Topic: “Hugo von Hofmannsthal und Arthur Schnitzler”

Prerequisite: G305 or G306.

The course examines representative works from two of the most
celebrated authors of one of the most fascinating places and periods
in European cultural history, turn-of-the-century Vienna.  In
different ways, Hugo von Hofmannsthal and Arthur Schnitzler can be
regarded as the first representatives of Austrian literary modernism,
a cultural phenomenon that continues to influence the self-image of
Austria today.  We will discuss the authors’ biographies, the
different genres they used (poetry, dramas, novellas, a novel, and
operas), some of the diverse literary forms they employed (both
classical and experimental, including symbolism and stream-of-
consciousness), as well as its often scandalous reception (which
included consternation over the elitist Hofmannsthal’s turn from
poetry to writing opera librettos, and protests and riots at the
premieres of some of Schnitzler’s dramas, as well as his dismissal
from the Austrian Imperial Army for the publication of a satirical
novella critical of that institution).  For their work was not only
revolutionary for formal reasons, but also because of the often
controversial themes they wrote about (including frank and explicit
discussions and even partial depictions of sexuality, the
shortcomings of the aristocracy, rampant antisemitism, the Zionist
movement, German nationalism, and also examples of the newly
developing, experimental medical practices of the time, including
hypnotism and the basic tenets of psychoanalysis).  We will also
spend three sessions on the developments in music (Mahler and
Schönberg) and painting (Klimt) in Vienna at the time.
With the exception of two weeks devoted to the discussion of a novel
that we will read in English translation (Schnitzler’s The Road into
the Open), class discussions will be in German.  Students are
expected to write two short papers of 5-8 pages each, at least one of
them in German.  Each students will also make a presentation to the
class, in either English or in German, on a topic to be agreed upon
by the instructor and the student, in the final two weeks of the
semester (the subject of which may be covered in one of the two
papers).

Texts: G416 Course Reader (available at Collegiate Copies)
Hofmannsthal, Hugo von. Elektra.
----- Das Märchen der 672. Nacht/Reitergeschichte/Erlebnis des
Marschalls von Bassompierre
----- Der Rosenkavalier.
----- Der Schwierige: Lustspiel in drei Akten.
Schnitzler, Arthur. Anatol / Anatols Gröβenwahn / Der grüne Kakadu.
----- Fräulein Else / Leutnant Gustl / Andreas Thameyers letzter
Brief: 3 Novellen.
----- The Road into the Open.
----- Die Braut / Traumnovelle.