Universität Wien
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180177 VO-L Feminist ethics of alterity (2023S)

5.00 ECTS (2.00 SWS), SPL 18 - Philosophie

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Note: The time of your registration within the registration period has no effect on the allocation of places (no first come, first served).

Details

Language: German

Examination dates

Lecturers

Classes (iCal) - next class is marked with N

  • Thursday 09.03. 09:45 - 11:15 Hörsaal 33 Hauptgebäude, 1.Stock, Stiege 7
  • Thursday 16.03. 09:45 - 11:15 Hörsaal 33 Hauptgebäude, 1.Stock, Stiege 7
  • Thursday 23.03. 09:45 - 11:15 Hörsaal 33 Hauptgebäude, 1.Stock, Stiege 7
  • Thursday 30.03. 09:45 - 11:15 Hörsaal 33 Hauptgebäude, 1.Stock, Stiege 7
  • Thursday 20.04. 09:45 - 11:15 Hörsaal 33 Hauptgebäude, 1.Stock, Stiege 7
  • Thursday 27.04. 09:45 - 11:15 Hörsaal 33 Hauptgebäude, 1.Stock, Stiege 7
  • Thursday 04.05. 09:45 - 11:15 Hörsaal 33 Hauptgebäude, 1.Stock, Stiege 7
  • Thursday 11.05. 09:45 - 11:15 Hörsaal 33 Hauptgebäude, 1.Stock, Stiege 7
  • Thursday 25.05. 09:45 - 11:15 Hörsaal 33 Hauptgebäude, 1.Stock, Stiege 7
  • Thursday 01.06. 09:45 - 11:15 Hörsaal 33 Hauptgebäude, 1.Stock, Stiege 7
  • Thursday 15.06. 09:45 - 11:15 Hörsaal 33 Hauptgebäude, 1.Stock, Stiege 7
  • Thursday 22.06. 09:45 - 11:15 Hörsaal 33 Hauptgebäude, 1.Stock, Stiege 7

Information

Aims, contents and method of the course

The concept of alterity (lat. alter: the one, the other of both) is an important concept in the history of philosophy and refers within poststructuralist theories (e.g. psychoanalysis, deconstruction or postcolonial studies) to the dichotomy of alterity and identity as mutually dependent moments. Alter is not an arbitrary other, alter is the second of two similar and mutually assigned identities in contrast to alius or xenos (i.e. the stranger).
Identities are produced by demarcation and exclusion. The "constitutive outside" (Derrida, Butler) is not only a condition of the possibility of identity, but at the same time always part of it. If otherness is to be thought, then the concept does not mean to oppose the self-identical with its complementary opposite, but to read the supposedly with-itself-identical in its dependence on and contamination by its supposed other.
This course first introduces central texts of thinking of alterity (Levinas, Lacan, Derrida, Said) and discusses postcolonial-feminist references in a second step. Relevant texts by Simone de Beauvoir, Julia Kristeva, Luce Irigaray, Hélène Cixous, Gayatri Spivak, Trinh T. Minh-ha, Audre Lorde, Sarah Ahmed and others are the basis for this. On the one hand, the aim is to make the complexity and diversity of feminist discourses on alterity present and to better understand alterity in its respective philosophical and ethical context. In addition, the lecture wants to give an outlook on the way in which basic concepts of alterity determine current debates of a global – also queer – feminism.

Assessment and permitted materials

For each unit, the Power Point slides as well as the recording of the respective lecture unit and further literature are provided. All of these materials shall be used as resources on the Take Home Exam. The sources must be cited in the exam (correct citation).

Minimum requirements and assessment criteria

The exam takes place as a written exam (take-home exam) on the contents of the lecture online in Moodle. The exam consists of 4 questions: three knowledge questions and one more detailed question to be answered in essay form. You will each have 4 full days to complete the Take Home Exam.
Grading key: For each correctly answered knowledge question (questions 1-3) you will receive 2 points. For the more detailed question to be answered 1 to 7 points are awarded. Maximum number of points: 13 (6+7). Insufficient: 0-5 points. Sufficient: 6-8 points. Satisfactory: 9-10 points. Good: 11-12 points. Very good: 13 points.

