Courses 2023

Introduction to Fin-de-Siècle Vienna

 

The main goal of this introduction will be to make students, coming from very different cultures, familiar with the background knowledge necessary to follow the specific courses (arts, music, literature etc.). A stress will be laid on the explanation of phenomena and terms indispensable for the understanding of European and especially Austrian culture and values.

The introduction is intended to convey general historical and cultural principles that apply to all courses.

The following topics will be covered:

• Social structure
• Religions: Christianity and Judaism
• Art styles basics
• Political development of the Habsburg monarchy: economy, industrialization, foreign and domestic policy, parties, and multi-ethnic state
• Vienna around 1900: population development, minorities, anti-Semitism, and female emancipation

 

Requirements: The course is a prerequisite for participation in the overall program, the hours count for the contact hours and the ECTS credits. At the end of the introduction participants are required to submit a written summary of one of the topics covered.

The course will not be graded, but submission of the written summary is a requirement to attend the following courses.

 

 

Art and Visual Culture at the Turn of the Century

“To the Time its Art. To Art its Freedom.”

 

The art course of the Winter School will deal with the cultural and intellectual achievements of a number of prominent representatives from the fields of fine art and applied art. It is the aim of the course to provide a multifaceted picture of what happened at the time, when art slowly embarked on the project of Modernism. The course will draw a line from Historicism, the style prevailing in the second half of the 19th century, to Art Nouveau, the style of the young, and will end with an outlook on the Austrian type of Expressionism. All these phenomena and developments will be viewed in the wider context of European art and visual culture.

The following topics will be covered in the course:

• Historicism: Hans Makart, his impact on the life style and aestetic preferences of the Viennese bourgeoisie; his history paintings, portraiture, and interior design projects.
• Art Nouveau (Jugendstil) and its stylistic features. The Vienna Secession movement; its motto, artistic program, and most important shows.
• Gustav Klimt: The scandal caused by his university paintings, his iconic images, and their reception.
• The Vienna Workshop, its ideal of craftsmanship and the concept of the total work of art.
• Female painters of the time: Broncia Koller-Pinell, Olga Wiesinger-Florian; their limited access to art education, their status in a highly patriarchic society.
• Pictorialism: The aesthetic style prevailing in photography at the turn of the century. Madame d'Ora and her photo studio.
• The Viennese salons as places of networking and cultural exchange. Famous “influencers” of the time and their promotion of aesthetic trends.
• Austrian Expressionism: Egon Schiele; his anti-aestheticism as a slap in the face of the Viennese bourgeoisie.
• Oskar Kokoschka: rebel, assailant of bourgeois values (“Murderer Hope of Women”), as well as emphatic painter of psychic realities.
• Art Nouveau revival in the 60s. Turn of the century artists as soul mates of the Hippie generation.

 

Requirements: Attendance and participation (20% of the grade), reading (20%), project (20%) and final exam (40%).

 

Recommended Reading: A. Janik and S. Toulmin: Wittgenstein´s VIENNA. New York: Touchstone (1973); E.R. Kandel: The Age of Insight. New York: Random House (2012); C.E. Schorske: Fin-de-siècle Vienna. Politics and Culture. New York: Alfred A. Knopf (1980); K.A. Schröder: Egon Schiele. Eros and Passion. Munich and New York: Prestel Verlag (1995).

 

 

Music and Musical Culture in Vienna around 1900

 

The musical culture in Vienna around 1900 is widely renowned for its exceptional creativity and innovative capacity. The protagonists and the achievements commonly associated with this vital period in music history – e.g. Gustav Mahler, Arnold Schönberg and his „Second Viennese School“ – for a long time also stood at the center of musicological research on 20th century music. In recent years, however, the perspective has been broadened substantially, mainly due to the impact of the intensified work on Viennese modernism in other humanities and in cultural studies. As a consequence, the musical culture in fin-de-siècle Vienna became visible as a complex phenomenon characterized by radical shifts as well as continuities with the past and even by contradictory tendencies.

 

The course will try to address the topic from several vantage points:

• The institutions, organizations and spaces of musical life, in relation to the diverse strata of the musical public and to the pertinent political and social conditions.

 

• The wide array of musical styles and repertoires present at that time, resulting not only from the contemporary compositional activities (which were multi-layered in itself, ranging from “radical modernism” to popular music), but also from the ongoing relevance of earlier music.

 

• The diverse aesthetical positions and general views on music, comprising newly developed scientific approaches as well as metaphysical idealizations and even ideologically conditioned functionalizations.

 

• The interrelations between the developments in music and in other intellectual and artistic fields, leading to the question, how music can or has to be integrated into a comprehensive concept of “Viennese Modernism” around 1900.

