GERMN/RSNST 101
SPRING 1998

The Rise and Fall of the European Empires:
Culture and Society in Berlin, Moscow, St. Petersburg and Vienna
at the Turn of the Century




GENERAL INFORMATION

Instructors Franklin Sciacca
Edith Toegel
Class Meetings Mon, Wed 1:00 - 2:15 PM
Offices Sciacca: 208 CJ(x4773)
Toegel: 106 CJ(x4121)
Office Hours Sciacca: Mon, Wed 2:30 - 4:00 PM
Toegel: Mon, Wed 9:00 - 9:50 AM; Fri 11:00 - 11:50 AM
Course texts available in Campus Store
  • Andrei Bely, Petersburg
  • Theodor Fontane, Effi Briest
  • Sigmund Freud, On Dreams
  • Maksim Gorky, The Lower Depths
  • Wassily Kandinsky, Concerning the Spiritual in Art
  • Carl E. Schorske, Fin-de-Siecle Vienna: Politics and Culture
Additional xeroxed readings will be distributed during the course of the semester.
The Bely, Gorky and Kandinsky texts, and N. Riasanovsky (A History of Russia, fifth edition) are available on reserve in Burke Library. There will be several WWW-based assignments during the semester. If you need instruction on use of the Web and Netscape (including how to access "search engines"), consult with one of the Research Librarians in Burke.


SYLLABUS AND READING ASSIGNMENTS

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Y		 Mon 19 Introduction
I. THE EUROPEAN METROPOLIS
Wed 21
  • Thomas P. Hughes, "The City as Creator and Creation" (xerox)
  • Joseph Bradley, "Moscow: From Big Village to Metropolis" (from Michael Hamm, The City in Late Imperial Russia) (xerox)
  • George Carrington, "The Streets of Moscow in the 1870s" (from Laurence Kelly, Moscow: A Traveller's Companion) (xerox)
  • James Bater, "Between Old and New: St. Petersburg in the Late Imperial Era" (from Michael Hamm, The City in Late Imperial Russia) (xerox)
Mon 26 The Changing Faces of Two Cities: Architecture and Design in Vienna and Berlin
  • Stefan Zweig, "The World of Security" from The World of Yesterday (xerox)
  • Carl E. Schorske: "The Ringstrasse, Its Critics, and the Birth of Modern Urbanism"
  • Angela Schšnberger, "Es ist eine Lust zu leben, die Geister beleben sich . . . " ( It's a Joy to Live - Spirits Are Rising) (xerox)
  • Alexander Reissner, "The New Metropolis" (from Berlin, 1675-1945) (xerox)

Student reports: tba

Wed 28 The Myth of St. Petersburg: "The Most Fantastic City"
  • Katerina Clark, "Imperial Petersburg, 1913" (from Petersburg: Crucible of Cultural Revolution)
  • St. Petersburg: A Traveller's Companion (excerpt from Introduction) (xerox)
  • Aleksandr Pushkin, "The Bronze Horseman" (Introduction) (xerox)
  • Nikolai Gogol, "The Overcoat" (xerox)
  • Feodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment (excerpts) (xerox)
F
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Y		 II. HISTORY / POLITICS
Mon 2 The End of an Era: The Decline of the Habsburgs
  • Paul Hofmann, "The Golden Apple" in: The Viennese, Splendor, Twilight and Exile (xerox)
  • Schorske, "Politics in A New Key: An Austrian Trio"
Film: "The End of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy" (32 min.)
Student report: portrait of Emperor Franz Joseph I
Wed 4 Lecture: "The Kaiser, the Berlin Sex Scandals, and the Road to World War I

Guest speaker: Prof. Denis Sweet (Dept. of German, Bates College)

  • Reading assignment from Mary Fulbrook, A Concise History of Germany (tba, xerox)
Mon 9 The Twilight of the Russian Empire: the Coronation of the Last Tsar
  • Nicholas Riasanovsky, A History of Russia, Chap. XXX "The Reign of Alexander II and the First Part of the Reign of Nicholas II" and Chap. XXXII "Russian Culture from the 'Great Reforms' until the Revolutions of 1917"
  • Richard Harding Davis, "The Coronation" (from Harper's New Monthly Magazine, February 1897) (xerox)
Student Report: The personal correspondence of Nicholas and Alexandra
Documentary film: Tsar Nicholas II and his court
Wed 11 Konstantin Stanislavsky and the Moscow Art Theater
  • Anton Chekhov, "Three Sisters" (xerox)
  • WWW assignment on the Moscow Art Theater
Dream Assignment: Starting tomorrow morning, keep a detailed diary of your dreams for next Monday's class (you will have many nights of dream material for analysis in class next Monday).
Sat 14 Field trip to New York City: Museums and Moscow Art Theater production of Anton Chekhov's "Three Sisters" (at Brooklyn Academy of Music)
III. RELIGION vs. PSYCHOANALYSIS
Mon 16 "The Russian Soul". The Question of Russian Nationality: Slavophile vs. Westernizer; Moscow vs. St. Petersburg
  • Michael Cherniavsky, "The Russian Soul" (from Tsar and People: Studies in Russian Myths) (xerox)
Wed 18
  • Schorske: "Politics and Patricide in Freud's Interpretation of Dreams"
  • Freud, On Dreams

