Prague of the late 19^th century became the site of ethnic and cultural contestation that would eventually transform all of Europe.  With the rise of Czech nationalism, German- speaking Jews of Prague became a double minority. In this course, we will explore the representations of the spaces of Prague from 1890 until 1920 to trace how German-speaking Jewish and gentile artists and thinkers attempted to negotiate the cultural, linguistic and political contradictions of a city undergoing rapid transformations. Their works raise a series of questions that we will address throughout the semester:

• How can one create a new cultural identity in a language that is becoming marginalized?  
• How are the historical discontinuities of modernizing Prague inscribed into the representation of urban spaces?
• To what extent did the responses of writers such as Franz Werfel and Franz Kafka to the cultural climate of Prague shape the intellectual climate of Europe in the early 20^th century?