HISTORY 389: MODERN EUROPEAN INTELLECTUAL HISTORY Semester: Fall 2014 Time: MWF 10:30 11:20 Place: Main 206 Professor: Dr. Clayton Whisnant Office: Main 105 Email: whisnantcj@wofford.edu Phone: x4550 Office Hours: MWF 2:00-2:50 Web Page: http://webs.wofford.edu/whisnantcj COURSE DESCRIPTION In this reading seminar, we will examine the most important themes in intellectual history since the end of the nineteenth century. The focus of the course will be such important bodies of thought as logical positivism, Marxism, psychoanalysis, existentialism, and poststructuralism. This course serves as a core course of the gender studies program, and so special attention is paid to feminist thought and gender analysis. Course Goals In the course of discussing major bodies of thought, we will pay special attention to several reoccurring themes within twentieth-century thought: the significance of language for human life; the legacy of Marxism; the encounter with "the Other"; the reevaluation of the significance of sexuality and gender for human life; the claims to objectivity made by science; and, finally, the role of the media and consumer culture in shaping our lives. 1 P a g e
We will try to trace out how these concerns shaped debate, while at the same time explore how twentieth-century thought reflected powerful social, cultural, and political trends and events of the century. Course Objectives To meet the goals of the course, students will write weekly responses to the readings that demonstrate that they have both read and thought about the texts for that week. They will also write three papers that will demand that they have mastered the key concepts of several bodies of thought and are capable of relating these bodies of thought to one another. This course is a writing-intensive course, and so students will be expected to work on their writing skills through both frequent writing assignments and through several intensive writing assignments that will require editing, revisions, and editing sessions with the professor. Courses Relationship to Department Goals This course helps the history department reach its goals by covering the following dimensions of history widely perceived as crucial for a well-rounded view of the world: significant intellectual movements and debates; socio-cultural issues of class; and gender. Students will also gain some exposure to how history is practiced by examining primary sources. Technology Skills All papers, including the weekly responses, will need to be written on a computer wordprocessor. Students will also need some basic knowledge of web browsers in order to be able to find and utilize material on the on-line version of this syllabus. Instructional Format This course will be taught in a seminar style, which will emphasize above all discussion of the weekly readings. There will be some small amount of lecture material presented each week to act as a supplemental or introductory framework for discussion. 2 P a g e
TEXTS David Edmonds & John Eidenow, Wittgenstein s Poker: The Story of a Ten-Minute Argument between Two Philosophers (Ecco, 2002) ISBN:0060936649. Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex (Vintage, 1989) ISBN: 0679724516. Michel Foucault, The History of Sexuality (Vintage Books, 1990) ISBN: 0679724699. John Fiske, Television Culture (Routledge, 1987), ISBN: 0415039347. Other readings, made available through the library's on-line reserve system. The readings listed under each day should be done before the assigned day. GRADING Attendance and Participation (including pop quizzes, if necessary) 10% Daily Responses 15% 2 short (5-6 pages long) papers: 20% each 1 long (13-15 pages long) paper 35% The daily responses will consist of a one-paragraph short response to the readings, which will be graded on a scale of 1 to 5. I also reserve the right to give pop quizzes, which would also then be integrated into the daily response grade. ATTENDANCE POLICY Absences will be penalized by taking 10 points off the attendance grade. This means that you can safely skip class once and still have an A- for the attendance grade. After that, though, this portion of the grade will quickly decline. I reserve the right to forcibly withdraw someone who does not attend regularly. Excused absences, of course, will not count against the grade. Excused are those due to approved college-related activities (e.g. sporting events), documented illness, and family emergencies. Students have the responsibility to make up missed work. 3 P a g e
