This course develops historical and theoretical perspectives for understanding the intersections of post-Enlightenment European literature and museum culture. By probing the specific ways literary texts and exhibitions organize and arrange objects to tell a culture's stories, the course works to understand what museums and literature also have in common and how modern literature (novels and poems) and public museums are driven by similar cultural forces. Authors include: JW Goethe, Gustav Flaubert, William Carlos Williams, Rainer Maria Rilke, Peter Weiss, Dubravka Ugresic, WG Sebald. Close study of Schinkel's Altes Museum, Klenze's Alte Pinakothek, Berlin's Pergamon Museum, the Louvre; history museums in Paris, Caen, Rouen; contemporary museum installation, architecture and digital technology. This course can be taken for graduate credit. Graduate students will be expected to contribute a short report in class on a topic of their choosing as well as write a longer research paper.

Estimated cost of materials: $50-100.