Catalog Description

SYE 471-1E 1900-Vienna-2000: Culture and Conflict in Vienna at the Turn of Two Centuries
(5 credit hours)

Autumn: 1 evening/week; Interterm: 2 weeks in Vienna; Winter: 2 evenings.

An imperial capital exploding with energy, wealth, sex, intellect, and power, Vienna's streets in 1900 teemed with the intriguing sounds of languages from the far reaches of the multi-national Habsburg Empire. Coffee house patrons rubbed shoulders with such giants as Freud, Mahler, Klimt, Schnitzler, and Wittgenstein. In 2005, recovered from the devastation of war and the straightjacket of the fallen Iron Curtain, Vienna is again a magnet for bright, striving young people from the new lands of the European Union, from Prague, Budapest, and Warsaw.

A resident might fear the city's being overrun by unwanted outsiders, or welcome it as a return to "normal times" when Vienna was the empire's capital, or both. In fact, not unlike our own country, Austria is engaged in an intense debate about multi-culturalism. This course will examine culture and conflict, the contexts and consequences of being Viennese in these two remarkable historic moments, 1900 and 2005.

The class will meet one evening per week during fall quarter, then students will travel to Vienna, Austria, for two weeks at the beginning of December Interterm for the highpoint of this multidisciplinary course. Living and learning in an awe-inspiring working monastery in the heart of Vienna with the city as their campus, students will explore the riches and poverty, the beauty and ugliness, the opportunities and the daunting challenges that faced Vienna and its people then and that face it now.

Students will come together again during January for two evenings of shared reflections and final presentations. The course will use multidisciplinary readings and discussions, and it will be team-taught by a course coordinator and other faculty members and guests, including a number of Viennese scholars. Students will learn basic traveler's German, but all readings will be in English. The city is well equipped to assist English-speaking visitors, and students will find that Viennese whom they meet are eager to speak English.