ENG494/598; FLA494/598; GER 494/598: German Modernism
Spring 2007, Daniel Gilfillan

COURSE SYLLABUS

****Course reading packets are available for purchase at Alternative Copy Shop, 715 S. Forest Avenue, (480) 829-7992****

****Check out Course Reserves in Hayden Library for copies of the required texts, and for suggested readings and films, (Course Reserves)****

****A reading following by the abbreviation (CP) indicates that this reading can be found in the Course Reading Packet****

Week 1: Introduction(s). Course Overview.
01/18

Readings Due:

  1. H. v. Hofmannsthal, "Letter to Lord Chandos" (1902) (PDF).
  2. I. Kant, "An Answer to the Question: What is Enlightenment?" (1784) (Web)
Week 2: Modern/Modernity/Modernism.
01/25

Readings Due:

  1. S. Friedman, "Definitional Excursions: The Meanings of Modern/Modernity /Modernism" (PDF).
  2. S. Kern, The Culture of Time and Space, 1890-1910, Introduction & Ch. 1: The Nature of Time, 1 – 35.

Background Reading:

  1. A. Bullock & J. McFarlane, "The Cultural and Intellectual Climate of Modernism: ‘The Double Image'" and "The Mind of Modernism" (PDF – forthcoming).

Blackboard Assignment:

  1. Please visit the Blackboard Coursesite to view and complete this week's assignment (http://myasucourses.asu.edu). Check under Assignments
Week 3: Encounterning the Modern: Movement, Perception and Understanding
02/01

Readings Due:

  1. R. M. Rilke, The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge , 3 – 130.
    German Edition: 7 – 120.
  2. A. Cervi, "The Composition of Reality: Rainer Maria Rilke" (CP).
  3. S. Kern, The Culture of Time and Space, 1890-1910, Ch. 2 – 4: 36 – 108.

Blackboard Assignment:

  1. Please visit the Blackboard Coursesite to view and complete this week's assignment (http://myasucourses.asu.edu). Check under Assignments
Week 4: Encountering the Modern /2
02/08

Readings Due:

  1. R. M. Rilke, The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge , 131 – 260.
    German Edition: 121 – 233.
  2. G. Simmel, "The Metropolis and Mental Life" (PDF).
  3. S. Kern, The Culture of Time and Space, 1890-1910, Ch. 6: The Nature of Space; 131– 180.

Background Reading:

  1. A. Einstein, "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies" (PDF). (Also known as Einstein's "Special Theory of Relativity," housed at Fourmilab Switzerland
  2. 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:

  1. R. M. Rilke, "Primal Sound" (PDF).
  2. R. M. Rilke, "Some Reflections on Dolls" (PDF).
  3. S. Freud, "The Uncanny" (Web). username: digit, password: texts
  4. S. Freud, From The Interpretation of Dreams (excerpts), (PDF)

Background Reading:

  1. P. Childs "Freud (1856-1939)" (PDF)

Blackboard Assignment:

  1. Please visit the Blackboard Coursesite to view and complete this week's assignment (http://myasucourses.asu.edu). Check under Assignments
Week 6: Art and the Artist in Crisis
02/22

Readings Due:

  1. T. Mann, "Death in Venice," 3 – 73.
    German Edition: full text of story.
  2. F. Nietzsche, The Birth of Tragedy from the Spirit of Music – Excerpts (PDF).
  3. J. Clegg, "Mann contra Nietzsche," (PDF)

Background Reading:

  1. P. Childs "Nietzsche (1844-1900)" (PDF)

Blackboard Assignment:

  1. Please visit the Blackboard Coursesite to view and complete this week's assignment (http://myasucourses.asu.edu). Check under Assignments
Week 7: Identity/Transformation: Anonymity, Bureaucracy and the Social Order
03/01

Readings Due:

  1. F. Kafka, The Trial, 1 – 90.
    German Edition: 9 – 86, 245 – 253.
  2. M. Starke, "The Bank Clerk" (PDF)

Blackboard Assignment:

  1. 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:

  1. F. Kafka, The Trial, 91 – 229.
    German Edition: 87 – 241.
  2. F. Kafka, "A Dream" (PDF).
  3. 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:

  1. E. Jünger, "Fire" (PDF); "Total Mobilization" (PDF) & "On Danger" (PDF).
  2. T. Presner, "The End of Sex and the Last Man: On the Weimar Utopia of Ernst Jünger's ‘Worker'" (PDF).
  3. S. Kracauer, "Caligari" (PDF)

In Class Viewing:

  1. Film: Robert Wiene, dir. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), 76 min.

Background Reading:

  1. Lamb and Phelan, "Weimar Culture: The Birth of Modernism" (PDF).

Blackboard Assignment:

  1. Please visit the Blackboard Coursesite to view and complete this week's assignment (http://myasucourses.asu.edu). Check under Assignments
Week 11: Human-Machine Interaction: The New Science of Work
03/29

Readings Due:

  1. M. Biro, "The New Man as Cyborg: Figures of Technology in Weimar Visual Culture" (PDF).
  2. S. Zweig, "The Monotonization of the World (1925)" (PDF)
  3. S. Kern, Culture of Time and Space, Ch. 5: Speed 105 – 130.

In Class Viewing:

  1. Film: Fritz Lang, dir. Metropolis (1927), 124 min.

Background Reading:

  1. 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:

  1. I. Keun, The Artificial Silk Girl, 1 – 192.
    German Edition: 7 – 219.
  2. K. von Ankum, "Gendered Urban Spaces in Irmgard Keun's Das kunstseidene Mädchen" (CP).

Blackboard Assignment:

  1. 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 :

  1. Mary Ann Doane, "The Erotic Barter: Pandora's Box (1929)" (CP).
  2. A. Gleber, "Short Phenomenology of Flânerie" (CP).
  3. G. Parkes, Flânerie - short film: http://german.berkeley.edu/transit/2006/60406.html

In Class Viewing:

  1. Film: G. W. Pabst, dir. Büchse der Pandora (1929), 133 min.

Blackboard Discussion Board:

  1. Please visit the Blackboard Coursesite to view and complete this week's discussion board assignment (http://myasucourses.asu.edu).
Week 14: The Modernist Search for Identity
04/19

Readings Due:

  1. H. Hesse, The Steppenwolf, 1 – 128.
    German Edition: 7 – 165.
  2. C. Partsch, "Hannibal Ante Portas: Jazz in Weimar," (CP)

Blackboard Discussion Board:

  1. Please visit the Blackboard Coursesite to view and complete this week's discussion board assignment (http://myasucourses.asu.edu).
Week 15: The Modernist Search for Identity /2 | Course Wrap-Up
04/26

Readings Due:

  1. H. Hesse, The Steppenwolf, 128 – 218.
    German Edition: 165 – 278.
  2. M. Stewart, "The Refracted Self," (CP)

Blackboard Assignment:

  1. 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)