DEPARTMENT OF GERMAN STUDIES
SUMMER 2009 COURSES
Three week session June 22, 2009 through July 10, 2009
GERST 2250 Genius and Madness in German Literature
Lecture
MTWRF
9:00am - 10:15am and TR 1:30pm - 3:30pm, A. Schwarz
Discussion 200, MTWRF 10:30am - 11:45am and MW 1:30 - 2:45pm, TBA
Discussion 201, MTWRF 10:30am - 11:45am and MW 1:30 - 2:45pm, TBA
Taught in English.
If you ever have thought that people of great achievement and ingenuity--such
as great statesmen, artists, heroes, scientists--also exhibit a touch of madness,
well, then you are not alone! Philosophers and Poets for a few thousand years
have contemplated the close kinship between madness and genius and have engaged
in lively discussions about changing definitions of creativity as either ingenuity,
inspiration or insanity; as stemming from divine possession, originality or
fanatic enthusiasm. By reading philosophical and medical treatises, by examining
texts of fiction and lyric poetry as well as by including historical accounts
this course will find out when and why our culture decided to call a madman
a genius and a genius mad. We shall trace the history of social and artistic
transgression and analyze when and why a culture considers great talent as "too
different," as "pathological," or as "un-normal."
You shall read texts ranging from Antiquity to the 18th and 20th centuries and
encounter authors from Germany, France, Britain and the US. Guest lecturers
from various Humanities departments will expand our view on genius as either
a human condition, an artistic invention or the delusive state of "madness."
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