Sabine Hake

The course offers a historical overview of the culture of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) and a consideration of terms that have been, and are today, central to its scholarly (re)assessment. The selection and presentation of the material is based on two premises: that the study of GDR culture offers a privileged perspective on key problems of postwar culture in general (Cold War culture, German division, history of socialism) and that the overdetermined function of culture in GDR society brings into sharp relief central questions unique to German culture since the nineteenth century (the public role of the writer and intellectual, literature in/as the public sphere, the importance of cultural heritage).    

Focusing on literature and film but also considering other cultural forms (official painting, punk music), the historical overview follows the emergence of Aufbauliteratur and Ankunftsliteratur to the liberalization of culture and the development of an underground culture in the 1970 and 1980s; it concludes with the various manifestations of a East German memory culture (Ostalgie) after 1989. Literary debates (socialist realism vs. modernism) and political crises (Eleventh Plenary) are essential to this overview, as are comparative perspectives involving the Federal Republic and the Eastern Bloc and recent scholarship on the historiography of the GDR and GDR culture. Discussions will be organized around the following themes: 1) the writer/artist and the state; 2) the myth of antifascism; 3) socialist modernisms; 4) the problem of gender and everyday life; and 5) postsocialist history, memory, and nostalgia.   

Grading

40%     Participation: 20% participation,10% class reading,10% final presentation

60%     Forschungsbericht (10pp.) and conference paper (10pp.), 30 % each

Texts

Literary texts: Heiner Müller’s Der Lohndrücker; Christa Wolf’s Nachdenken über Christa T and Was bleibt;  Ulrich Plenzdorf’s Die neuen Leiden des jungen W.; Christoph Hein’s Der fremde Freund; Volker Braun’s Die unvollendete Geschichte; Brigitte Reimann’s Franziska Linkerhand, plus shorter poems, songs, and theoretical texts by Bertolt Brecht, Johannes R. Becher, and Wolf Biermann

Films: Wolfgang Staudte’s Der kleine Muck, Kurt Maetzig’s Roman einer jungen Ehe, Konrad Wolf’s Der geteilte Himmel, Frank Beyer’s Spur der Steine, Heiner Carow’s Die Legende von Paul und Paula, Peter Kahane’s Die Architekten

Survey texts: Mary Fulbrook, Anatomy of a Dictatorship: Inside the GDR, 1949-1989; Wolfgang Emmerich, Kleine Literaturgeschichte der DDR; and excepts from major studies on GDR literature, film, and culture (David Bathrick, Paul Betts, Konrad Jarausch, etc.)

Please note: Depending on departmental needs, this course can be offered as an English-language or German-language course. All texts are available in English translations  (or, in the case of films, with subtitles.)

Course Description

German films feature prominently on most “greatest films of all times” lists. Directors from Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau to Werner Herzog have contributed to world cinema but also played a key role in the development of the German art film. What can we learn about twentieth and twenty-first century German culture and society by looking at these famous films? Which artistic traditions and cultural sensibilities distinguish German approaches to narrative, genre, authorship, film form, and the star system? How did films participate in, and respond to, the transformations of modern mass society and media culture? Focusing on the art film, this course offers a survey of German cinema and the cultural, social, and political conditions that shaped thematic preoccupations, favorite genres, and distinct filmic styles. We will cover the main periods of film history, from the Weimar Republic and Third Reich to the divided cinemas of the Federal Republic and German Democratic Republic to the most recent films made after unification. Films to be studied include Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari, M, Die Mörder sind unter uns, Spur der Steine, and Gegen die Wand. In addition to the close analysis of selected films, a number of broader issues will be discussed, including the contribution of German filmmakers to classical Hollywood and the European art film and the productive exchanges between film, literature, and the arts. 

The entire course will be taught in German; all films have subtitles. In addition to analyzing films, the students will read short critical essays in English and German.

Prerequisite: Three courses beyond GER 506 or equivalent credit on the placement exam. 

Course Objectives:

The course is designed for German majors to

--receive an overview of German cinema from the beginning to the present;

--learn the basic terms and methods of film analysis;

--study the different filmic styles and artistic visions associated with an important European art cinema; and

--practice their German speaking, writing, and listening comprehension through the critical examination of classic films.

The fascist aesthetic offers a perfect test case for addressing larger issues of art and power, culture and ideology, and the function of the aesthetic in hegemonic and oppositional practices. But how to define the fascist aesthetic? What accounts for the central role of culture in Nazism/fascism? How does fascism organize the relationship between art, life, and politics? And what is the function of the aesthetic in understanding fascism as a historical phenomenon and as an object of ongoing fascination? We will address these questions through an interdisciplinary approach that focuses on literature, theory, film, art, and architecture from the Third Reich but also includes antifascist discourses and comparative perspectives to Fascist Italy. Key figures such as Leni Riefenstahl, Albert Speer, Ernst Jünger, Carl Schmitt, Bertolt Brecht, Anna Seghers, and John Heartfield will be used to revisit leftwing and rightwing modernisms and analyze the fascist Gesamtkunstwerkin the context of popular culture and the culture industry.

