HAA 1440 Expressionism

(offered infrequently)

This course addresses the contentious relationship between Imperial culture and the Modern movement in the arts and architecture in Germany from the turn of the century up until the end of World War I. Works by noted Expressionist artists, including Kandinsky, Kollwitz, Kirchner, and Klee, will be considered in discussions about the role of the arts in debates of the period. Those debates, which we will explore this term, center on issues of colonialism and "primitivism", the rise of feminism and the image of the New Woman, the confrontation between Americanism, mass culture, and German tradition, and the relationship between modernity, technological progress, imperialism, and war. Written assignments for the course, in addition to exams, will include short visual analyses and take-home essays.