German
234-2-20: Jews & Germans: an Intercultural History II :

Instructor: Peter D. Fenves
Office address: Crowe Hall 2-107 Evanston Campus 2203
Phone: 847 467-2966
E-mail: p-fenves@northwestern.edu
Office Hours:
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COURSE DESCRIPTION: The early years of the twentieth century were a particularly powerful and creative epoch in the long history of German Jewry. It was also, as a very few recognized at the time, the end of this history. In this course we will examine a series of German-Jewish writers and thinkers of the early twentieth century, each of whom, in his or her own way, created new projects, programs, and perspectives from which to view the modern world. We will consider at various turns in the class the extent to which the specific experience of German Jewry, with its extraordinary cultural advancement and its abysmal political impotence, played an important part in the artistic, scholarly, and scientific endeavors under discussion. Beginning with an examination of three new forms of Jewish theology—those of Hermann Cohen, Martin Buber, and Franz Rosenzweig—the class will turn toward two revolutionary scientists: Sigmund Freud, who changed the way we think about the mind, and Albert Einstein, who changed the way we think about matter. The remainder of the class will be devoted to three modernist writers: Else Lasker-Schüler, Franz Kafka, and Walter Benjamin. Readings include: Hermann Cohen, Germanness and Jewishness; Martin Buber, On Judaism; Franz Rosenzweig, On Jewish Learning; Else Lasker-Schüler, Hebrew Melodies; Franz Kafka, “Report to an Academy” and “Cares of a Family Man”; Sigmund Freud, Civilization and its Discontents; Einstein, selected writings on science and society; Walter Benjamin, “Politico-Theological Fragment” and “Franz Kafka.”

Distribution Credit in Area IV, V, VI.

[Course Descriptions for Spring 2009] [Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences] [GERMAN German]