Module GERM3251: Modernism and Modernity in Vienna around 1900: Architecture, Literature and the Visual Arts

Department: Modern Language and Cultures (German)

GERM3251: Modernism and Modernity in Vienna around 1900: Architecture, Literature and the Visual Arts

Prerequisites

• German Language 2 (GERM2021) OR an equivalent qualification to the satisfaction of the Chairman/Chairwoman of the Board of Studies in MLAC or his/her representative.

Corequisites

• Modern European Languages, Combined Honours and all Joint and ‘with’ programmes: German Language 4 (GERM3071) or German Language 4 following Year Abroad. Other: see Chairman/Chairwoman of the Board of Studies in MLAC or his/her representative.

Excluded Combination of Modules

• None

Aims

• In-depth analysis of innovations in artistic and intellectual life in Vienna around 1900, and of subsequent representation/memorialization of this cultural epoch
• Students engage with major works of art and literature produced in Vienna around 1900, and with theoretical frameworks through which these works can be approached
• Students gain familiarity with debates around the nature of art and modernity from this period

Content

• ‘To the age, its art. To art, its freedom’: this was the motto of the Viennese Secession, the revolutionary artistic movement spearheaded by Gustav Klimt in the late nineteenth century. In his film Klimt (2006), Raoul Ruiz focuses on the life-story of the eponymous central character in order to paint a particular picture of one of the richest and most contradictory epochs in the last century. Vienna around 1900 has been labeled ‘the birthplace of modernity’ in recognition of the tremendous innovations in artistic and intellectual life that took place in the city at that time. This course sets out to understand the struggles to define the nature of art and of ‘the modern’ that took place in Vienna around 1900, many of which are played out in Ruiz’s film. It does so through analysis of key works by leading thinkers, writers, artists and architects, including Peter Altenberg, Hermann Bahr, Emilie Flöge, Sigmund Freud, Gustav Klimt, Karl Kraus, Adolf Loos and Arthur Schnitzler. Proceeding from a critical engagement with Ruiz’s film that centres on the relationship between film and art, the course also takes up the question of what it means to remember and memorialize a particular cultural epoch. In other words, the course will be attentive to the ways in which curators, filmmakers, historians and others have sought to interpret and utilize ‘Vienna 1900’.

Learning Outcomes

• Solid critical understanding of fundamental concepts and methodological approaches in cultural analysis as these apply to Viennese modernism and modernist aesthetics
• Ability to analyse and define how leading thinkers, writers, artists and architects in Vienna contributed to cultural innovation around 1900
• Critical engagement with techniques of memorialization and curation of cultural epochs and cultural heritage

• Ability to interpret and contextualise major works of art and literature produced in Vienna around 1900
• Development of research and critical skills required by detailed reading, conceptual reasoning, textual analysis and analysis of film
• Ability to analyse different text-types and visual artefacts in a historically and culturally situated way, and in relation to relevant debates in aesthetic and cultural theory

• Writing, analytical and critical skills
• Research and time management skills
• Argumentation and presentation in German and English
• Textual and visual analysis

Modes of Teaching, Learning and Assessment and how these contribute to the learning outcomes of the module

• The module wil be taught intensively as a 'short-fat' module in Terms 2/3
• The course will consist of seminars structured around student presentations, and will involve bi-weekly plenary sessions and a weekly seminar
• The module will be taught in German and in English, and assessed in German
• All students will be required to prepare presentations and regular readings, and to particpate actively in seminars
• Attendance will be monitored in all teaching sessions

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment:

■ Attendance at all activities marked with this symbol will be monitored. Students who fail to attend these activities, or to complete the summative or formative assessment specified above, will be subject to the procedures defined in the University's General Regulation V, and may be required to leave the University