| Instructor: Dr. Jeff Webb |
The Metropolis and Mental Life
Read the following texts:
George Simmel, The Metropolis and Mental Life
(1903)
Virginia Woolf, "Solid Objects," in A Haunted House and
Other Stories (New York: Harcourt Brace, 1972), 79-86.
Preparation:
"The Metropolis and Mental Life" is a condensation of Simmel's
much longer and much less readable tome, The Philosophy
of Money (1900). The essay is an important one for understanding
the effect of the urban environment on the people living in
it (or at least for understanding how people at the time thought
of the effect), and is clearly written, though quite dense.
Spend time reading it closely and consider these study
questions, which might help you work through the essay.
Read the entire essay, but focus your analysis on the first
half.
Our discussion of Simmel will be devoted to understanding
his analysis of metropolitan life. We will proceed by considering
these keywords and concepts.
- Individuality
- Personality
- Metropolis
- Village
- Money
- Intellectuality
- Loneliness
- Quantity
- Quality
- Time
- Freedom
- Blasè attitude
Writing Assignment: Simmel's essay is tough to write
about. The concepts are abstract and Simmel often does not
spell out the relations between them. Nonetheless, since you
will most likely use some of his ideas in your second paper,
it is essential that you acquire a working knowledge of the
essay. To this end, your assignment is to summarize thoroughly,
but concisely, the first ten paragraphs of the essay in no
more than one single spaced page. You can recycle this material
later for your paper.
Further Reading (please contact
me if you find materials that should be added to this
list):
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