HUHI 6313:
Fin-de-Siècle Europe


In Vienna in late 1899, an entrepreneur printed postcards designed "For the End of the World:" the year 1900 was about to begin and popular superstition presumed there would be some sort of apocalypse. Still, not everyone was convinced that doom was imminent, and so two types of postcards were printed. One variety gave emergency safety precautions and sent condolences, while the other offered congratulations on avoiding disaster.

This anecdote is only one example of the heightened emotions and contradictory perceptions of fin-de-siècle European culture. Contemporary observers couldn't decide whether their society was progressing toward greater affluence, sophistication and happiness or was degenerating at an alarming rate--and historians and cultural critics have been arguing this point ever since.

This seminar will join the fray and explore the varieties of cultural expression which characterized Europe at the end of the nineteenth century. Through a close reading of primary sources, we will explore topics such as imperialism, socialism, sexuality, decadence and symbolism, and the founding of the sciences of sociology and psychoanalysis. At the same time, students will undertake their own research project on some aspect of fin-de-siècle thought and culture.

REQUIRED TEXTS (available at Off-Campus Books):

Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness
Emile Durkheim, Suicide
Sigmund Freud, Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality
M. V. Hughes, A London Girl of the 1880s
William Morris, News From Nowhere
Rachilde, The Juggler
Arthur Schnitzler, The Road into the Open
Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray
Kathleen Woodward, Jipping Street

Additional texts (marked *) are on Reserve at the Library.

REQUIREMENTS/EVALUATION CRITERIA:
Seminar preparation & participation; 1-2 page project proposal; 1 page report on writing partner's draft; and a 15-20 page research paper.

January 13: INTRODUCTION
January 20: UNIVERSITY HOLIDAY (no class)
January 27: HISTORY AND MEMORY
*Eric Hobsbawm, The Age of Empire, 1875-1914 (1987), Chapters 1, 2, 3
M. V. Hughes, A London Girl of the 1880s (1946 ) [xerox]
Kathleen Woodward, Jipping Street (1928 ) [xerox]
February 3: REPRESENTING IMPERIALISM
*Rudyard Kipling, "The Man Who Would Be King" (1888)
Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness (1899)
* Chinua Achebe, "An Image of Africa," Massachusetts Review Vol. 18 (1977)
*Phil Joffe, "Africa and Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness: The 'Bloody Racist'(?) as Demystifier of Imerialism," in Keith Carabine et al., eds., Conrad's Literary Career (1992)
*Richard Ruppel, "Heart of Darkness and the Popular Exotic Stories of the 1890s," Conradiana 21:1 (1989)
February 10: SOCIALISM AND UTOPIA:
William Morris, News From Nowhere (1890)
*George Bernard Shaw, "Economic Basis of Socialism" and "Transition to Social Democracy" in Fabian Essays in Socialism (1889)
*Andrew Belsey, "Getting somewhere: rhetoric and politics in News from Nowhere," Textual Practice 5:3 (Winter 1991)
*Rowland McMaster, "Tensions in Paradise: Anarchism, Civilization and Pleasure in Morris's News from Nowhere," English Studies in Canada 17:1 (March 1991)
SUGGESTED: *Hobsbawm, Age of Empire, Chapters 4 and 5
February 17: AESTHETICISM AS SOCIAL CRITIQUE
Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890)
*Kerry Powell, "Tom, Dick and Dorian Gray: Magic-Picture Mania in Late Victorian Fiction," Philological Quarterly 62:2 (Spring 1983)
*Ed Cohen, "Writing Gone Wilde: Homoerotic Desire in the Closet of Representation," (1987) in R. Gagnier, ed., Critical Essays on Oscar Wilde
*Michael Patrick Gillespie, " 'What's in a Name?': Representing The Picture of Dorian Gray," Bucknell Review 38:1 (1994)
SUGGESTED: *Hobsbawm, Age of Empire Chapter 9
February 24: Research & writing
March 3: Discussion of student proposals
S P R I N G B R E A K
March 17: SYMBOLISM AND DECADENCE
Rachilde, The Juggler (1900)
SUGGESTED: *Hobsbawm, Age of Empire, Chapters 7 and 8
March 24: THE SCIENCE OF HUMAN BEHAVIOR
Émile Durkheim, Suicide: A Study in Sociology (1897), Parts II & III
*Howard I. Kushner, "Suicide, gender, and the fear of modernity in nineteenth-century medical and social thought," Journal of Social History Vol. 26 (Spring 1993)
SUGGESTED: *Hobsbawm, Age of Empire, Chapters 10 and 11
March 31: THE SCIENCE OF THE PSYCHE
Sigmund Freud, Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality (1905)
SUGGESTED: *Arnold Davidson, "How To Do The History of Psychoanalysis: A Reading of Freud's Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality," Critical Inquiry 13:2 (Winter 1987)
April 7: THE INNER LIFE OF THE BOURGEOISIE
Arthur Schnitzler, The Road Into The Open (1908)
April 14: Research & writing
April 21: Research & writing
FIRST DRAFT TO YOUR WRITING PARTNER
BY APRIL 24th
April 28: Partner meetings; reports due
FINAL PAPER DUE MAY 5th