Matter, Community, Environment
CHUM 305
Fall 2016 not offered
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| Crosslisting:
ENGL 302, SISP 303, COL 303 |
| Certificates: Social, Cultural, and Critical Theory |
In recent years, it has become increasingly difficult to consider human communities without also considering questions of "nature" or "environment." Actor-network theory condemns nature/society dualisms; ecological theory argues that there is indeed no "nature" or "society"--only the anthropocene; and, drawing from the former two positions, object-oriented ontology conceives of ideas (such as "community" or "society") as objects and ecological actors. In this seminar, we will consider various approaches taken in recent years to thinking about our relations to the worlds we inhabit. We will attempt to think not only outside a focus on "us" as humans in the first place, but even outside a focus on sentient life or life in general. Examining theories of matter, community, and environment, we will discuss and analyze work by philosophers, evolutionary biologists, literary scholars, and sociologists, among others. We will pay special attention to how theorists and critics are blurring the boundaries between nature and society, environment and community, life and matter. In addition to class participation and a series of brief reading responses, students will be required to produce a final paper dealing with any topic related to the course. |
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| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
HA CHUM |
| Course Format: Seminar | Grading Mode: Graded |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Requirement for: None |
Major Readings:
Bruno Latour, WE HAVE NEVER BEEN MODERN
Timothy Morton, THE ECOLOGICAL THOUGHT
Giorgio Agamben THE OPEN: MAN AND ANIMAL
Jane Bennett, VIBRANT MATTER
Donna Harraway, WHEN SPECIES MEET
Peter Sloterdijk, BUBBLES
Lynn Margulis, ORIGIN OF EUKARYOTIC CELLS
Elizabeth Grosz, BECOMING UNDONE
Deridda, THE ANIMAL THAT THEREFORE I AM
Jean-Luc Nancy, THE INOPERATIVE COMMUNITY
Jacques Ranciere, THE POLITICS OF AESTHETICS
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Examinations and Assignments:
Regular reading responses, final paper |
Additional Requirements and/or Comments:
This course fulfills the Theory requirement and contributes to the Theory & Literary Forms concentration of the English major. |
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