{"product_id":"the-culture-of-the-case-isbn-9780262047708","title":"The Culture of the Case","description":"\u003cb\u003eHow artists in twentieth-century Germany adapted the idea of the medical or legal case as an artistic strategy to push to the fore sexualities, scandals, and crimes that were otherwise concealed.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn early twentieth-century Germany, the artistic avant-garde borrowed procedures from the medical and juridical realms to expose and debate matters that society preferred remain hidden and unspoken. Frederic J. Schwartz explores how the evocation or creation of a “case” provided artists with a means to engage themes that ranged from blasphemy to \u003ci\u003eLustmord\u003c\/i\u003e, or sexual murder. Shedding light on the case as a cultural form, Schwartz shows its profound effect on artists and the ways it dovetailed with methods used by these figures to exploit fundamental changes taking place across the mass media of their time.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eAs Schwartz shows, the case was a common denominator that connected seemingly disparate works. George Grosz and Rudolf Schlichter drew on it for their violent visual art, as did architect Adolf Loos when he equated ornament with crime. Expressionists, meanwhile, approached the question of whether the so-called “mad” shared a right of public expression with those deemed sane, and examined medical and legal approaches to what society labeled as insanity. The case also took on a personal dimension when artists found themselves confronted with, or chose to engage with, the legal system. German courts prosecuted John Heartfield and others for their provocative works, while Bertolt Brecht created publicity for himself by suing the firm to whom he sold the film rights to \u003ci\u003eThe Threepenny Opera\u003c\/i\u003e. Provocative and insightful, \u003ci\u003eThe Culture of the Case\u003c\/i\u003e offers a privileged view of the spaces of representation in which images—in some instances, as cases—functioned at a key moment of modernity.\u003cbr\u003e Introduction\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Culture of the \"Case\" and the Problem of Publicness \u003c\/i\u003e9\u003cbr\u003e1 Architecture and Crime\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eAdolf Loos and the Culture of the Case \u003c\/i\u003e35\u003cbr\u003e2 Madness, Expressionism, and the Public Sphere\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eFrom Oskar Panizza to George Grosz \u003c\/i\u003e75\u003cbr\u003e3 Lustmord \u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eMapping the Public Sphere \u003c\/i\u003e167\u003cbr\u003e4 Politics and \"Perversion\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Cases of Rudolf Schlichter \u003c\/i\u003e243\u003cbr\u003e5 Paper, Scissors, Photograph\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eBertolt Brecht and the Culture of the Case \u003c\/i\u003e295\u003cbr\u003eConclusion 355\u003cbr\u003eAcknowledgments 361\u003cbr\u003eNotes 363\u003cbr\u003eIndex 413\"\u003ci\u003eThe Culture of the Case\u003c\/i\u003e reads as law and humanities scholarship of the best kind—cross-disciplinary, wide-ranging, associative, and well-researched in archives and scholarship in both German and English. . . . A major and exceptional book. \u003ci\u003eThe Culture of the Case\u003c\/i\u003e manages to pull off the rare feat of matching the creativity of its subjects and topic with its own creativity of thought and high-level scholarly analysis. Hats off—just like the bald man on the cover.\"\u003cbr\u003e—\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eLaw, Culture and the Humanities\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\"A conceptually ambitious re-evaluation of art, crime, and publicity in early-twentieth-century German-speaking Europe. . . . Schwartz is an admirable guide.\"\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003e—\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eOxford Art Journal\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\"Let there be no mistake: this is a compact yet magnificent contribution to the history of modern cultural production in German-speaking Central Europe. It should be an essential read not only for modern art historians but also for cultural historians and social theorists who think about subcultural rebellion and disciplinary authority, individual agency and social constraint, and the determined negotiations that produce knowledge.\"\u003cbr\u003e—\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eGerman Studies Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e“Once again Frederic Schwartz trains his bright light on the unstable frameworks of judgment: in early twentieth-century Germany they assumed a particular form – legal cases unveiled to the public. Aesthetics squirm and yield up new orders of morality. Political questions rise up, unbidden.  One cannot ask for more.  This is most timely book.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Molly Nesbit, Professor of Art on the Mary Conover Mellon Chair at Vassar College; author of \u003ci\u003eThe Pragmatism in the History of Art\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e“This magnificent book cuts through the history of early-twentieth-century culture with a new epistemological instrument—the case—and shows what it meant to perceive the social world in cases. Everyone interested in the art and science of the 1920s has to read it.”\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e—Anke te Heesen, Professor and Chair of the History of Science, Humboldt University, Berlin\u003c\/b\u003eFrederic J. Schwartz is Emeritus Professor of History of Art at University College London. His books include \u003ci\u003eThe Werkbund: Design Theory and Mass Culture before the First World War\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eBlind Spots: Critical Theory and the History of Art in Twentieth-Century Germany\u003c\/i\u003e.","brand":"The MIT Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46305022116069,"sku":"NP9780262047708","price":45.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780262047708.jpg?v=1767738891","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/the-culture-of-the-case-isbn-9780262047708","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}