LATE POLICY Short responses may be handed in late, but for a penalty. Papers should be handed in on time; if you know that you need a little more time on a paper, you may ask for an extension, but this request must come before the day the paper is due. Otherwise, there will be a late penalty of a letter grade per day that the paper is late. OTHER REMARKS Electronic devices (iphones, laptops, ipads, etc.) are not to be used during class. All cell phones must be turned off at the beginning of class. Do not, of course, take phone calls during class. Please be on time. If you must arrive late or leave early, do so as quietly and unobtrusively as possible. Of course, all work must be yours. Cases of suspected plagiarism and cheating will be handed over to Wofford s honor court. Plagiarism, we should note, is defined in the following way according to Wofford College's Honor Code: (1) The verbatim repetition, without acknowledgement, of the writings of another author. (2) Borrowing without acknowledging the source. (3) Paraphrasing the thoughts of another writer without acknowledgement. (4) Allowing any other person or organization to prepare work which one then submits as his or her own. You should pay close attention to the third definition, especially when referring to ideas borrowing from a website. If you have any questions, refer to my handout "Living by Wofford's Honor Code." CLASS SCHEDULE Week 1 Class Assignment Feb 3 Introduction to Intellectual History No Reading Feb 5 Background: Immanuel Kant Start Hegel reading. 4 P a g e
Sept 7 Background: Georg W. F. Hegel e-reserve reading: George W. F. Hegel, Phenomenology of Spirit, trans. A. V. Miller (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1977), 1-8, 111-119. Week 2 Feb 10 Hegel, continued e-reserve reading: G. W. Hegel,The Philosophy of History, trans. J. Sibree (Amherst, New York: Prometheus Books, 1991), 26-57. Feb 12 Snow Day! No reading Feb 14 The Nineteenth-Century Legacy: Friedrich Nietzsche e-reserve reading: Friedrich Nietzsche, The Portable Nietzsche, trans. Walter Kaufmann (New York: Penguin Books, 1977), 42-47, 79, 81, 158-172, 225-228, 298-303, 505-512. Friedrich Nietzsche, The Gay Science, trans. Walter Kaufmann (New York: Vintage Books, 1974), 79, 84-89, 96-98, 167-169, 181-182, 228-229, 232-233, 338-340. Week 3 Feb 17 Nietzsche, continued Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, trans. Walter Kaufmann (New York: Vintage Books, 1966), 204-208 Feb 19 Phenomenology e-reserve: Martin Heidegger, Being and Time, trans. John Macquarrie and Edward Robinson (New York: Harper and Row, 1962), 36-51, 95-107, 203-224. 5 P a g e
Feb 21 Phenomenology, cont Catch-Up if necessary Week 4 Feb 24 Postwar Existentialism e-reserve: Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, trans. Hazel E. Barnes (New York: Philosophical Library, 1956), 56-112, 301-315, 340-355. Feb 26 Postwar Existentialism, cont e-reserve: Jean-Paul Sartre, Nauseau, trans. Lloyd Alexander (New York: A New Directions Paperback, 1964), 6-11, 126-135. Get Paper Topic #1 Feb 28 Freudian Psychoanalysis Stephen Mitchell and Margaret Black, Freud and Beyond: A History of Psychoanalytic Thought (New York: Basic Books, 1995), 1-59. Week 5 Mar 3 Sick Day Mar 5 Psychoanalysis, cont e-reserve reading: Antony Easthope, What a Man's Gotta Do: The Masculine Myth in Popular Culture (London and New York: Routledge, 1990), 59-99. Mar 7 Logical Positivism Edmonds & Eidenow, Wittgenstein's Poker, 1-164 6 P a g e
