Environment, Food, Climate Change Syllabi

The Danube

This is part of our special feature, Rethinking the Human in a Multispecies World.

The Danube is all along the river of Europe: the Danube is an experiment that affects the whole world, what goes awry here can fail anywhere and everywhere; that which succeeds here gives us hope for other places.

—Karl-Markus Gauß, “The Teachings of the Danube” (1995)

Course description

Part of the “Communities and Identities” component of an undergraduate Core Curriculum program, “Core Danube” explores Europe’s second longest and most interesting river: from its beginnings in the German Black Forest to the Romanian and Ukrainian shores where it meets the Black Sea, the Danube flows through and/or borders ten countries, while its watershed covers four more. The river thus serves as a prominent artery of economic, cultural, and international exchanges in the diverse region of central and southeastern Europe. The recent violence in Ukraine, the migration of refugees into Europe along the “Balkan route” in 2015-6, and the emerging uncertainties of the prospects of European unification have again placed the region in the spotlight as its geopolitical fate continues to hang in the balance. This course structures its multidisciplinary inquiry around the river to examine the region’s longstanding history as a neglected, maligned and contested multilingual, multicultural, and multinational space. Culturally mapping this space by focusing on the river’s peoples, their intertwined histories, and their imaginaries, Core Danube traces the turbulent history of the region from antiquity, with an emphasis on the nineteenth century to the present. Topics of study include the region’s geography and history, theoretical paradigms for understanding cultural differences and their negotiation, and literary and cinematic works of art from various Danubian traditions. The examination of such materials will expose the Danube as a site of cross-cultural engagement in the New Europe as well as an instantiation of the global present.

The great river’s waters are not contained by its banks. Similarly, the course’s contents are not contained by the syllabus, but co-generated by participating students – and your research projects. Thus, in covering Danubian currents and their surrounding terrains, we will not only have the opportunity to explore an underrepresented region of the world replete with intriguing legacies; as students in this course, you will also develop critical reading, thinking, writing, speaking, and research skills in an interactive classroom. This course fulfills the “Communities and Identities” requirement of the Core Curriculum.” There are no prerequisites.

Course design: narratives, questions, and procedure

This course is devoted to the study of Europe’s second longest river. Navigable by ship from Bavaria to the Black Sea, the Danube serves as an artery of the culturally diverse geographic region of central and southeastern Europe. Once a frontier of the Roman Empire in antiquity, the Danube was claimed by the multicultural Austro-Hungarian Empire (1867–1918), and has been the subject of imperial aspirations by many others, from Ottomans to Soviets, from the occupied Europe of World War II to today’s European Union. The river both connects the capital cities of Austria (Vienna), Hungary (Budapest), Slovakia (Bratislava) and Serbia (Belgrade), and marks a border between nations such as Croatia and Serbia, Romania and Bulgaria. Flowing west to east, it has facilitated international and cultural exchanges in both directions. Due to its eastwardly traverse of a culturally diverse region, the Danube also frustrates attempts to divide Europe from non-Europe. It proves West and East to be fluidly connected, and yet has been the site of persistent divisions, ethnic hatred and genocide. The southeastern stretch of the river – once pejoratively maligned from Western European perspectives as a “Barbaropa” within the continent’s own geographic boundaries – has recently figured both as a site of the European Union’s expansion and a migration route of refugees seeking entry into it. The contiguity of regional identities, Europe’s proposed transnational continental identity, and the perception of Europe as a refuge for those afflicted by conflicts elsewhere turn the Danube into an exciting, if troubled space in which the conditions of identity and belonging are being negotiated in a globalizing age.

Core Danube embraces the river as a structuring geographic principle. The focus on the region’s riverine cohesiveness shifts the emphasis away from isolated treatment of each of the river’s fourteen countries’ national histories. To underscore the river’s status as artery supplants the study of nation-states: the longstanding political and cultural fluidity along and across the river makes the contingency – even the unlikelihood – of the nation-state clear. A geographically (rather than nationally) determined framework facilitates the study of the region’s entangled history as a deeply connected multilingual, multicultural and multinational space.

