32113

WiSe 15/16: American Modernities

Kirsten Twelbeck

Kommentar

This lecture course is designed in such a way as to include (hopefully lively) discussions. It deals with American culture between World War I and World War II: an era which saw the birth of new technologies of production, representation, and destruction as well as far-ranging revolutions in the organization of knowledge. Sociology, ethnology, psychoanalysis, and other disciplines emerged in the early 20th century as specific ways of theorizing modernity. Technological innovations like film exerted a profound influence on early twentieth-century artists and writers, and contributed to how people saw their own world and the worlds of others. And yet we should not limit modernity and the culture of modernism to a fixed, non-historical moment. Going against that trend, this lecture emphasizes the processual and relational aspects of American modernity and stresses the multifacetedness and contradictoriness of the phenomenon. Starting with a brief look at late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century developments and traditions, it zooms in on the time between the two World Wars. While it centers on U.S. cultural phenomena, it pays attention to the transatlantic dimension of American modernism to enable a better understanding of American particularities and frameworks. Our topics in this lecture course include: the impact of recording technologies on the modern experience, the Hollywood studio system; the Great War and modernist aesthetics; the "New Negro" movement and the Harlem Renaissance; modernism and rurality, New Deal culture; and anti-modern modernism. The lecture course serves as "Grundlagenveranstaltung" of Culture-Module C in the M.A. program. It consists of a lecture part and a discussion part; you are expected to prepare shorter texts in preparation for the sessions. Registration: all participants must be registered via Blackboard and Campus Management before the first session. If you cannot register online, or if you would like to participate, but cannot attend the first session, please contact Dr. Twelbeck before the beginning of the term. Requirements: see Syllabus and Course Description (on Blackboard). Schließen