The Nazi party was the first in modern history to rely heavily on culture to establish and sustain its regimes of power and terror. During the Third Reich, the art of propaganda played a key role in mobilizing mass support for the party and its policies. But the Nazis went even further, creating an aestheticized vision of nation, folk, and community. Architects build or planned monumental roads and cities to the Führer. Artists and writers celebrated the beauty of the Aryan man and the strength of the racial community. Filmmakers created compelling mass spectacles and diversions. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, we will study the relationship between culture and power during the Third Reich through its main proponents (Joseph Goebbels, Leni Riefenstahl) and events (Degenerate Art Exhibit). We will discuss the new ministries of “enlightenment and propaganda” and the changed conditions of cultural life, study the systematic suppression of oppositional voices and modernist sensibilities, and analyze the characteristics of fascist aesthetics and official Nazi art. Examples will be taken from art, architecture, literature, music, and film; also considered will be the so-called inner emigration and the activities of the exiles in the United States and elsewhere.  

 By providing an overview of culture and politics in the Third Reich, the course also addresses more fundamental questions about the unique role of culture in modern democracies and dictatorships—questions about the relationship between political propaganda and modern entertainment, mass media and authoritarianism, political aesthetics and ideology, and the dynamics of oppression, resistance, and consent. The question of fascist aesthetics and its later manifestations and interpretations will be a major theme throughout the course

The Signature Course (UGS 302 and 303) introduces first-year students to the university’s academic community through the exploration of new interests. The Signature Course is your opportunity to engage in college-level thinking and learning.

The Signature Course (UGS 302 and 303) introduces first-year students to the university’s academic community through the exploration of new interests. The Signature Course is your opportunity to engage in college-level thinking and learning.

Course Description

German films feature prominently on most “greatest films of all times” lists. Directors from Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau to Werner Herzog have contributed to world cinema but also played a key role in the development of the German art film. What can we learn about twentieth and twenty-first century German culture and society by looking at these famous films? Which artistic traditions and cultural sensibilities distinguish German approaches to narrative, genre, authorship, film form, and the star system? How did films participate in, and respond to, the transformations of modern mass society and media culture? Focusing on the art film, this course offers a survey of German cinema and the cultural, social, and political conditions that shaped thematic preoccupations, favorite genres, and distinct filmic styles. We will cover the main periods of film history, from the Weimar Republic and Third Reich to the divided cinemas of the Federal Republic and German Democratic Republic to the most recent films made after unification. Films to be studied include Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari, M, Die Mörder sind unter uns, Spur der Steine, and Gegen die Wand. In addition to the close analysis of selected films, a number of broader issues will be discussed, including the contribution of German filmmakers to classical Hollywood and the European art film and the productive exchanges between film, literature, and the arts. 

The entire course will be taught in German; all films have subtitles. In addition to analyzing films, the students will read short critical essays in English and German.

Prerequisite: Three courses beyond GER 506 or equivalent credit on the placement exam.

Grading/Requirements:

20% Attendance, preparation and active participation

20% Two Class presentations (10% each), including one PowerPoint

20% Two Short Written Exams (10% each)

40% Ten-Page Final Paper and one Einstellungsprotokoll

Course Objectives:

The course is designed for German majors to

--receive an overview of German cinema from the beginning to the present;

--learn the basic terms and methods of film analysis;

--study the different filmic styles and artistic visions associated with an important European art cinema; and

--practice their German speaking, writing, and listening comprehension through the critical examination of classic films.

Required Readings

Hake, Sabine. German National Cinema. London: Routledge, 2008. 

Course Description 

What is the place of the city in history? What makes urban culture so unique? And how do big cities influence politics and society? These are the larger questions that will be addressed in this comprehensive introduction to Berlin, its histories, stories, images, places, and peoples. As the largest German city and the nation’s capital, Berlin has been at the center of the most dramatic historical of during the twentieth century: two world wars, two dictatorships, and two revolutions, but also exhilarating periods of artistic creativity, architectural innovation, and dramatic social and cultural change. The city saw the rise of the historical avant-gardes during the 1920s and the assault on freedom and democracy after 1933; it functioned as an incubator for new social movements and a laboratory for technological progress. Interdisciplinary and multimedia, this course approaches modern German history through the lens of urban history and examines the representation of Berlin in literature, criticism, art, photography, and film. Special attention will be paid to contemporary Berlin, from the challenges of reunification to current problems such as mass migration and growing social and economic inequality. A good course for anyone who loves big cities and want to learn more about the enduring appeal of Berlin as a site of innovation, freedom, and change.

Prerequisites: No prerequisites. The course will be taught in English. All readings are in English; all films are subtitled. In addition to the required books, short articles are made available on Canvas (as PDF files). The course will be of interest to students in German Studies, European Studies, Urban Studies, History, Geography, and Government.

Class format/ method of instruction: Class will be conducted in a combined lecture-discussion format. Writing assignments, including rewrites, will be an integral part of the coursework. The course fulfills the Writing and Global cultures requirements.

Course Objectives:

--to introduce students to the rich and complex history of Berlin, 1871-present;

--to  study the function of the metropolis in the making of mass culture and modernity;

--to analyze a wide range of architectural practices and urban representations (buildings, films, novels, theories, paintings); and

--to improve critical reading and writing skills in a systematic fashion.

Grading:

20% Attendance, preparation, and active participation

10% one five-minute class presentation

20% midterm exam

50% writing assignments, including two shorter papers (10% each) and one final paper (8-10 pp. including bibliography, 20%), plus peer review and rewrite (5% each).

