Villanova University
HON 4000-01: The Experience of violence
in 20th century Europe
Fall 2003, MWF 11:30am-12:20, Bartley 033
|
Professor: Office: Office hours: Phone: E-mail: Web page: |
Paul Steege SAC 428 M 3-4:30 pm; W 10-11 am; or by appointment x9-6963 |
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
Course Objectives: |
This course will explore the intersections between the everyday life experiences and encounters with violence and the political, aesthetic, and symbolic representations of those acts in 20th century Europe. Thematically, the course will focus on violence as an integral part of modernity: violence as part of mass production/consumption, the aestheticization of violence, violence as political/symbolic gesture. While the course will depend on the students’ ability to critically analyze and deconstruct an array of texts and images and will work aggressively to foster those skills, it ultimately aims to challenge participants to explore the disconcertingly central place of violence in the modern world. |
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
Books for purchase: |
Required
books: Arendt, Hannah. On violence. New York: Harvest Books, 1970. Bauman, Zygmunt. Modernity and the Holocaust. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2001. Browning, Christopher. Ordinary men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland. New York: Harper, 1998. Fanon, Frantz. The wretched of the earth. New York: Grove Press, 1988. Mayer, Arno. The furies: violence and terror in the French and Russian revolutions. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001. Pick, Daniel. War Machine: the rationalization of slaughter in the modern age. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996. Optional book: Mazower, Mark. Dark Continent: Europe’s twentieth century. New York: Vintage, 1998. All books are available for purchase at the Villanova University Shop. Where possible, I will also put copies of the books on reserve in Falvey Library. |
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
Course Organization: |
This course meets three
days a week. Given the relatively
small size of the class, I plan to conduct it in a modified seminar
format. Each class will consist of a
mixture of lecture and discussion and, I hope, be driven largely by regular
student involvement. Come prepared to
participate (i.e., do the readings). I am organizing this course
on a two-track basis in which a) readings and classes will evolve organically
out of course discussions and b) the course will nonetheless be anchored by a
series of assignments with set due dates and precise obligations. This organizational structure is designed
to make it relatively easy for students to have a clear sense of course
expectations and to allow them to prepare effectively for their written
assignments but, at the same time, to permit members of the class to play an
active role in shaping the evolution of our discussions and the particular
topics we choose to address. Before the end of each week, I will post on the course website a series of discussion questions that address the coming week’s readings. These should serve to provoke and stimulate your engagement with the texts and will also serve as a basis for our class discussions. At the beginning of each class session, students will have the opportunity to pose questions about readings and/or previous classes. Come prepared to raise points that interest, disturb, or provoke you. During the course, I will
at times distribute critical information via e-mail using your official
Villanova e-mail address. You are
responsible for checking that account regularly. If you use an outside e-mail address, be
sure to set the preferences on your Villanova account to automatically
forward messages to your preferred address.
Check the online syllabus regularly for any updates. |
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
Assignments and Grading: |
Readings and films: This course depends on all participants’ thorough and concentrated engagement with all readings, images, and films. Reading assignments will be given to allow them to be completed prior to the class session for which they will be needed. Films will be viewed in the evening, outside of class. During the first week of the semester, the class will reach a consensus about the best time to schedule these film viewings. Attendance at film viewings is mandatory. In order to compensate for the time demands of evening film viewings, regular class sessions will occasionally be canceled. If for any reason this schedule causes any student undue difficulties, they should consult with me during the first two weeks of the semester to reach some sort of an accommodation. Two in-class exams (1st exam: Friday, 10 October; 2nd exam: Monday, 24 November): You will be asked to write short essays in which you elaborate the significance of 4 of 7 identification terms. The seven terms on the exam will be drawn from a longer list distributed about one week ahead of time and constructed from the terms submitted by students in their discussion notes. A successful answer will not just identify the term and date it correctly but also make and support an argument about its broader historical significance. I will discuss the exam with you in greater depth a few weeks into the course. 