Great Exhibitions - World Exhibitions

Darum sollten Sie dieses Seminar wählen:

Showing the world what your country has on offer: architecture, arts and crafts, all kinds of inventions and technology… Ever since the Great Exhibition in London in 1851 major cities in different countries and on different continents have organized world exhibitions, which in the pre-digital era almost acted as a substitute for the world-wide web: a very important medium showing an international audience a miniature version of the modern world, all in one accessible place. The English-speaking world, especially 19th-century England, but also Paris in France organised exhibitions of great importance in the Western world, and even if the heyday of world exhibitions is over, they still exist. The 2023 exhibition in Buenos Aires was cancelled due to the Pandemic and Argentina’s financial problems; but the next one will take place in Osaka, Japan in 2025. 

Das erwartet Sie inhaltlich:

In this seminar we will look at world exhibitions (Great Exhibitions – Weltausstellungen – expositions mondiales – exposiciones mundiales…) of the past and present and we will try and find out more about their influences on a country’s reputation especially in the 19th century; on international communication and the encounter of the alien, foreign or even exotic; on cultural understanding; on arts and crafts, architecture and urban planning; on the economy, consumer culture, and technological progress, and, of course, we gwill also look at their importance for the “ordinary” people, as well as for sovereigns or famous people. Bavarian King Ludwig II, for example, quite a fan of technology himself, found inspiration for Neuschwanstein Castle at the 1867 world exhibition in Paris. For your seminar paper you can either focus on a historical aspect of world exhibitions, or on a kind of “product” or invention, but you can also look at the development of these exhibitions, comparing certain aspects pertaining to them.

Hinweis:

The seminar is mainly aimed at students who want to delve into English (Seminarfach Englisch). But if you speak a second foreign language like French, Spanish or Italian, you can of course focus on the exhibition(s) of the country where your language is spoken, and – should you wish to do so - also write your paper (Seminararbeit) in German. The course languages will be English and German.