Required Readings:

Large, David Clay. Berlin. New York: Basic Books, 2000.

Constantine, Helen, ed. Berlin Tales. Trans. Lynn Marveen. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009. 

Description

In the late nineteenth century, the metropolis emerged as the center of modern mass society, the culture industry, and the avant-gardes. Paris, Berlin, and Vienna became both laboratories for artistic innovation and social change and models for theorizing modernism and modernity. The flourishing of urban culture in these European capitals produced new cultural practices, sensibilities, and mentalities; but the big city also inspired new modes of thinking that continue to resonate in cultural theory to this day. It is the main purpose of this course to introduce students to the rich urban cultures of post-World War I Paris, Berlin, and Vienna and to discover the metropolis as a category of critical inquiry.

We will start out with Walter Benjamin’s work on Paris as the capital of the nineteenth century and conceptualize urban subjectivity through key terms such as experience, perception, and spatiality. Other critical models—the blasé habitus or the cult of distraction—will be examined through select writings by 1920s essayists Joseph Roth and Franz Hessel, and the connection between urbanism and capitalism explored through the work of urban theorists Henri Lefebvre and David Harvey. Taking a comparative, interdisciplinary approach, this course emphasizes the transnational, cosmopolitan nature of the metropolis and seeks to reconstruct the connections between the radical expansion of space and time, the rise of commodity culture and new media technologies, and the arrival of new social groups, radial movements, and alternative lifestyles. 

While the main focus will be on literature and film, class lectures and discussions will also examine the representation of the modern metropolis in modern painting and photography (expressionism, surrealism) and the importance of modern architecture and city planning (New Berlin, Red Vienna). Other topics include the function of typical urban figures such as the New Woman, the bohemian, and the flaneur; the affinities between urban culture and the modernist aesthetic (montage, shock, stream-of-consciousness); and the importance of Paris, Berlin, and Vienna capitals in giving rise to a transnational culture of multiculturalism and cosmopolitanism and in organizing the movement of radical artistic, social, and political ideas within interwar Europe.

The seminar will be conducted in English, with all materials available in English translation. Whenever applicable, students are encouraged to work with the materials in their original language. Most readings will be made available as PDF files on Canvas; the film screenings will be scheduled separately. Key texts include city novels such as Andre Breton’s Nadja, Alfred Döblin’s Berlin Alexanderplatz, and (in excerpts) Robert Musil’s The Man Without Qualities and city films such as Fritz Lang’s Metropolis and René Clair’s Under the Roofs of Paris.

Class format/ method of instruction: Class will be conducted in a seminar format with short introductory lectures and individual student presentation. The course will be of greatest interest to students in Comparative Literature, Germanic Studies, Art History, Architecture, History, and Geography.

Course Objectives

The main objectives of the course are to

--give a historical overview of the discourse of the modern metropolis in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century

--discuss key works and movements in a comparative, interdisciplinary, and transnational context;

--study and apply theories of the metropolis in relation to questions of urban representation, perception, experience, and cultural life.

Course Outcomes

By the end of the course, students will be able to

--use critical categories and theoretical models in analyzing the modern metropolis as an aesthetic, social, cultural, political and theoretical phenomenon;

--situate urban representations, including canonical texts, in a historical and comparative context.

Grading

• 40%     Participation: 20% class participation,10% presentation of class reading,10% final presentation
• 60%     two short writing assignments (5 double-spaces pages, 15% each) and one      conference paper based on original research (1/2 page abstract,10 double-   space pages plus endnotes, 30%)

Novels

• André Breton: Nadja. New York: Grove, 1960.
• Alfred Döblin: Berlin Alexanderplatz. New York: Continuum, 1992. (parts)
• Robert Musil: The Man Without Qualities. New York: Vintage, 1996. (parts)

Films

• René Clair: The Crazy Ray (1925) and Under the Roofs of Paris (1930)
• Walter Ruttmann: Berlin, Symphony of a Big City (1927) and Fritz Lang: Metropolis (1927)
• Hans Karl Breslauer: City Without Jews (1924) and Georg Wilhelm Pabst: Joyless Street (1925)

Shorter Texts:

• City Essays by Walter Benjamin, Siegfried Kracauer, Joseph Roth, and Gertrude Stein.
• Chapters from theoretical works by Georg Simmel, Henri Lefèbvre, and David Harvey.

The Signature Course (UGS 302 and 303) introduces first-year students to the university’s academic community through the exploration of new interests. The Signature Course is your opportunity to engage in college-level thinking and learning.

German films feature prominently on most “greatest films of all times” lists. Likewise German film directors are celebrated for their innovative forms and styles. What can we learn about twentieth and twenty-first century German culture and society by looking at these films? Which artistic traditions and cultural sensibilities distinguish the German approach to narrative, genre, authorship, film form, and the star phenomenon? How did films participate in, and respond to, the transformations of modern mass society and media culture? Focusing on the art film, this course offers a survey of German cinema and the cultural, social, and political conditions that gave rise to and shaped its thematic preoccupations and filmic styles. Designed to offer an introduction to film analysis, the course features internationally known directors from Fritz Lang and F.W. Murnau through Konrad Wolf and Wim Wenders to Tom Tykwer and Christian Petzold and presents classics such as Nosferatu, Metropolis, Olympia, Die Mörder sind unter uns, Angst essen Seele auf, Im Laufe der Zeit, Yella, and so forth. We will cover all periods of German film history, from the Weimar Republic and Third Reich to the divided cinemas of the Federal Republic and German Democratic Republic to the most recent films made after unification. In addition to the close analysis of selected films, a number of broader issues will be discussed, including the contribution of German filmmakers to the making of Hollywood and the role of innovative directors in the search for new images and stories.

