DOCSLIB.ORG

Body and Soul

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text

Load more

BODY AND SOUL WARWICK CLARKE MASTER OF FINE ARTS 2008 “The course of history was therefore not that of a billiard ball – which, once it is hit, takes a definite line – but resembles the movement of clouds, or the path of a man sauntering through the streets, turned aside by a shadow here, a crowd there, an unusual architectural outcrop, until at last he arrives at a place he never knew or meant to go. Inherent in the course of history is a certain going off course.” —Robert Musil1 1 R. Musil, The Man Without Qualities, trans. Sophie Wilkins, ed. Burton Pike, Knopf, New York, 1995, p. 392. ii ABSTRACT The research component, “Body and Soul”, is an interdisciplinary, comparative study of the essay form, focusing on the Weimar period. The essay is a marginal literary genre, which, like much documentary style photography, attempts “the imaginative recreation of a culture, a period or an individual”. August Sander’s photographic opus, People of the 20th Century and Robert Musil’s essayistic novel, The Man Without Qualities invite comparison as complex and problematic portraits of their respective societies. Sander’s typological portraits are well known and his legacy informs much of contemporary documentary photography. Sixty images were published in 1929 by Kurt Wolff, Transmare Verlag, Munich, as Antlitz der Zeit (Face of Our Time) with an introduction by Alfred Döblin. The first two volumes of Robert Musil’s, Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften (The Man Without Qualities), were published in 1930 and 1932 by Rowohlt Verlag, Hamburg. Recent publication of new editions of both Musil’s and Sander’s works prompted the attempt to reconcile two portraits of people and events of the early decades of the 20th Century in Germany and Austria. The essay form in literature and the documentary style in photography are examined with regard to the polemic associated with truth and reality. This review attempts to illustrate the inevitable inclusion of the fictional element into the fabric of both forms of investigation. The study concludes with a review of contemporary art practice in photo- documentary and some thoughts on future developments. The studio component, “Dargan”, is a photographic essay of a site in the Blue Mountains West of Sydney. Focusing on relics of industrial activity in the region, and their effects on the landscape, large format colour photographs were produced to establish a documentary style body of work for exhibition as large-scale colour analogue prints. The work is the response to a need to engage with the Australian landscape and to establish a sustainable practice that recognises and takes into account an ambivalent relationship with “country”. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank my supervisor, Maureen Burns, and my associate supervisor, Debra Phillips, for their help, advice and support throughout this period of study. Thanks are due also to Lynne Roberts-Goodwin, Dr. Michele Barker, Sue Blackburn, Craig Bender and Kat Borishkewich. Special thanks to Sandra Barnard for the prints exhibited at the Ivan Dougherty Gallery and also to Nicholas Waterlow, Annabel Pegus, Rilka Oakley, Yvonne Donaldson and Adrian Davies. The exhibition was mounted with the assistance of a grant from the Arc@UNSW GAS scheme which is gratefully acknowledged. Research abroad was facilitated by a UNSW CoFA Research Grant. For invaluable assistance at The August Sander Archive, thanks to Gabriele Conrath-Scholl and Patricia Edgar of Die Photographische Sammlung / SK Stiftung Kultur, Cologne. In Hamburg, Eckhard Kloos of Rowohlt Verlag, Robert Musil’s publisher, gave generously of his time and at the Robert Musil Literature Museum in Klagenfurt, Austria, thanks are due to Dr. Heimo Strempfl. Finally, I would like to thank my friends and family, especially Lara and Jasmin for their understanding and unfailing support, and Skye O’neill for editorial services rendered. And to Susan, without whose patience, and encouragement, this work would not have been possible to undertake nor sustain to completion. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT……………………………………………………………………………...iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS…………………………………………………………….iv “A SORT OF INTRODUCTION”……………………………………………………...1 ESSAY…………………………………………………………………………………...4 ESSAYISMUS/ROBERT MUSIL…………………………………………………… 16 AUGUST SANDER …………………………………………………………………...28 DOCUMENTARY …………………………………………………………………….42 CONCLUSIONS ………………………………………………………………………52 BIBLIOGRAPHY ……………………………………………………………………...57 PLATES ………………………………………………………………………………..62 v “A SORT OF INTRODUCTION” “From which remarkably enough nothing develops.” —Robert Musil1 “How might a photograph and a text, closely associated in time, space and historical import, elaborate ‘readings’ of each other? Or, more precisely, how might the viewer, mediator of both image and text, through reading them interactively discover in each some key(s) to the meaning of the other?” —Susan H. Aiken2 In this study, the photographs in question are documentary style portraits produced by the German, August Sander. Sixty images were published in 1929 by Kurt Wolff, Transmare