Berlin in the Twentieth Century: A Cultural Topography - Detailseite

ECTS Points: 5

Language requirements: min. English B2

 Taking Andrew J. Webber’s eponymous recent study on Berlin as our updated travel guide tothe physical localities of literature, art, political strife and philosophical resignation in the German capital, we will explore the constant interpretative effort that is encapsulated in a walk and consider perambulation itself as a scriptural paradigm. To this end, we will alternate our intensive seminar sessions with journeys to significant “Schauplätze der Evidenz”, libraries, museums, commemorative facades and relegated clubs, but also authors’ lived interiors, street corners and kiosks, as well as iconic urban areas and architectural emblems. In preparation for these field trips, we will read each time a chapter from our primer in English and decide on short German-language excerpts from the works addressed in this particular chapter, which we will then read and discuss in class. Such close textual and sometimes film analysis in this dual linguistic modality will allow us to reflect not least on theories of translation and intercultural transfer, in which accented expression, infelicities of meaning and even irritant code switching combine to strengthen and enrich the process of academic integration.

Introductive Literature:

Elkins, James: Visual Studies. A skeptical Introduction. New York 2003.

Hariman, Robert; Lucaites, John Louis: No Caption Needed. Iconic Photographs, Public Culture, and Liberal Democracy. Chicago/London 2007.

Further Literature:

Bell, Daniel; De-Shalit, Avner: The Spirit of the Cities. Why the Identity of a City matters in a global Age. Princeton 2011.

Biskup, Thomas; Schalenberg, Marc (Hg.): Selling Berlin - Imagebildung und Stadtmarketing von der preußischen Residenz bis zur Bundeshauptstadt, Stuttgart 2008.

Colomb, Claire: Staging the new Berlin. Place Marketing and the politics of urban reinvention post-1989. London 2012.

Elkins, James: Visual Studies. A skeptical Introduction. New York 2003.

Hariman, Robert; Lucaites, John Louis: No Caption Needed. Iconic Photographs, Public Culture, and Liberal Democracy. Chicago/London 2007.

Lynch, Kevin: The Image of the City. Cambridge 1960.

Pugh, Emily: Architecture, Politics, and Identity in Divided Berlin. Pittsburgh 2004.

This seminar carries 5 ECTS.

For international incoming students and HU students.

Language requirements English B2 minimum.

NO registration via Agnes.

Application via Berlin Perspectives ONLY: BP Module application

Internationale Programmstudierende / International exchange students.

HU-Studierende im ÜWP.