third Term was dropped for lack of interest. A. social gathering for staff and students at the end of each term, which included the auctioning of magazines and posters, continued to be well attended·. .

Student.s of Ger~an Literature Studies A organi.sed a Medieval Eve~:i.ng at Burgin.inn College with a programme" of recitation

· .. ·~nci Jlive) music. · .· . ·.-Some students participated in a programme of MUsic at the · · ''. court of Frederick "the Great arranged by Dr. M • . St:oijar,_ . .' ..

._ ... . Work of Graduate Students <, ):1 ...

Mr. H. Stefanik submitted his Ph.D. thesis entitled .North .. and West: A comparative study of Icelandic Sagas and American Westerns.

Mr~. J. Common interrupted her work on Wern~r Aspenstrom for four months in order to help out with the teaching of Swedish ·and Old Norse while Professor Kuhn was on leave. . .

A new Ph.D. student, Mrs • . R •. Weissgaerber, left for Germany to collect material for her thesis on the Alemannic dialects of Baden.

Staff . . ( -:- .:·· ~ · ..

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Professor and Head of .. Department H. Kuhn, DrPhil(ZutiY ·' . ·~ \ ~:, ..

Senior Lecturer Margaret J. Stoljar, MA, PhD(Me·l.b) "' . ~ ..

' Lecturers C.H. Cull, BA, PhD(Q'ld) , . .. -B. Glienke, DrPhil(Kiel) :: .... :.:.:.:.--....

Lecturing ~~.ll'ow P. Schonborn, DrPhil(Fbg) .-·- '· ·;,·1. . ' . .

Senior'" Tutor E.A. Langman, BA, .DipEd(Natal) ,MA.CANU) . '. \·.

Part-time Lecturers L. Voorhoeve, Drs (Ned) ~- ' -B. Stefanik . :'·-'· J. Common, BA( Q' ld), BA(ANU )° ,._-; r

Professor Kuhn was on study leave from 11 May to .ttie end of September, half of which was spent in Switzerland and the other half in Sca~dinavia~ Iceland, England, and Germany. He attended the _F,ifth \International Congress of Germanists at Cambridge and ·took part in a week-long seminar on the teaching of Swedish as a foreign language at Grebbestad (Bohuslan).

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Visitors

Sven-Aage J~rgensen, Professor of German Lit~rature in the University of Copenhagen, spent July and August in the Department as a Faculty Visitor. He gave a series of Graduate Seminars on the 18th century philosopher and visionary Johann Georg Hamann and took part in the literature teaching in the courses German Literature II and Swedish II.

The following lectures were given by overseas and interstate visitors, discounting those arranged by the Australian Goethe Society and the Scandinavian-Australian Society:

First •rerm: Professor Els Oksaar, University of Hamburg: Semantische Extensionsregeln in der Syntax-.

Professor Werner Hollmann, University of Ppinc~ton: Ernst Barlach als Dramatiker.

Drs. B. Donaldson, University- of Melbourne: ._ The relationship between the English and

·'' Dutch languages.

Second Term:

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Professor Louis Schwarz, Washington Universi'ty, St. Louis ,, Missouri: Racism and soq;~ty :.::·: ' .. Notes ·on · Thomas Mann's novella "Mar.:10 · \liid .. · ' der Zauberer". .··· ·

Third Term: '· Dr. Jan .. Bruck, Universl.ty of Sydney: Neue Entwicklungen in der Theorie der FiktIOn:"

Research

Professo~ :. Kuh~ rea9. a paper on the Eiarly 18th century German poet Johann O}lristian Gunther at Cambridge and completed :· two essays on nineteen:th-century Danish literature for publication.

Dr. B. Glien})e., .. ga.V;e a report 0J1 ·Greimas' structural semantics to the "G:riaduate Seminar. He continued research ·' · ,. : on the Danish ":writE!.t." Karin Biixen/Isak Dines~n .. and p~esented ... [ -;-;., her in a lecture to the Scandinavian-Australian Socfety. · '

nr. M. Stoljar gave a talk in the Graduate Seminar on Klopstock's linguistic theories. -·--....... - ... . : .. \ .. ~ __ ; ..

' ~-... . Other Activiti~s

Mrs. E. La~gman gave a lecture to the Goethe Society on Thomas Matu4;t.:.oiF the 'occasion of the centenary of his birth.