Verlag, Munich, as Antlitz der Zeit (Face of Our Time) with an introduction by Alfred Döblin, author of Berlin Alexanderplatz. Sander’s intention was to generate interest for the subsequent publication of a far more comprehensive work Menschen des 20. Jahrhunderts (People of the 20th Century). The text is by Austrian Robert Musil, whose novella, Die Verwirrung des Zöglings Törless (The Confusions of Young Törless) first appeared in 1906. Its critical success contributed to Musil’s eventual choice of a literary career. The first two volumes of his masterpiece Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften, (The Man Without Qualities) were published in 1930 and 1932 by Rowohlt Verlag, Hamburg. Both authors attempted to create portraits of their respective societies and cultures, Musil with words, Sander with photographs. Both attempts made claims to truth, derived from direct observation and lived experience. More recently, publication of new editions of both major works prompted this attempt to reconcile two portraits of the people and events of the early decades of the 20th Century in Germany and Austria. A new English translation of Musil’s magnum opus by Sophie Wilkins and Burton Pike was published in two volumes by Knopf in 1995. Sander’s archive is held by Die Photographische Sammlung / SK Stiftung Kultur, Cologne. A revised and newly compiled edition of Menschen des 20. 1 R. Musil, The Man Without Qualities, trans. Sophie Wilkins, ed. Burton Pike, Knopf, New York, 1995, p. 1. 2 S. H. Aiken, “Isak Dinesen and Photo/Graphic Recollection”, Illuminations, eds. L. Heron and V. Williams I.B. Tauris, London, 1996, pp. 460-470. 1 Jahrhunderts was published by this institution in 2002 to celebrate the 125th anniversary of the photographer’s birth. Comprising seven volumes, and containing 619 photographs, it is the most comprehensive realisation yet of Sander’s original concept and the result of intensive research by Susanne Lange, Gabriele Conrath-Scholl and Sander’s grandson, Gerd Sander. In Sander’s words, “The individual does not make the history of his time, but he both impresses himself on it and expresses its meaning. It is possible to record the historical physiognomic image of a whole generation and … to make that image speak in photographs.”3 Incomplete at the time of their respective deaths, both author’s manifestos were essentially “overtaken by history.” Structurally, the essay form is one of the many threads that link the bodies of work discussed here. “… the word ‘essay’ comes from the French essai and essayer, to attempt, to experiment, to try out and further back from the Latin exagium, ‘weighing’ an object or an idea, examining it from various angles, but never exhaustively or systematically”.4 The German equivalent Versuch incorporates the notions of “attempt” and “search”. The essay is a marginal genre in literature where “… the aesthetic organization of the material remains subordinated to the treatment of an event or situation that exists in time and space, of an idea or text which the essayist is ultimately committed to telling the ‘truth’ about, a truth which he himself is answerable for.”5 It is the aim of this work to show the analogous nature of both the essay and the documentary style photograph. To achieve this end, analyses are made of both Musil’s and Sander’s major works. The Paris albums of Eugène Atget are examined, as are contemporary work by Thomas Struth and Bernd and Hilla Becher. Elements of fiction are introduced into all story telling, and while the essay and the document aspire to positions of truth, both are inevitably enhanced, made more true, more real, when the contingencies of lived experience are permitted to intrude into their respective spaces. In this respect, a brief review of photographic “process” is included. The exegesis concludes with a series of plates representing the studio research component of the study. 3 A. Sander, ‘The Nature and Growth of Photography, Lecture 5: Photography as a Universal Language’ trans. Anne Halley, The Massachusettes Review, vol. 19, no. 4, 1978. pp. 674-679. 4 C. De Obaldia, The Essayistic Spirit, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1995, p. 2. 5 ibid. p. 5 2 “Dargan” is a collection of large format documentary style colour photographs of relics of industrial activity in the Blue Mountains region, west of Sydney. Executed for subsequent exhibition as large-scale colour analogue prints, the photographs are the outcome of a number of investigations over the period of this study. While previous work was limited to the portrait genre, this essay is a response to a need to reconcile one’s place in the Australian landscape and to establish a sustainable practice that recognises and takes into account the ambivalent relationship that we, as Australians, have developed with the bush, with country. 3 ESSAY “The thoughts of the essay lie firmly and immovably fixed in a basalt consisting of feelings, will, and personal experience, in such combinations of idea-complexes that only in the spiritual atmosphere of a unique inner situation do they give off and receive light.
Recommended publications
  • Reactionary Postmodernism? Neoliberalism, Multiculturalism, the Internet, and the Ideology of the New Far Right in Germany

