Unit One: "German" Art or Art of the World?
Guiding Questions
- What role did art and culture play in forming Germany’s national identity in the 19th century?
- How did artists and their publics respond to modernization in the late 19th century?
- In what ways did race, class, and social issues influence both traditional (academic) and non-traditional (experimental) artworks?
Assignment Information
20% of final grade; due Tuesday, August 2 at the beginning of class
Unit Schedule
All readings, including optional texts, are available via ECommons.
- Tuesday, July 26
- Session 1A: Introduction
- Eva Kolinsky and Wilfried van der Will, “In Search of German Culture: An Introduction” in The Cambridge Companion to Modern German Culture, eds. Eva Kolinsky and Wilfried van der Will (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), 1 – 19.
- Hans Belting, “Introduction to the English Edition,” The Germans and Their Art: A Troublesome Relationship, trans. Scott Kleager (New Haven: Yale University 1998), 1 – 32.
- Session 1B: Aesthetic Philosophy & Romanticism
- Stephen Houlgate, “Introduction: An Overview of Hegel’s Aesthetics” in Hegel and the Arts, ed. Stephen Houlgate (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 2007), xi – xxviii.
- excerpt from: Iain Boyd White, “Sublime” in The Romantic Spirit in German Art 1790-1990, eds. Keith Hartley, Henry Meyric Hughes, Peter-Klaus Schuster, and William Vaughan (London: Thames & Hudson, 1994), 138 – 141.
- Session 1A: Introduction
- Thursday, July 28
- Session 2A: Art and the Nation
- Beth Irwin Lewis, “Contemporary Art for the Modern Nation,” Art for All? The Collision of Modern Art and the Public in Late-Nineteenth-Century Germany (Princeton & Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2003), 28 – 92.
- Session 2B: Writing Workshop with special guest, Ari Feld (Writing Instructor and Spanish Language Interpreter)
- No assigned reading.
- Session 2A: Art and the Nation