Syllabus: CPLT 592 01, GMAN 645 01,

Urban Phantasmagoria W, 3:30

READINGS: (Available, World Language Center, Yale Bookstore) Aragon, Louis: Paris Peasant (Paysan de Paris, Small Change Press) Barthes, Roland, Camera Lucida Balzac, The Wild Asss Skin (Peau de Chagrin) Baudelaire: Les Fleurs du mal (Wesleyan University Press) --The Painter of Modern Life & Other Essays (Phaidon) Benjamin, Walter: The Arcades Project (Das Passagen-Werk); Harvard UP or Gesammelte Schriften, Suhrkamp, Bd. V.1. --One-Way Street (Einbahnstrae), Collected Writings, (Harvard UP), Vol. 1; Gesammelte Schriften, Bd. IV. 1. -- On Some Motifs in Baudelaire, Collected Writings, Vol. IV; or in Illuminations (Schocken Books). ber einige Motive bei Baudelaire, Gesammelte Schriften, Bd. I. Cadava, Eduardo, Words of Light (Princeton UP, selections). Dblin, Alfred, Berlin Alexanderplatz (Continuum/dtv) Koolhaas, Rem: Delirious New York (Monacelli Press) SCHEDULE: Week # 1 #2 9/7

Introduction.

#3

9/14

#4

9/21

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9/28

Benjamins finished essayistic prose #1: Two versions of Paris, Capital of the 19th-Century, Arcades volume, 4-26 [I, 45-77]. Also: On Some Motifs in Baudelaire, Selected Writings, IV, 313-55 [GS, I.2, 606-53]; Illuminations, 155-200. The Arcades as they are: Convolutes A-D, Arcades Project, 31-119 [I, 83-178]. Issues: Arcades, fashion, modern merchandising, the foundations of Paris, boredom and urban shock, BenjaminNietzsche. Accompanying reading: Louis Aragon, Paris Peasant. Convolutes E-G, Arcades Project 120-202 [I, 197-268]. Issues: Haussmanization, iron construction, the Paris Commune, advertising, international expositions I the 19th-century. Visuals: the drawings of Grandville. From the exterior to the interior. Baudelaire. Collecting, 19th-century interiors, Baudelaires city, poetry, poetics, sexuality, cultural profile and impact, semblables, readers. Convolutes H-J, Arcades Project, 203-387 [I, 269-489]. Accompanying reading: Baudelaire, Les Fleurs du mal; Petits pomes en prose: A une passante, Crpuscule du soir, Obsession, Le voyage, Perte daureole, others. Visuals: Engravings, Senefelder, Meryon.

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10/5

#7

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#9 #10

#11 #12

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Benjamin theorizes himself and his method. Convolutes K-N, ArcadesProject, 388-488 [I, 490-611]. Theatrical engine, not only for this work but for an entire aesthetic of writing by citation, literary work as visual display. Pivotal terminology: Allegory, the dialectical image, constellations, shock. Convolute K: sleep, dreaming, awakening, messianic criticism. 10/12 Parisian modes of life in the 19th century: Prostitution, gambling, panorama, lighting, and their effects on Jugendstil. Convolutes O-R, Arcades Project, 489-542 [I, 612-64; II, 655-73]. Passages: Balzac, The Wild Asss Skin. Visuals: Jugendstil, Art nouveau. 10/19 Convolutes W-a, Arcades Project, 621-739 [II, 764-898]. Benjamins sources in social theory: Fourier and Marx, plus the sections on social movements and photography. Selected passages: Barthes, Camera Lucida; Eduardo Cadava, Words of Light (selections). 10/26 Berlin phantasmagoria: Benjamin, One-Way Street, Collected Writings, I, 444-88 [GS, IV, 1, 85-148]. 11/2 Surreal Benjamin. Review, Convolutes K, L. Also S-V, Arcades Project, 543-619 [II, 674-763]. Selected Manifestos of Surrealism. Poems by Apollinaire, prose by Breton, visual artifacts by Magritte, Ernst, Ray, Picabia. 11/9 Dblin, Berlin Alexanderplatz, Part 1. 11/14 Monday, 6:00 PM. Make-up class in advance: Dblin, Berlin Alexanderplatz, Part 2. Beginning, class presentations. 11/16. No class. 11/23 NO CLASSES. THANKSGIVING BREAK!! 11/30 International Benjamin, Delirious New York. More presentations. One session, if need be, in order to complete presentations.

Reading Week:

Term Assignment: The main thrust of coursework remains the classical critical essay or research project: on Benjamin himself and his writings, the city over the period of his interest in it, the technologies and communications media implicated by the Passagen-Werk (e.g. photography, the Worldwide Web, the graphic novel). In terms of the overall amount of work expected, it is roughly the 20 pp. of careful writing produced at Yale in response to a graduate or upper-level course. If students wish to do so, they may substitute an appropriate project in text display, website design, video, or photography for up to 1/3 of the semester-long expectation. It must be clear in which ways this project is a direct outgrowth of the Passagen-Werk and Benjamins work and thinking about the media, communications, the city, history, criticism, culture, and literary production. Students electing this option will still be expected to produce a substantial essay arising out of their encounter with Benjamins urban critique, but in the 12-15 pp. range. Ill be delighted to serve as a sounding board for these arrangements.