Animal Subjects
CHUM 238
Fall 2008
| Section:
01
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| Crosslisting:
COL 238 |
Within the Western tradition, the human has largely been defined in opposition to "the animal." Language, thought, moral agency have been regarded as exclusively human activities and as such, guarantee that subjectivity itself is reserved for human-animals alone. This course will begin by examining the legacy of Enlightenment efforts to identify subjectivity with humanity. It will then proceed to examine a range of literary, philosophical, and visual works that contest this exclusivity and privilege either by claiming that such talents are possessed by at least some nonhuman animals or by regarding the absence of human language and rationality not as a "privation" or disability, but as signals of alternate subjectivities and alternate ways of being in the world. In their attempts to redress the humanist bias regarding subjectivity, such works also seek other ways of understanding human animality. |
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Essential Capabilities:
Speaking, Writing |
| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
HA COL |
| Course Format: Seminar | Grading Mode: Graded |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Requirement for: (ANST-MN)(COL)(CSCT)(ENGL)(ENGL-Literature)(FGSS) |
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Past Enrollment Probability: Not Available |
| SECTION 01 |
Major Readings: Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore
Authors may include Rousseau, Kafka, Uexkull, Heidegger, Derrida, Deleuze, Levinas, Cixous, Hearne, Haraway, Agamben, Coetzee.
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Examinations and Assignments:
Weekly postings, two short papers and a final term paper. |
| Instructor(s): Weil,Kari Times: .M.W... 02:40PM-04:00PM; Location: CFH106; |
| Total Enrollment Limit: 19 | | SR major: 3 | JR major: 4 | | |
| Seats Available: 7 | GRAD: X | SR non-major: 4 | JR non-major: 4 | SO: 4 | FR: 0 |
| Drop/Add Enrollment Requests | | | | | |
| Total Submitted Requests: 1 | 1st Ranked: 0 | 2nd Ranked: 0 | 3rd Ranked: 0 | 4th Ranked: 0 | Unranked: 1 |
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