Self-Paced Online Literary Voices: Death & Apocalypse Course

Explore literary visions of the end of the world on cosmological, local, and personal scales through German and Germanic texts and culture from the early Middle Ages through the present.

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Why take Literary Voices: Death & Apocalypse online?

German 406 is an online course on various topics from German literature and culture in English translation. No knowledge of German is required for the online course. The topic for this section of German 406 is “Death and Apocalypse.”

We will examine how people at various times have imagined the end of the world on a cosmological scale or how they have experienced the end on a local or personal scale. The course focuses on German and Germanic texts and culture from the early Middle Ages through the present, including the sources of apocalyptic thought in Judaism, Early Christian texts, and Greek and Roman texts of Classical Antiquity.

Students in this online course will be able to:

• Compare Christian and pre-Christian Germanic texts, Classical and medieval views, competing national perspectives, late medieval and Reformation-era versions, various definitions of apocalypticism, approaches and audiences for translations, textual and cinematic interpretations, the early sixteenth and the late eighteenth century, prophetic texts 2 and images from the Middle Ages and Reformation periods, and Germanic myth, heroic legend and modern opera
• Argue persuasively in writing for the preservation of cultural artifacts despite economic costs, connect themes of apocalypticism in German culture to the present context, and describe and interpret visual symbols in a persuasive essay
• Summarize main ideas using texts and images and reinterpret apocalyptic motifs in a presentational format
• Consider multiple meanings of apocalypticism, scholarly approaches to religious texts, the influence of Greek and Roman writers, the relevance of Jewish apocalyptic texts and early Christian writings, textual and contextual problems, the contributions of women, European context for German texts, apocalyptic motifs in new intellectual contexts, the periods and movements of German intellectual history, the current relevance of apocalyptic thinking, the role of oral performance in poetry, the transmission of Middle Eastern ideas into German culture, the use of images in apocalyptic works, the media context of early modern prophecies, and how a text changes in new contexts
• Find main ideas, key details, specific information, important events, apocalyptic motifs, the writer’s perspective, and key words in a foreign language in primary poetic and texts and secondary literature
• Use online tools to identify relevant scholarly literature, find early printed editions, describe medieval manuscripts, and analyze the translation of a foreign language text

What is required to take this online course?

McGinn, Bernard. Visions of the End: Apocalyptic Traditions in the Middle Ages. 2nd ed. New York: Columbia University Press, 1998. ISBN 978-0231-112574

How long will it take to complete the Literary Voices: Death & Apocalypse course?

You have 3 to 9 months from your enrollment date to complete 15 lessons, which include reading assignments, lectures, supplementary content, and assignments. You will write three essays (50 points each) and create two presentations (50 points each) and a set of test questions (50 points).

• Lesson 1: Jewish sources of German apocalypticism
• Lesson 2: Foundational New Testament texts
• Lesson 3: Sources from Greek and Roman antiquity
• Lesson 4: Older Germanic texts
• Lesson 5: The high Middle Ages and women prophets
• Lesson 6: Antichrist and the Last World Emperor
• Lesson 7: The Angelic Pope and imperial propaganda
• Lesson 8: Joachim of Fiore and central European texts
• Lesson 9: The fifteenth century
• Lesson 10: Reformation polemic and Renaissance astrology
• Lesson 11: Radical prophets and confessional visions
• Lesson 12: The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries
• Lesson 13: Romantic visions
• Lesson 14: Richard Wagner and the fate of the gods
• Lesson 15: The apocalypses of the twentieth century

How will the course appear on my transcript?

You may enroll at any time and have up to 9 months to complete this online course. The credits earned will be recorded on your UND transcript based on the date you registered for the course. It will appear on your transcript in the same way as a course taken during a regular semester. There is no indication that the course was taken online or that you completed it at your own pace. 

Consult the table on our How Enroll Anytime Courses Work page for a current listing of Enroll Anytime Registration Dates and the semester information that will appear on a UND transcript.

Why Take Online Classes at UND?

Here are a few reasons why you should take an online enroll anytime course at UND:

• Great customer service – Our registration team is ready to answer questions quickly so you can focus on your coursework.
• Affordable – UND's enroll anytime courses are priced at North Dakota's affordable, in-state tuition rate.
• Accredited – UND is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission.
• Easily transfer credits – Transferring credits is always at the discretion of the institution to which the credits are being transferred. In general, credits from schools/universities that are regionally accredited by the Higher Learning Commission transfer to other regionally accredited institutions. UND's online courses appear on your UND transcript in the same way as other courses.

Flexible 100% Online Course

You'll take this online course at your own pace. Some students thrive in this environment, while other students may struggle with setting their own deadlines. If you have successfully taken an independent study or correspondence course previously, UND’s enroll anytime courses may be right for you. Still not sure? Take our online quiz to help determine if online enroll anytime courses are right for you.

Course information including tuition, technology requirements, textbooks, lessons and exams is subject to change without notice.