    Reactionary Postmodernism? Neoliberalism, Multiculturalism, the Internet, and the Ideology of the New Far Right in Germany

    University of Vermont ScholarWorks @ UVM UVM Honors College Senior Theses Undergraduate Theses 2018 Reactionary Postmodernism? Neoliberalism, Multiculturalism, the Internet, and the Ideology of the New Far Right in Germany William Peter Fitz University of Vermont Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/hcoltheses Recommended Citation Fitz, William Peter, "Reactionary Postmodernism? Neoliberalism, Multiculturalism, the Internet, and the Ideology of the New Far Right in Germany" (2018). UVM Honors College Senior Theses. 275. https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/hcoltheses/275 This Honors College Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Undergraduate Theses at ScholarWorks @ UVM. It has been accepted for inclusion in UVM Honors College Senior Theses by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks @ UVM. For more information, please contact [email protected]. REACTIONARY POSTMODERNISM? NEOLIBERALISM, MULTICULTURALISM, THE INTERNET, AND THE IDEOLOGY OF THE NEW FAR RIGHT IN GERMANY A Thesis Presented by William Peter Fitz to The Faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences of The University of Vermont In Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements For the Degree of Bachelor of Arts In European Studies with Honors December 2018 Defense Date: December 4th, 2018 Thesis Committee: Alan E. Steinweis, Ph.D., Advisor Susanna Schrafstetter, Ph.D., Chairperson Adriana Borra, M.A. Table of Contents Introduction 1 Chapter One: Neoliberalism and Xenophobia 17 Chapter Two: Multiculturalism and Cultural Identity 52 Chapter Three: The Philosophy of the New Right 84 Chapter Four: The Internet and Meme Warfare 116 Conclusion 149 Bibliography 166 1 “Perhaps one will view the rise of the Alternative for Germany in the foreseeable future as inevitable, as a portent for major changes, one that is as necessary as it was predictable.
  • Hans and Lily Hildebrandt Papers, 1899-1979

    Hans and Lily Hildebrandt Papers, 1899-1979

    http://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf5779n7f0 No online items INVENTORY OF THE HANS AND LILY HILDEBRANDT PAPERS, 1899-1979 Finding aid prepared by Scott Wolf and Jocelyn Gibbs. The Getty Research Institute Research Library Special Collections and Visual Resources 1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 1100 Los Angeles, California 90049-1688 Phone: (310) 440-7390 Fax: (310) 440-7780 Email Requests: http://www.getty.edu/research/conducting_research/library/reference_form.html URL: http://www.getty.edu/research/conducting_research/library ©1998 J. Paul Getty Trust. INVENTORY OF THE HANS AND 850676 1 LILY HILDEBRANDT PAPERS, 1899-1979 INVENTORY OF THE HANS AND LILY HILDEBRANDT PAPERS, 1899-1979 Accession no. 850676 Finding aid prepared by Scott Wolf and Jocelyn Gibbs Getty Research Institute Contact Information: The Getty Research Institute Research Library Special Collections and Visual Resources 1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 1100 Los Angeles, California 90049-1688 Phone: (310) 440-7390 Fax: (310) 440-7780 Email Requests: http://www.getty.edu/research/conducting_research/library/reference_form.html URL: http://www.getty.edu/research/conducting_research/library/ Processed by: Scott Wolf Date Completed: May 1997, revised Apr 2004 Encoded by: Jenny Cashman and Philip Curtis, revised by Julio Vera ©1998 J. Paul Getty Trust. Descriptive Summary Title: Hans and Lily Hildebrandt papers Date (inclusive): 1899-1979 Collection number: 850676 Creator: Hildebrandt, Hans Hildebrandt, Lily, 1889-1974 Extent: ca. 28 linear ft. (64 boxes) Repository: Getty Research Institute Research Library Special Collections and Visual Resources 1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 1100 Los Angeles, CA 90049-1688 Abstract: An essentially complete record of the life and work of art historian and critic, Hans Hildebrandt, and of his artist wife, Lily, reflecting their interests in modern art, architecture, and decorative arts, and their close friendships with a number of leading artists and architects.
  • Taking the Cure: a Stay at Thomas Mann's "The Magic Mountain" Philip Bmntingham