Student report: tba

Mon 23 Russian Orthodoxy: Religious Fervor or Fanaticism?
  • "Rasputin: The Holy Devil" (xerox)
  • "St. Seraphim, Mystic and Prophet" (from G. P. Fedotov, A Treasury of Russian Spirituality) (xerox)
    [Note the reference to "the small icon depicting Serafim of Sarov at prayer" on p. 170 of Bely, Petersburg. Also read the note on page 341.]

    Student Report 1: Pavlov and his salivating dogs
    Student report 2: St. Ksenya of St. Petersburg

IV. FILM AND THEATER
Wed 25 The Russian Ballet
Guest speaker: Prof. Katie Kodat (Dept. of English)

Assignment: tba

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H		 Mon 2 Lecture: "The Tradition of the Cabaret in Berlin"
Guest speaker: Prof. Cornelius Partsch (Dept. of German, Colby College)
  • Reading assignment from Harold Segel, Turn-of-the-Century Cabaret (xerox)
Wed 4 Exam I
Mon 9 Lecture: "The Birth of French, German and Russian Cinema"
Guest speaker: Prof. Alan Swensen (Dept. Of German, Colgate University)
Wed 11
V. LITERATURE
Mon 30
  • Alexander Reissner, "Theodor Fontane's Berlin" (from Berlin, 1675-1945) (xerox)
  • "The Triumph of Borussismus: Theodor Fontane and William II" (xerox)
  • Fontane, Effi Briest
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L		 Wed 1 Fontane cont.
Film: "Effi Briest"

Student report: tba

Mon 6
  • "CafŽ Megalomania" in: The Viennese (xerox)
  • Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach, "Zwei Comtessen"/"Countess Paula and Countess Muschi" (xerox)
  • Schorske, "Politics and the Psyche: Schnitzler and Hofmannsthal"
  • Artur Schnitzler, "Leutnant Gustl"/"Lieutenant Gustl" (xerox)
  • Hugo von Hofmannsthal: poetry (xerox)
Student report: tba
Wed 8 Andrei Bely, Petersburg , pp.viii-xxii, 1-96

Student Report: Catalogue the round (spherical) objects and the "rectilineal" things (squares and cubes) encountered in Chapters 1-3. How are they described? What associations can be made?

Mon 13 Bely, pp. 97-202

Student Report: Saturn/Chronos (start with notes on pp. 338-9)

Wed 15 Bely, p. 202-293

Student Report: "On the Letter of Dauphsekhrut"/"The Instruction of Duauf"

Mon 20 Exam II
VI. ART AND MUSIC
Wed 22 Richard Strauss's "Der Rosenkavalier": the Essence of Vienna

Guest speaker: Prof. Lydia Hamessley (Dept. of Music)

Mon 27 Fin-de-SiŽcle Vienna
  • "Self-Celebration and Secession" in: The Viennese (xerox)
Video: "Vienna: 1900" (28 min.) Student report: Rebecca Savage
Wed 29 Russian Art-Nouveau and Futurism
  • Jeremy Howard, "Introduction--Art Nouveau: The Myth, the Modern and the National" and "Russia: St. Petersburg, Moscow and Beyond" (from Art Nouveau: International and National Styles in Europe) (xerox)
  • Futurist manifestoes and poetry (xerox)
Student report: Vladimir Mayakovsky
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Y		 May 4 Russian-German Artistic Collaboration
  • Kandinsky, Concerning the Spiritual in Art
Wed 6 Conclusion
COURSEWORK
1 Two in-class exams (4 March, 20 April)
2 One oral presentation (student report) based on class reading and discussion, or assigned mini-research topic. (5-10 minutes)
3 Final research paper: written proposal, 2 pages typed, including bibliography: due Friday, 3 April; first draft, 5 pages typed: due Friday, 17 April (The first draft must be edited in the Writing Center before you submit it to us on Friday.); final, expanded copy, 8-10 pages typed: due Friday, 8 May
4 Regular attendance and active participation in classroom discussion
5 Short WWW-based assignments
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