Spring 2002 -- German 850

#09855-4 W 3:30-6:30 Cunz Hall 464

Professor Davidson, 330 Cunz Hall

Office Hours: TR 11:00 - 12:30 and by appt.

davidson.92@osu.edu, Tel. 292-6985

The figures associated with the Frankfurt School included many of the most influential names in socio-cultural studies, and their self-described practice of "Critical Theory" became an umbrella term for the pursuits of intellectuals in a variety of fields. Yet these thinkers are often linked today to a modernist sensibility that many feel has been overcome. This course explores the tenets at the heart of that sensibility and how their status may best be assessed in the current historical moment. We will look at the roots and historical development of Critical Theory as it takes shape around key members of the Institute of Social Research, which becomes coterminous with the Frankfurt School after 1933, focussing particularly on the places where violence is seen to be inextricably linked to aesthetics and culture. We will also consider close affiliates of the Frankfurt School, as well as its intellectual descendants and lasting effects. The course will include discussions of works by Adorno, Benjamin, Habermas, Horkheimer, Kluge, Kracauer, Lowenthal, Lukacs, Marcuse, Marx, Negt, Simmel, Weber, and Wellmer, as well as by important scholars of Critical Theory. Works of music, visual art, literature, and film will help us better understand the implications of the Frankfurt School today. Texts will be available in German and English; classes will be conducted in English.

Students will be asked to complete all reading assignments in a timely and thorough fashion and submit discussion questions (15%); participate actively in class (15%); give one short presentation (10-15 minutes) and lead discussion (10%); and either write one paper (8-12 pp) or a take home exam (60%).

Books (Available at SBX):

Arato & Gebhardt The Essential Frankfurt School Reader (English)

Benjamin, Walter Illuminations (English language edition)

Benjamin, Walter Illuminationen (German language edition)

Horkheimer & Adorno Dialectic of Enlightenment (English)

Articles on the syllabus that are not listed as being in the Essential Frankfurt School Reader (EFSR) can be found in German and English in 317 Cunz Hall. For those who do not have a key, please see the staff in 314 Cunz for assistance.

Week 1 Introduction History, Origins

In Class Critical Reading: Marx, "Theses on Feuerbach"

Week 2 On the Influence of Marx, Weber, Lukacs… (Lecture) Cultural Critical Influences

Simmel, "Metropolis & Mental Life"

Kracauer, from The Mass Ornament

Week 3 Marcuse, "Affirmative Character of Culture" Critical Theory

Horkheimer, "Traditional and Critical Theory"

Horkheimer, "Art and Mass Culture"

Week 4 Lowenthal, "Knut Hamsen" (EFSR) Critical Theory and Art

Benjamin, "Author as Producer" (EFSR);

Benjamin, "The Work of Art in the Age…" (Illuminations)

Adorno, "On the Fetish Character in Music…" (EFSR)

Week 5 Part I in EFSR Critical Theory and Politics

Freud, "Mourning and Melancholia"

Week 6 Film TBA Concrete Example(?)

Week 7 Benjamin, Illuminations Redemptive Critical Practice

Paper Topic or Exam Choice Due

Week 8 Dialectic of Enlightenment Fascism, Mass Culture, Integrated Society

Week 9 Adorno, "The Essay as Form" Adorno Revisited

Adorno, "Commitment" (EFSR)

Adorno, from Ohne Leitbild and Eingriffe

Week 10 Habermas, from Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere Public Sphere

Habermas, "Modernity, An Incomplete Project"

Kluge / Negt, on the Counter-Public Sphere

Week 11 Concluding thoughts Final Session / Party

Paper / Exams Discussions