| Syllabus | Materials | Students | Course description | Course page |
Spring Semester 2000 Syllabus
From Wall to Wall — Politics and Aesthetics in China and Germany
| Month | Week | Day | Class Room Activities | Homework | Student Projects and Research | Student papers | Additional Materials |
| January | 1 Nature and Civilization | 1/20 | Introduction to the Course: What is politics? What is aesthetics? Images of power and the power of images. | Read:
1. Schiller, "On the Aesthetic Education of Man." Letters 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 12, 14, 15, 20, 27. 2. Read: "Politics" and "Aesthetics." (handout) 3. Group project on political aesthetics |
Introduction to:
1. Schiller (Bob) |
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| syllabus | 2 | 1/25 | —Student group presentations
—Discussion of the Schiller text — Discussion of Chinese and German Images |
Read:
—Rousseau, "Has the restauration of the Sciences and Arts tended to purify morals?" — |
1. Introduction to Rousseau (Tracy)
2. The Terror (Dan) |
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| syllabus | 1/27 | —Student presentations on The Terror and Rousseau
— Discussion of the Rousseau and Schiller texts — Nature and the Tao |
Read: Schiller's Mary Stuart. | 1. paper: How are the ideas of Schiller and Rousseau reflected in Mary Stuart (3 pages) | Herbert Marcuse, One Dimensional Man (Introduction, Chapters 1 and 10) | ||
| February | 3 | 2/1 | — Student presentation
— Discussion of Schiller's Mary Stuart and the Aesthetic Letters |
Read Laozi | Introduction to Taoism.
Introduction to Laozi |
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| syllabus | 2/3 | Student presentation
Discussion of Laozi |
Read Confucius | ||||
| syllabus | 4 | 2/8 | Discussion of Laozi
tudent presentation on Confucius Discussion of Confucius |
Read Confucius
Read Footbinding materials |
Introduction to Confucius | ||
| syllabus | 2/10 | Finish discussion of Confucius
Foot binding and culture |
Homework:
Paper: Are Confucian ideals consistent with nature and human nature (3 pages) Read: Remembrances of the Past |
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| syllabus | 5 | 2/15 | Finish discussion of Foot binding
Remembrances of the Past |
Homework:
Read: Communist Manifesto |
Introduction to Marx | 2nd. paper due: Are Confucian ideals consistent with nature and human nature (3 pages) | |
| syllabus | 2/17 | Discussion: The elegy of the river
Student presentation of Karl Marx |
Homework:
Read: Benjamin |
Introduction to Benjamin
Introduction to early German film and Metropolis |
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| syllabus | 6 2 Metropolis | 2/22 | Student presentation of marx
Th e Communist Manisfesto |
Film: Berlin Sinfonie einer Großstadt | |||
| syllabus | 2/24 | Metropolis | Homework:
Read: Benjamin Read: Lu Xun |
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| syllabus | 7 | 2/29 | Metropolis
Student presentation of W. Benjamin Discussion 1. Metropolis 2. Benjamin and the possibility of a non-auratic art |
Read: Lu Xun | Introduction to Lu Xun | ||
| March | 3/2 | Discussion of Lu Xun | |||||
| 8 | 3/7 | Presentation on European and Chinese art by the German painter René Böll | Due: 3rd. paper: How are the ideas of Schiller and Marx represented in the film Metropolis (3pages) | ||||
| 3/9 | Presentation by the Japanese painter Matsuba | Read: Brecht and Mao poems and Mao's Talks on Art and Literature | |||||
| 9 | 3/14 | Spring Break | Spring Break | Spring Break | Spring Break | Spring Break | |
| 3/16 | Spring Break | Spring Break | Spring Break | Spring Break | Spring Break | ||
| 10 | 3/21 | Socialist Realism and the formalist debate — Brecht, Eisler and the Communist Party
— Brecht's Epic theater |
Brecht, The Good Woman of Szechuan | Introduction to Bertolt Brecht and The good Woman | Film: Kuhle Wampe | ||
| 3/23 | —Discussion of Brecht's The Good Woman of Szechuan | Poetry by Mao | Introduction to Mao | ||||
| 11 | 3/28 | Lu Xun,and Brecht | |||||
| 3/30 | Lu Xun, Mao and Brecht | Introduction to Leni Riefenstahl | Speer's plans for Berlin (Germania) | ||||
| April | 12 | 4/4 | The aesthetics of fascism: Film: Leni Riefenstahl, Triumph of the Will and Olympia
Student presentation Discussion of Triumph of the Will |
Due: 4th paper: Compare and contrast the literary strategies of Brecht and Lu Xun | |||
| 4/6 | Discussion of the Riefenstahl movies | Schlink, The Reader | |||||
| 13 | 4/11 | Discussion of The Reader | |||||
| 4/13 | Beijing | ||||||
| 14 | 4/18 | Waiting | |||||
| 4/20 | The year of 89 | ||||||
| 15 | 4/25 | The year of 89 | |||||
| 4/27 | Walls | ||||||