12-15 page final paper (due by noon, Wednesday, 17 December): This essay should analyze the enactment and representation of a single act of violence that occurred in Europe during the twentieth century. The act you choose should be quite circumscribed. For example, the Spanish Civil War is too broad, whereas the (presumed) shooting of a single soldier captured in Robert Capa’s renowned photograph is appropriately narrow. Each action can be relatively anonymous (as in the previous example) or well-known (e.g., the fire-bombing of Dresden or the murder of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand). Over the course of the semester, you will be asked to submit work along the way (including a paper topic proposal, bibliography, and paper outline—see schedule below) to help you produce the final paper. 3-4 page photograph analysis (due Friday, 26 September): This assignment will mark one of the first steps in your semester-long exploration that will culminate in the final paper. You are to select a single photograph of the act of violence you plan to analyze in your final paper and discuss the context of its production and the implications of its content. In a revised and probably abbreviated form, the photograph analysis will form part of the final paper. Reading: Tom Junod, “Falling man,” Esquire (September 2003) [on reserve] Three 2-3 page Reading/Film Reviews (to be submitted by 10 September, 31 October, and 5 December, respectively): This assignment is designed to provide you the opportunity to explore various themes—both as they relate to the course and as potential material for your final paper. You must write on at least one film and one course reading (leaving the third essay open for your preference). Each short essay should select a specific element (character, event, issue, quotation, etc.) from an assigned book or film and discuss its connection (or lack of connection) to the course themes. The essay must address a film/reading assignment from the portion of the semester immediately preceding it. CAUTION: I
am not asking you to tell me whether you “liked” the work but to analyze its
significance with respect to the class and its themes. Note: I will adhere rigorously to these deadlines. Assignments submitted after the deadline will be substantially penalized. Electronic submission of papers is generally to be avoided and will be accepted only in isolated cases and with prior approval (a faulty printer is not an adequate reason to submit a paper by e-mail). Should some emergency require an extension on any assignment, you must contact me before the scheduled due date. Meeting requirement: All students must schedule a meeting with me or stop by my office hours before 10 September to discuss the first written assignments, especially the photo analysis and your initial interests for the final research paper. Discussion Notes: Each student will be responsible for assembling a list of 10 terms drawn from one week’s readings and/or discussions. This list is to be posted to the course website by 10am on Monday morning following the assigned week. These terms may include names, persons, events, concepts, quotations, etc. and will serve as the basis for subsequent in-class exams. I will provide a sample list following the first week’s classes. Students will be given the opportunity to sign up for a slot during the first week of the semester. Participation: Regular and vigorous participation is expected of all students. Participation does not mean having the answer. Instead, it generally means raising challenging, provocative, and difficult questions. Class participation is not conceived (primarily) to demonstrate what you know but rather to promote a collective struggle with what we don’t know. |
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Final Grade: |
2 in-class exams 3 Reading/Film Reviews Photograph analysis Final Paper Participation/Discussion Notes |
20% (10% each) 30 (10% each) 10 30 10 |
|
|
|
|
TOTAL |
100% |
|
|
|
|
|||
|
Academic Integrity: |
Plagiarism or cheating on any coursework will not be tolerated. Any
case of academic fraud (copying of another student’s work, illicit use of
notes on an exam, undocumented use of an outside source, etc.) will
automatically result in a failing grade for the course and the submission of
an academic integrity report to the university. If you have any questions about documenting
sources or what constitutes academic fraud, please speak to me or consult the
student handbook. We will discuss this in detail during the
first weeks of the course. |
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
Disabilities: |
Students with disabilities who may need academic accommodations are encouraged to discuss options with me after class or during my office hours during the first two weeks of class. More information about documenting or addressing learning disabilities is available from Nancy Mott, Director of the Office of Learning Services (tel. x9-5636 or e-mail nancy.mott@villanova.edu) or from that office’s web site. |
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
This section offers a general outline of the topics that we will cover and the readings and films that will accompany each topic. We will most likely not use every supplemental reading or view every film (starred items will definitely be incorporated), but they all may prove useful for you as you work to develop a final paper topic. As we move through the semester, I will provide the class with more precise reading assignments for upcoming sessions and additional links to texts, documents, and images that may contribute to our discussions. In addition to announcing these assignments in class, they will be added to the online version of this syllabus. All students are responsible for keeping abreast of these assignments. |
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
Topic 1: |
World War I and
modern violence |
|||
|
|
