Fall 2005
FYSP 154 Freuds Vienna:
Artists, Intellectuals and Anti-Semites at the Fin-de-sicle
Annemarie Sammartino
Rice Hall 311
Email: annemarie.sammartino@oberlin.edu
Office phone: 775-6572
Office Hours: Wednesday 11-12; Thursday 3-4; and by appointment
Course Description:
This class will introduce you to historical methodology and writing by focusing on one of the richest periods in European history: fin-de-sicle Vienna. This course is divided into three sections. In the first, we will look at the politics of fin-de-sicle Austria-Hungary and consider the rise of nationalism and the crisis of liberalism in the Empire. In the second, we will be reading about psychoanalysis. And in the third, we will be reading, viewing and listening to artistic works from this vibrant cultural period.
In this course, we will study a wide variety of texts: novels, visual art, music, historiographical essays, and the founding texts of the discipline of psychoanalysis. In developing such a rich picture of one specific moment in European history, you will learn how to analyze and talk about diverse kinds of sources and bring these into conversation with one another. You will also develop your own writing skills, learning to effectively express your ideas in written form.
Prerequisites and Requirements:
There are no prerequisites for this class. Just bring a willingness to read, listen, and ask questions.
Your grade will be determined as follows:
30% Discussion Participation
5% Dream Diary
15% Nationalism Paper (3pp.)
25% Freud/Trless Paper (5pp.)
25% Analytical Bibliography
You will not pass this class unless you turn in all written work.
30% of your grade is based on your participation in this course. There are several components to this grade. First and foremost, you cannot participate in classes you do not attend—so attendance is part of your participation grade. I will not formally take attendance, but in a class this small, I will notice absences (and lateness). Secondly, you should expect to participate actively in class. This means both providing your own insightful and thoughtful comments, but it also means listening respectively to your fellow students. Participation is just as much about quality as it is about quantity. If you are shy and have trouble talking in class, please let me know so we can discuss strategies for getting you to be more comfortable. Thirdly, there may be short occasional in-class writing assignments. Your completion of such assignments will also be part of your participation grade. Fourthly, you must meet with me at the start of the semester for a consultation.
5% of your grade is based on your completion of a dream diary. For the week before we discuss Freud, you will keep a diary of your own dreams. You should complete an entry each morning about whatever you remember of your dreams. You should then try as best as possible to analyze your dreams. Because I am not about to grade your unconscious, this dream diary assignment will be credit/no credit.
15% of your grade will be based on a paper you write about political life in the Empire. You will turn in a draft of this paper to me. This draft will be ungraded, but, of course, the better your initial draft, the more helpful I can be in helping you develop your ideas for the final version.
25% of your grade will be based on a paper you do about Freud and his critics. A draft of this paper will be turned in to me and to a reading group made up of several of your peers. As with the previous paper, the draft will not be graded, but 10% of your grade on this paper will be based on the feedback you give to your group members on their drafts.
25% of your grade will be based on an analytic bibliography that you write about a particular aspect of art, music or literature in this period. There will be no pre-assigned questions for this assignment; rather, a key component to this bibliography will be your ability (in consultation with myself and/or a librarian) to define a research question. The analytic bibliography will consist of an annotated bibliography on 2-3 books and 3-5 articles on the topic. You will also be writing a 2-3 page prcis comparing and discussing two of these sources in some more detail. And finally, you will need to do a brief in-class presentation on the topic of your bibliography in the final week of class.
You will receive more information on all of these assignments as we get closer to their due dates.
All written work should be double-spaced, in 12-point Times New Roman font on paper with 1 margins. Unless otherwise directed, you MAY NOT turn in papers online but rather, must drop them off at my office or in class by the time it is due. Papers must be stapled. Also, while your grade for any paper is primarily based on its content, errors in grammar or citation style can figure into the grade, especially if such errors are egregious.
ALL late papers will be downgraded 1/3 of a grade for every 24 hour period that they are late. If you miss or are late to class on the day that a paper is due, that paper is automatically counted as 1 day late.
All work for this class is governed by the honor code. You must write and sign the honor code pledge at the end of each assignment. We will talk briefly about the honor code in class, but if you have further questions, please go to: http://www.oberlin.edu/students/student_pages/honor_code.html.
Sigmund Freud, Dora
Sigmund Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams
Robert Musil, The Confusions of Young Trless
Carl Schorske, Fin-de-Sicle Vienna
Additional readings have been placed on ERes. All ERes documents are marked with an asterisk. You may access these documents through the library website. The password for the class readings is fysp154.
All required texts have also been placed on reserve.
September 2: Introduction
Politics
September 6: Introduction
September 8: The Empire
*Barbara Jelavich, Modern Austria: Empire and Republic, pp. 29-147 (recommended—especially if you dont know anything about Austro-Hungarian history)
September 13: Nationalism
*Pieter Judson, Frontiers, Islands, Forests, Stones: Mapping the Geography of a German Identity in the Habsburg Monarchy, 1848-1900 in Patricia Yeager, ed., The Geography of Identity (Ann Arbor: U of Michigan Press, 1996), 382-406.
*T. Mills Kelly, Taking it to the Streets: Czech National Socialists in 1908, Austrian History Yearbook, vol. 29 (1998): 93-112.
September 15: Nationalism
September 20: Jews & Anti-Semitism
*Brigitte Hamann, Jews in Vienna, Hitlers Vienna (New York: Oxford UP, 1999), 325-359.
*Sander Gilman, Are Jews White? Or the History of the Nose Job, The Jews Body (New York: Routledge, 1991), 169-193.
Start dream diary (at least one per night)
September 22: Writing Discussion
Due in class—Assignment #1 DRAFT
Psychoanalysis and its Critics
September 27: Dreams I
Freud, Interpretation of Dreams, II-IV
Dream Diary Due In Class
September 29: Dreams II
Freud, Interpretation of Dreams, VI
Due October 3, noon—Assignment #1 FINAL
October 4: Dora I
Sigmund Freud, Dora, pp. 1-85
October 6: Dora II
Sigmund Freud, Dora, pp. 85-112
October 11: Totem & Taboo
*Sigmund Freud, Totem & Taboo, 125-200
October 13: No class (Yom Kippur)
October 18: Weininger, pt. I
*Otto Weininger, Sex and Character, Part I: Intro & Sections 1-4
October 20: Weininger, pt. II
*Otto Weininger, Sex and Character, Part II: Sections 12-14
FALL BREAK
November 8: Trless, pt. I
Robert Musil, Confusions of Young Trless, pp. 1-73
November 10: Trless, pt. II
Robert Musil, Confusions of Young Trless, pp. 73-end
Art & Music of the Fin-de-sicle
Due MONDAY, November 14, 5pm—Assignment #2 DRAFT
November 15: Klimt
Carl Schorske, Fin-de-Sicle Vienna, 208-278
November 17: Mahler, pt. I
Guest Lecturer From the Conservatory: Claudia Macdonald, location tba
November 22: Mahler, pt. II
Due in class—Assignment #2 FINAL
November 24: THANKSGIVING
November 29: Library Workshop with Jessica Grim, location: Mac Classroom, Science Center Library
Due in Class—QUESTION for Analytic Bibliography
December 1: Egon Schiele & Oscar Kokoschka
Carl Schorske, Fin-de-sicle Vienna, 322-344
December 6: Art at the Allen Museum
TRIP TO ALLEN ART MUSEUM
December 8: Strausss Salome
(screening December 7, 7-9pm, location tba)
December 13: Lukcs
*Georg Lukcs, The Metaphysics of Tragedy, Soul and Form
December 15: Presentations—Analytic Bibliographies