Undergrad Seminar: What Dreams May Come: Explorations of the Psyche in Viennese Modernism

3 units

This course investigates the relationship of the burgeoning field of psychoanalysis to modernist art and literature in Vienna at the beginning of the 20th century. Examining literary texts and artworks alongside theories of dreams and the unconscious by thinkers such as Ernst Mach and Sigmund Freud, we will analyze the ways that visual artists, composers, and poets sought to divulge the inner workings of the psyche. Our discussion will focus on key questions: What forms and what visual, aural, and verbal languages were developed to represent subjective experience? How did theories of memory and trauma and ideas about gendered psyches shape the depiction of individual agency in these works? What can these works tell us about the larger societal forces at play in this cultural moment? Readings will include the drama, poetry, and novellas of Arthur Schnitzler and Hugo von Hofmannsthal; musical works by Mahler and Schoenberg; and the visual art of Gustav Klimt, Helene Funke, and Oskar Kokoschka. Readings and discussion in German. Prerequisites: German 302D; German 340C/340D, German 341/341D, or German 342/342D.