HR4RS stamp
Raul Garcia Hemonnet
It is the 100th anniversary of the 20s and the URJC has organized a congress that, in two days, has analysed, through artistic works of all kinds, aspects such as society, politics and the changes that have taken place in that decade.
The 20's of the last century are the years of 'Metropolis' and the 'Great Gatsby' but also of 'Mein Kampf'. To analyze this convulsive decade that meant a brief period of peace between two world wars, called 'The Roaring 20's', the URJC has brought together a series of university experts who have contributed different points of view looking at aspects such as cinema, art or literature of the moment.
The objective has been, as pointed out by the professor of the Department of Public Law II and Philology I, Pilar Martino, "to review this historical period, through literature, music and art, so that students broaden the knowledge covered in their subjects." Martino points out that not only humanities students have passed through Congress, but also those from more technological campuses such as the one in Móstoles, which have told him that “they miss the fact that there are no more activities of this type at the University, with knowledge that, due to their qualifications, they do not see”.
The congress, which under the title of 'One hundred years of the Roaring 20s. A characterization of the time through art, literature, society and cinema', has brought together academics from universities such as Alicante, Miguel Hernández and Complutense of Madrid, which, in addition to those of the URJC, have used the analysis of books, films and pictorial works to bring this period closer to students.
“We have talked about the artistic avant-garde, or how literary works reflected the spirit of the times in different contexts (Anglophone, Francophone and Spanish), we have also discussed the importance of a film like Metropolis and the figure of its director, Fritz Lang, as well as the phenomenon of the cabaret or the Music-Hall as a show in the big cities”, indicates the URJC professor.
A vast program that has also served to establish some similarities between the 20 of the 20th century and the current 20 of the XNUMXst century. In the XNUMXs of the last century, a very advanced feminism emerged, both aesthetically and in relation to civil rights, likewise, for example, political criticism is used through euphemisms, very present in current monologues.
These and other elements, Pilar Martino points out, “are the seed for understanding advances and social phenomena that are taking place today. They are aspects that, if we do not know them, we think that they were born yesterday and it is important to know History.”
The Congress is part of the Humanistic Training Seminar, organized together with the University of Alicante. Upcoming activities include an event that wants to contrast the Black Legend with the Golden Legend and, later on, a Congress in commemoration of the death of the Austrian poet, Rainer Maria Rilke.