The Roaring Twenties in Germany

Literature
Art
Film

Course Information
Undergraduate Syllabus
Graduate Syllabus
Bibliography
Art Works
Suggested Topics for Seminar Paper

Course Information and Syllabi, Fall 2002

 

Graduate Syllabus

August
26

Introduction to the course: overview of politics, social issues, and art

Film:
Cabaret. 1972. Dir. Bob Fosse. 128 min. Based on Christopher Isherwood's Goodbye to Berlin and John van Druten's play.

September

 

2

The Legacy of the Great War
WW I, Germany, the Versailles Treaty, pacifism, art

Reading:
Kaes, Sourcebook. Ch. 1 (pp. 5-34) and Ch. 2, (only pp. 35-6)
White, Alfred. Weimar Republic. (Ency. of Germ Lit.; handout)

Film: "Artists at War 1914-1918" (documentary). 55 min.

9

Modernism: Part 1
Heinrich Mann, Professor Unrat (1905)

Reading: Heinrich Mann (DLB, on reserve)

Films: Interview with Josef v. Sternberg (excerpts). 1965. 27 min.
Marlene (Marlene Dietrich) 1993. Dir. Maximilian Schell. 91 min.

16

Josef von Sternberg, The Blue Angel (filmscript)

Reading:
Joseph von Sternberg (World Film Directors, on reserve)

Film: The Blue Angel 1930. Dir. Josef von Sternberg. 106 min.

GS: Koch, Gertrud. “Between Two Worlds: von Sternberg’s The Blue
Angel
(1930).”

23

Modernism: Part 2
Franz Kafka, A Hunger Artist (1922, handout); The Judgment (1913); In
the Penal Colony
(1919)

Reading:
Max Brod "Franz Kafka's Posthumus Writings" (1924) in Kaes,
Sourcebook, pp. 510-12
Franz Kafka (Encyclopedia of German Literature, on reserve)

Film: Documentary on Kafka (Ten Great Writers: Franz Kafka) 59 min.

GS: Trahan, Elizabeth W. “George Bendemann’s Path to the Judgment”
Hughes, Kenneth. “A Psychoanalytic Approach to The Judgment
Eilittä, Leena. “Das Urteil: ‘Gedanken an Freud natürlich”
Corngold, Stanley. “The Hermeneutic of The Judgment”
Taubeneck, Steven. “Irony, Contingency, and Postmodernity: In the Penal Colony
Rolleston, James. “Purification unto Death: A Hunger Artist as Allegory of Modernism”
Gumbrecht, Hans Ulrich. “Hunger Artists”

 
30

Hermann Hesse. The Steppenwolf (1927) pp. 1-128 (Engl.); 1-165 (Dt.)

Reading: Hermann Hesse (DLB, on reserve)

GS
: Rockwood, Heidi. “The Function of Pablo in Hesse’s Steppenwolf

Horrocks, David. “Harry Haller as ‘Höhrer
Mensch’: Nietzschean Themes and Motifs in Hermann Hesse’s Der Steppenwolf”

Artiss, David. “Key Symbols in Hesse’s Steppenwolf

October
7

Hermann Hesse. The Steppenwolf. pp. 128-218 (Engl.); 165-278 (Dt.)

Film: The Haunted Screen: Weimar Cinema (documentary overview)

GS: Schwarz, Egon. “Hermann Hesse: Steppenwolf (1927)”

Hollis, Andrew. “Political Ambivalence in Hesse’s Steppenwolf”

Hollis, Andrew. “Steppenwolf: The Laughter in the Music”

Cohn, Dorrit. “Narration of Consciousness in Der Steppenwolf

14

Expressionism and the Cinema, Part I.

Reading: Kaes, Sourcebook, Ch. 25

Film: Nosferatu. 1922. Dir. F.W. Murnau. 64 min.

GS: Eisner, Lotte. “The Symphonies of Horror: Nosferatu; the demoniac
bourgeois; the sway of the Doppelgänger

Hake, Sabine. “Weimar Cinema 1919-33”

Mayne, Judith. “Dracula in the twilight: Murnau’s Nosferatu

21

Expressionism and the Cinema, Part II.

Film: Metropolis. 1926. Dir. Fritz Lang. 115 min.

GS: Eisner, Lotte. “The Handling of Crowds: Metropolis

28

Expressionism and Art

Film: Expressionism (documentary). 60 min.

Artists: Grosz, Schiele, Beckmann, Kirchner, Kokoschka, Kollwitz, Nolde

November
4

Dada and Surrealism in Art

Reading: Kaes, Sourcebook, Ch. 19

Film: Dada and Surrealism (documentary). 60 min.

Artists: Klimt, Schwitters, Hanna Höch, Gabriele Münter, Dix, Kandinsky

11

Avant-garde Art

Artists: Marc, Ernst, Barlach, Klee, Macke, Arp, Ensor

18

Modernism and the Political

The Threepenny Opera by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill (1928)

Reading:
Kaes, Sourcebook, Ch. 21 and Ch. 23 (pp.576-77 only)

Bertolt Brecht (DLB, on reserve)

The Threepenny Opera court case (handout)

Film:
The Threepenny Opera. 1931. Dir. G. W. Pabst. 113 min.

GS: Eisner, Lotte. “The Coming of Sound: Die Dreigroschenoper”

Elsaesser, Thomas. “Transparent duplicities: Pabst’s The Threepenny
Opera

25

Thanksgiving

December
2

Individual and Society: the Artist
Thomas Mann. Tonio Kröger (1903)
Guest Speaker: Dr. Gamin Bartle

Reading: Thomas Mann (DLB, on reserve)

Film: Documentary on Thomas Mann (FHS, 45 min.)

GS: Gillespie, Gerald. “Mann and the Modernist Tradition”

Eddy, Beverley Driver. “Teaching Tonio Kröger as Literature about Literature”

Symington, Rodney. “Tonio Kröger’s Conversation with Lisaweta Iwanowna: Difficulties and Solutions”

9

Individual and Society: the New Woman and Berlin

Readings:
Kaes, Sourcebook, Ch. 8, 16, 22

Film: Pandora's Box. 1928. Dir. G.W. Pabst. 110 min.

GS: Eisner, Lotte. “Pabst and the Miracle of Louise Brooks”

Elsaesser, Thomas. “Lulu and the meter man: Louise Brooks, G.W. Pabst and Pandora’s Box
14 (Tues) FINAL EXAM (8:00-10:30 a.m.)
 

Texts:

Kaes, Sourcebook = Kaes, Anton, and Martin Jay and Edward Dimendberg, eds. The Weimar Republic Sourcebook. (2 copies on reserve in Gorgas)

DLB = Dictionary of Literary Biography (essays on Brecht, Th. Mann, H. Mann, and Hesse on reserve in Gorgas)

Encyclopedia of German Literature: Biographical essay on Kafka on reserve
Essay on Weimar Republic (handout)

The Blue Angel / Professor Unrat by Heinrich Mann and The Blue Angel filmscript by Josef v. Sternberg are published together in a single volume. Because the work is out of print, it is available only as a photocopy from the Supe store. Check under GN403; if there are none on the shelf, request that a copy be printed.

GS = Extra readings for graduate students. When more than one reading is listed for a given work, choose one. All readings will be on electronic reserve at Gorgas Library.

 

Dancers in the Roaring Twenties

GN403 / WL489 / GN552 | T 2:00 - 4:30; Comer 241 | Dr. Elaine Martin] | 213 Comer, 348-8520 | Office Hours T,R 10:00- 11:00