German neo-humanism 4018-KONW159-OG

The proposed reading material focuses the attention on important issues of 19th-century German worldview and culture, while the suggested writers still belong to the canon of world culture.
This is one of few courses intended for students interested in learning about the German humanist tradition in European culture. Familiarity with the required reading also facilitates contemporary humanities and cultural studies research on the 19th and 20th centuries. The course is taught in Polish as a seminar.
Friedrich August Wolf – his understanding of humanism and antiquity, contribution to the reception of ancient culture in Germany.
Wilhelm von Humboldt: (the notion of self-development, the role of language in human culture). The Goal of Man; On Thought and Speech.
Johann G. Herder, his polemics with the French Enlightenment, anthropology, thoughts about the Greeks.
Johann Joachim Winckelmann: Thoughts on the Imitation of Greek Works in Painting and Sculpture; The History of Art in Antiquity (excerpts) – the ancients' ideal of beauty.
Johann W. Goethe: Iphigenia in Tauris; excerpts from Italian Journey [Podróż włoska, Warszawa 1980] – neo-humanism as a continuation and modification of antiquity.
Friedrich Schiller: Ode to Joy – Greek themes in Schiller's poetry.
Friedrich Nietzsche: his vision of antiquity and humanism:
1. Nietzsche's classical education. Basel (the academic community) during Nietzsche's time there
2. Constructing the archaic period as anti-classical. The archaic Greek state
3. The birth of the tragedy – attempts at interpretation / the Dionysian worldview
4. Nietzsche's Homer, Empedocles and Heraclitus
5. The image of a philologist and historian according to Nietzsche. Wir Philologen, Untimely Meditations.

Type of course

general courses

Learning outcomes

Knowledge: improvement of erudition (facts and rules of conduct) related to the reception of German culture, as referenced by 19th- and 20th-century creators of culture.
Skills: a changed style of learning from passive to active, development of independent learning and interests, proficiency in hermeneutic consideration of texts.
Social competence: references to European culture contribute to developing an attitude of social maturity, assuming that European culture encompasses people's common existential experience and forms a universal plane of communication.

Assessment criteria

Criteria: active participation in discussions and their evaluation (the degree of insight in analyses, formulation of interpretation hypotheses, the level of their justification and originality, use made of available literature, identifying the most important or characteristic elements of the problem and formal structure of a given text, analysing their function).

Methods: continuous assessment and a final graded oral test.

Bibliography

Friedrich August Wolf: Darstellung der Altertumswissenschaft nach Begriff, Umfang, Zweck und Wert, Berlin 1985.
Wojciech Bałus: Nowy systemat wiedzy, w: Johann Joachim Winckelmann, Dzieje sztuki starożytnej, przeł. Tadeusz Zatorski, Kraków 2012.
Wilhelm von Humboldt: (pojęcie samodoskonalenia, rola języka w ludzkiej kulturze). Cel człowieka; O myśli i mowie. Wybór pism Warszawa 2002.
Michael Zaremba: J. G. Herder - Prediger der Humanität, Köln 2002.

J. G. Herder: Język, mitologia i poezja Greków; Mądrość etyczna i polityczna Greków; Działalność naukowa Greków; Ogólne rozważania o dziejach Grecji, w: Herder: Myśli o filozofii dziejów (wybór), Warszawa 2000.

J. W. Goethe, Podróż włoska, Warszawa 1980.

Marek Siemek: Fryderyk Schiller, Warszawa 1970.

F. Schiller: Dzieła wybrane (T. 1-3), red. Barbara Płaczkowska, Warszawa 1955.
J. W. Goethe: Dramaty wybrane, wybór S. Lichański, Warszawa 1984.

H. A Korff, Geist der Goethezeit, 5 Bde, Darmstadt 1977.

Hubert Cancik, Nietzsche‘s Antike, Stuttgart 2000, 2. Auflage.

Additional information

Information on level of this course, year of study and semester when the course unit is delivered, types and amount of class hours - can be found in course structure diagrams of apropriate study programmes. This course is related to the following study programmes:

Additional information (registration calendar, class conductors, localization and schedules of classes), might be available in the USOSweb system:

Description of 4018-KONW159-OG in USOSweb