 

Requirements and grades: Active participation, either live during the online course or via comments, discussion of texts, and questions submitted to the lecturer, will constitute 10% of the grade. The preparation and presentation of a definition of two keywords (own research, handout) relevant for the individual units will constitute 20% of the grade. A summary of the class discussion of one course unit of choice (minimum 3,000 characters) will constitute 20% of the grade. A final paper on a topic of the student’s choice (in consultation with the lecturer) in the form of an essay (minimum 7,000 characters) will constitute 50% of the grade.

 

 

Society and Psychoanalysis in Sigmund Freud's Vienna

 

Around 1900, economic and social changes fostered deepening political and cultural conflicts. Emancipatory movements and mass phenomena demanded new approaches. Vienna was culturally highly complex and politically and socially divided. Religion and social conventions ceased to provide sufficient orientation. Mass movements and political demagogues characterized the public space.

Psychoanalysis offered new ways of dealing with actual problems and found its way not only into psychiatry, into art, literature, and music but also into the emerging social sciences and political analysis. This was a radical reaction against traditional views of the world.

Psychoanalysis would combine developments that had been around since the 18th century. The scientific exploration of intimate emotions and of areas that were once taboo – like infantile sexuality or the profane foundation of religion and the functioning of propaganda – was considered scandalous, but nevertheless gained a wide notoriety and eventually revealed dimensions of human behavior and cultural life commonly denied or concealed.

In this course we want to combine a look at the history of human sciences with an exploration of developments in the fields of society, politics and culture.

 

The course will cover the following topics:

• The political and social situation of the late Habsburg Empire

 

• Jewish emancipation

 

• Labor movement and women’s rights movement

 

• The scientific background of psychoanalysis

 

• Foundations of creativity and artistic expression

 

• Understanding and  enjoyment of literature, art and music.

 

• Mass psychology and (political) propaganda

 

• Political violence and war

 

• Sigmund Freud and his discoveries:

 

• (1911) Formulation on the Two Principles of Mental Functioning

 

• (1907) Obsessive Actions and Religious Practices

 

• (1907) Creative Writers and Day-Dreaming

 

• 1915) Thoughts for the Times on War and Death

 

• (1921) Mass Psychology and Analysis of the Ego

 

Requirements: Attendance and participation in class discussion constitute 30%, small group discussion of reading-assignments and the presentations 30% and a written final exam 40% of the grade.

 

 

Society, Politics, and Daily Life in Vienna around 1900

 

The course covers the period from the 1860s to 1918 in the capital of the Habsburg Monarchy Vienna and deals also partly with the interwar period.

In the first part, the social system (dynasty, nobility, ennobled bourgeoisie, bourgeoisie, workers and outsiders) is discussed intensively. Education and social behavior of each social group are discussed.

In the second part, the politics of the city of Vienna during this period is analyzed (city expansion and improvement of the infrastructure, the administration of the city, the parties and their programs, etc.).

The third part centers on education, medical care and its progress, the emancipation of minorities and especially women.

The fourth part examines some exemplary aspects of everyday life in its social differentiation, topics such as living, dressing, eating and drinking, as well as amusement and participation in social events and sports will be the focus.

 

Requirements and grading: There will be three small written assignments (essays with a minimum of 1,500 characters), two during the first week and one during the second week, based on questions on the topics covered in class and the readings.
A final paper on a topic of the student's choice (in consultation with the lecturer) in the form of an essay (minimum 6,000 characters) has to be submitted.

The grading is based on participation, during class or via email (20%), the three assignments (30%) and the final paper (50%).

 

 

Vienna's Literature around 1900 and its Cenematic Reception

 

Around 1900 the literary scene in Vienna was highly complex. An especially interesting group of writers was the "Young Vienna" school, who embraced modern developments like psychoanalysis and dealt with formerly taboo topics like human sexuality. The course will concentrate on these authors.

We will chiefly deal with Arthur Schnitzler, who wrote theater plays and stories, but we will also spend time talking about other writers like Hugo von Hofmannsthal. Besides, we will talk about the issues discussed in Vienna around 1900: the ideas of Sigmund Freud, questions of national and sexual identity, antisemitism, the social situation in the Austro-Hungarian Empire before and after the First World War.

Participants will have to read and discuss a few literary texts (which will be provided to the participants in an English translation), for instance Der Reigen (La Ronde) or Traumnovelle (Dream Story) by Arthur Schnitzler.

Furthermore, we will watch and discuss some film adaptions from different eras and countries, including Stanley Kubrick‘s Eyes Wide Shut (1999), which was based on the Dream Story, or versions of La Ronde, which was filmed a total of six times between 1950 and 2013. We will compare the films to the original texts.

 

Requirements: Attendance and participation in class discussion constitute 30%, reading the required literary texts and short presentations 30% and a written final (essay-type) 40% of the grade.