The entire course will be taught in German; however, the films have subtitles. In addition to analyzing individual films (to be housed in the AV Library), the students will read short critical essays pertaining to film analysis and film history.

Prerequisite: Three courses beyond GER 506 or equivalent credit on the placement exam.

Grading/Requirements:

20% Attendance, preparation and active participation

20% Class presentations

30% Quizzes

30% Screening Diary

Course Objectives:

The course is designed for German majors to

--receive an overview of German cinema from the beginning to the present;

--learn about the leading directors of German national cinema;

--study the different filmic styles and artistic visions associated with an important European art cinema; and

--practice their German speaking, writing, and listening comprehension through the work with classic films in their original version.

Recommended background reading:

Sabine Hake, German National Cinema (2008)

Stephen Brockmann, A Critical History of German Film (2010)

Course Description

The course offers a historical overview of the culture of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) and a consideration of terms that have been, and are today, central to its scholarly (re)assessment. The selection and presentation of the material is based on two premises: that the study of GDR culture offers a privileged perspective on key problems of postwar culture in general (Cold War culture, German division, history of socialism) and that the overdetermined function of culture in GDR society brings into sharp relief central questions unique to German culture since the nineteenth century (the public role of the writer and intellectual, literature in/as the public sphere, the importance of cultural heritage).    

Focusing on literature and film but also considering other cultural forms (official painting, punk music), the historical overview follows the emergence of Aufbauliteratur and Ankunftsliteratur to the liberalization of culture and the development of an underground culture in the 1970 and 1980s; it concludes with the various manifestations of a East German memory culture (Ostalgie) after 1989. Literary debates (socialist realism vs. modernism) and political crises (Eleventh Plenary) are essential to this overview, as are comparative perspectives involving the Federal Republic and the Eastern Bloc and recent scholarship on the historiography of the GDR and GDR culture. Discussions will be organized around the following themes: 1) the writer/artist and the state; 2) the myth of antifascism; 3) socialist modernisms; 4) the problem of gender and everyday life; and 5) postsocialist history, memory, and nostalgia.   

Grading

40%     Participation: 20% participation,10% class reading,10% final presentation

60%     Forschungsbericht (10pp.) and conference paper (10pp.), 30 % each

Texts

Literary texts: Heiner Müller’s Der Lohndrücker; Christa Wolf’s Nachdenken über Christa T and Was bleibt;  Ulrich Plenzdorf’s Die neuen Leiden des jungen W.; Christoph Hein’s Der fremde Freund; Volker Braun’s Die unvollendete Geschichte; Brigitte Reimann’s Franziska Linkerhand, plus shorter poems, songs, and theoretical texts by Bertolt Brecht, Johannes R. Becher, and Wolf Biermann

Films: Wolfgang Staudte’s Der kleine Muck, Kurt Maetzig’s Roman einer jungen Ehe, Konrad Wolf’s Der geteilte Himmel, Frank Beyer’s Spur der Steine, Heiner Carow’s Die Legende von Paul und Paula, Peter Kahane’s Die Architekten

Survey texts: Mary Fulbrook, Anatomy of a Dictatorship: Inside the GDR, 1949-1989; Wolfgang Emmerich, Kleine Literaturgeschichte der DDR; and excepts from major studies on GDR literature, film, and culture (David Bathrick, Paul Betts, Konrad Jarausch, etc.)

Please note: Depending on departmental needs, this course can be offered as an English-language or German-language course. All texts are available in English translations  (or, in the case of films, with subtitles.)

The Signature Course (UGS 302 and 303) introduces first-year students to the university’s academic community through the exploration of new interests. The Signature Course is your opportunity to engage in college-level thinking and learning.

After World War One, the metropolis emerged as the center of modern mass society, the historical avant-gardes, and the new culture industries. It is the main purpose of this course to study the rich culture of the modern metropolis during the so-called golden twenties: through its new modes of perception and consumption, its redefinitions of space and place, its social types and sexual subcultures, and its cosmopolitan mentalities and radical politics. The formative role of the metropolis as the center of new artistic, social, and political movements will be examined through the interdisciplinary and comparative perspectives most suited to account for its heterogeneous, contradictory, and dynamic nature. Using Walter Benjamin as a guide, we will start with his writings on Berlin, Paris, and Moscow as components of a transnational theory of modernity and urban experience supplemented by other influential thinkers (Georg Simmel, Saskia Sassen, David Harvey). While the main focus will be on Weimar Berlin, comparative perspectives are introduced through famous city novels and city symphonies (i.e., films) and the role of autobiography and short prose in theorizing the urban experience form the perspective of the foreigner, exile, or tourist (Christopher Isherwood and Vladimir Nabukov on Berlin). The representation of the modern metropolis in painting and photography will be used to diagnose the centrality of vision and visuality to conceptions of mass culture and modernity. Likewise the importance of modern architecture and city planning to the debates on urban subjectivity will allow us to uncover the underlying dialectics of radical politics and social engineering. Artistic movements such as expressionism, cubism, constructivism, and surrealism will be analyzed as urban phenomena responding to this double crisis of subjectivity and representation. Other topics to be discussed involve urban figures such as the bohemien, the flaneur, and the New Woman; the relationship between artistic innovation and revolutionary change; the affinities between urban culture and the modernist aesthetic (montage, stream-of-consciousness); and the importance of the Paris-Berlin-Moscow train in organizing transnational cultural exchanges and international political movements throughout the 1920 and early 1930s.

