Course Info
Courses
Courses
| Campus | Bryn Mawr |
| Semester | Spring 2023 |
| Registration ID | GERMB223001 |
| Course Title | Topics in German Cultural Stud-Under Surveillance |
| Credit | 1.00 |
| Department | History of Art |
| Instructor | Strair,Margaret |
| Time and Days | MW 02:40pm-04:00pm |
| Location | |
| Additional Course Info | Class Number: 1991 This is a topics course. Course content varies. Recent topics include Remembered Violence, Global Masculinities, and Crime and Detection in German. Current topic description (spring 2023): Taught in English. This course investigates different cultures of hyper-visibility and shifting notions of the power of the gaze and spectatorship as tied to techniques of social observation and control. It explores their connections to different modes of artistic and literary production before and after the rise of modern authoritarian states and technologies of mass surveillance. Starting in the eighteenth century, physiognomy emerges not only as a technique of reading faces, but as a popular pastime whose sinister afterlife becomes a foundation for Nazi racial science. Haunting tales from Romantic and Gothic authors invoke a supernatural surveillance that give rise to compelling genres and allow readers to visualize a modern, uncertain depth of subjectivity and nature of reality. Towards the beginning of the twentieth century, the flaneur's ambulatory gaze mobilizes a new experience of city life as other visual technologies like photography and film become more ubiquitous. Around the same time, the hyper-visibility of hysterical women inspire innovative forms of narration that intertwine exhibitionism, voyeurism, and a gendered critique of the gaze. And finally, the mass surveillance by the state - both real and imagined- prompts us to look more carefully at the powers afforded to visibility and invisibility, and the literary representations of those powers.; Current topic description: Taught in English. This course investigates different cultures of hyper-visibility and shifting notions of the power of the gaze and spectatorship as tied to techniques of social observation and control. It explores their connections to different modes of artistic and literary production before and after the rise of modern authoritarian states and technologies of mass surveillance. Starting in the eighteenth century, physiognomy emerges not only as a technique of reading faces, but as a popular pastime whose sinister afterlife becomes a foundation for Nazi racial science. Haunting tales from Romantic and Gothic authors invoke a supernatural surveillance that give rise to compelling genres and allow readers to visualize a modern, uncertain depth of subjectivity and nature of reality. Towards the beginning of the twentieth century, the flaneur's ambulatory gaze mobilizes a new experience of city life as other visual technologies like photography and film become more ubiquitous. Around the same time, the hyper-visibility of hysterical women inspire innovative forms of narration that intertwine exhibitionism, voyeurism, and a gendered critique of the gaze. And finally, the mass surveillance by the state - both real and imagined- prompt us to look more carefully at the powers afforded to visibility and invisibility, and the literary representations of those powers. Approach: Cross-Cultural Analysis (CC), Critical Interpretation (CI), Writing Attentive; Haverford: Humanities (HU) ( ) Enrollment Cap: 15. If the course exceeds the enrollment cap the following criteria will be used for the lottery: Placement Exam; Permission of Instructor; Taught in English, students seeking German credit will attend an additional session and complete essays in German |
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