Seminar in the 20th Century

3 units

For writers, artists, activists, and intellectuals, expressing their political commitments often requires a strong notion of resistance. While the term resistance has become ubiquitous in contemporary discourse, a closer look at its history since the early 20th century allows for a critical perspective on the complex and contradictory structure of its usage by writers and intellectuals of various ideological leanings. Focusing on the "short 20th century" (1914-1989), this course explores the various understandings of resistance in the context of modern European literature and thought. Students will analyze a range of novels, plays, stories, poems, essays, treatises, pamphlets, and manifestoes with the goal of formulating a - however preliminary - aesthetic theory of resistance. We will discuss how resistance and oppression are related, how aesthetics and politics intersect, how art and ideology permeate one another, and how subversion constantly seeks new ways to express itself. Authors include Luxemburg, Brecht, Seghers, Benjamin, Jünger, Schmitt, Malaparte, Camus, Weil, Arendt, Weiss, or Krasznahorkai. Readings and discussions in English.