The course will be conducted entirely in English. All texts will be read and discussed in translation, with German original texts provided for students in Germanic Studies.

Selected Texts and Films

Walter Benjamin: Paris, Capital of the Nineteenth Century/ Paris, die Hauptstadt des 19. Jahrhunderts (1935)

Walter Benjamin: Moscow Diary/ Moskauer Tagebuch (1927)

Walter Benjamin: One-Way Street/ Einbahnstraße (1928)

Walter Benjamin: Berlin Chronicle/ Berliner Chronik (1932)

Alfred Döblin, Berlin Alexanderplatz (1929)

Irmgard Keun: The Artificial Silk Girl/ Das kunstseidene Mädchen (1932)

Joseph Roth: What I Saw from Berlin/ Joseph Roth in Berlin

André Breton: Nadja (1928)

Ilja Ilf and Evgeni Petrov: The Twelve Chairs (1928)

René Clair: The Crazy Ray (1923)

Walter Ruttmann: Berlin, Symphony of a Big City (1927)

Dziga Vertov: Man with a Movie Camera (1929)

Grading

20%      Participation (including two oral presentations)

80%      Short Weekly Response Papers to the Readings

Description:

Since unification, German cinema has seen a new wave of critically acclaimed and commercially successful films. Formally innovative, critically provocative, and thoroughly entertaining, these films can be read as the “daydreams of society” (Kracauer) and allow us to better understand contemporary Germany and Europe. On the one side, our discussions will focus on the ways the films engage with the most pressing issues in German culture and society: the problems of a multicultural, multiethnic society (Turkish-German films), the challenges of globalization and rising inequality, the complications of modern love and marriage, the pleasure of urban life and youthful self-discovery, and the burdens of German history (Third Reich, GDR, leftwing terrorism). On the other side, we will examine the original contributions by directors Tom Tykwer, Christian Petzold, Fatih Akin, Andreas Dresen, and Michael Haneke to a contemporary art and genre cinema that incorporates elements from Hollywood while insisting on a uniquely European perspective. Classroom sessions will combine brief lectures on contemporary Germany, German cinema, and the main terms of film analysis with close readings of film sequences, student-led class discussions, and structured group work.

An advanced undergraduate seminar in German film and cultural studies, this course will be taught entirely in German; no previous knowledge of film history or film analysis is necessary.

Course Materials:

All films are shown during separate class screenings to be scheduled in consultation with the students; attendance at the screenings is mandatory. In addition to the films, we will read short texts (reviews, interviews) and basic introductions to film analysis (all provided as PDF files):

Das Versprechen (Margarethe von Trotta, 1995)

Jenseits der Stille (Caroline Link, 1996)

Bin ich schön? (Doris Dörrie, 1998)

Run Lola Run (Tom Tykwer, 1998)

Lola und Bilidikid (Kutlug Ataman, 1999)

Halbe Treppe (Andreas Dresen, 2002)

Das Wunder von Bern (Sönke Wortmann, 2003)

Good Bye Lenin! (Wolfgang Becker, 2003)

Der Untergang (Oliver Hirschbiegel, 2004)

Die fetten Jahre sind vorbei (Hans Weingartner, 2004)

Gegen die Wand (Fatih Akin, 2004)

Yella (Christian Petzold, 2007)

Das Leben der Anderen (Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, 2008)

Das weiße Band  (Michael Hanecke, 2009)

Deutschland ‘09 (Omnibusfilm, 2009)

COURSE OBJECTIVES

The course is designed for students to:

• improve their command of German, with special emphasis on oral and written proficiency;

• gain cultural competence through an emphasis on small group work and individual presentations; and

• achieve a deeper understanding of films as works of art and reflections of social reality.

Grading:

One 5-page papers with abstract and bibliography:20%

Two 2-page Film Reviews: (10% each) 20%

Two in-class presentations: (10% each) 20%

Attendance, preparation, and participation: 20%

Midterm Exam: 20%

Plus/Minus Grades will be assigned for the final grade.

The fascist aesthetic remains a critical provocation and continued source of fascination that challenges our understanding of aesthetics and politics in the context of the historical avant-gardes, official fascist and Nazi art, as well as antifascist literature and film. But how can we define the fascist aesthetic? What accounts for the central role of culture in Nazism/fascism? How does fascism organize the relationship between politics and aesthetics? And what is the function of the fascist aesthetic in popular culture today?

