GRMN 233 - Haunted Forests and Sublime Mountains:Landscape and Self in Modern German Culture

Institution:

Trinity College

Subject:

Description:

After Dutch landscape painting of the Golden Age (17th century) had introduced a new reverence for nature and paved the way for modern perceptions of landscape, it was particularly with the spread of English landscape gardens and modern aesthetics (Burke, Kant) since the late 18th century that a change in attitude toward landscape took shape. The perception of such phenomena as colossal mountains, thunder and lightning, evoking both terror and delight, transformed landscape into a projection screen for ideas about ourselves and society, power relationships, world views, and ideologies. In this course, we will map these ideas of landscape in German culture from the 18th century to the present in literature, philosophy, and the arts. Along with concepts such as the sublime and the beautiful as well as notions of landscape as places of memory and terror, we will cover figures and topics intersecting with landscape, including the solitary walker, social order, modern funereal traditions, and political landscapes. In short, this course provides a brief cultural history of landscape perception and, with it, the ways in which we understand ourselves as subjects vis-a-vis our environment. Although this class will be devoted primarily to German culture, we will also discuss other European and American traditions that have shaped our views on, and engagement with, our environment. Readings will include works by Goethe, Kant, Burke, Novalis, Shelley, Rousseau, Thoreau, Droste-Hulshoff, Raabe, Stifter, Fontane, Doblin, Grass Wohmann. 1.00 units, Lecture

Credits:

1.00

Credit Hours:

Prerequisites:

Corequisites:

Exclusions:

Level:

Instructional Type:

Lecture

Notes:

Additional Information:

Historical Version(s):

Institution Website:

www.Trincoll.edu

Phone Number:

(860) 297-2000

Regional Accreditation:

New England Association of Schools and Colleges

Calendar System:

Semester

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