The very character of the Danube challenges disciplinary divisions and invites multidisciplinary approaches. Geographers, environmental scientists and historians have long paid attention to the physical features of the river. Collaboratively designed by two scholars in the humanities in consultation with an historian, Core Danube builds on such work to focus on the riverine region’s cultural history. To that end, we will study the region’s geography and history as well as an array of artistic works from various Danubian cultural traditions, which process and respond to historical, political, and economic challenges. Our engagement with theoretical paradigms for understanding cultural differences and their negotiation will facilitate a critical examination of how history has been shaped in the region.

The course opens with a brief foreword in Week 1 to establish basic familiarity with what may be a little known region. Materials assembled in Weeks 2 through 4 deepen this introduction by focusing on the geography of the river as well as its surrounding cultures and countries through visual, cinematic, cartographic, and historical-geographic means. Part of our concern here will be the interplay between geographies and political and cultural discourses: for example, we will analyze the concept of Central Europe (Mitteleuropa) and the implications of such a term’s usage. This unit also visits some of the region’s powerful myths to mark – and straddle – the divide between the Danube of Roman antiquity and medieval epic and the Danube of modernity.

The course’s second main unit examines the imperial imprints left by the Ottomans and Habsburgs on the region. Week 5 is devoted to the former. Weeks 6-7 turn to the so-called Danube Monarchy: due to the profound impact it has left on the region’s unity, the multi-ethnic state of Austria-Hungary warrants serious scrutiny. This experiment in transnational cultural identity, also crystallized in the arts and literature of the period, still hovers ambivalently between myth and reality. Of particular interest in approaching material from Austria-Hungary are guiding questions such as: how are the linguistic and cultural identities of Germans, Hungarians, Czechs, Jews, Poles, Ruthenians, Romanians, Serbs, Slovaks, Croats, Slovenes, Italians and Romani, etc. negotiated within the space of the Austrian state? What balance is struck between national and regional identities, between unity and diversity? To what extent does German-speaking Austria remain hegemonic? Why and how does the discourse of psychoanalysis arise in this milieu? How do the arts and literature produced in the Empire’s various languages reflect, frame and/or deconstruct the multiethnic, multicultural and multilingual dimensions of Austro-Hungarian realities? To what extent does Austria-Hungary and its demise harbor lessons about social fault-lines relevant to the global present?

In the third unit, the proverbially blue Danube, in reality rather gray, runs red with the blood spilt amidst the atrocities of World War II and the Shoah. Challenging readings from Freud and Adorno will help us think through Europe’s violent implosion. This darkest chapter of the waters also compels us to question how artistic media such as literature and film might represent unfathomable exacerbations of ethnic hostilities. Is the past a prologue for future calamities? The fourth unit situates the Danube within the geopolitics of the Cold War as an in-between space in which “first” and “second” worlds meet and alternatives arise to challenge that opposition, such as Josip Broz Tito’s leadership of the multinational and non-aligned Yugoslavian state. In its fifth and final unit, the course confronts the disintegration of Yugoslavia at the end of the Cold War as a turning point of Danubian, European, and maybe also global history. Why did that once promising country unravel so violently? How can regional identities and potential alliances survive Vukovar, Sarajevo, Srebrenica? Pursuing such questions in an age of tenuous European unification, we will relate the history of Yugoslavia to resurgent nationalisms, rage, and racism in contemporary Europe in an exploration of the seemingly elusive conditions of peaceful co-existence.

By way of its focus on works of creative and imaginative culture, Core Danube foregrounds the artistic mediation of actual and possible communities, in search of utopian promise even amidst and in the wake of historical atrocities. In the spirit of Gauß’ line cited as an epigraph above, the course asks both 1) what the European Union might stand to learn from studying the complex interweaving histories of the Danube as well as 2) what we in the U.S. stand to learn thereby.

Course materials: texts, films, and other resources

Required texts (available at the bookstore):

Andrew Beattie, The Danube: A Cultural History (Oxford UP, 2011)
Claudio Magris, Danube (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008)
Sigmund Freud, Civilization and its Discontents (Norton, 2010)

Required films (on reserve at the library):

Donau, Dunaj, Duna, Dunav, Dunarea (2003)
La Ronde (1950)
Cold Days (1966/1991)
The Danube Exodus (1998)
The Third Man (1949/1999)
Underground (1995/2003)
Snow (2008)
Optional addition: The Ister (2004)

Required texts, worksheets, and other materials on Moodle:

All worksheets and many of the required readings and related materials for this course are provided in the form of pdf scans on the Moodle site. These are marked in the course schedule below accordingly. Make a habit of printing out the texts to bring along to class sessions.

