Experimental Cultures

This seminar course will provide a punctual survey of trends and figures in the experimental cultures of East Central Europe.  Formations include the avant-gardes (first, postwar, and postcommunist); experimental Modernisms and Postmodernisms; alternative film, media, and visual culture; and formally inventive responses to exceptional historical circumstances.  Proceeding roughly chronologically from early twentieth to early twenty-first centuries, we will examine expressionist/surrealistic painting and drama; zenithist hybrid genres such as cinépoetry and proto-conceptualist writing; mixed-media relief sculpture; post-conceptual art; experimental and animated film; and avant-garde classical music.  In terms of theory, we will draw on regional and global approaches to artistic experimentation ranging from Marxist and other theories of value through discourses of the body and sexuality in culture to contemporary affect theory.  The course will be taught in English with material drawn primarily from Poland, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary.  Each session will include a lecture followed by discussion.