German Cultural History and Arts
Cod: 51161
Department: DH
ECTS: 6
Scientific area: Cultura
Total working hours: 156
Total contact time: 15

This unit offers a panoramic view of the history of German culture and art, enabling the acquisition of generic knowledge essential for the understanding of concepts of culture and national identity.
It introduces and analyses themes, motifs and paradigmatic works in certain periods or aesthetic movements, focussing German Romanticism and Expressionism.

German Culture
Romanticism
Expressionism
Film

  • Ability to identify key concepts and analyze the argumentative structure of theoretical texts about culture / civilization;
  • Ability to search for information in textual and iconic sources (online), related to the history of German culture and art;
  • Understanding and application of operational definitions and theoretical concepts in the context of the history of German culture and art;
  • Ability to identify and distinguish epochs, movements, motifs, works (theatre, painting, cinema, music, etc..) in German-speaking countries;
  • Ability to place a work in its aesthetic, cultural, socio-political and historical context.

Starting with a discussion about definitions of culture / civilization (Kant), course-work will consider philosophical and literary concepts of various epochs. Examples of the art of German Romanticism and Biedermeier (Beethoven, Friedrich, Spitzweg) illustrate the development in the German artistic and cultural history during the first half of the nineteenth century.

After an interregnum of Realism and Naturalism, Expressionism presented an art form in the first decade of the twentieth century that had a major impact not only in painting / sculpture, music, literature and theatre, but also in the new medium film (Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari, Nosferatu). The influence of Expressionism is also evident at the Bauhaus, founded in 1919 in Weimar by Walter Gropius. The unit aims to compare the use of motifs and iconography from the past that have been adapted to the logic and technology of cinematography. It analyzes the process of the emergence of aesthetics of film; also addressing the impact that cinema has had in cultural, artistic, socio-economic and political contexts.

OPITZ, Alfred et al. (1998) Sociedade e Cultura Alemãs, Lisboa: Universidade Aberta.
ARAÚJO, Carlos / RICHARD, Lionel (org.) (2000) Berlim, 1919-1933 Gigantismo, crise social e vanguarda: a encarnação extrema da modernidade, Lisboa: Terramar.
BÄR, Gerald (2006) “Perceptions of the Self as the Other: Double-Visions in Literature and Film”, in SCHÖNFELD, C. et. al. (ed.), Processes of Transposition: German Literature and Film, Amsterdam, New Jersey: Rodopi, pp. 89-117.(pdf) 
RODRIGUES, António Jacinto (1989) A Bauhaus e o Ensino Artístico, Lisboa: Editorial Presença.
SEEBERG, Ulrich (2005), "Dimensões filosóficas na obra de Caspar David Friedrich", ARS (São Paulo), vol.3 no.5, São Paulo.
HAKE, Sabine (2002) German National Cinema, London and New York: Routledge.
Filmes em DVD: R. Wiene, Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari (1919), F.W. Murnau, Nosferatu (1922).

Durante o semestre serão ainda fornecidos outros materiais e bibliografia específica, assim como recursos abertos, bancos de imagens e de documentação disponíveis na internet.

Continuous assessment is privileged: 2 digital written documents (e-folios) during the semester (40%) and a final digital test, Global e-folio (e-folio G) at the end of the semester (60%). In due time, students can alternatively choose to perform one final exam (100%).

Good reading skills inEnglish required