EUR1025

European culture and ideas: modernisms and totalitarianisms

(ART)

6 points + 3 hours per week + Second semester + Clayton

Synopsis: This subject surveys European cultural and intellectual life of the twentieth century. It introduces representative world views, artistic practices and texts of the many European modernisms between the 1890s and 1930s. It considers the intellectual roots and cultural manifestations of left and right totalitarianism in Europe between the 1930s and 1980s, reflecting on the concepts of race, the masses, and the collective; on Fascist, Nazi and Stalinist culture; and on cultures of dissent from totalitarianism. Texts of representative authors from Marinetti to Mayakovsky, from Ibsen to Milorad Pavic are studied in the context of developments in the visual arts, film and music.

Assessment: Essay (1000 words): 20% + Essay (1200 words): 25% + Examination (1.5 hours): 35% + Class paper (800 words): 15% + Tutorial preparation: 5%