WesMaps - Wesleyan University Catalog 2016-2017       Summer Session       Winter Session       Home       Archive       Search
CS92PROD
Kafka: Literature, Law, and Power
GRST 251
Spring 2017
Section: 01  
Crosslisting: COL 251

Elias Canetti claimed that among all writers, Kafka was "the greatest expert on power." In this course we will focus on Kafka's narratives of power relations. We will read and discuss Kafka's sometimes painfully precise descriptions of how power is exerted in the family and in personal relationships and how scrutiny and discipline are exercised over the body. We will also consider Kafka's depictions of physical violence and of apparatuses and institutions of power and the ethical and political implications of these depictions. The working hypothesis of this course is that Kafka not only tells stories about power, but that his stories also contain an implicit theory of how power works in modern society.
Credit: 1 Gen Ed Area Dept: HA GRST
Course Format: SeminarGrading Mode: Student Option
Level: UGRD Prerequisites: None
Fulfills a Major Requirement for: (COL)(CSCT)(GRST-MN)(GRST)
Past Enrollment Probability: 50% - 74%

Last Updated on MAR-19-2024
Contact wesmaps@wesleyan.edu to submit comments or suggestions. Please include a url, course title, faculty name or other page reference in your email ? Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, 06459