Based on Benjamin’s famous statement that the aestheticization of fascism can only be countered with a politicization of art, we will address these questions through an interdisciplinary, comparative approach that covers half a century of European culture and includes literature, art, architecture, film, critical theory, and cultural history from Germany, Italy, and France. The connection between fascism and modernism will be explored through the lens of Italian futurism (F. T. Marinetti, Gruppo 7, aeropittura) and canonical modernist authors such as Ezra Pound, Céline, and Ernst Jünger. Official Nazi art will be studied through the work of filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl, architect Albert Speer, and sculptor Arno Breker, whereas the politics of antifascism will be examined through the expressionism debate (Georg Lukács, Ernst Bloch) and the work of Bertolt Brecht and Friedrich and Konrad Wolf. In addition, shorter texts by German, French, and Italian writers allow us to address core issues of the fascist aesthetic: the fascist mass spectacle, the cult of masculinity, the sexualization of power, and the celebration of war. Finally, through select readings by theorists and historians of fascism/Nazism (George Mosse, Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Mark Antliff, Dagmar Herzog, Peter Fritzsche), we will situate the fascist aesthetic in the larger context of twentieth-century mass society and consumer culture and consider its haunting presence in the postfascist imagination.

Class format/ method of instruction: Class will be conducted in a seminar format with short introductory lectures. The course will be of greatest interest to students in Comparative Literature, Germanic Studies, French and Italian Studies, History, English, and Art History. The final selection of texts will be made in discussion with the actual students enrolled.

Course Objectives

The main objectives of the course are to

--give a historical overview of the fascist aesthetic in the context of twentieth century European history;

--discuss key works and movements in a comparative, interdisciplinary context;

--analyze the fascist aesthetic in relation to modernism and postmodernism.

Course Outcomes

By the end of the course, students will be able to

--use critical categories and theoretical models in analyzing fascism as an aesthetic, social, and political phenomenon;

--analyze aesthetic phenomena and cultural practices in a historical and comparative context.

TEXTS

Primary and secondary texts to be discussed (usually in parts) include:

Theodor Adorno, Walter Benjamin, and Georg Lukacs: Aesthetics and Politics

Bertolt Brecht: The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui

Roger Griffin: Fascism (Oxford Readers)

Ernst Jünger: On Pain

Victor Klemperer: The Language of the Third Reich—LTI

Filippo Marinetti et al: Futurist Manifestos

Ezra Pound: The Cantos

Leni Riefenstahl: Triumph of the Will

Saul Friedländer: Reflections of Nazism: An Essay on Kitsch and Death

Jeffrey Schnapp: A Primer of Italian Fascism

Susan Sontag: “Fascinating Fascism,” in Under the Sign of Saturn

Friedrich and Konrad Wolf: Professor Mamlock (play and film)

The seminar will be conducted in English, with all materials available in English translation. However, whenever applicable, students are encouraged to work with the materials in their original language. Shorter readings will be made available as PDF files on Blackboard; film screenings will be scheduled separately.

GRADING

20% Attendance, preparation, and active participation

20% two class presentations

60% three position/reaction papers (5-8 pages/each)

Contact Information Sabine Hake

Office: 332 Burdine                            Telephone: 232-6379                             Email: Hake@mail.utexas.edu

Office Hours: Tuesdays 10-12 and by appointment

This course provides a comprehensive introduction to German film through changing topics; this semester, the topic will be Germany and its Others. All national cinemas are defined as much through their contribution to the making of national identity, culture, and history as through their construction of specific social and ethnic groups as outsiders or threats to the dominant order; in the German case, this function has been performed by Jews, blacks, and Turks and informed by the discourses or racism, antisemitism, and sexism. Similarly, all national cinemas are defined as much through their exchanges with other cinemas as through their promotion of a specific aesthetic or mode of production; in the German case, this has meant a continuous confrontation with America as the desired and reviled Other. Through selected films, we will analyze the function of these various Others both as stereotype, image, and fantasy and as a place from which other viewpoints, identities, and sensibilities can be articulated. 

Overall, the course’s goals are threefold: to survey German filmmaking from the beginning to the present, to situate filmic texts in the context of German history and society, and to introduce the terms of film analysis and cultural critique that have defined German film studies in the past three decades. We will learn how to apply critical categories such as authorship, narrative, mise-en-scène, camerawork, sound, genre, and star system to the works of Lang, Beyer, Fassbinder, Herzog, Akin and others. We will examine the most influential film forms and styles in the context of larger social movements, political developments, and cultural sensibilities. And we will discuss the socio-psychological function of films as the “daydreams of society” (Kracauer) and consider their contribution to the making of national identity, history, and heritage. Other issues to be addressed include the competing discourses of art cinema and popular cinema, the relationship to Hollywood and other European cinemas, the exchanges with other mass media and cultural practices, the precarious position of film between artwork and commodity, the role of politics in the development of a national film industry, and the contribution of feature films to the production of emotions, fantasies, and mentalities.

The course will be taught in English, with all films shown with subtitles. The course is organized in conjunction with an international conference on German-Turkish Cinema (26-27 March 2010).

Grading/Requirements:

20% regular attendance, course preparation, and active participation

20% two oral presentations (sequence analysis, summary of critical reading)

20% two short reaction papers (5 pp. each)

40% final seminar paper (10 pp.) or sample syllabus

Please check back for updates.

TC 357/43775 Junior Seminar Plan II
Anti-Americanism and the Americanization of Europe
Thursdays 2-5 PM Carothers 007B

Instructor: Sabine Hake
Office Hours: T 10-11 PM, TH 11 AM-12 PM, and by appointment
Office: Burdine 3.134
Telephone: 232-6379
E-mail: Hake@mail.utexas.edu
(Please note: E-mails will be answered within 48 hours on regular business days.)