Additional resources (books and films) on reserve:

Additional materials are on reserve at the library. You can also seek out more material by consulting the course’s subject guide in the online library guides. Resources are also listed topically in the “Building the Danubian Database” document on Moodle.

Course requirements

Attendance and participation: Class sessions will be conducted as a combination of small and large group discussions along with other activities and only occasionally as a lecture. The quality of the course thus depends directly on your informed and active participation in class sessions. Laptops and related devices are permitted for class-related purposes only. Punctual attendance at each session is mandatory. More than two unexcused absences or tardy arrivals will result in a reduction of your grade. If you must miss class for legitimate reasons, notify me in advance by email if possible. We can meet during office hours or you can set up an appointment to discuss any missed work. Due to the course’s strong film component, a specific room has been reserved for a total of seven film screenings. Attendance at screenings is mandatory: check the course schedule below for screening dates.

Thorough preparation: Core Danube covers waters and territories with which you may be unfamiliar or find challenging. But they will repay your careful attention. You will be expected to come to class having studied the assignments (texts or films) by the date on which they will be discussed. Set aside ample time (in advance of the reading schedule if necessary) to concentrate on the readings in a quiet environment, think through what you want to focus on in class by writing down notes and questions about the materials, using the worksheets provided on Moodle as a guide.

Assignments: The main assignments for this class are described below. All written work should be typed, double-spaced, and in a readable font size. You must proofread your written work and all papers must include your name and a title. I will grade all written work in terms of its content, coherence and elegance. Plagiarism is unacceptable and ground for serious penalties. Any case of suspected plagiarism will be reported to the Dean’s office.

Two short papers (3-4 pages each). One of these, an essay, will practice close reading and situate the material analyzed in its relevant geographic, historical and cultural context(s). The other will deliver a report from your travel log (you will receive “The Log Assignment” handout). Dates for these papers are indicated in the class schedule below – you can choose which paper you wish to hand in by which date, but you must meet the deadlines. Failure to do so will sink your grade. More information about the paper assignments will be provided in class.
Additional task-oriented homework assignments will be designed to facilitate classroom interaction between course participants. These assignments will vary from week to week and may include log entries, Moodle posts, discussion questions, and/or group work. These assignments will be outlined on the worksheets.
The mid-term exam grade will be based on the evaluation of 6 team-based (3-4 students each) postscripts to be held at the end of each of the course’s five main units, with 2 such postscripts to Unit 2. A postscript consists of a short group presentation that will serve to summarize, review and sharpen the main ideas covered in each unit. Students and the instructor may pose questions to each group’s postscript and the instructor will grade both the group presentation and the quality of responses to questions. (In some cases, the postscript may be prepared as a prescript to frame and steer the relevant class discussion. Consult with me beforehand if you’d like to do this.) We will work out the scheduling of the postscripts according to projections in the class schedule. The final comprehensive exam will be conducted in a more traditional written format at the end of the semester.
The student research project

Due to the range of potential subjects for focused study falling within its radar, Core Danube lends itself well to the required student research project identified in the Communities and Identities’ guidelines. In keeping with the goals of this course, students will develop and present their projects in written, oral, and visual forms: the research project will combine a final term paper, a team poster, and an oral presentation on a Danubian topic. Each student will submit his or her own term paper on a topic of his or her choice within the research framework provided on “The Student Research Project” sheet. Each poster will be crafted by 2-4 students working on overlapping topics and serve as the basis of the oral presentation. Together, these three components will constitute the largest assignment for the course and 40% of the final grade. Critical feedback provided on the two shorter papers will help you sharpen your analytical and argumentative skills prior to embarking on the research assignment. Scheduled library sessions will also facilitate research and poster work.

