Auf 35 Studierende begrenzte Teilnehmerzahl, Anmeldung erforderlich!
This course looks at the German and Austro-Hungarian Empires and centers around the so-called Generation of 1914. It explores the concept of Bildung, or cultivation, and its importance to German-speaking bourgeois culture in the first half of the twentieth century. The course will pair classic texts like Stefan Zweig’s The World of Yesterday or Franz Kafka’s letter to his father with academic research touching on the history of Bildung, schooling, parenting, and universities during this period. The seminar will also move away from the metropoles of Berlin and Vienna to also explore the multiethnic peripheries of the Austro-Hungarian empire, particularly in Jewish, Polish, and Ukrainian communities. This course is meant to not only introduce students to the importance of Bildung in the German-speaking world, but it also serves as an introduction to the fields of the history of education, cultural history, urban history, and academic biography.
Note: This is a reading and discussion-intensive seminar.
- Lehrende/r: Nicholas Johnson