Between Illness and Genius: Artists in Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Narratives

Writers, poets, musicians and painters, but also clowns and circus acrobats have been the protagonists of novellas since Romanticism. As brilliant individuals they are often simultaneously the chosen ones and the outsiders. They are torn between sacrificing themselves for art and the battle for an audience appreciative of their art. Self-doubt and social isolation, melancholy and delusions of grandeur, visions of renewal and redemption are associated with the character of the modern artist. The dimensions and the interpretations of this conflict between artist and society will be followed and analyzed in selected novellas from Romanticism to the present. At the same time, we will gain valuable insight into nineteenth and twentieth century literary history.

Required texts: Wackenroder/Tieck: Herzensergießungen eines kunstliebenden Klosterbruders (Reclam); Georg Büchner: Lenz.Studienausgabe mit Quellenanhang und Nachwort (Reclam); Franz Kafka: Ein Landarzt und andere Prosa (Reclam); Thomas Mann: Der Tod in Venedig und andere Erzählungen (Fischer Verlag).