Components of the research project

A separate handout – “The Student Research Project” – will be distributed with specific guidelines for the research project. That handout includes a research framework of possible areas of inquiry. The following information is for the sake of an initial overview:

For the final term paper, each student will:

Submit a research proposal of his or her topic by the date indicated in the class schedule below. A proposal includes a preliminary title for the project, an articulation of the guiding question of the research agenda, an explanation of how the topic relates to Core Danube, and a preliminary thesis statement regarding the approach you will take to the topic. Once the topic and approach are approved, you will

Assemble an annotated bibliography. This bibliography, which must include at least six sources beyond the course’s required readings and screenings, will serve as the scholarly basis for your argument to

3) Write a 10-12 page final paper, due at the end of the semester.

For the posters: once each student has settled on a topic, areas of intersecting interest will be identified to establish groups of 3-5 students who will combine efforts to craft a visual and textual representation of their related research projects in the form of a poster. The poster will serve as the basis for the oral presentation. Presentations will take place during the final one and a half weeks of class. They should last about 10-15 minutes. Each of you must be prepared to field questions from fellow students and the instructor in the Q&A session following your presentation.

The research project grade will be based on the following components: Paper 25% (includes the proposal and bibliography), Poster 10% (1 grade per poster), Presentation 5%.

Evaluation

Student work will be assessed in the following way for the final grade:

Attendance and class participation 20 %

Two 3-4 page papers 20 %

Final research project 40 % (total)

Midterm (scheduled as group postscripts) 10 %

Final exam 10 %

The attendance and participation grade includes regular class work, quizzes (announced or unannounced), biweekly screenings, discussion questions and any additional homework.

Class schedule

This schedule provides an overview of reading and writing assignments as well as the dates for film screenings for the entire semester. Readings and/or films will be discussed – and assignments are due – on the dates indicated here. Scanned/electronically available texts marked with an * below are accessible via Moodle. Print these out and bring them to class. You must also consult worksheets (1-2 per main unit) on Moodle for more specific information about the assignments, including passages to focus on in the reading. While background readings are optional, I may draw on them in class and you are strongly encouraged to read voraciously. I will also post paper topics on Moodle.

The material is divided into five main units, which flow into one other. The final week of class is reserved for presentations and review. Our inquiry into the history and culture of the Danube will permeate the five units. Following the foreword in the first week, these are:

Introduction to the Danube: The river’s geography and myths
The Danube and empires: Ottomans and Habsburgs
The Red Danube in World War II
The non-Aligned Danube in the Cold War
When powder kegs explode: From Yugoslavia to the new Europe

WEEK ONE. Core Danube: a foreword

Day 1: Introductions

Sailing the Danube in this course
Strauss, “The Blue Danube”
Lockwood, “A Sound Map of the Danube”

Day 2: Syllabus review and questions

Beattie, The Danube: A Cultural History (Introduction: “The King of the Rivers of Europe” and from chapter one: “In the Beginning”=pgs. ix-xx and 3-10)*

Day 3: The teachings of the Danube

Gauß, “The Teachings of the Danube” (from Morath/Gauß, Donau, pgs. 15-23)*
Coates, “Danube” (excerpts from A Story of Six Rivers: History, Culture and Ecology, pgs. 32-38 and 74-85)*

WEEK TWO. Introduction to the Danube: the river’s geography and myths

Day 1:

Magris, “Donaueschingen vs. Furtwangen,” “The Report,” “Moralists […]” in Danube, pgs. 19-28
Roth, “Rivers as Bridges – Rivers as Boundaries: Some Reflections on Intercultural Exchange on the Danube”*
“How to view a film” (quick reference sheet)*
Film screening 1, 7:00 pm: Donau, Dunaj, Duna, Dunav, Dunarea (Rebić, Austria, 2003, 90 minutes)

Day 2:

Discussion of Donau, Dunaj, Duna, Dunav, Dunarea
“How to view a film” (quick reference sheet)*

Day 3:

Magocsi, Historical Atlas of Central Europe (pgs. 2-3, 78-82, 202-4 and 221-4)*
Schillmeier/Pohler, “The Danube and ways of imagining Europe” (pgs. 25-30 and 39-40)*

WEEK THREE. Introduction to the Danube: The river’s geography and myths (cont’)

Day 1: Mapwork

Danubian Populations, Countries and Cultures along the River (in Time)
Magocsi, Historical Atlas of Central Europe, pages 2-3, 202-4 and 221-4*
Okey, “Central Europe/Eastern Europe: Behind Definitions?” (102-133)*
Background reading:
- European Commission, “The Danube Space Study” (for quick reference)*