The course begins by exploring the social and cultural shock that Europe experienced as it confronted the destructive potential of the modern world it had created. In particular we will examine ways in which people imagined or anticipated “modern war” and the ways in which these visions did or did not mesh with the productive (and destructive) capacities of industrial society. |
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Readings: *Daniel Pick, War Machine *Ernst Jünger, “Total Mobilization” Sigmund Freud, “The Uncanny” Background reading: Mark Mazower, Dark Continent, pp. 9-75 Films: *All Quiet on the Western Front (USA, 1931) *The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Germany, 1919) |
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
Topic 2: |
Revolutionary
violence |
|||
|
|
In this section of the course we will examine the place of violence as a force for or even a prerequisite for revolutionary transformation? What does it take to mobilize people to revolutionary action? What place does the individual hold in a mass movement? Should the advent of revolution be greeted with celebration or despair? What costs have revolutions demanded, both of their participants and of the societies they sought to transform? |
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Readings: *Arno Mayer, The
furies *Walter Benjamin, “The work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction” Klaus Theweleit, Male Fantasies (excerpts) Siegfried Kracauer, The Mass Ornament (excerpts) Background reading: Mark Mazower, Dark Continent, pp. 76-137 Films: Battleship Potemkin (Soviet Union, 1925) Land and Freedom
(UK/Spain/Germany/Italy, 1995) *M (Germany, 1930) |
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
Topic 3: |
Totalizing violence
and genocide |
|||
|
|
The explosion of violence at the center of the 20th century and its culmination in the European Judeocide will form the conceptual heart of the course. Rather than perceiving the Shoah as the act of “monsters,” radically different than ourselves, we will consider the banality of its horrendous evil, perpetrated by ordinary people, who will likely prove disconcertingly familiar. |
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Readings: *Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust *Christopher
Browning, Ordinary men Alexander Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago, 1918-1956 (excerpts) Raul Hilberg, Perpetrators, Victims, Bystanders (excerpts) Background reading: Mark Mazower, Dark Continent, pp. 138-249 Films: *Ashes and Diamonds (Poland, 1958) Hitler Youth Quex (Germany, 1933) Life is beautiful (Italy, 1997) The Pianist (UK/France/Germany/Netherlands/Poland, 2002) Shoah (France, 1985) |
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
Topic 4: |
Decolonization,
violence, and terror |
|||
|
|
As European power receded around the globe, the extent to which that power had both depended on and left a legacy of ruthless violence became increasingly clear. At the same time, the Soviet Empire in Eastern Europe depended on a security apparatus in which terror played a vital role. We will explore the ways in which Europe’s postwar worlds (industrial capitalism and really existing socialism to offer one way of naming them) both engaged in and were challenged by ongoing acts of violence, in spite of living in an international environment that has at times been characterized as a “long peace.” |
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Readings: *Frantz Fanon, The wretched of the earth George Orwell, “Shooting an elephant” Background reading: Mark Mazower, Dark Continent, pp. 250-326 Films: The Battle of Algiers (Italy/Algeria, 1965) Germany in Autumn (West Germany, 1978) One Day in September (USA, 1999) |
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
Topic 5: |
Locating violence
in the (post)modern world |
|||
|
|
The collapse of the Soviet Empire by the early 1990s ushered in what at least one writer termed the “end of history,” the presumed victory of a liberal and democratic world order in which competition would be reduced to the economic realm. Instead, the 1990s saw the return of war to Europe, the emergence of proto-genocidal policies of ethnic cleansing in the former Yugoslavia, and the uneasy sense that globalization entailed globalized violence as well as international trade. To what extent are these processes interconnected? The tension of a world of “posts” (postmodern, postindustrial, post-Cold War) can perhaps best be summarized in the individuals’ paradoxical power and powerlessness—feeble in the face of international military and industrial might but yet powerful enough to destroy a building or kill hundreds in a single act of murder/suicide. |
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Readings: *Hannah Arendt, On violence Bill Buford, Among the thugs Background reading: Mark Mazower, Dark Continent, pp. 327-403 Films: Man Bites Dog (Belgium, 1992) Calling the Ghosts (USA/Croatia, 1999) The Goalkeeper’s fear of the penalty kick (Germany, 1971) |
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
Written assignments with firm deadlines are all listed
below. I have included a preliminary
schedule for the first two weeks. Where
appropriate, I have incorporated other scheduled elements as well but have
left much of the space free for you to update as necessary. A continuously updated version of this
schedule that includes all of the upcoming assignments will be maintained online. Check it regularly for a variety of
supplemental information. |
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
Weekly: |
Discussion terms must be posted to the class website by 10am on Monday of the following week. You should also e-mail me a copy (paul.steege@villanova.edu). Specific assignments for each student will be posted online by the second week of class. |
