Universität Wien

180182 SE Michel Foucault : The Will to Knowledge . Sexuality 1 (2015W)

5.00 ECTS (2.00 SWS), SPL 18 - Philosophie
Continuous assessment of course work
Moodle

Registration/Deregistration

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

Details

max. 45 participants
Language: English

Lecturers

Classes (iCal) - next class is marked with N

Wednesday 14.10. 13:15 - 14:45 Hörsaal 2G, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. II/2.Stock, 1010 Wien
Wednesday 21.10. 13:15 - 14:45 Hörsaal 2G, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. II/2.Stock, 1010 Wien
Wednesday 28.10. 13:15 - 14:45 Hörsaal 2G, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. II/2.Stock, 1010 Wien
Wednesday 04.11. 13:15 - 14:45 Hörsaal 2G, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. II/2.Stock, 1010 Wien
Wednesday 11.11. 13:15 - 14:45 Hörsaal 2G, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. II/2.Stock, 1010 Wien
Wednesday 18.11. 13:15 - 14:45 Hörsaal 2G, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. II/2.Stock, 1010 Wien
Wednesday 25.11. 13:15 - 14:45 Hörsaal 2G, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. II/2.Stock, 1010 Wien
Wednesday 02.12. 13:15 - 14:45 Hörsaal 2G, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. II/2.Stock, 1010 Wien
Wednesday 09.12. 13:15 - 14:45 Hörsaal 2G, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. II/2.Stock, 1010 Wien
Wednesday 16.12. 13:15 - 14:45 Hörsaal 2G, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. II/2.Stock, 1010 Wien
Wednesday 13.01. 13:15 - 14:45 Hörsaal 2G, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. II/2.Stock, 1010 Wien
Wednesday 20.01. 13:15 - 14:45 Hörsaal 2G, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. II/2.Stock, 1010 Wien
Wednesday 27.01. 13:15 - 14:45 Hörsaal 2G, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. II/2.Stock, 1010 Wien

Information

Aims, contents and method of the course

This lecture course will introduce students to the idea of subject life as understood by Judith Butler. This connects up to the idea of subjectivation, which following Michel Foucault's lead, refers to how one becomes subject to a certain social, normative life. More precisely, subjectivation means the narrative of the body being turned on itself and trapped in a skin-tight prison, sentenced to go through ritual motions in order to get through the day, with the repetition itself bringing a meager measure of freedom in the form of rage re-appropriating the terms of the ritual/symbolic field (with drag performance being the exemplar here). In her expansion of this line of thought, Butler thus addresses something in between domains as diverse as philosophy, psychology, literary theory, political science, sociology, and theatre studies, for her concern is the performance of normativity—a performance encompassing ritual, role, and gesture, not in this or that particular realm, but for everyday subjects generally.

Assessment and permitted materials

Students will be responsible for attending all sessions and reading all assigned materials unless prior arrangements have been made with the instructor. Evaluation will be made on the basis of a single paper of approximately 3,000 words, due at the end of the normal semester period, on a topic of the student's choosing made in consultation with the instructor.

Minimum requirements and assessment criteria

This course will introduce students to Judith Butler's Psychic Life of Power and pertinent secondary literature.

Examination topics

For this course, the main reading will be Butler's Psychic Life of Power. A natural synthetic approach characterizes this text, and this will guide the course through A) Georg Hegel's paradigm of Unhappy Consciousness, B) Friedrich Nietzsche's understanding of Bad Conscience, C) Sigmund Freud's notion of melancholy, D) Foucault's power/resistance model, and connections to E) Aristotle's form/matter distinction and Louis Althusser's interpellation dynamic and F) her endgame of resistance, rage, and resignification. With this basis, the course will then turn to explore the role of G) narrative, memory, and identity in Butler's follow-up work Giving an Account of Oneself and Butler's more particular observations on subjectivation at work in interwoven contexts of H) gender, class, and race before turning to the I) instructor's alternative aesthetic, intercultural, and interdisciplinary approach to Butler's problematic (time permitting) and J) a final assessment of the course's content.

Reading list

Sessions 1-2 Topic:
Introducing Judith Butler's Psychic Life of Power
Butler and Hegel's Master/Slave Dialectic at the root of Unhappy Consciousness
Preparatory Reading:
Butler, Judith - Psychic Life of Power, Introduction & Chapter 1
Hegel, G.W.F. - Phenomenology of Spirit, "Self-Consciousness"

Sessions 3-4 Topic:
Butler and Nietzsche – Bad Conscience
Preparatory Reading:
Butler, Judith - Psychic Life of Power, Chapter 2
Nietzsche, Friedrich - Genealogy of Morals, Essay 2
 
Sessions 5-6 Topic:
Butler and Freud – Melancholy
Preparatory Reading:
Butler, Psychic Life of Power, Chapter 3
Freud, Sigmund - "Mourning and Melancholia"

Sessions 7-8 Topic:
Butler and Foucault – Power & Resistance
Preparatory Reading:
Butler, Judith - Psychic Life of Power, Chapter 3
Foucault, Michel - Discipline and Punish, Chapter 3

Sessions 9-10 Topic:
Butler, Althusser, and Aristotle
Preparatory Reading:
Butler, Judith - Psychic Life of Power, Chapter 4
Althusser, Louis - "Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses (Notes Towards an Investigation)"

Sessions 11-12 Topic:
Butler, Spizona's Conatus, and Rage
Preparatory Reading:
Butler, Judith - Psychic Life of Power, Chapters 5 & 6

Session 13 Topic:
Giving an Account of Oneself
Preparatory Reading:
Butler, Judith - Giving an Account of Oneself, Chapter 1
Supplementary Material Topic:
Subjectivation: Race and Gender
Preparatory Reading:
Butler, Judith - Psychic Life of Power, Chapter 5
Butler, Judith - Is Kinship Always Already Heterosexual?
Bell, Vikki and Butler, Judith - "On Speech, Race and Melancholia"

Optional Material, Time Permitting
Topic:
The Aesthetic Life of Power
Preparatory Reading:
Garrison - "The Aesthetic Life of Power"

Association in the course directory

BA M 5.3, HPS M1.1, M1.3, BA M13, BA M11, PP § 57.3.7, BA M 10

Last modified: Mo 07.09.2020 15:36