Day 2: Discourse and geography

Geography quiz
Magris, “Mitteleuropa: Hinternational or all-German?” etc. (=Danube 28-43)

Day 3: Discourse and geography (cont’)

Todorova, from Imagining the Balkans: “Introduction”*
Kundera, “The Tragedy of Central Europe”*
Background reading:
- Stirk, “Introduction: The Idea of Mitteleuropa” (1-28)*
- Todorova, “Chapter 6: Between Classification and Politics: The Balkans and the Myth of Central Europe”*

WEEK FOUR: Introduction to the Danube: the river’s geography and myths (cont’)

Day 1: Danubian antiquity, ruins, and legacies

Campbell, Rivers and the Power of Ancient Rome (pages 1-4, 13-22, 291-300, 328-9, 369-388)*
Marcus Aurelius, selections from Meditations*
Ovid, Amores, 3.6*
Magris, “The Roman Limes,” “Carnuntum,” “Black Sea” (Danube 97-98, 210-212, 380-2)
Supporting mapwork: Magocsi, Historical Atlas, pages 2-7*

Day 2: Danubian myths

Song of the Nibelungen: Chs. 1, 14, 17, 23, 25, 39*
Beattie, “The Song of the Nibelungs,” 53-57
Magris, “Kriemhild and Gudhrun,” 119-122

Day 3: Hölderlin, “At the Source of the Danube,” “The Migration,” “The Ister”*

WEEK FIVE: The Danube and Empires: Ottomans

Day 1:

Postscript to Unit 1: Introduction to the Danube
Andersen, “The Passage of the Danube”*
Beattie, from Ch. 6, 119-120
Background reading:
- Beattie, “Eastern Serbia and the Gorges,” 193-212
- Magocsi, Historical Atlas, 76-80, 83-86*

Day 2:

Andersen, “The Passage of the Danube” (continued)*
Background reading in Danube poetry:
- Vazov, “Radetzki”*
- József, “By the Danube”*

Day 3:

Beattie, “Budapest and the Heart of Hungary” 151-176
Magris, “The Turks before Vienna,” “At the Gates of Asia?,” and “An Ice-Cream in Budapest,” 176-180, 241-5, and 261-266

WEEK SIX: The Danube and Empires: Ottomans and Habsburgs

Day 1:

Postscript to the first part of Unit 2: The Danube and Empires: Ottomans
Wank, “The Habsburg Empire”*
Lemon, from Imperial Messages: “Introduction”*
Beattie, excerpts on Austria and Vienna, 65-68 and 94-106
Background reading:
- Magocsi, Historical Atlas, 76-82*
- Magris, “Poet’s Dummy,” 167-8
Monday film screening 2, 7:00 pm: La ronde (Ophüls, France, 1950, 95 minutes)

Day 2:

Discussion of La ronde
Schnitzler, “The Dead are Silent”*

Day 3:

Discussion of La ronde
Schnitzler, “The Dead are Silent”*
Background reading:
- Janik/Toulmin, “Habsburg Vienna: City of Paradoxes”*

Due: Short paper #1 (close reading or log report)

WEEK SEVEN: The Danube and Empires: Habsburgs

Day 1:

Roth, “The Bust of the Emperor”*
Extra: (Film screening): Nordrand/Northern Skirts (Albert, Austria, 1999, 109 minutes)

Day 2:

Magris, “Thinking with the Mind of Several Peoples” and “A Green Horse,” 291-6
Background reading:
- King, “The Nationalization of East Central Europe”*
- Magocsi, Historical Atlas, 118-129*

Day 3:

Musil, The Man without Qualities (Chapters 1-8, focusing on chapter 8)

WEEK EIGHT: The Red Danube in World War II

Day 1:

Postscript to the second part of Unit 2: The Danube and Empires: Habsburgs
Freud, Civilization and its Discontents (chapters 1-4)
Background reading:
- Magocsi, Historical Atlas, 118-129*
- Deák, “The Habsburg Empire”*
Monday film screening 3, Lawrence 20, 7:00 pm: Cold Days (Kovács, Hungary, 1966, 96 min.)