Five members of staff attended the 17th AULLA Conference and 13th FILLM Congress in Sydney in August, gave talks on German prescribed texts at the annual seminar for highschool students and teachers in the ACT and conducted the annual Goethe Society Competition for highschool students.

Mrs. Birgitta Stefanik taught the Continuing Education course on Elementary Swedish Language and Civilisation.

For the first time a four-week intensive German course was held in February in collaboration with the Centre for Continuing Education.

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Dr. M. Stoljar served on a committee charged with developing new German courses for the last two years of highschool, and Professor Kuhn chaired the Accreditation Panel for German courses in the ACT; Drs. L. Voorhoeve served on the Accreditation Panel for Dutch. Drs. Voorhoeve attended a conference .of University teachers of Dutch in Canberra and gave lectures to Dutch classes in the University of Melbourne and to the VIEW Club in Cowra, as part of the Lachlan Valley Festival. Dr. P. Schonborn served on the Committee of the Australian .Goethe Society (Canberra) and Professor Kuhn on that of the Scandinavian-Australian Society and on the selection committee for Swiss scholarships. In First Term Professor Kuhn presented a weekly series of programmes of recorded music entitled An Introduction to J. $. Bach's Sacred Cantatas and Early Vocal Music from Swed"eri~

Publications

Glienke, . a. Jens Peter Jacobsens lyrische Dichtung. Ein Beitra! zur Geschichte der modernen Poesie. Wachho tz: Neumilnster, 294 pp.

Themen in .Systemen. Zu Inger Christensens ~' Skandinavistik V, 2, pp. 97-112 •

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THE AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY 64/1976

DEPARTMETI'. Of GERMANIC I.ANGUAGES - .ANALYSIS OF STUDENT PERFORMANCE

Percentage of number enrolled 1 2 3 4 5 6

Subject or unit Enrolled as .Sitting Wastage(i. Failure Sittmg 30.4.73 e.2-3) No % ~No % No % No % No %

Elem.German 28 100 19 68 9 32 2 7 19 lCX' Science German 3.: 100 24 80 6 20 1 3 24 100 Reading German 16 lCO 8 50 8 50 0 8 100 German Lang.I 18 lOV 14 78 4 22 1 6 14 100 German Lit.I 19 100 15 79 4 21 0 15 100 German IS 8 10(; 6 75 2 25 0 6 "';.00

German Lang.II 22 100 18 82 4 18 1 5 18 100 German Lit.II 19 100 15 79 4 21 1 5 15 100 German Lit.IIH 6 lOC 3 50 3 50 0 3 100 Germ.Lang.Stud.A 11 lOC 9 82 2 18 1 9 9 100 Germ. Lit .Stud.A 10 lOC 9 90 1 10 1 10 9 100 German Lang.III 9 lOC 7 78 2 22 0 7 100 Gernian Lit • III 9 lC'O 7 78 2 22 0 7 100 Old Norse I 7 lOG 3 43 4 57 0 3 100 Swedish II 7 100 5 71 2 29 0 5 100 Dutch I 10 luO 8 80 2 20 0 8 100

Reading Dutch 10 100 7 70 3 30 0 7 100

Enrolled Sitting

Final Honours O

Ph.D. ·3

Master Qualify~g 1

Percentage of number sittm~ '7

High Distmc No %

2 11

2 25 0 2 13 1 17 1 6 1 7 0 1 11 1 11 0 1 14 0 0 1 12 1 14

. ..... 8 ... ' .9 10 ' -: ,- - 12 Distinc

No %

3 16

2 25 4 29 2 13 2 33 1 6 5 33 1 33 2 22 3 33 1 14 2 29 1 33 2 40 2 25 2 29

Credit Pass Pass Fail. w.M.

No % No % No % No %

4 21 8 42 2 11 12 50 11 46 1 4

3 38 1 12 0 3 43 6 43 1 7 6 40 5 33 0 1 17 2 33 0 7 39 8 44 1 6 4 27 4 27 1 7 2 67 0 0 2 22 3 33 1 11 2 22 2 22 1 11 2 29 4 57 0 3 43 1 14 0 2 67 0 0 2 40 1 20 0 3 37 2 25 0 1 14 3 43 0

Results

1 submitted thesis, 2 continued

course not yet completed