245: Topics in Dutch Life and Culture: The Low Countries: a Culture of High Water
Lec 1 MWF 1:20, Taylor
Open to freshmen.
Note: also listed as German 445/645 – for those with Dutch language skills
The Low Countries are famous for their close relationship with the water: windmills, dikes, and Hans Brinker's silver skates are among the most persistent popular symbols of this "edge" of Europe– at least since "Hollandmania." This course will provide a thorough introduction to the Low Countries, their history and their contemporary culture, by focusing on their love/hate relationship to the water. The water means danger, and thus dikes (and-allegedly-the need to cooperate), but also trade, opportunity, beauty, and a resolute openness to the world. We will discuss what terps and polders are – but also the more recent idea of the "polder model," and which aspects of Dutch culture it has come to honor and criticize. We will look at the meaning of water in Dutch history and geography; at its effects on economic, military, and political life; at its treatment in art and literature; its times of greatest damage (floods, including 1953) and Dutch responses (polders, windmills, the Delta plan, environmentalism). We will discuss the Hanseatic cities of the Netherlands, topics in 17th Century art, water as defense strategy, the V.O.C. (Dutch East-India Company), land reclamation, the Eleven-Cities skating race, (photos of) contemporary landscapes, and Dutch views of what all these mean.
Learning Outcomes:
In a more general sense, this course inquires into knowledge of human cultures in relation to the physical and natural world in which those cultures develop. Students will have opportunities to work toward acquiring essential learning outcomes such as critical and creative thinking, oral and written communication, inquiry and analysis, intercultural knowledge, and ethical reasoning.
