Spoken and Unspeakable: Violence in Contemporary Literature and Theory
ENGL 344
Fall 2006 not offered
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Two powerful but conflicting accounts have animated contemporary discussions about violence. On the one side have been critics, from Walter Benjamin to Michel Foucault, who have insisted that violence is intimately related to and even primarily disseminated through discourse. Increasing powerful in recent years has been a very different view, which--paradoxically -- may have emerged from former. In this account, violence is essentially unspeakable, that is, it is resistant to the organizing mechanisms of cognition and representation. What theories of language, violence, cognition and history underwrite these views? In what kinds of political arguments are they enmeshed? What is at stake in claiming that violence is either all we speak, or always unspeakable? This course will trace out these views are they are articulated by theorists, novelists, and even some poets. We will pay particular attention to the special status of literature in this debate. The course will be organized by "keywords," which will include Trauma, Terrorism, Torture, Murder and Hate Speech. |
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Essential Capabilities:
Writing |
| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
HA ENGL |
| Course Format: Seminar | Grading Mode: Graded |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Requirement for: None |
Major Readings:
Art Spiegelman, IN THE SHADOW OF NO TOWERS
Kazuo Ishiguro: PALE VIEW OF HILLS
Cynthia Ozick: THE SHAWL
Don DeLillo: THE NAMES
Selected Theory and Criticism:
Elaine Scarry: THE BODY IN PAIN
Shoshanna Felman: TESTIMONY
Judith Butler: EXCITABLE SPEECH
Michel Foucault: DISCIPLINE AND PUNISH
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Examinations and Assignments:
Multiple essays and short writing assignments |
Additional Requirements and/or Comments:
This course meets the English department's theory requirement. |
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