Anti-Americanism has never been more widespread and intense than today. Americanization, too, continues to play a key role in the heated debates on globalization. But what does Americanization actually mean? What are the causes and effects of Anti-Americanism? What makes “America” both a wish dream and a nightmare in the views of the world? And what are the consequences of the world’s love-hate relationship with America for international relations?

We will address these questions by examining the transatlantic relationship between the US and Europe in its historical manifestations and current dynamics, paying special attention to the role of culture in the making of anti-Americanism. Culture has always played a key role in the relationship between America and Europe, with the prevailing images, stereotypes, and prejudices reflecting political and economic developments but also expressing larger concerns about identity, nation, history, and modernity. It is the main purpose of this course to study the meaning and function of European anti-Americanism through the lens of cultural production and critical thought and to better understand the role of literature, philosophy, art, and film in producing national stereotypes and prejudices and in organizing patterns of cross-cultural encounter and exchange. Looking at typical texts will allow us to assess the current antagonisms as part of a long-standing pattern of infatuation and resentment, imitation and rejection.

In particular, we will study European anti-Americanism within the larger context of nineteenth and twentieth century history: the analysis of American democracy by Tocqueville and the myth of the Wild West in art and literature; the waves of modernization after World War I and World War II; the fascination with all things American in modern mass and consumer culture; the functioning of anti-Americanism in conservative and progressive thought; and the marked increase in Anti-Americanism after 9/11/2001.

The course will be of special interest to students in European Studies, American Studies, History, and Government.

Class format/ method of instruction: The class will be conducted in a seminar fashion, with the instructor giving brief lectures about the history of European anti-Americanism. Throughout, students are expected to prepare questions for the readings/screenings and to participate actively in discussions; film screenings will be organized separately. As a junior seminar, this course places special emphasis on training students in reading cultural texts. We will learn how to situate cultural texts in their historical contexts, how to analyze texts for their rhetorical moves and ideological functions, how to identify visual and literary tropes, and how to assess the function of culture both as part of larger social and political developments and in the context of changing national imaginaries and imaginary geographies.
 
Grading (in the new =/- system):
30% Attendance, preparation, and active participation, including one formal presentation
30% midterm essay exam based on questions provided by instructor
40% final exam (essay questions only) on material covered in class

Attendance Policy:
You are expected to attend all class sessions and be present during the entire time period. Attendance will be taken at some time during every session. You will be given 1 unexcused absence for the entire semester. More than 3 unexcused absences results in an F for the entire course. Excused absences include documented illnesses or family emergencies and will be handled on an individual basis; for details, see below.

Required and recommended readings, with required ones in bold:
Berman, Russell. Anti-Americanism in Europe: A Cultural Problem. Stanford: Hoover Institution, 2004.
Diner, Dan. America in the Eyes of the Germans: An Essay on Anti-Americanism. Princeton: Marcus Wiener Publishers, 1996.
Grazia, Victoria de. Irresistible Empire: America’s Advance through 20th-Century Europe. Harvard: Harvard University Press, 2005.
Joffe, Josef. Überpower: The Imperial Temptation of America. New York: Norton, 2006.
Kroes, Rob. If You've Seen One, You've Seen the Mall: Europeans and American Mass Culture. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1996.
Levy, Bernard-Henri. American Vertigo: Travelling America in the Footsteps of Tocqueville. New York: Random House, 2006.
Markovits, Andrei. Uncouth Nation: Why Europe Dislikes America. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2007.
Revel, Jean-Francois. Anti-Americanism. San Francisco: Encounter Books, 2000.
Rubin, Berry and Judith Colp. Hating America: A History. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.
Roger, Philippe. The American Enemy: The History of French Anti-Americanism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005.
Tocqueville, Alexis de. Democracy in America. New York: Penguin, 2001. (excerpts available as pdf files)





Course Syllabus
8/27    Lecture: Anti-Americanism: A Preliminary Definition

9/3     Lecture: Anti-Americanism after 9/11
    Readings (for that day): Markovits, Introduction and Chapters 1-2 (1-80)

9/10     Lecture: Anti-Americanism and European Unification
    Readings (for that day): Markovits, Chapters 3-4 (80-149)

9/17     Lecture: The Idea of Europe in Cultural and Political Life
    MIDTERM EXAM
    Readings (for that day): Levy, En route and Chapters 1 and 2 (3-77)

9/24     Lecture: The Origins of Anti-Americanism in 18th and 19th Century Critical Thought
    Readings (for that day): Levy, Chapters 3 (78-105) and 4 (106-35)

10/1     Lecture: The Fascination with the Wild West in 19th Painting and Popular Culture
Assignments (for that day): Levy, Chapter 5 (136-167) plus Tocqueville
HAND IN WRITING ASSIGNMENT

10/8     Lecture: The Image of America in Modern European Art
    Assignments (for that day): de Grazia, Intro (1-14) and Chapter 5 (226-83)
   
10/15     Lecture: The Debate on Americanism after World War One
    Readings (for that day): de Grazia, Chapter 3 (130-83)

10/22     Lecture: Hollywood in Europe
    Readings (for that day): de Grazia, Chapter 7 (336-75)

