Bryn Mawr College 360˚ Seminar Christiane Hertel Department of History of Art E-mail: [email protected] Imke Meyer Department of German E-mail: [email protected] Office hours to be determined

Spring 2011

HART 348/GERM 321/CITY 319: The Last Days of Habsburg: Vienna 1900 and the End of an Empire. Viennese Modernism emerged against the backdrop of a multi-ethnic and multi-national empire that was increasingly imperiled both by internal strife and by external political and military pressures. The fractured state of the Habsburg Empire is mirrored in the forms and contents of the culture of Vienna around 1900. While the strength and cohesion of the empire were diminishing, ever richer visual, literary, philosophical, and scientific cultures were developing. Art, architecture, theater, literature, philosophy, and psychoanalysis were grappling with the seismic shifts which constructions of gender, family, class, ethnic identity, and religious identity were undergoing as the Habsburg Empire began to crumble. The critical discussions of visual culture, literary works, and psychoanalytic texts (by artists and writers such as Freud, Hofmannsthal, Hoffmann, Klimt, Kokoschka, Loos, Musil, Schiele, Schnitzler, and Weininger) in this interdisciplinary seminar will be framed by theoretical readings on the history and concept of empire. The following texts are available for purchase at the Bryn Mawr College Bookshop: Peter Altenberg, Ashantee. Sigmund Freud, Leonardo da Vinci and a Memory of His Childhood. Hugo von Hofmannsthal, The Lord Chandos Letter. Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Reitergeschichte und andere Erzählungen. Robert Musil, The Confusions of Young Törless. Robert Musil, Die Verwirrungen des Zöglings Törleß. Arthur Schnitzler, Lieutenant Gustl. Arthur Schniztler, Leutnant Gustl. Carl Schorske, Fin-de-siècle Vienna: Culture and Politics. All other readings will be available through Blackboard or through our course reserve in the Carpenter Library. The seminar will feature a field trip to Vienna, as well as an excursion to the “Vienna 1900” exhibit at the “Neue Galerie” in New York City.

In addition to participating regularly in our seminar discussions, you will be expected to work on a group research project that should lead to a contribution to an online exhibit. All groups will meet separately with us once in the first half of the semester to discuss their plans and then again in the second half of the semester to discuss their projects-in-progress. You will also write a short take-home midterm. You will likewise be expected to write individual research papers at the end of the semester. Your group research project can (but need not) serve as a preparation for the process of writing the research paper. We will also open up the discussion board section on Blackboard. The discussion board provides an opportunity for dialogue beyond the classroom. We also ask that every seminar participant, in advance of every seminar meeting, post at least one question or comment about one of the readings or art works on the syllabus for a given week. Your Blackboard questions and comments will help guide our seminar conversations.

Final grades for this two-credit course will be based on the following components: Class participation: 20%. Blackboard posts: 10% Midterm: 10%. Online exhibit group project: 30%. Final paper: 30%.

January 20: General Introduction Organizational issues Structure and goals of the seminar Introduction to the seminar’s topic Readings: Franz Kafka, “The Great Wall of China” (1931) Carl Schorske, “Introduction,” from Fin-de-siècle Vienna (1980) Background text: Steven Beller, “Countering Reform, 1740-1866,” from A Concise History of Austria (2006)

January 27: History, Empire, and Modernity Readings: Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri, “Two Europes, Two Modernities” and “World Order,” from Empire (2000) Dipesh Chakrabarty, “The Time of History and the Times of Gods” (1997) Steven Beller, “Empire on Notice, 1866-1918,” from A Concise History of Austria

