Week 1:
Introduction(s). Course Overview. |
01/18 |
Readings Due:
- H. v. Hofmannsthal, "Letter to Lord Chandos" (1902) (PDF).
- I. Kant, "An Answer to the Question: What is Enlightenment?" (1784) (Web)
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Week 2: Modern/Modernity/Modernism. |
01/25 |
Readings Due:
- S. Friedman, "Definitional Excursions: The Meanings of Modern/Modernity /Modernism" (PDF).
- S. Kern, The Culture of Time and Space, 1890-1910, Introduction & Ch. 1: The Nature of Time, 1 – 35.
Background Reading:
- A. Bullock & J. McFarlane, "The Cultural and Intellectual Climate of Modernism: ‘The Double Image'" and "The Mind of Modernism" (PDF – forthcoming).
Blackboard Assignment:
- Please visit the Blackboard Coursesite to view and complete this week's assignment (http://myasucourses.asu.edu). Check under Assignments
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Week 3: Encounterning the Modern: Movement, Perception and Understanding |
02/01 |
Readings Due:
- R. M. Rilke, The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge , 3 – 130.
German Edition: 7 – 120.
- A. Cervi, "The Composition of Reality: Rainer Maria Rilke" (CP).
- S. Kern, The Culture of Time and Space, 1890-1910, Ch. 2 – 4: 36 – 108.
Blackboard Assignment:
- Please visit the Blackboard Coursesite to view and complete this week's assignment (http://myasucourses.asu.edu). Check under Assignments
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Week 4: Encountering the Modern /2 |
02/08 |
Readings Due:
- R. M. Rilke, The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge , 131 – 260.
German Edition: 121 – 233.
- G. Simmel, "The Metropolis and Mental Life" (PDF).
- S. Kern, The Culture of Time and Space, 1890-1910, Ch. 6: The Nature of Space; 131– 180.
Background Reading:
- A. Einstein, "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies" (PDF). (Also known as Einstein's "Special Theory of Relativity," housed at Fourmilab Switzerland
- P. Childs, "Einstein (1879-1955)" (PDF)
SHORT WRITING ASSIGNMENT 1 DUE (BY 2/11, MIDNIGHT): USING BLACKBOARD 'DIGITAL DROPBOX' (located in 'Tools' section) |
Week 5: Encountering the Modern /3 |
02/15 |
Readings Due:
- R. M. Rilke, "Primal Sound" (PDF).
- R. M. Rilke, "Some Reflections on Dolls" (PDF).
- S. Freud, "The Uncanny" (Web). username: digit, password: texts
- S. Freud, From The Interpretation of Dreams (excerpts), (PDF)
Background Reading:
- P. Childs "Freud (1856-1939)" (PDF)
Blackboard Assignment:
- Please visit the Blackboard Coursesite to view and complete this week's assignment (http://myasucourses.asu.edu). Check under Assignments
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Week 6: Art and the Artist in Crisis |
02/22 |
Readings Due:
- T. Mann, "Death in Venice," 3 – 73.
German Edition: full text of story.
- F. Nietzsche, The Birth of Tragedy from the Spirit of Music – Excerpts (PDF).
- J. Clegg, "Mann contra Nietzsche," (PDF)
Background Reading:
- P. Childs "Nietzsche (1844-1900)" (PDF)
Blackboard Assignment:
- Please visit the Blackboard Coursesite to view and complete this week's assignment (http://myasucourses.asu.edu). Check under Assignments
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Week 7: Identity/Transformation: Anonymity, Bureaucracy and the Social Order |
03/01 |
Readings Due:
- F. Kafka, The Trial, 1 – 90.
German Edition: 9 – 86, 245 – 253.
- M. Starke, "The Bank Clerk" (PDF)
Blackboard Assignment:
- Please visit the Blackboard Coursesite to view and complete this week's assignment (http://myasucourses.asu.edu). Check under Assignments
PICK UP TAKE-HOME MIDTERM EXAMINATION, DUE 03/08 AT BEGINNING OF CLASS |
Week 8: Anonymity, Bureaucracy and the Social Order /2 |
03/08 |
Readings Due:
- F. Kafka, The Trial, 91 – 229.