Examination topics

Written examination on the contents of the lecture. A total of four examination dates are offered. For each exam date, pre-selected units & texts from the lecture program will be given for exam preparation.
For each unit, the Power Point slides as well as the recording and further reading will be provided.

Reading list

Levinas, Emmanuel (1986): Ethik und Unendliches. Gespräche mit Philippe Nemo. Übersetzt von Dorothea Schmidt, Graz/Wien.
Levinas, Emmanuel (1987): Totalität und Unendlichkeit. Versuch über die Exteriorität. Übersetzt von Wolf-gang N. Krewani, Freiburg i. Breisgau/München
Levinas, Emmanuel (1989): Die Zeit und der Andere. Übersetzt und mit einem Nachwort versehen von Lud-wig Wenzler. Hamburg.
Levinas, Emmanuel (2007): Die Spur des Anderen, in: ders.: Die Spur des Anderen. Untersuchungen zur Phänomenologie und Sozialphilosophie. Freiburg/München, 209-236.
Jacques Lacan: Écrits, Paris 1966, dt.: Schriften I-III, Berlin/Weinheim: Quadriga 1986–1991
Jacques Lacan: Seminar II. Das Ich in der Theorie Freuds und in der Technik der Psychoanalyse (1954–1955), Berlin/Weinheim: Quadriga 1978
Jacques Lacan: Seminar III. Die Psychosen (1955–1956), Berlin/Weinheim: Quadriga 1997
Jacques Lacan: Seminar XI. Die vier Grundbegriffe der Psychoanalyse (1964), Berlin/Weinheim: Quadriga 1996
Derrida, Jacques. 1991. Gesetzeskraft. Der ‚mystische‘ Grund der Autorität. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp.
Derrida, Jacques. 1994. Den Tod geben. In: Gewalt und Gerechtigkeit. Derrida – Benjamin, hg. von Anselm Haverkamp. 331–445. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp.
Derrida, Jacques. 2000. Politik der Freundschaft. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp.
Derrida, Jacques. 2003. Einsprachigkeit. München: Fink.
Said, Edward W. (1978): Orientalism. New York: Pantheon Books.
Simone de Beauvoir: Das andere Geschlecht. Sitte und Sexus der Frau. Hamburg: Rowohl Taschenbuch Ver-lag 2000.
Julia Kristeva: Fremde sind wir uns selbst, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp 1990.
Irigaray, Luce: Das Geschlecht das nicht eins ist. In: ebd. Berlin: Merve 1979, S. 22-32.
Irigaray, Luce: Die sexuelle Differenz. In: dies.: Die Ethik der sexuellen Differenz, Frankfurt am Main: Suhr-kamp 1991, S. 11-28.
Cixous, Hélène: Das Lachen der Medusa, in: Esther Hutfless, Gertrude Postl, Elisabeth Schäfer: Hélène Cixous. Das Lachen der Medusa zusammen mit aktuellen Beiträgen, Wien: Passagen 2013, S. 39-61.
Minh-ha, Trinh T.: Difference: „A Special Third World Women Issue“, in: Feminist Review, No. 25. (Spring, 1987), S. 5-22.
Lorde, Audre: Age, Race, Class and Sex: Women Redefining Difference, in: Sister Outsider. Essays and Speeches, New York: Crossing Press 1984, S. 114-123.
Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty: Imperialism and Sexual Difference, Oxford Literary Review, Vol. 8, No.1 (1986), S. 225-244.
Ahmed, Sara: Home and away. Narratives of migration and estrangement, in: International Journal of Cultural Studies 1999, 2, S. 329-347.

Association in the course directory

Last modified: Mo 06.11.2023 12:27