February 3: Nationalism and Orientalism Readings: Edward Said, excerpts from Orientalism (1979) Benedict Anderson, excerpts from Imagined Communities (1983) Alois Riegl, “Late Roman or Oriental?” (1902) Linda Nochlin, “The Imaginary Orient” (1983), from The Politics of Vision (New York: Harper & Row, 1989) 33-59. Viewing assignment: Please review image folder on ARTstor. Further reading: Talinn Grigor, “’Orient oder Rom?’ Qajar ‘Aryan’ Architecture and Strzygowski’s Art History” (2007) Introduction to Online Exhibition Tools Class visit by Cheryl Klimaszewski (Special Collections, Bryn Mawr College)

February 10: Representing Gender: The Example of Arthur Schnitzler Readings: Schnitzler, Lieutenant Gustl (1900) La Ronde (1900) Schorske, from Fin-de-siècle Vienna: Chapter I: “Politics and the Psyche: Schnitzler and Hofmannsthal” George Mosse, from The Image of Man: The Creation of Modern Masculinity: “Masculinity in Crisis: The Decadence” (1996)

February 17: Representing Gender: The Example of Gustav Klimt Readings: M.E. Warlick, “Mythic Rebirth in Gustav Klimt’s Stoclet Frieze: New Considerations of Its Egyptianizing Form and Content” (1992) Daniela Müller Tugendhat, “Judith” (2000) Udo Kultermann, “The ‘Dance of the Seven Veils’: Salome and Erotic Culture around 1900” (2006) Schorske, from Fin-de-siècle Vienna: Chapter V: “Gustav Klimt: Painting and the Crisis of the Liberal Ego” Further reading: Lisa Florman, “Gustav Klimt and the Precedent of Ancient Greece” (1990) Viewing assignment: Please review image folder on ARTstor.

February 24: Ornament and Ornamentation: Adolf Loos versus Wiener Werkstätte and Secession Readings: Adolf Loos, “Ornament and Crime” (1929) Allan Janik and Stephen Toulmin, from Wittgenstein’s Vienna: “Adolf Loos and the Struggle Against Ornament” (1973) Patrizia McBride, “’In Praise of the Present: Adolf Loos on Style and Fashion” (2004) Leslie Topp, “An Architecture for Modern Nerves: Josef Hoffmann’s Purkersdorf Sanatorium” (1997) Beatriz Colomina, “Sex, Lies and Decoration: Adolf Loos and Gustav Klimt” (2008) Katharine Baetjer, “About Mäda” (2005) Viewing assignment: Please review image folder on ARTstor. Take-Home Midterm Will Be Handed Out March 1: Take-Home Midterm Due

March 3: The Fragmentation of the Bourgeois Subject: Hugo von Hofmannsthal and Sigmund Freud Readings: Hofmannsthal, “The Fairy Tale of the 672nd Night” (1895) “A Tale of the Cavalry” (1898) “A Letter” (1902) Freud, The Uncanny (1919) Freud, Leonardo da Vinci and a Memory of His Childhood (1910) Further reading: Dorrit Cohn, “’Als Traum erzählt’: The Case for a Freudian Reading of Hofmannsthal’s ‘Märchen der 672. Nacht’” Viewing assignment: Please review image folder on ARTstor.

March 4: Homework for Field Trip to Vienna Readings: Schorske, from Fin-de-siècle Vienna: Chapter II: “The Ringstrasse, Its Critics, and the Birth of Urban Modernism;” Chapter III: “Politics in a New Key: An Austrian Trio;” Chapter VII: “Explosion in the Garden: Kokoschka and Schoenberg” Hal Foster, “Design and Crime” (2003)

