Reading questions related to assigned readings can be found in the study materials section. Detailed citations can be found in the readings section.
Course calendar.
| Week # |
READINGS / SCREENINGS |
Key Dates |
| 1 |
Documentary Film (in-class screening): Gédéon and Jules Naudet. 9/11.
Halbwachs, Maurice. "Individual and Collective Memory," and "Space and the Collective Memory."
Huyssen, Andreas. "Twin Memories: After-Images of 9/11."
Boyer, M. Christine. "Meditations on a Wounded Skyline and Its Stratigraphies of Pain." |
|
| 2 |
Hobsbawm, Eric. "The Age of Total War."
Yoneyama, Lisa. "Introduction," "Tropes of the Nation, Peace, and Humanity," "Memories in Ruins," and "On the Politics of Historical Memory." |
|
| 3 |
Excursion to New York City |
|
| 4 |
Performance (in-class screening): Hijikata, Tatsumi, Taka Iimura, and Eiko Hosoe. Navel and Atomic Bomb.
Munroe, Alexandra. "Revolt of the Flesh: Ankoku Butoh and Obsessional Art."
Viala, Judith. "The Return of Hijikata." Foreword and Introduction.
Hein, Carola. "Hiroshima: The Atomic Bomb and Kenzo Tange's Hiroshima Peace Center." |
|
| 5 |
Film (in-class screening): Resnais, Alain. Hiroshima, Mon Amour.
Caruth, Cathy. "Literature and the Enactment of Memory: Duras, Resnais, Hiroshima, Mon Amour." |
First essay due (500-750 words) |
| 6 |
Sebald, W. G. "Air War and Literature."
Ladd, Brian. "Nazi Berlin." |
|
| 7 |
Levi, Primo. "Argon," "Carbon," and "Hydrogen."
Agamben, Giorgio. Preface, and "The Witness."
Young, James. "Germany's Holocaust Memorial Problem -- And Mine." |
|
| 8 |
Film (in-class screening): Rossellini, Roberto. Germany in Year Zero.
Brockmann, Stephen. "German Literature, Year Zero: Writers and Politics: 1945-53." |
|
| 9 |
Recording (in-class play): Einstürzende Neubauten. Strategies against Architecture.
Sarig, Roni. "The Postindustrial Wasteland," and "Einstürzende Neubauten."
Documentary Film (in-class screening): Siegert, Hubertus, and Ralph Stern. Berlin Babylon.
Ladd, Brian. "Capital of the New Germany." |
Second essay due (750-1000 words) |
| 10 |
Page, Max. "Creatively Destroying New York: Fantasies, Premonitions, and Realities in the Provisional City."
Lentricchia, Frank, and Jody McAuliffe. "Groundzeroland."
Harvey, David. "Cracks in the Edifice of the Empire State." |
|
| 11 |
Wigley, Mark. "Insecurity by Design."
Darnton, Eric. "The Janus Face of Architectural Terrorism: Minoru Yamasaki, Mohammed Atta, and Our World Trade Center."
Wallace, Mike. "New York, New Deal." |
|
| 12 |
Review |
|