Class 3.2

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Expressionism and Alienation

In Social Science you’ve learned about Emile Durkheim’s theory of anomie: a breakdown of social norms precipitated by the shift from small rural communities to large-scale urban life. In the first half of the twentieth century, many writers and visual artists gave voice to a sense of alienation, none more famously than Edward Munch in The Scream (1910).

Both Eliot’s Waste Land and Chaplin’s Modern Times channel the theme of alienation. For class today we examine artists who raised this anxiety to a fever pitch: the Expressionists.

Class Prep: Expressionism

Expressionism

Expressionism in art is often traced to the influence of Edvard Munch, whose Scream captures the artist’s tortured soul. In the years before the War, Expressionism spread from painting to poetry, drama and film and after the war it came to define the Avant-Garde in Weimar Germany.

Reading: Strickland, pp 123, 142-44.

Viewing: Expressionist art

  • Edvard Munch, The Scream (earliest version 1893; this version 1910)
  • Egon Schiele, Self-Portrait (1910)
  • Otto Dix, Storm Troopers Advance under a Gas Attack (1924)
  • Otto Dix, Portrait of the Journalist Sylvia von Harden (1926)
  • Max Beckmann, Self-Portrait with Champagne Glass (1919)
  • Max Beckmann, The Actors (1942)

Writing: Respond to ONE of the following prompts. Keep your response short, posting as a reply under the appropriate heading in the comments section:

  1. Point to a stylistic or thematic pattern you see in some or all of these artworks.
  2. Point to a striking detail in one particular artwork.
  3. Given that “anomie” is defined as the loss of social norms, point to a particular artwork and explain how it challenges or violates the viewer’s normative expectations.
Class Prep: The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

Crooked Houses, Crooked Minds

Committed pacifists Hans Janowitz and Carl Mayer wrote the screenplay for The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari in the wake of World War I. The movie reflects the antiwar ethos and Expressionist aesthetic that came to the fore in 1920s Weimar Germany.

Viewing:
Robert Wiene, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari available via: Kanopy. Make sure to turn on both the volume (there is music!) and the English subtitles (to accompany the German intertitle cards).

Writing: Respond to ONE of the following prompts. Keep your response short, posting as a reply under the appropriate heading in the comments section:

  1. Point out and comment on a stylistic or thematic pattern in the movie’s visuals.
  2. Point out and comment on a moment where the movie challenges authority or the social order.

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