HISTORY 125

Among the major themes of this survey of modern European intellectual history are: the development of new conceptions of modernity, and of language, sexuality, and personality at the end of the nineteenth century; the sequence of radical changes in the form and content of fiction, poetry, painting, and drama at the beginning of the twentieth century; the city as context and subject of modern art and social theory; and the impact of war, revolution, and totalitarianism on modern consciousness. The course will examine most of the major intellectual movements from the naturalism of the late nineteenth century through the structuralism of the late twentieth. Special attention will be paid to the relationship between marginality and creativity in modern European intellectual history. Examples include the contributions of exiles, emigrés, and expatriates to the genesis of modernism; the Jewish presence in Central and Eastern European literature and social theory; and the feminist critique of traditional gender roles.

TOPICS FOR THE FIRST PAPER

SUGGESTIONS FOR THE FINAL PAPER

CITY: Basel
TOPICS: Nietzsche and the Death of God–Dead Metaphors: Nietzsche’s Critique of Language–Burckhardt and the Genesis of the Modern–Burckhardt and Cultural History
READINGS: Nietzsche, "On Truth and Lie in an Extra-Moral Sense" (1873)* Burckhardt, chapters on "Personality," "Glory," in The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy*

II. April 2-6 GENDER WARS: IBSEN AND STRINDBERG

CITY: Munich
TOPICS: Ibsen, the Liberator–Family Legacies: Ibsen and Naturalism–Strindberg contra Ibsen: Fin de Siècle Misogyny–The Dance of Death: Strindberg, Wedekind, Munch
READINGS: Ibsen, A Doll’s House (1878); Ghosts (1881) Strindberg, Miss Julie (1888) with Preface; The Father (1887)

III. April 9-13 CASE HISTORIES: FREUD, SCHNITZLER, SIMMEL

CITIES: Vienna and Berlin
TOPICS: Vienna and the Agony of Liberalism–From Nora to Dora–Schnitzler and the Dance of Death–Simmel and the Metropolis
READINGS: Freud, Dora (1905); "A Special Type of Object Choice Made by Men"*; "On the Universal Tendency to Debasement in the Sphere of Love"*; "'Civilized' Morality and Modern Nervous Illness"*
Schnitzler, La Ronde (Hands Around), (c.1900) Simmel, "The Metropolis and Mental Life"* (1904)

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IV. April 16-20 THE SHOCK OF THE NEW: APOLLINAIRE, PICASSO, SEVERINI

CITIES: Paris and Rome
TOPICS: The Dreyfus Affair and the Intellectuals–Bohemia and the Avant-Garde–Modernism and Exoticism–Apollinaire, the Poet Assassinated–Cubism, Futurism, Surrealism
READINGS: Apollinaire, Calligrammes (c.1916)*
Gino Severini, The Life of a Painter (1983), chapters 2,3,5*

V. April 23-27 WAR AND PEACE: RUSSELL, SASSOON, OWEN, WOOLF

CITY: London
TOPICS: The Great War and Modern Memory–Russell and Aristocratic Liberalism– Bloomsbury Liberalism–Bloomsbury Feminism
READINGS: Russell, Autobiography (selections)
Brooke, Sassoon, and Owen, poems (1915-1918)
Woolf, A Room of One’s Own (1928)

FIRST PAPER DUE: APRIL 27

VI. April 30-May 4 NIGHTMARES AND PARABLES: WEBER, MANN, BRECHT, KAFKA

CITIES: Berlin and Prague
TOPICS: The Iron Cage of Max Weber–Olympians and Bohemians in Weimar Culture: Mann and Brecht–Kafka: The Ghetto, the Court, and the Castle
READINGS:
Weber, "Science as a Vocation" (1919)*
Mann, "Disorder and Early Sorrow"*; "Mario and the Magician"* (c.1924-1929)
Kafka, "Before the Law," "An Imperial Message" (c.1920)*
Brecht, poems* (1938-1940)

