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CONTENTS
| Course Description | Texts | Grading | Attendance Policy |
| Late Policy | Other Remarks | Class Schedule |
COURSE
DESCRIPTION
In this reading seminar, we will examine the most important themes in intellectual history since the end of the nineteenth century. The focus of the course will be such important bodies of thought as logical positivism, Marxism, psychoanalysis, existentialism, and poststructuralism. This course serves as a core course of the gender studies program, and so special attention is paid to feminist thought and gender analysis.
Course Goals
In this course, students will familiarize themselves with several of the most important currents of twentieth-century thought, including logical positivism, Marxism, psychoanalysis, phenomenology, existentialism, critical theory, gender theory, queer theory, and media studies. In the course of discussing these major bodies of thought, we will pay special attention to several reoccurring themes within twentieth-century thought:
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the significance of language for human life;
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the legacy of Marxism;
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the encounter with "the Other";
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the reevaluation of the significance of sexuality and gender for human life;
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the claims to objectivity made by science; and, finally,
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the role of the media and consumer culture in shaping our lives.
We will try to trace out how these concerns shaped debate, while at the same time explore how twentieth-century thought reflected powerful social, cultural, and political trends and events of the century.
Course Objectives
To meet the goals of the course, students will write weekly responses to the readings that demonstrate that they have both read and thought about the texts for that week. They will also have to write successfully three papers that will demand that they have mastered the key concepts of several bodies of thought and are capable of relating these bodies of thought to one another. This course is a writing-intensive course, and so students will be expected to work on their writing skills through both frequent writing assignments and through several intensive writing assignments that will require editing, revisions, and editing sessions with the professor
Technology Skills
All papers, including the weekly responses, will need to be written on a computer word-processor. Students will also need some basic knowledge of web browsers in order to be able to find and utilize material on the on-line version of this syllabus.
Instructional Format
This course will be taught in a seminar style, which will emphasize above all discussion of the weekly readings. There will be some small amount of lecture material presented each week to act as a supplemental or introductory framework for discussion.
TEXTS
- David Edmonds & John Eidenow, Wittgenstein’s Poker: The Story of a Ten-Minute Argument between Two Philosophers (Ecco, 2002) ISBN:0060936649.
- Simonede Beauvoir, The Second Sex (Vintage, 1989) ISBN: 0679724516.
- Michel Foucault, The History of Sexuality (Vintage Books, 1990) ISBN: 0679724699.
- John Fiske, Television Culture (Routledge, 1987), ISBN: 0415039347.
- Other readings, made available through the library's on-line reserve system.
The
readings listed under each day should be done before the assigned day.
GRADING
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Attendance
and Participation (including pop quizzes, if necessary): |
10% |
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Daily
Responses |
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2
short (5-6 pages long) papers: |
20%
each |
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1
long (13-15 pages long) paper |
35% |
ATTENDANCE
POLICY
Students
are permitted one unexcused absence.
Additional absences will lead to a lower participation grade which can
seriously hurt the final grade. Too
many absences may also lead to an attendance warning and forced withdrawal from
the class.
Excused
absences are those due to approved college-related activities (e.g. sporting
events), documented illness, and family emergencies. Students have the responsibility to make up missed work.
LATE
POLICY
There will be no make-up for quizzes.
Papers should be handed in on time; if you know that you need a little more time
on a paper, you may ask for an extension, but this request must come before
the day the paper is due. Otherwise, there will be a late penalty of a
letter grade per day that the paper is late.
OTHER
REMARKS
All
cell phones must be turned off at the beginning of class. Do not, of course, take phone calls during
class. Please be on time. If you must arrive late or leave early, do
so as quietly and unobtrusively as possible.
Finally, all work must be yours.
Plagiarism and cheating will be punished with an F for the assignment.
Of course, all work must be yours. Plagiarism and cheating will be punished with an F for the assignment. Plagiarism, we should note, is defined in the following way according to Wofford College's Honor Code:
(1) The verbatim repetition, without acknowledgement, of the writings of another author.
(2) Borrowing without acknowledging the source.
(3) Paraphrasing the thoughts of another writer without acknowledgement.
(4) Allowing any other person or organization to prepare work which one then submits as his or her own.
You should pay close attention to the third definition, especially when referring to ideas borrowing from a website. If you have any questions, refer to my handout "Living by Wofford's Honor Code."
CLASS SCHEDULE
Note:
This syllabus is tentative and subject to change upon notice.