Inhalt
Kurzkommentar |
Registration Period: 18.02.2019-03.03.2019
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Kommentar |
According to the Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben, modernity is characterized by legal and political processes that invest certain forms of life with rights to citizenship, political participation, and physical integrity, while excepting others from such privileges, thus reducing them to a state of "bare" life. In a similar vein, Judith Butler has lately drawn attention to the differences that characterize our responses to the loss of life at home and elsewhere, asking what makes a life grievable, and arguing for a conceptualization of (western) identities as fundamentally relational and globally embedded.
In this seminar, we will discuss Agamben's notions of "bare life" and "states of exception" as well as the ethical and political concerns expressed in Judith Butler's recent work. We will then move on to a discussion of "states of exception" in recent U.S. history – including Japanese internment, 9/11, and Guantanamo Bay – and, especially, the ways in which such states are represented, reflected upon, and responded to in literary texts and other forms of cultural expression. Our objects of analysis will include various genres and media from poetry to contemporary tv series. Please be aware that we will be dealing with complex and highly challenging philosophical texts and that there will be a substantial reading load.
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Leistungsnachweis |
Intensive Auseinandersetzung mit der von der Lehrperson benannten Primär- und Sekundärliteratur durch aktive und regelmäßige Mitarbeit (z.B. Arbeitsgruppen, Impulsreferate oder Präsentationen) in der Lehrveranstaltung oder durch von der Lehrperson festzulegende Ersatzleistungen wie z.B. Klausur oder mündliche Prüfung. |
Zielgruppe |
Kombi-BA
PO 2015:
ANG-F-C3A und C, ANG-G-C3A und C
Master
MEd (EN1; M-ENG2, M-ENG5, M-ENG8), MA: A/A (LIT 1, LIT 2), Kombi-MA (Z LIT, Z LIT 1a, Z Lit 1b), AVL |