March 5-March 11: Field Trip to Vienna

A detailed schedule will be made available in class. March 17: Misogyny and Anti-Semitism: Otto Weininger and Oskar Kokoschka Readings: Weininger, excerpts from Sex and Character (1903) Kokoschka, Murderer, Hope of Women (1907/1910) John Hoberman, “Otto Weininger and the Critique of Jewish Masculinity” (1995) Claude Cernuschi, “Pseudo-Science and Mythic Misogyny: Oskar Kokoschka’s Murderer, Hope of Women” (1999) Catherine Soussloff, “The Subject at Risk: Jewish Assimilation and Viennese Portraiture” (2006) Further Readings: Kokoschka, “Three Texts on Portraiture” Viewing assignment: Please review image folder on ARTstor. March 23: Talk: Fred Wilson (attendance mandatory) Internationally renowned artist Fred Wilson will lecture on his work as an artist and curator at museums and cultural institutions around the world, including his seminal 1990s installation "Mining the Museum" sponsored by the Contemporary Museum at The Maryland Historical Society in Baltimore. Wilson was a 1999 recipient of a MacArthur Foundation “Genius” Grant and the 2003 American representative at the Venice Biennale . From 2004 to 2006 he was the Luce Distinguished Visiting Fellow in Object Exhibition and Knowledge at Skidmore College. His lecture at Bryn Mawr is presented in conjunction with a graduate seminar on curatorial issues. www.pbs.org/art21/artists/wilson Judith E. Stein, “Sins of Omission: Fred Wilson’s Mining the Museum” (1993, 2003) Slought.org/files/downloads/publications/salons/1083.pdf

March 24: Representing Race and Class: Peter Altenberg and Arthur Schnitzler Readings: Altenberg, Ashantee (1897) Schnitzler, “Andreas Thameyer’s Last Letter” (1900) David Kim, “The Task of the Loving Translator: Translation, Völkerschauen, and Colonial Ambivalence in Peter Altenberg’s Ashantee” (2006) Katharina von Hammerstein, “’Black is Beautiful’, Viennese Style: Peter Altenberg’s Ashantee” (2007) Florentina Costache, “Imagination and Procreation: Schnitzler’s ‘Andreas Thameyers letzter Brief’” (2005) In-house field trip to see ethnographic and travel photographs in College Collections

March 31: No Class—Please Prepare for Field Trip to New York City Browse: Gustav Klimt: Painting, Design and Modern life, exhibition catalog Tate Liverpool (2008) [On shelf reserve] Renée Price, ed., New Worlds: German and Austrian Art 1890-1940 (2001) John Updike, “New Kind on the Block” (2001) [On shelf reserve] Melissa Müller, Lost Lives, Lost Art: Jewish Collections, Nazi Art Theft and the Quest for Justice (2010) http://www.adele.at/

April 1: Field Trip to the “Vienna 1900” Exhibit at the “Neue Galerie” in New York City A detailed schedule will be made available in class prior to the trip.

April 7: Group Projects Research Paper Topics Group projects to be introduced in class Individual research paper topics to be introduced in class Due in class: 1-page abstracts for research papers; bibliographies for research papers (please list at least six secondary texts)

April 14: Bodies and Sexualities: Egon Schiele and Oskar Kokoschka Readings: Bonnie Roos, “Oskar Kokoschka’s Sex Toy: The Women and the Doll Who Conceived the Artist” (2005) Helen O. Borowitz, “Youth as Metaphor and Image in Wedekind, Kokoschka and Schiele” (1974) Alessandra Comini, “Toys in Freud’s attic: torment and taboo in the child and adolescent themes of Vienna’s image-makers” (2002) Gemma Blackshaw, “The Pathological Body: Modernist Strategizing in Egon Schiele’s Self-Portraiture” (2007) Viewing assignment: Please review image folder on ARTstor.

April 21: Narrating Empire and Modernity: Robert Musil Readings: Musil, The Confusions of Young Törleß (1906) Stanley Corngold, “Patterns of Justification in Young Törless” (1992)

Viewing recommendation: Volker Schlöndorff, Young Törless (film, 1966) April 28: Presentations of Online Exhibit Projects Summary and Concluding Discussion

Friday, May 13, 12 noon: Individual Research Papers and Exhibition Projects Due Please submit hard copies to both instructors. If your research paper has a visual component, please upload a PowerPoint file on the discussion board section of Blackboard.