GERM 235 - Introduction to German Cultural Studies

Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)

Topic for 2015/16a: Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud. Marx, Nietzsche and Freud are three of the most influential German thinkers of the modern era. We associate their names with different, even antagonistic agendas ranging from political systems (socialism and communism), entire disciplines (psychoanalysis), and even the death of God. Yet all three were pivotal in developing a “hermeneutics of suspicion,” in which “reality” turned out to be hiding darker and more powerful forces: economic motives, unconscious desires, or the will to power. This course examines their writings in the context of 19th-century Germany and Austria and assesses their contributions to our postmodern understanding of language, truth and modern subjectivity. In addition to reading works by these three thinkers, the course explores their connections to a range of German writers and artists, such as Lou Andreas-Salomé, Bertolt Brecht, Th. Mann, Arthur Schnitzler, Richard Wagner, as well as various filmmakers. Special attention will also be paid to the efforts of subsequent theorists, such Foucault, Luce Irigaray, or Slavoj Žižek, to criticize, refine, or synthesize their ideas. Mr. Schneider.

All readings and discussions are in English.

Open to all classes. German majors see GERM 239 .

Two 75-minute periods.