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VII. May 7-11 COURAGE: ANNA AKHMATOVA AND NADEZHDA MANDELSTAM

CITY: St. Petersburg
TOPICS: A Generation that Squandered Its Poets–Akhmatova's Guest–Stalin's Terror–Mrs. Mandelstam
READINGS: Akhmatova, poems (1935-1945)*
Mandelstam, Hope Against Hope (1970), chapters 1-3, 7-9, 11, 14, 19-21, 23, 25, 30, 32, 35-36, 47, 54, 56, 58, 60, 63, 67, 71, 73
Isaiah Berlin, "Meetings with Russian Writers" (1980)*

VIII. May 14-18 THE INTELLECTUAL RESISTANCE: SILONE, MILOSZ, HERBERT, SZYMBORSKA

CITIES: Rome and Warsaw
TOPICS: Silone and Fascism–The Picaresque Saint–The Poets of Poland
READINGS: Silone, Bread and Wine
Milosz, Herbert, Szymborska, poems*

SECOND PAPER DUE: MAY 18

IX. May 21-25 ENGAGEMENT AND ENSNAREMENT: SARTRE, CAMUS, BECKETT, WEIL

CITY: Paris
TOPICS: What is Existentialism?--Simone Weil: Gravity and Grace–Sartre vs.
Camus–The Theater of the Absurd
READINGS: Sartre, "The Wall" (1938); "Existentialism is a Humanism" (1945)*
Camus, "The Myth of Sisyphus" (1944), "The Guest" (1950)*Beckett, Waiting for Godot (1954)
Weil, The Iliad, Poem of Force (1939)*

X. May 30-June 1 STRUCTURALISM: LEVI-STRAUSS, BARTHES, FOUCAULT

CITY: Paris
TOPICS: What is Structuralism?–The Melancholy Science of Claude Levi-Strauss– Roland Barthes Visits the Eiffel Tower–Foucault's Disciplines
READINGS: Levi-Strauss, "The Scope of Anthropology" (1960)*
Sontag, "The Anthropologist as Hero" (1968)*
Leach, "Levi-Strauss in the Garden of Eden" (1962)*
Barthes, "The Eiffel Tower" (1970)*
Foucault, "The Great Confinement" (1966)*

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THIRD PAPER DUE: JUNE 4

*Readings marked with an asterisk will be available either in the course reader or in the form of a handout. A copy of the reader will be place on reserve at McHenry Library along with all of the other required texts.

TOPICS FOR THE FIRST PAPER:

1. WOMEN–The "New Woman"–economically independent, sexually assertive–is a key figure at the turn of the century. Consider how she is praised, pilloried, or parodied in any two or three of the following: Ibsen, Strindberg, Schnitzler, Freud, Picasso, Apollinaire, Woolf.

2. MEN–In one of his essays, Freud diagnosed the malady of the middle class male as a tendency to separate sensuality and affection. Examine the representation of masculinity and its discontents in two or three of the following: Ibsen, Strindberg, Schnitzler, Freud, Apollinaire, Sassoon, Owen, Woolf.

3. FAMILIES–"Happy families," wrote Tolstoy "are all alike. Each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." Analyze the representation of the family and its miseries in two or three of the following: Ibsen, Strindberg,, Schnitzler, Freud, Russell, Woolf.

4. WAR–The impact of the First World War on modern consciousness is one of the great themes of 20th-century intellectual history. Examine the treatment of the Great War in two or three of the following: Apollinaire, Brooke, Sassoon, Owen, Russell, Woolf.

5. LANGUAGE–In modernist art and literature the medium is as important as the message, the gaps, puns, evasions, and silences as important as what is actually being said. Consider how any two or three of the writers and artists we have encountered call attention to the possibilities and limits of language and representation.

6. ANXIETY–Examine the analysis or representation of anxiety in any two or three of the following: Nietzsche, Simmel, Freud, Ibsen, Strindberg, Schnitzler, Sassoon, Owen, Woolf, Russell, Picasso. Why does the theme of anxiety play so large a role in modern writing and modern art?

7. CITIES–Compare images of the city or of modern urban life in any two of the following: Freud, Simmel, Severini, Apollinaire.

You may, if you wish, develop a topic of your own. There is no need for elaborate footnotes (unless you are using secondary sources or different editions of the primary texts), but please place page references in parentheses where appropriate. Again, please feel free to consult your instructor(s) at any stage of the writing of your paper.

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