Mephisto: Your Travel Guide to a Great Novel

In this course, students will read their way through one of the most disputed German novels in the postwar Federal Republic, Klaus Mann's "Mephisto" (1936 published in exile in Amsterdam) a satirical novel about opportunism and the German theater scene during the NS-Regime. Students will meet and discuss the novel weekly, each time under the guidance of a different tour guide Stanford faculty and professors from other institutions. No final paper, no readings other than the novel required. All readings in German (though an English translation will be made available), class discussion in English. NOTE: This course must be taken for a minimum of 3 units and a letter grade to be eligible for Ways credit.