    Taking the Cure: a Stay at Thomas Mann's "The Magic Mountain" Philip Bmntingham

    Taking the Cure: A Stay at Thomas Mann's "The Magic Mountain" Philip Bmntingham THERE ARE THOSE who say that the human The subject of Shakespeare's play is race is infected by two sicknesses: the the spiritual malaise of one man. In Tho- sickness of the body and the sickness of mas Mann's 1924 novel, The Magic Moun- the spirit. In fact, both afflictions are po- tain, the subject, as so many critics have tentially fatal. The first sickness can be told us, is the malaise of an entire group traced to a number of causes: namely, an of people, indeed a generation. These outside intrusion (infection), or an inner critics—too numerous to mention—have failure (malfunction). The second sick- suggested that Mann's intent was to use ness comes solely from within: emotional illness as a metaphor for the condition of distress, deep anxiety, or that decline pre-World War I European society. sometimes called failure of the will. A Such a theme would be an ambitious mixture of the two sicknesses sometimes one, to be sure. Novels normally do not happens; and it has been proven that the attempt to describe the decay of an entire sickness of the mind often can affect the society—how could they? Novels are not health of the body—and cause what is tracts or scientific reports, and whenever called psychosomatic illness. they attempt to become either of these In Shakespeare's Hamlet, the hero suf- things, such as we find in as Robert Musil's fers from the second sickness, and it de- The Man Without Qualities (1930-43), they bilitates him so much that he contem- are no longer fiction but prose seminars.
  • Qui Était August Sander? [1]

    Qui Était August Sander? [1]

    Sur les traces d’August Sander Par Bernard Birsinger propos recueillis par Emmanuel Bigler Résumé Bernard Birsinger nous raconte comment il est allé un jour au pays d’August Sander pour voir les lieux où le célèbre portraitiste a vécu et travaillé, en particulier là où il a photographié des paysages. Dans ce voyage, Bernard Birsinger a rencontré des témoins ayant connu August Sander, et il en a rapporté un travail photographique sur les lieux de mémoire de l’auteur des « Hommes du vingtième siècle ». Introduction - Qui était August Sander? [1] FIGURE 1 – August Sander en 1925 1 Bernard Birsinger (BBB [2]) : Dans toute quête culturelle, il est important de connaître le décor et aussi ce qui se cache derrière ce décor. Les biographies officielles à propos de Sander comme celle du Getty Museum [3], du MoMA[4], d’Aperture[5] ou de la Tate Gallery [6] de Londres suffisent-elles à nous renseigner ? Eh non. En plus, en tant que photographe, j’ai toujours encore en tête, de façon lancinante, cette phrase de la célèbre photographe américaine Diane Arbus [7] : « Rien n’est jamais comme on a dit que c’était, c’est ce que je n’ai jamais vu avant que je reconnais », phrase tirée de son livre paru en 1973 aux éditions du Chêne [8]. Et vous ne le saviez pas, ça alors? Il était donc grand temps pour moi de prendre mon bâton de pèlerin et de parcourir par monts et vaux l’Allemagne sur les traces de Sander, pour mener un double projet photographique. En un : mener un « Rephotographic Survey Project » comme celui mené à propos de Timothy O’Sullivan en 1977 [9], aux USA.
  • Shifts in Modernist Architects' Design Thinking

