Representations of Work

3 Credits · Level: Graduate

“Work” is one of the defining aspects of modern life, at the same time highly regarded and despised as either the most important way for humans to be in and interact with the world or to be alienated from their true selves. Given the centrality of work for the modern self, the relative lack of representations in literature seems surprising. In part, this can be explained by the strong tradition of idealist aesthetics (Kant, Schiller) where Spiel is contrasted with a negatively connoted notion of labor/work. The course will give an overview of the uses and abuses of work and how it is variously conceptualized in theories and literature. The focus will be on the aesthetics of representations in the German tradition from around 1800 to the 21st century. Literary readings will be embedded in broader discussions of economic and political discourses. Theoretical anchors will be relevant excerpts from Friedrich Schiller’s Über die ästhetische Erziehung des Menschen, Karl Marx’ Das Kapital, Max Weber’s Die protestantische Ethik und der 'Geist' des Kapitalismus, and Hannah Arendt’s Vita activa oder Vom tätigen Leben.