Week 6 Mar 10 Logical Positivism, cont Finish Wittgenstein s Poker, 165-316 Mar 12 Background: Karl Marx e-reserve reading: Peter Singer, Marx: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1980), 47-77. Mar 14 The Frankfurt School & Critical Theory e-reserve: Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno, The Dialectic of Enlightenment, trans. John Cumming (New York: Continuum, 1994), 3-17, 120-167. Week 7 Mar 17 Critical Theory, cont First paper due No reading Mar 19 The Critique of Consumer Culture e-reserve: Vance Packard, The Hidden Persuaders, (New York: Pocket Books, 1957), 1-17, 38-47, 61-82, 200-207. Mar 21 Simone de Beauvoir Beauvoir, The Second Sex, Introduction, Chs. I, XI Week 8 Mar 24 Beauvoir, cont Beauvoir, The Second Sex, XVI, XVII, Conclusion Mar 26 The Revival of Feminism e-reserve: Kate Millet, Sexual Politics (New York and London: 7 P a g e
Mar 28 Ferdinand Saussure e-reserve: Touchstone Books, 1990), 3-58 Kaja Silverman, The Subject of Semiotics (New York: Oxford University Press, 1983), 4-14 Get Second Paper Topic Week 9 Mar 31 Structuralism & Claude Levi-Strauss e-reserve: Apr 2 Roland Barthes e-reserve: Lois Tyson, Critical Theory Today: A User-Friendly Guide (New York and London: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1999), 196-240. Roland Barthes, Mythologies, trans. Annette Lavers (New York: Hill and Wang, 1972), 15-25, 36-38, 62-64, 109-159 Apr 4 Barthes, cont. e-reserve: Roland Barthes, Image, Music, Text, trans. Stephen Heath (New York: Hill and Wang, 1977), 32-51. Week 10 Apr 7 Spring Break No reading Apr 9 Spring Break No reading Apr 11 Spring Break No reading Week 11 Apr 14 Postmodernism/ Poststructuralism Reading: Handout on Postmodernism Structuralism vs. Poststruct. 8 P a g e
Apr 16 Deconstruction e-reserve: Jacques Derrida, Margins of Philosophy, trans. Alan Bass (Chicago: University of Chicago, 1985), 1-27. J. Hillis Miller, The Critic as Host, in Critical Theory since 1965, ed. Hazard Adams & Leroy Searle (Tallahassee: Florida State University, 1986), 450-468. Apr 18 Jean Baudrillard e-reserve: Jean Baudrillard, Simulacra and Simulation, trans. Sheila Faria Glaser (Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 1994), 1-42. Second Paper Topic Due Final Paper Topics Week 12 Apr 21 Michel Foucault Foucault, A History of Sexuality: An Introduction, 1-73 Apr 23 Foucault, cont. Finish Foucault, A History of Sexuality Apr 25 Gender Theory e-reserve: Joan W. Scott, "Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis," in Gender and the Politics of History (New York: Columbia University Press, 1988), 28-50. Week 13 Apr 28 Gender Theory, cont. e-reserve: Anne McClintock, Imperial Leather: Race, Gender, and Sexuality in the Colonial Contest (New York and London: Routledge, 1995), 21-74. 9 P a g e
Apr 30 Gay and Lesbian Studies e-reserve: George Chauncey, Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture, and the Making of the Gay Male World, 1890-1940 (New York: Basic Books, 1994), 65-98. May 2 Queer Theory e-reserve: Annamarie Jagose, Queer Theory: An Introduction (New York: New York University Press, 1996), 72-100. Week 14 May 5 Media & Cultural Studies Sean Griffen, Pronoun Trouble in Queer Cinema: The Film Reader, ed. Harry Benshoff and Sean Griffen (London: Routledge, 2004), 105-118. John Fiske, Television Culture, Chs. 5, 6 Images: Charlie's Angels; A-Team; Miami Vice May 7 Media & Cultural Studies, cont. Fiske, Television Culture, Chs. 10, 11 May 9 Masculinity Studies e-reserve: E. Anthony Rotunda, Transformations in Masculinity from the Revolution to the Modern Era (New York: Basic Books, 1993), 1-9. Final Paper Due: Wednesday, May 14, at noon Note: This syllabus is tentative and subject to change upon notice. 10 P a g e
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