    Shifts in Modernist Architects' Design Thinking

    arts Article Function and Form: Shifts in Modernist Architects’ Design Thinking Atli Magnus Seelow Department of Architecture, Chalmers University of Technology, Sven Hultins Gata 6, 41296 Gothenburg, Sweden; [email protected]; Tel.: +46-72-968-88-85 Academic Editor: Marco Sosa Received: 22 August 2016; Accepted: 3 November 2016; Published: 9 January 2017 Abstract: Since the so-called “type-debate” at the 1914 Werkbund Exhibition in Cologne—on individual versus standardized types—the discussion about turning Function into Form has been an important topic in Architectural Theory. The aim of this article is to trace the historic shifts in the relationship between Function and Form: First, how Functional Thinking was turned into an Art Form; this orginates in the Werkbund concept of artistic refinement of industrial production. Second, how Functional Analysis was applied to design and production processes, focused on certain aspects, such as economic management or floor plan design. Third, how Architectural Function was used as a social or political argument; this is of particular interest during the interwar years. A comparison of theses different aspects of the relationship between Function and Form reveals that it has undergone fundamental shifts—from Art to Science and Politics—that are tied to historic developments. It is interesting to note that this happens in a short period of time in the first half of the 20th Century. Looking at these historic shifts not only sheds new light on the creative process in Modern Architecture, this may also serve as a stepstone towards a new rethinking of Function and Form. Keywords: Modern Architecture; functionalism; form; art; science; politics 1.
  • Dada to New Objectivity, Part 2: Duchamp

    Dada to New Objectivity, Part 2: Duchamp

    Dada to New Objectivity, Part 2: Duchamp Arp is always given as the paradigm example of this although recent studies suggest that might be an oversimplification. A recent study of Arp seems to find his multi-lingual childhood a model or metaphor for understanding his “multi-lingual” personality as an artist. Arp wrote poetry, was a sculptor and painter, associated with international constructivism, dada, and surrealism. Making this an apt metaphor are the similarities between his creative activities: in poetry, he wrote in both French and German, easily translating one into the other; in painting and sculpture, he is perhaps best known for his reliefs – a medium which fluidly moves from two to three-dimensions as the relief is painted and like a collage but because they are made of wood or other substantial materials, they engage light and shade and volume in real ways as well as pictorial. The myth about Arp’s early reliefs and collages is that he made them entirely according to the laws of chance – that he cut out pieces of paper (or wood) and let them fall to the ground, creating the future work of art without his direction. Although it seems unlikely that he did, in fact, make his works entirely according to chance, it does not seem unlikely that he wanted them to look as though they had been ruled by chance or that he understood the ways in which chance might affect the final work. Certainly, there is no doubt that in these early works there are no references to figures or recognizable forms and that in place of representation, they assert, if not outright flaunt, the materiality of the object.
  • Rethinking New Objectivity in Alfred Barr's Chart of Modern Art in 1936

    Rethinking New Objectivity in Alfred Barr's Chart of Modern Art in 1936

    Rethinking New Objectivity in Alfred Barr’s Chart of Modern Art in 1936 By Niloofar Gholamrezaei, Ph.D. Candidate at Texas Tech University. I- Introduction Historically, modernism refers to the different artistic movements of the 20th century. However, several sets of definitions have shaped the ways in which one defines modern art1. Perhaps the most dominant definition of modernism drives from Alfred Barr’s catalog, “Cubism and Abstract Art" (fig 1). Barr wrote the catalog for the major exhibition, “Cubism and Abstract Art”, curated by the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in 1936 (MoMA: Cubism and Abstract Art). The show along with the catalogue were meant to present the modern art (MoMA: Cubism and Abstract Art). In the catalog, Barr wrote a concrete history of modernism (Platt, 293). His definition can be considered as one of the first systematic histographies of modern art (293). In his catalog, Barr identifies the modern art movement as a linear removal from realism toward abstraction (293). According to the Museum of Modern Art, Alfred Barr’s narrative “continues to shape the Museum’s presentation of modernism to this day” (Cubism and Abstract Art). Therefore, his definition of modernism has been promoted by the MoMA as the definition of modern art and has remained an influential way of defining modernism. However, such histography was embedded within certain ideologies and propagandas related to the political condition of its time (Platt, 284). Thus, Barr’s notion of modern art contains limitations and problems and needs to be challenged. Among various problems in Barr’s definition of modernism is his exclusion of some artistic movements and trends that did not fit his model, or which contradicted his definition of modernism.
  • Frank Martin's Interpretation of the Tristan and Isolde Myth

