MA Modern Languages and Cultures / Course details

This course unit seeks to gain a better understanding of Imperial Germany by examining the response of German artists and thinkers to their rapidly changing social and political environment. It looks at ways in which the new Empire sought to legitimise its existence through culture – monuments, paintings, buildings– and asks how successful this was. It then concentrates on a variety of critics and reformers, who pioneered new approaches in music, art and architecture. The course unit reveals an increasingly pluralistic society, in which people were already wrestling with some of the modern world’s most enduring problems. 

·         To develop knowledge and understanding of German history, particularly of the imperial era (1871-1918)

·         To develop critical thinking and higher order conceptual reasoning and analytical skills

·         To develop advanced skills of written and verbal communication

·         To analyse and comment on a range of visual sources, including paintings, monuments and buildings

·         To undertake a critical and sophisticated review of the historiography, and to develop an individual perspective

On successful completion of this course unit, students will have developed:

·         knowledge and understanding of German history (see below)

·         a range of intellectual skills (see below)

·         a range of practical skills (see below)

·         a range of transferable skills (see below)

·         a range of employability skills (see below)

By the end of the semester, you will have an advanced knowledge and understanding of:

·         the official culture of Imperial Germany; its buildings, monuments, and art

·         a variety of cultural and social reform movements in Imperial Germany

·         historical methods, particularly with regard to cultural history

By the end of this course students will be able to:

·         Engage in independent reflection and enquiry

·         Engage in the discussion and critical evaluation of cultural products from Germany’s imperial era

·         Use empirical evidence to support synthetic conclusions and interpretations

·         Analyse secondary sources and provide a synthesis of the most relevant findings

By the end of this course students will be able to:

·         Use library, electronic and online resources

·         Apply skills of analysis and synthesis to practical issues and problems

·         Presentation – present information, ideas and arguments, orally and in writing, with due regard to the target audience

·         Literacy – the capacity both to make written presentations using appropriate language for a target audience and to collect and integrate evidence to formulate and test a hypothesis

·         Time Management – ability to schedule tasks in order of importance and work to deadlines

·         Improving own learning – ability to improve one's own learning through planning, monitoring, critical reflection, evaluate and adapt strategies for one's learning

Assessment Task:

1. Essay plan and bibliography - 0%

2. Essay - 100%

• Feedback in class
• Office hours and email consultation throughout the semester 
• Additional meetings (as required) to discuss the essay 

SET TEXT 

Jefferies, Matthew, Imperial Culture in Germany 1871-1918 (Basingstoke, 2003) 901.43/J13 (available as an eBook to all students)

RECOMMENDED READING  

Alings, Reinhard, Monument und Nation: das Bild vom Nationalstaat im Medium Denkmal (Berlin: de Gruyter, 1996) 901.43 A5 

Allen, Ann Taylor, Satire and Society in Wilhelmine Germany: Kladderadatsch and Simplicissimus 1890-1914 (Lexington: U.P. of Kentucky, 1984) online access available 

Bartmann, Dominik, Anton von Werner: zur Kunst und Kunstpolitik im Deutschen Kaiserreich (Berlin: Deutscher Verlag für Kunstwissenschaft, 1985) 750.92,WE495 1 (high demand) 

Berghahn, Volker, Imperial Germany 1871-1914 (Providence & Oxford: Berghahn, 1994) - especially part III.  943.08/B96 

Blackbourn, David and Eley, Geoff, The Peculiarities of German History (Oxford and New York, 1984) online access available 

Blackbourn, David & Evans, Richard (eds.), The German Bourgeoisie (London: Routledge, 1991) 309.43/B51 

Blackbourn, David, Fontana History of Germany, 1780-1918: the Long Nineteenth Century (London: Fontana, 1997) 943.06/B38 

Buddensieg, Tilmann, Industriekultur: Peter Behrens and the AEG, 1907-1914 (Cambridge, Mass. & London: MIT, 1984) 720.92, BE395/6 

Burckhardt, Lucius, ed., The Werkbund (London: Design Council, 1980) 745/E10 

Burns, Rob (ed.), German Cultural Studies. An Introduction (Oxford: OUP, 1995) - especially chapter one by R. Lenman, J. Osborne and E. Sagarra   901.43/B32 

Campbell, Joan, The German Werkbund: the Politics of Reform in the Applied Arts (Princeton: Princeton U.P., 1978) 745/C8 

Chapple, Gerald & Schulte, Hans, eds., The Turn of the Century: German Literature and Art, 1890-1915 (Bonn: Bouvier, 1981) 830.9/M88 

Chickering, Roger (ed.), Imperial Germany. A Historiographical Companion (Westport, Conn. & London: Greenwood Press, 1996) - especially chapter on ‘Literature and the Arts’ by Peter Jelavich   943.08/C57 

Duncan, Alastair,   Art Nouveau (London: Thames and Hudson, 1994) 745/D214 

Eksteins, Modris, Rites of Spring: The First World War and the Birth of the Modern Age (London: Bantam, 1989) 940.93/E33 

Fischer-Dieskau, Dietrich, Wagner and Nietzsche (New York: Seabury Press, 1976) 780.92, W125/458 

Finke, Ulrich, German Painting from Romanticism to Expressionism (Boulder: West View Press, 1975) 750.943/F1 

Fleckner, Uwe & Gaehtgens, Thomas (eds.), Historienmalerei (Berlin, 1996) 750.9/G44 

Forster-Hahn, Francoise (ed.), Imagining Modern German Culture, 1889-1910 (Washington D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 1997) 709.43/F87 

Green, Abigail, Fatherlands. State-building and Nationhood in Nineteenth Century Germany (Cambridge, 2001) 943.07 G182 

Green, Martin, Mountain of Truth. The Counterculture begins: Ascona, 1900-20 (Hanover & London: U.P. of New England, 1986) 901.494/G1  

Hamann, Richard & Hermand, Jost, Deutsche Kunst und Kultur von der Grűnderzeit bis zum Expressionismus (Frankfurt: Fischer, 1977) vols. 1-5 (Grűnderzeit; Naturalismus; Impressionismus; Stilkunst um 1900; Expressionismus) 709.43/H31 etc. 

Hepp, Corona, Avantgarde. Moderne Kunst, Kulturkritik und Reformbewegungen nach der Jahrhundertwende  (Munich: dtv, 1987)    709.43/H56 

Hermand, Jost, Der Schein des schönen Lebens - Studien zur Jahrhundertwende (Frankfurt, 1972)  901.43 H47 

Heskett, John, Design in Germany, 1870-1918 (London: Trefoil, 1986) 745/H15 

Hiesinger, Kathryn, ed., Art Nouveau in Munich: Masters of Jugendstil from the Stadtmuseum, Munich (Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1988) 745/M61  

Hitchcock, Henry Russel