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GS/POLS 6086 3.0 GS/SPTH 6632 3.0
Thinking Power and Violence |
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Course Description |
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In the twentieth century there have been numerous attempts to think seriously about the meaning of power and violence as fundamental categories of human existence. The objective of `Thinking Power and Violence' is to develop an appreciation of the elusive multidimensionality of violence as a phenomenon.
`Thinking Power and Violence' is concerned with violence in many forms and manifestations: violence at the foundation of human community, conservative violence, divine violence, ecstatic violence, sacrificial violence, redemptive violence, self as violence against self and other, exclusionary violence, the violence of liberal freedom and the commodity, counter-hegemonic violence, the violence of the spectacle, the violence of outsiders and gender violence. |
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Grade Assignment |
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Seminar Presentations - (20% X 2) |
40% |
Participation |
10% |
Essay (25 pages, 6300 words) |
50% due end of course |
Seminar Presentation:
- Select three passages (no more than 4 or 5 lines each) that express vividly or cogently some of the dominant tendencies in the reading;
- Explain their meaning;
- Pose one question on each passage to focus on for discussion;
- Select one passage (no more than 4 or 5 lines) that appears to go against the grain of the text and explain how this is so.
Make copies for all seminar participants.
Essay Assignment
Write an essay on the topic of your choice relating to violence. A minimum of three texts on the course must be integrated into your essay.
Essay Topic Abstract
A half page abstract outlining your topic and the course readings that you will be using needs to be approved before writing the essay. |
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Books and Articles
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Giorgio Agamben. 1998. Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life.
Giorgio Agamben. 2002. Remnants of Auschwitz.
Hannah Arendt. 1970. On Violence.
Georges Bataille. 1997. `The Notion of Expenditure,' `The Meaning of General Economy,' `Sacrifice, the Festival and the Principles of the Sacred World,' `Knowledge of Sovereignty' & `The Psychological Structure of Fascism,' The Bataille Reader, eds. Botting and Wilson.
Georges Bataille. 1989. Theory of Religion.
Jean Baudrillard. 2002. The Spirit of Terrorism.
Walter Benjamin. 1978. `Critique of Violence,' Reflections.
Jacques Derrida. 1992. `The Force of Law,' Deconstruction and the Possibility of Justice, eds. Cornell, Rosenfeld, and Carlson
Jacques Derrida. 1995. `Declarations of Independence,' New Political Science.
Franz Fanon. 1968. The Wretched of Earth.
Rene Girard, 1979. Violence and the Sacred.
Rene Girard, 2001. I See Satan Falling Like Lightening.
William James, 1906. `The Moral Equivalent of War'
MacKinnon, Catharine. 1993. Only Words.
Carl Schmitt. 1996. The Concept of the Political.
Sorel, Georges. 1999. Reflections on Violence.
Gayatri Spivak. 2003. Death of a Discipline. |
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Seminar & Reading Schedule
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Jan. 6 |
Introduction |
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Jan. 13 |
Bataille, Theory of Religion
Bataille, `The Notion of Expenditure,' `The Meaning of General Economy,' `Sacrifice, the Festival and the Principles of the Sacred World,' `Knowledge of Sovereignty' |
all
all
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Jan. 20 |
Girard, Violence and the Sacred
Ch.s 1 & 2
Ch.s 3 & 4
Ch.s 5 & 6
Ch.s 7 & 10 |
3
4
5
6
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Feb. 3 |
Girard, I See Satan Falling Like Lightening
Ch.s 1 & 2
Ch.s 3 & 4
Chs 5 & 4
Chs 7 & 8
Ch.s 9 & 10
Ch s 11 & 12
Ch.s 13-Conclusion |
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
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Feb. 10 |
Sorel, Reflections on Violence
Ch.s 1 & 2
Ch.s 3 & 6
Ch.s 5 & 6
Chs. 7 |
14
15
16
17
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Feb. 24 |
Schmitt, The Concept of the Political
(pp.19-37)
(pp. 37-79)
James, `The Moral Equivalent of War' |
18
19
all
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Mar. 2 |
Derrida, `Declarations of Independence'
Benjamin, `Critique of Violence'
Derrida, `The Force of Law' |
all
20
21
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Mar. 9 |
Agamben, Homo Sacer
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Agamben, Remnants of Auschwitz
Part I
Part II
Part III
Part IV |
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
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Mar. 16 |
Fanon, The Wretched of Earth
pp.35-95
pp.95-147
pp.148-205
pp.206-248 |
29
30
31
32
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Mar. 23 |
Arendt, On Violence
Part I
Part II
Part III
Baudrillard, The Spirit of Terroris |
33
34
35
36
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Mar. 30 |
MacKinnon, Only Words
Part I
Part II
Part III
Bataille, `The Psychological Structure of Fascism' |
37
38
39
40
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Apr. 6 |
Spivak, Death of a Discipline
Ch. 1
Ch. 2
Ch. 3 |
41
42
43
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