    Frank Martin's Interpretation of the Tristan and Isolde Myth

    MARTA SZOKA (Łódź) Frank Martin’s Interpretation of the Tristan and Isolde Myth: Following the Trail of a Certain Novel Some people may frown at a juxtaposition of the Tristan and Isolde myth, one of the greatest sources of artistic inspiration in Euro­ pean culture, and its numerous musical representations with a novel by Charles Morgan, a minor writer known today almost exclusively to English literature scholars. If, however, we assume that the practice of musicology, apart from the analysis of music in terms of purely sonic structures, embraces also critical reflection, then we can put forward a perspective which will - to quote Polish poet Zbigniew Herbert - ‘open up a dialogue with the maker of the work, with his unique inner world, his love, passion and dilemmas, and also the path of perfection charac­ teristic of him and given to him’.1 I set out to scrutinise Frank Martin’s work in view of certain cul­ tural and psychological issues, as well as the social aspect of myth. Taken out of its complex context, the music score is forced to be an autonomous organism, and thus the multidimensional sense of art in the modern world becomes forgotten. Bearing an artistic and cultural message, a work of art is a carrier of meanings beyond the author’s in­ tent - meanings to be reached and understood. Moreover, this process of reaching out toward meaning does not exhaust itself in a single act of cognition, supposed to establish a certain truth once and for all. I would like to adopt here Hans-Georg Gadamer’s premise of the ‘inexhaustibil­ ity’ of the meaning of art as well as the ever renewed process of its un­ derstanding.2 1 Zbigniew Herbert, ‘Willem Duyster (1599-1635) albo Dyskretny urok soldateski’ [Willem Duyster, or the Discreet charm of the soldiery], Zeszyty Literackie 68 (1999), 18.
  • Das Reich Der Seele Walther Rathenau’S Cultural Pessimism and Prussian Nationalism ~ Dieuwe Jan Beersma

    Das Reich Der Seele Walther Rathenau’S Cultural Pessimism and Prussian Nationalism ~ Dieuwe Jan Beersma

    Das Reich der Seele Walther Rathenau’s Cultural Pessimism and Prussian Nationalism ~ Dieuwe Jan Beersma 16 juli 2020 Master Geschiedenis – Duitslandstudies, 11053259 First supervisor: dhr. dr. A.K. (Ansgar) Mohnkern Second supervisor: dhr. dr. H.J. (Hanco) Jürgens Abstract Every year the Rathenau Stiftung awards the Walther Rathenau-Preis to international politicians to spread Rathenau’s ideas of ‘democratic values, international understanding and tolerance’. This incorrect perception of Rathenau as a democrat and a liberal is likely to have originated from the historiography. Many historians have described Rathenau as ‘contradictory’, claiming that there was a clear and problematic distinction between Rathenau’s intellectual theories and ideas and his political and business career. Upon closer inspection, however, this interpretation of Rathenau’s persona seems to be fundamentally incorrect. This thesis reassesses Walther Rathenau’s legacy profoundly by defending the central argument: Walther Rathenau’s life and motivations can first and foremost be explained by his cultural pessimism and Prussian nationalism. The first part of the thesis discusses Rathenau’s intellectual ideas through an in-depth analysis of his intellectual work and the historiography on his work. Motivated by racial theory, Rathenau dreamed of a technocratic utopian German empire led by a carefully selected Prussian elite. He did not believe in the ‘power of a common Europe’, but in the power of a common German Europe. The second part of the thesis explicates how Rathenau’s career is not contradictory to, but actually very consistent with, his cultural pessimism and Prussian nationalism. Firstly, Rathenau saw the First World War as a chance to transform the economy and to make his Volksstaat a reality.
  • Enchanted Catastrophe

