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Instructing Normalcy, Anna R. Derosa Jan 2021

Instructing Normalcy, Anna R. Derosa

Senior Projects Spring 2021

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Multidisciplinary Studies of Bard College.


Bildung As Cult: Education Through Secret Societies In German Literature, Henry Charles Smith Levin Jan 2021

Bildung As Cult: Education Through Secret Societies In German Literature, Henry Charles Smith Levin

Senior Projects Spring 2021

This paper will focus on aspects of German literature that convey ideas of education in unorthodox ‘classrooms’, namely through the tutelage of mystic organizations, or cults if you will. Cults are typically associated with Manson style blood-soaked ritual, passionate and even erotic worship of a charismatic pseudo-intellectual. However German literature often features a more benevolent form of cult, where the proposed magic is real, the leader worthy of their pedestal, and the purpose is to oppose either literal oppressive regimes or more abstract regimes of malaise and doldrums.

The Magic Flute puts the cult of Sarastro’s Brotherhood and its Egyptian …