10/29     Lecture: The Americanization of Europe after World War Two
    Readings (for that day): de Grazia, Chapter 6 (284-335)

11/5     Lecture: Cold War, Vietnam War, and the 1968: “America” and the European Left Viewing (for that day): Wilder: One Two Three

11/12     Lecture: The Age of Globalization
Readings (for that day): Markovits, Chapter 6 (202-24) and Grazia, Chapter 8 (376-415)

11/19    CLASS CANCELLED
    Viewing: Paris, Texas (1984, 147’, DVD 3328)

12/3     Lecture: Nostalgia for America: The Case of Texas

DATE OF FINAL EXAM TO BE ANNOUNCED
General Rules and Regulations
CLASS AND CLASSROOMS: Cell phones must be turned off in class; computers may be used only for note taking. If a student uses electronic devices for non-class related activities and creates a disturbance s/he will be asked to leave for the remainder of that class.

ACADEMIC ASSISTANCE: Academic Assistance is provided by the UT Learning Center, in Jester Center, Room A332A. It offers help with college-level writing, reading, and learning strategies. It is free to all currently enrolled students.
See: <http://www.lib.utexas.edu/services/assistive/policy.html> for requesting help you need in using the main library (PCL) or the Fine Arts Library (for films).

STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES: The University of Texas at Austin provides upon request appropriate academic accommodations for qualified students with disabilities. For more information, contact the Office of the Dean of Students at 471-6259, 471-6441 TTY. Any student with a documented disability who requires academic accommodations should contact the Service for Students with Disabilities as soon as possible to request an official letter outlining authorized accommodations. These letters must be given to the professor at the beginning of the class. See: <http://www.utexas.edu/diversity/ddce/ssd/index.php>.

SYLLABUS AND ASSIGNMENTS: All requirements have been given to you in writing; continuation in the class means acceptance of the rules and regulations spelled out in the syllabus. NO LATE WORK WILL BE ACCEPTED; see the conditions for making up work for medical and other leaves listed in the next section.

RELIGIOUS HOLIDAYS AND OTHER ABSENCES: Students can make up work missed because of a religious holiday as long as they provide the instructor with documentation at least one week before the holiday occurs. The same applies to official university obligations like Club or Varsity sports. Documentation from a physician is required for medical absence; arrangements for work to be made up must be made promptly, and in no case should the work be completed more than 2 weeks after the absence.
Other absences (e.g. family events) must be arranged for at least TWO WEEKS IN ADVANCE and missed work must be turned in at the NEXT CLASS SESSION upon return.

CHEATING AND PLAGIARISM: Cheating and other forms of scholastic dishonesty, including plagiarism, will be reported to the Dean of Students. Cheating on tests or plagiarism on papers is an F for the assignment, with no makeup possible. If you engage in any form of scholastic dishonesty more than once, you will receive an automatic F for the course. If you are unsure about the exact definition of scholastic dishonesty, you should consult the information about academic integrity produced by the Dean of Students Office: <http://deanofstudents.utexas.edu/sjs/acint_student.php>.
Plagiarism means using words or ideas that are not your own without citing your sources and without indicating explicitly what you have taken from those sources.
If you are unsure about what constitutes plagiarism, consult: <http://www.lib.utexas.edu/services/instruction/learningmodules/plagiarism/>

What does "citing your sources" mean? It means providing appropriate footnotes and bibliographic entries. See <http://www.lib.utexas.edu/services/instruction/learningmodules/citations/>.
To make correct citations, researchers often use bibliographic software like UT's "Noodlebib" <http://www.lib.utexas.edu/noodlebib/> or Zotero <http://www.zotero.com.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON CHEATING: The Student Judicial Services Website provides official definitions of plagiarism and cheating: Definitions of plagiarism and other forms of scholastic dishonesty, based on Section 11-802d of UT’s Institutional Rules on Student Services and Activities:
http://deanofstudents.utexas.edu/sjs/scholdis_plagiarism.php.
The University’s Standard of Academic Integrity and Student Honor Code (from Chapter 11 of the University’s Institutional Rules on Student Services and Activities): http://deanofstudents.utexas.edu/sjs/acint_student.php
Consequences of scholastic dishonesty:
http://deanofstudents.utexas.edu/sjs/scholdis_conseq.php
Types of scholastic dishonesty: unauthorized collaboration, plagiarism, and multiple submissions: http://deanofstudents.utexas.edu/sjs/scholdis_whatis.php


INFORMATION ON THE WRITING CENTER
I strongly encourage you to use the Undergraduate Writing Center, FAC 211, 471-6222: http://uwc.utexas.edu/home). The Undergraduate Writing Center offers free, individualized, expert help with writing for any UT undergraduate, by appointment or on a drop-in basis. Any undergraduate enrolled in a course at UT can visit the UWC for assistance with any writing project. They work with students from every department on campus, for both academic and non-academic writing. Whether you are writing a lab report, a resume, a term paper, a statement for an application, or your own poetry,
UWC consultants will be happy to work with you. Their services are not just for writing with "problems." Getting feedback from an informed audience is a normal part of a successful writing project. Consultants help students develop strategies to improve their writing. The assistance they provide is intended to foster independence. Each student determines how to use the consultant's advice. The consultants are trained to help you work on your writing in ways that preserve the integrity of your work.

Please check back for updates.

Please check back for updates.