    Enchanted Catastrophe

    ENCHANTED CATASTROPHE What an amazing country where the houses are taller than churches —FERNAND LÉGER AFTER VISITING THE UNITED STATES FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 19311 “What is this new religion?” he wondered, and then concluded: “It’s Wall Street that dominates this new world with all of its height.”1 Léger’s astonishment may seem dated today, when luxury high-rises and tall office buildings have come to appear more banal than transcendent, and stands in contrast to the more sensationalistic response of his friend Le Corbusier, who quipped that New York’s skyscrapers were “too small” when he visited the city four years later. Yet his ultimate point remains remarkably acute: “the vertical push is in line with the economic order.”2 For in contrast to the traditional image of the religious spire, the capitalist transformation of the tall tower typology has come to represent the Americanization of metropolitan modernity, and although ostensibly secular, it continues to be mystified to this day. The skyscraper is more than just a symbolic icon of capitalist power, however, for as Carol Willis argues in her study Form Follows Finance, it is also direct index of financial investment and real estate speculation.3 Léger apparently recognized this not long after the stock market crash of 1929 when he wrote: “Wall Street has gone too far in transforming everything into speculation. Wall Street is an amazing abstraction, but catastrophic. American vertical architecture has gone too far….”4 1. Fernand Léger, “New York,” in Fonctions de la peinture (Paris: Editions Gallimard, 2004), 152-3.
  • Manchin on Lepenies, 'The Seduction of Culture in German History'

    Manchin on Lepenies, 'The Seduction of Culture in German History'

    H-Nationalism Manchin on Lepenies, 'The Seduction of Culture in German History' Review published on Sunday, October 1, 2006 Wolf Lepenies. The Seduction of Culture in German History. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006. 270 pp. $24.95 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-691-12131-4. Reviewed by Anna Manchin (Department of History, Brown University) Published on H-Nationalism (October, 2006) The Life and Politics of an Idea Wolf Lepenies, one of Germany's foremost public intellectuals, has written a fascinating and chilling essay on the seemingly unshakable German "attitude" of valuing culture over politics. This attitude contributed not only to the rise of fascism; it also accounted for the historian Friedrich Meinecke's conviction that, in the aftermath of World War II, Germany did not need a political reckoning, but an "intensified development of the Germans' inner existence," preferably in spiritual-religious Goethe communities. Fritz Stern's notion of a specific "Germanic spirit" and various revisions of it were crucial to the writing of an earlier generation of intellectual historians (including George Mosse, Fritz Ringer, and Peter Gay) who searched for an explanation for fascism's quick and easy rise to power in a nation of Germany's intellectual and cultural heritage. They all found an answer in German culture's romantic, anti-rationalist, and anti-democratic tendencies; a new mix of romanticism and technology, along with a lack of a liberal political tradition; the specific experience and spiritual mode of German society after the war; and the German tendency to embrace "art as a model for life," and they all agreed that cultural climate was important for politics.
  • 02Bodyetd.Pdf (193.2Kb)

    02Bodyetd.Pdf (193.2Kb)

    Chapter I: Introduction Throughout history, there have been sporadic pockets or concentrations of intense intellectual activity around the globe. From Athens to Vienna, cities have often been associated with the historical eras in which they excelled. For example, the 5th century BC dramatists in Greece such as Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides helped to make Athens a leader in artistic creation during its prime. Vienna, the European capital of the music world during the 18th century, was a center of artistic creativity that included composers such as Mozart and Haydn. During the 1920s, the Weimar Republic held the distinction of being the epicenter of human thought and art, with Berlin firmly at the heart of this activity. A few of the familiar names connected to this era in German history are Thomas Mann, Albert Einstein, Theodor Adorno, Wassily Kandinsky, Lyonel Feininger, Fritz Lang, and F.W. Murnau. In addition to these individuals, many artistic and intellectual schools such as German Expressionism, the Frankfurt School, the Bauhaus, and “Der Sturm” are associated with the Weimar Republic. Socially, the period represents an equally intense atmosphere. The Weimar Republic thrived on entertainment, clubs, and night-life in general. Berlin was at the forefront of urban entertainment in Germany, rivaling the other major cities of the Western world. The nightscape of Berlin was marked by lighted signs advertising small cabaret clubs and lavish musicals. However, the streets were also lined with disabled war veterans, prostitutes, and businessmen alike, reflecting an increase of prostitution, debauchery and crime of which all are in some way connected to the unbelievable inflation that permeated all layers of social, cultural and political life in Weimar Germany during the Republic’s first few years.