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
Mon., Aug. 25 |
Introduction: thinking about violence and its representation: the “falling man” |
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
Wed., Aug. 27 |
Imagining
modern war |
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
Fri., Aug. 29 |
Imagining
modern war, part II |
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
Mon., Sept. 1 |
No class—Labor Day |
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
Wed., Sept. 3 |
Exploring the
“war machine” |
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
Fri., Sept. 5 |
Thinking about
the function of war |
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
Mon., Sept. 8 |
Revolution |
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
Wed., Sept. 10 |
Counterrevolution
and violence Last date to submit
first review (due at beginning of class) |
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
Fri., Sept. 12 |
No class |
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
Mon., Sept. 15 |
Violence and
terror |
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
Wed., Sept. 17 |
Revolution
after WWI |
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
Fri., Sept. 19 |
No class |
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
Mon., Sept. 22 |
“Total
Mobilization” |
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
Wed., Sept. 24 |
Continue with discussion of “Total Mobilization” (see September 22) |
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
Fri., Sept. 26 |
Continuing
to think about mass mobilization Photograph analysis due at beginning of class. |
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
Mon., Sept. 29 |
Responding
to mass mobilization |
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
Wed., Oct. 1 |
Re-imagining
the First World War |
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
Fri., Oct. 3 |
Mass culture |
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
Mon., Oct. 6 |
Mass culture
II: crime, violence, and beauty Paper proposal and
bibliography due at beginning of class (note change!) |
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
Wed., Oct. 8 |
Mass culture
III: crime, violence, and beauty |
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
Fri., Oct. 10 |
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
Oct. 13-17 |
No class—fall break |
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
Mon., Oct. 20 |
Rehearsals
for total violence: the Spanish Civil War |
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
Wed., Oct. 22 |
Atrocities
in the Spanish Civil War |
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
Fri., Oct. 24 |
Police
Battalion 101 and the Holocaust |
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
Mon., Oct. 27 |
Becoming
killers: the men of Reserve P.B. 101 |
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
Wed., Oct. 29 |
Dissecting
the killing process I |
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
Fri., Oct. 31 |
Dissecting the
killing process II Last date to submit 2nd review (due at beginning of class) |
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
Mon., Nov. 3 |
Transforming
the experience of killing |
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
Wed., Nov. 5 |
The
aftermath: Reserve P.B. 101 and the pursuit of justice |
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
Thu., Nov. 6 |
Film: Life is beautiful (Italy, 1997) |
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
Fri., Nov. 7 |
Historiographical debates: what does it mean to be
“ordinary”? |
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
Mon., Nov. 10 |
“Ordinary
men” and the modern world |
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
Wed., Nov. 12 |
The
uniqueness and normality of the Holocaust |
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
Thu., Nov. 13 |
Film: The Pianist (UK/France/Germany/Netherlands/Poland, 2002) |
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
Fri., Nov. 14 |
The
possibility for moral action in the face of horror |
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
Mon., Nov. 17 |
Dehumanizing
violence: moving to colonial examples Final paper thesis statement due at beginning of class (must include preliminary outline and updated bibliography). |
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
Wed., Nov. 19 |
Violence
and Decolonization |
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
Thu., Nov. 20 |
Review Session |
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
Fri., Nov. 21 |
No class (replaced by film viewing) |
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
Mon., Nov. 24 |
2nd in-class exam |
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
Nov. 26-28 |
No
class—Thanksgiving break |
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
Mon., Dec. 1 |
Concerning
violence |
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
Wed., Dec. 3 |
Post-colonial
violence and global capitalism |
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
Fri., Dec. 5 |
Origins of
terrorism Last date to submit third review (due at beginning of class) |
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
Mon., Dec. 8 |
Violence
and Power |
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
Tues., Dec. 9 |
Terror and
counter-terror? The 1970s |
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
Wed., Dec. 10 |
Final discussion: Violence in a post-modern world |
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
Wed.., Dec. 17 |
Final paper due by noon in my box in the History Dept. Office (SAC 403) |
|||
