COURSE INFORMATION

course description | grade distribution | required texts | course policies

Class Time: T / Th 1:00 - 2 :30 pm
Room: Lab Sciences 201
Instructor: Lutz Koepnick
Email: koepnick@wustl.edu
Telephone: 935-4350
Office: Ridgley 328
Office Hours: Tu / Th 11 - 12
Teaching Assistant: Tracy Graves
Email: tngraves@wustl.edu
Office: Rigdley 44
Office Hours: W 1:45 - 3:45
COURSE DESCRIPTION

The writings of German philosophers and critics Theodor W. Adorno, Walter Benjamin, Siegfried Kracauer, and Herbert Marcuse questioned, not only the canon of traditional literature and art, but the entire existence of the aesthetic in modern society. Highly attuned to the formal registers of individual works, these critics at the same time were eager to explore the broader social, political, and psychological implications of literary and artistic practice. Their work has remained essential for any critical and theoretically informed engagement with the role of cultural expressions and aesthetic media through today. The task of this seminar is to review and discuss their seminal essays, untangle their not always user-friendly arguments, and compare their various positions and interventions. Special attention will be given to their respective contributions to the development of literary theory and criticism, but we will also focus on these theorists’ approach to music, film, exhibition practice, and aesthetic theory in general.

GRADE DISTRIBUTION
  • 2 essays (5-6 pages): 50%
  • 1 thought paper & 1 oral presentation: 20%
  • attendance and participation: 30%

REQUIRED TEXTS


Materials
marked "ERES" in the course schedule are available from the Electronic Reserve System at Washington University. Login and password to be announced in class.

All other books are available for purchase at the Washington University Bookstore:

  • Theodor Adorno, Culture Industry (ISBN: 0415253802)
  • Theodor W. Adorno, Notes to Literature, Volume 1 (ISBN: 0231063334)
  • Walter Benjamin, Illuminations (ISBN: 0805202412)
  • Walter Benjamin, Reflections (ISBN: 080520802X)
  • Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History of the Frankfurt School and the Institute of Social Research 1923-1950 (ISBN: 0520204239)
  • Siegfried Kracauer, The Mass Ornament: Weimar Essays (ISBN: 067455163X)
  • Herbert Marcuse, The Aesthetic Dimension : Toward A Critique of Marxist Aesthetics (ISBN: 0807015199)
COURSE POLICIES