COURSE DESCRIPTION
 

This seminar examines the elements and boundaries of the Hollywood Western genre and their transformations in German films between the 1930s and the 1990s. Informed by a variety of theoretical readings (both in German and in English), the course traces the appropriation and variations of this genre in Germany with regard to popular German Western productions, homeland, mountain, and colonial films, road movies, and films about postcolonial encounters. Screenings include films by Percy Adlon, John Ford, Werner Herzog, Wolfgang Kimmich, Michael Mann, Harald Reinl, Leni Riefenstahl, Volker Schlöndorff, Herbert Selpin, Luis Trenker, and Wim Wenders.
 
 

COURSE SCHEDULE

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What is a Western? What is a Genre?

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Week I (8/30 & 9/1)

Screening:

Stagecoach (dir. John Ford, 1939)

Readings:

Robert Warshow, "Movie Chronicle: The Westener"
John G. Cawelti, "Savegery, Civilization and the Western Hero"
Jim Kitses, "The Western: Ideology and Archetype"
Leo Braudy, "Genre: The Conventions of Connection"

Week II (9/6 & 9/8)

Screening:

Der Kaiser von Kalifornien (dir. Luis Trenker, 1936) [screening day/time to be announced]

Readings:

Georg Seeßlen / Claudius Weil, "Stichworte zum historischen Mythos des Westerns"
Stephen Neale, Genre (sel.)

Week III (9/13 & 9/15)

Screening:

Wasser für Canitoga (dir. Herbert Selpin, 1939)

Readings:

Will Wright, Six Guns and Society: A Structural Study of the Western (sel.)
Ernst Bloch, "Die Angst des Ingenieurs"
Ernst Bloch, "Technik und Geistererscheinungen"

Week IV (9/20 & 9/22)

Screening:

Der Schatz im Silbersee (dir. Harald Reinl, 1962)

Readings:

Peter Uwe Hohendahl, "Von der Rothaut zum Edelmenschen: Karl Mays Amerikaromane"
Michael Petzel, "Ein Mythos wird besichtigt. Winnetou und der deutsche Film"
Rick Altman, "A Semantic/Syntactic Approach To Film Genre"

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Relocating the West: Berg- and Heimatfilm

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Week V (9/27 & 9/29)

Screening:

Das blaue Licht (dir. Leni Riefenstahl, 1931)

Readings:

Eric Rentschler, "Mountains and Modernity: Relocating the Bergfilm"
Eric Rentschler, "Fatal Attractions: Leni Riefenstahl's The Blue Light"
Georg Simmel, "Die Alpen"

Week VI (10/4 & 10/6)

Screening:

Der verlorene Sohn (dir. Luis Trenker, 1934)

Readings:

Beate Bechtold-Comforty et al., "Zwanziger Jahre und Nationalsozialismus: Vom Bergfilm zum Bauernmythos"
Axel Graser et al., "Filmtechnik und Filmsprache im Heimatfilm"

Week VII (10/11 & 10/13)

Screening:

Der plötzliche Reichtum der armen Leute von Kombach (dir. Volker Schlöndorff, 1970)

Readings:

Eric Rentschler, "Calamity Prevails over the Country: Young German Filmmakers Revisit the Homeland"
Ines Steiner, "Der Neue Deutsche Film entdeckt die Heimat--Zur Entwicklung des kritischen Heimatfilms in den 60er und 70er Jahren"

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Colonial Relocations of the Western

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Week VIII (10/18 & 10/20)

Screening:

Germanin (dir. Wolfgang Kimmich, 1943)

Readings:

Mary Louise Pratt, Imperial Eyes:Travel Writing and Transculturation (1-11; 15-37)
David Spurr, The Rhetoric of Empire: Colonial Discourse in Journalism, Travel Writing, and Imperial Administration (13-27; 76-91)

Week IX (10/25 & 10/27)

Screening:

Fitzcarraldo (dir. Werner Herzog, 1981)

Readings:

Mary Louise Pratt, Imperial Eyes (201-227)
David Spurr, The Rhetoric of Empire (28-42; 92-108)
Hans-Christoph Buch, Die Nähe und die Ferne (sel.)

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The End of the West? Genre-Critique and Cinematic Self-Reflection

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Week X (11/1 & 11/3)

Screening:

Im Lauf der Zeit (dir. Wim Wenders, 1976)

Readings:

Wim Wenders, Emotion Pictures (sel.)
Wim Wenders, Die Logik der Bilder (sel.)
Alice Kuzniar, "Wenders' Windshields"

Week XI (11/8 & 11/10)

Screening:

Stroszek (dir. Werner Herzog, 1977)

In-class:

excerpts from Les Blank's Burden of Dreams and Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe

Readings:

Ulrike Ottinger, "Der Zwang zum Genrekino: Von der Gefährdung des Autorenkinos"
Thomas Elsaesser, "The Author in the Film: Self-expression as Self-representation"

Week XII (11/15 & 11/17)

Screening:

Paris, Texas (dir. Wim Wenders, 1984)

Readings:

Robert Kolcker and Peter Beicken, "Paris, Texas: Between the Winds"
Wim Wenders, "Reden über Deutschland"

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Postcolonial Remappings of the Western: Inverted Ethnology

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Week XIII (11/22)

Screening:

Wo die grünen Ameisen träumen (dir. Werner Herzog, 1984)

Readings:

Thomas Elsaesser, "An Anthropologist's Eye: Where the Green Ants Dream"
Marianna Torgovnick, Gone Primitive: Savage Intellects, Modern Lives (sel.)

Week XIV (11/29 & 12/1)

Screening:

Out of Rosenheim (dir. Percy Adlon, 1988)
The Last of the Mohicans (dir. Michael Mann, 1992)--optional

Readings:

Dean MacCannell, "Cannibalism Today"
"Blonde Mohikaner" (BAP, 1993)

Week XV (12/6)

Final discussion

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SCREENINGS
    Mondays 7-9 pm

SEMINAR SESSIONS
    Tuesdays & Thursdays 2.30-4

WRITING ASSIGNMENTS (topics to be announced)
    Paper #1: due September 20 (2-3 pages)
    Paper #2: due October 10 (2-3 pages)
    Paper #3: due November 1 (2-3 pages)
    Paper #4: due December 6 (5 pages) [instead of final exam]

GRADE BREAKDOWN
    Oral participation: 25 %
    In-class presentations: 25 %
    Writing Assignments #1-3: 30%
    Writing Assignment #4: 20%
 

OFFICE HOURS
    Ridgley 422
    Tuesdays: 1:15-2:15
    Wednesdays: 2-3

TELEPHONE
    Office: (314) 935-4007
    email: lkoep@artsci.wustl.edu