Vienna: Science, Art, and Politics

Undergraduate

This seminar considers Vienna from the 1860s through the 1930s as the site of intellectual, political, and aesthetic responses to the challenges of modern urban life. As the capital of the multi-ethnic Habsburg Monarchy, Vienna was a pioneering experiment in "multiculturalism." It was a field of confrontation between east and west, innovation and tradition, imperial pomp and urban grit, cosmopolitanism and nationalism--with such disparate results as psychoanalysis, Expressionism, Austro-Marxism, logical positivism, and sexual science. Through readings in science, politics, literature, and philosophy, as well as through art, architecture, music, and film, we consider the legacy of this place and time. Students acquire methods for situating science in its historical context. WR , HU W 1:30pm-3:25pm