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APA CommitteesPHILOSOPHY OF CULTURE (Graduate Course)16206
PHI 6934-004 PHILOSOPHY OF CULTURE Dr. Ofelia Schutte Syllabus, page 1 This course is an interdisciplinary study of knowledge, identity, gender, and culture focusing on texts by poststructuralist, postcolonial, and feminist writers. The readings are organized in three parts, outlined below. REQUIRED TEXTS Lyotard.
The Postmodern Condition. (PC) REQUIREMENTS Two graduate-level critical or analytical papers on the course readings and related subjects are required. Papers should be approximately 12 pages in length. Class attendance and participation are expected. Participation does not mean mere attendance. It refers to active engagement in discussion of the assignments and occasionally doing a brief presentation of some aspect of the readings. A short class presentation on the final paper is required. FINAL GRADE First paper 40%; final paper 45%; class participation and presentation 15%. SPRING SEMESTER OFFICE HOURS Office hours will be held on Tuesdays from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. and by appointment. COURSE ORGANIZATION The course
consists of three parts. Part I addresses the question: Is there a culture
of modernity? What does it mean to speak of culturally situated knowledge?
We analyze various representations of truth, power, and knowledge in
modernity and postmodernity, along with their impact on some gender
issues. Part II addresses a feminist Foucauldian analysis of the "social
construction" of sex and gender and Kristeva's psychoanalytical
approach to female sexuality, desire, and cultural difference. Part
III focuses on postcolonial analyses of cultural, racial, and gender
differences. GRADUATE CATALOG POLICIES The Graduate Catalog's policy on the "I" (Incomplete) grade will be observed. "I" grades may be awarded at the discretion of the instructor only if the student is passing the course and if there is sufficient reason why the requirements could not be completed. A written contract for an incomplete grade is required prior to the assignment of this grade. The contract describes the work to be completed and the date by which it must be submitted. The contract must be approved and signed by the course instructor. All other policies in the Catalog will be observed. ACCESS FOR STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES Please notify the instructor (974-0981) if you have special needs. COURSE OBJECTIVES To understand the information and arguments presented in the course readings; To develop skills in formulating and evaluating arguments and other less formal ways of reasoning as these are presented in class discussions and assignments; To become familiar with the work of important contemporary philosophers and writers in the context of a critical feminist analysis of their works; To produce original scholarly work and to present it in both oral and written forms as required in the final class presentation and final paper; To reflect critically on major issues facing us as members of culturally diverse societies in an interactive world, giving special attention to historical, economic, and political variables in the construction of sex and gender and to alternative paradigms of well being and justice. COURSE FORMAT The format of the class will be a combination of instructor-initiated and student-initiated discussion. In addition, background lectures will provide the context for the discussion and analysis of the readings especially in the case of those readings that are more difficult to access without the benefit of specialized training. As stated above, student participation is both welcome and expected. SCHEDULE OF READINGS AND ASSIGNMENTS 1/7 Introduction 1/14 Horkheimer
and Adorno, "The Culture Industry," from Dialectics of 1/21 Lyotard, The Postmodern Condition, pp. xxiii-xxv and 3-82. 1/28 Lyotard,
PC, pp. 71-82 and Foreword by Jameson, pp. vii-xx. 2/4 Foucault, HS, pp. 3-73 2/11 Foucault, HS, pp. 77-159 2/18 McClaren, FF, entire book 2/25 Kristeva,
PK, selected readings 3/3 Kristeva, PK, selected readings 3/10 Spring Break 3/17 Kristeva, PK selected readings. 3/24 Said,
Introduction to Orientalism, pp. 1-28 and Ch 3, Projects, pp. 73-92
(RR) 3/31 Spivak,
"Can the Subaltern Speak?" (RR) 4/7 Cornel
West, "The New Cultural Politics of Difference" (CP) 4/14 Hopenhayn,
"Postmodernism and Neoliberalism in Latin America" (CP) 4/14 continued: Class presentations, if needed 4/21 Class presentations; conclusion 4/ 26 Final paper due at 3:30 p.m. in FAO 153/155. Addendum: Bibliographical sources for scheduled readings 1/14 Jürgen
Habermas, "Modernity versus Postmodernity," New German Critique
22 (1981), 3-14. From A Postmodern Reader, ed. Joseph Natoli and Linda
Hutcheon (Albany: SUNY Press, 1993), pp. 91-104. 1/28 Michel Foucault, Power/Knowledge, ed. C. Gordon (NY: Pantheon, 1980). 3/24 Edward
Said, Orientalism, (NY: Vintage, 1979). 3/31 Gayatri
Spivak, "Can the Subaltern Speak?," Marxism and the Interpretation
of Culture, ed. Cary Nelson and Lawrence Grossberg (Urbana: University
of Illinois Press, 1988), pp. 271-313. 4/14 Martin
Hopenhayn, "Postmodernism and Neoliberalism in Latin America,"
The Postmodern Debate in Latin America, ed. John Beverley, José
Oviedo, and Michael Aronna (Durham: Duke University Press, 1995), pp.
217-222.
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