German Edition: 87 – 241.
- F. Kafka, "A Dream" (PDF).
- H. Sussmann, "A Courthouse of Codes and Messages" (CP).
TURN IN TAKE-HOME MIDTERM EXAMINATION AT BEGINNING OF CLASS. |
Week 9: Spring Break (no class) |
Week
10: War, Work and Obedience: Utopian Ideal or Dystopian Real? |
03/22 |
Readings Due:
- E. Jünger, "Fire" (PDF); "Total Mobilization" (PDF) & "On Danger" (PDF).
- T. Presner, "The End of Sex and the Last Man: On the Weimar Utopia of Ernst Jünger's ‘Worker'" (PDF).
- S. Kracauer, "Caligari" (PDF)
In Class Viewing:
- Film: Robert Wiene, dir. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), 76 min.
Background Reading:
- Lamb and Phelan, "Weimar Culture: The Birth of Modernism" (PDF).
Blackboard Assignment:
- Please visit the Blackboard Coursesite to view and complete this week's assignment (http://myasucourses.asu.edu). Check under Assignments
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Week 11: Human-Machine Interaction: The New Science of Work |
03/29 |
Readings Due:
- M. Biro, "The New Man as Cyborg: Figures of Technology in Weimar Visual Culture" (PDF).
- S. Zweig, "The Monotonization of the World (1925)" (PDF)
- S. Kern, Culture of Time and Space, Ch. 5: Speed 105 – 130.
In Class Viewing:
- Film: Fritz Lang, dir. Metropolis (1927), 124 min.
Background Reading:
- F. W. Taylor, "The Principles of Scientific Management" (1911) (Web).
SHORT WRITING ASSIGNMENT 2 DUE (BY 4/01, MIDNIGHT): USING BLACKBOARD DIGITAL DROPBOX' (located in 'Tools' section) |
Week
12: Gender, Modernism and the Urban Sphere |
04/05 |
Readings Due:
- I. Keun, The Artificial Silk Girl, 1 – 192.
German Edition: 7 – 219.
- K. von Ankum, "Gendered Urban Spaces in Irmgard Keun's Das kunstseidene Mädchen" (CP).
Blackboard Assignment:
- Please visit the Blackboard Coursesite to view and complete this week's assignment (http://myasucourses.asu.edu). Check under Assignments
SEMINAR PROJECT TOPIC PROPOSALS DUE AT BEGINNING OF CLASS (TYPEWRITTEN) |
Week 13: Gender, Modernism and the Urban Sphere /2 |
04/12 |
Readings Due :
- Mary Ann Doane, "The Erotic Barter: Pandora's Box (1929)" (CP).
- A. Gleber, "Short Phenomenology of Flânerie" (CP).
- G. Parkes, Flânerie - short film: http://german.berkeley.edu/transit/2006/60406.html
In Class Viewing:
- Film: G. W. Pabst, dir. Büchse der Pandora (1929), 133 min.
Blackboard Discussion Board:
- Please visit the Blackboard Coursesite to view and complete this week's discussion board assignment (http://myasucourses.asu.edu).
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Week
14: The Modernist Search for Identity |
04/19 |
Readings Due:
- H. Hesse, The Steppenwolf, 1 – 128.
German Edition: 7 – 165.
- C. Partsch, "Hannibal Ante Portas: Jazz in Weimar," (CP)
Blackboard Discussion Board:
- Please visit the Blackboard Coursesite to view and complete this week's discussion board assignment (http://myasucourses.asu.edu).
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Week 15: The Modernist Search for Identity /2 | Course Wrap-Up |
04/26 |
Readings Due:
- H. Hesse, The Steppenwolf, 128 – 218.
German Edition: 165 – 278.
- M. Stewart, "The Refracted Self," (CP)
Blackboard Assignment:
- Please visit the Blackboard Coursesite to view and complete this week's assignment (http://myasucourses.asu.edu). Check under Assignments
Course Evaluations, Semester Wrap-Up |
Week 16: Finals
Week |
05/03 |
SEMINAR PROJECT DUE BY MIDNIGHT USING BLACKBOARD DIGITAL DROPBOX' (located in 'Tools' section) |