The Culture of Violence in Early Modern Germany |
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Autumn 2009 Call Number: Credit/Hours:5
Instructor: Becker-Cantarino Location:
Days: Tuesday
Start Time: 3:30pm Length: 3 Hours
Course Description:
We will start with describing and defining "violence" (Gewalt), its ethical implications and some theoretical as well as historical views on gender and violence. Then we will concentrate on two areas of violence in early modern times: the witch hunts, that were mostly directed against women, and the (religious) wars and conquests.
On the basis of short excerpts from original texts, we will study the debates for and against the witch hunts, the religious concept of "witch," the actual prosecution of women (children and men) believed to be witches, the procedures used in the trials, and the reasons for change during the Enlightenment, and literary reflections of the witch in Shakespeare and Faust I.
Turning to the religious wars and conquests, we will read closely Grimmelshausen's complex novel Courasche and situate it into the context of the Thirty Years War and early modern occurrences and representations of violence and war. Gryphius' play Catharina von Georgien will serve as an example of a martyr play and of the complex of "suffering." A very brief look at Lessing's Nathan der Weise will illustrate the Enlightenment position. The persecution of "others" (religious, ethnic, and national "others") will be framed by contemporary discussions of violence versus tolerance, of "just war" versus pacifism (Kant, Eternal Peace).Time permitting, the course will conclude with a very brief look at violence in contemporary Germany.--The discussions will be framed by looking at some of the historical and theoretical (psychological and ethical) issues involved in representing, analyzing, understanding, and confronting violence (Arendt, Foucault, Norbert Elias).
Texts are available in English translations; course will be conducted in English.
Texts:
Shakespeare, Macbeth
Grimmelshausen, Courasche, Reclam UB 7998
Gryphius, Catharina von Georgien Reclam UB 9751
Lessing, Nathan der Weise Reclam UB 3
Kant, Zum ewigen Frieden Reclam UB 1501
Goethe, Faust I, Reclam UB 1
Recommended:
Foucault, Discipline and Punish, ISBN 0679752552
Arendt, On Violence. Harvest Books, 1970, ISBN 9780156695008
Short selections from among others (depending on student interest, master for copies provided): Erasmus, Luther, Lohenstein, Spee; Arendt; Jessica Benjamin; Walter Benjamin; Foucault; Klaus Theweleit; Norbert Elias; Maria Tartar's Lustmord (1995); perhaps a couple of recent Spiegel pieces on "Gewalt," time permitting.