Day 2:

Discussion of Cold Days
Labov, “Cold Days in the Cold War”*

Day 3:

Discussion of Cold Days
Freud, Civilization and its Discontents (complete)
Background reading:
- Magocsi, Historical Atlas, 177-184*
- Beattie, 69-78

Due: Short paper #2 (close reading or log report—whichever you did not yet submit)

WEEK NINE: The Red Danube in World War II

Day 1:

Freud, Civilization and its Discontents (complete)
Monday film screening 4, 7:00 pm: The Danube Exodus (Forgács, Hungary, 1998, 60 min.)

Day 2:

Discussion of The Danube Exodus (also in conjunction with Forgács’s website)

Day 3:

Adorno, “Education after Auschwitz”*

Due: Research proposals (see guidelines sheet)

WEEK TEN: The Non-aligned Danube in the Cold War

Day 1:

Class library session on research
Beattie, “Through the Burgenland to Slovakia,” 107-120
Monday film screening 5, 7:00 pm: The Third Man (Reed, UK, 1949, 104 minutes)

Here is a very brief introduction to the film.

Day 2:

Postscript to Unit 3: The Red Danube
Discussion of The Third Man

Day 3;

Discussion of The Third Man
Background reading:
- Magocsi, Historical Atlas, 185-193, 202-204
- Judt, “The Politics of Stability” (from Postwar, 241-256)*
- Magris, “Karl-Marx-Hof,” 197-9

WEEK ELEVEN: The Non-aligned Danube in the Cold War

Day 1:

Research coordination
Lampe, Yugoslavia as History: Twice There Was a Country, 1-8*
Magocsi, Historical Atlas, 153-8
Background reading:
- Beattie, “Through the Former Yugoslavia,” 177-189

Monday film screening 6, 7:00 pm: Underground (Kusturica, France/Germany/Hungary/FR Yugoslavia/Bulgaria, 1995, 167 minutes)

Day 2:

Discussion of Underground; reading assignment  choose one of the following:
- Rivi, “Underground and the Balkanization of History”*
- Galt, “Yugoslavia’s Impossible Spaces” (pgs. 123-148)*
- Jameson, “Thoughts on Balkan Cinema”*

Day 3:

Class library session on posters and visual literacy

Due: Annotated bibliographies

WEEK TWELVE: When powder kegs explode: from Yugoslavia to the New Europe

Day 1:

Postscript to Unit 4: The Non-Aligned Danube
Bakic-Hayden, “Nesting Orientalisms: The Case of Former Yugoslavia”*
Background reading:
- Djokić, “The Past as Future: Post-Yugoslav Space in the Early Twenty-First Century”*
Monday film screening 7, 7:00 pm: Snow (Begic, Bosnia-Herzegovina/Germany/France/Iran, 2008, 100 minutes)

Day 2:

Discussion of Snow
Mazaj, “Marking the Trail: Balkan Women Filmmakers and the Transnational Imaginary”*

Day 3:

Discussion of Snow; Magris, “A Saga of Belgrade,” 331-333

DUE: First drafts of group posters

WEEK THIRTEEN: When powder kegs explode: from Yugoslavia to the New Europe

Day 1:

Ugrešić, “The Culture of Lies” and “Glossary” (66-85 and 269-73)*
Extra: (Film screening): Im Juli/In July (Akin, Germany, 1999, 100 minutes)

Day 2:

Magris, “At the Frontier,” “At the Delta” and “Into the Black Sea,” 386-401

Day 3:

Postscript to Unit 5: From Yugoslavia to the New Europe

DUE: Final group posters

WEEK FOURTEEN: Final project presentations as poster sessions

See sign-up sheet for scheduling.

Poster sessions
Review and conclusions
Due: Final papers

Final exam (two hours)

Matthew D. Miller is Associate Professor of German at Colgate University in Hamilton, New York. His first book The German Epic in the Cold War: Peter Weiss, Uwe Johnson, and Alexander Kluge appeared in 2018 at Northwestern University Press. He has published articles and book chapters on twentieth and twenty-first century Germanophone literature and culture, co-edited Watersheds: Poetics and Politics of the Danube River, and is working on a new project on the literature and politics of the first Austrian republic with a focus on Red Vienna.

Published on November 9, 2021