Topics in German Studies

How do ordinary people become attached to multiple ideas of nation and with what consequences? This interdisciplinary course studies cultural expressions of German and French nationalism and the formation and cultivation of German and French national identities from the collapse of Prussia and the Holy Roman Empire in the wake of Napoleon's armies to shortly before the outbreak of the First World War in 1914. In our examination of imaginative literature, opera, national anthems, painting, public monumental art, essays, propaganda, and popular culture from this period we will evaluate how each work is both a product and a producer of the moment in which it was created and will consider the differences in vision of the nation and national culture across the political spectrum. Of particular importance to our investigation will be the roles in cementing national identity of men, women, and the family; language and other ethnic markers; fashion; ideas of heroism; the historical past; legends; geography; literacy; and armed conflict, foreign occupation, and the experience of defeat. The course will be organized around German-French relations insofar as these inspired and shaped the understanding on both sides of the Rhine of what was French or German. We will conclude with Theodor Herzl's The Jewish State as an offshoot of these European nationalisms and a response to antisemitism in both France and Germany.
Course Attributes: AS LCD; AS HUM; EN H

Topics in German Studies

GERMANIC LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES 3400

Section 01

Section A