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Regular version of the site
Bachelor 2020/2021

The Modern and the Postmodern (Part 2)

Type: Compulsory course (Cultural Studies)
Area of studies: Cultural Studies
When: 3 year, 3 module
Mode of studies: distance learning
Instructors: Zemfira Salamova
Language: English
ECTS credits: 3
Contact hours: 4

Course Syllabus

Abstract

This course examines how the idea of "the modern" develops at the end of the 18th century in European philosophy and literature, and how being modern (or progressive, or hip) became one of the crucial criteria for understanding and evaluating cultural change. Are we still in modernity, or have we moved beyond the modern to the postmodern? This discipline uses massive open-online course 'The Modern and the Postmodern, part two', created by Wesleyan University via Coursera: https://www.coursera.org/learn/modern-postmodern-2.
Learning Objectives

Learning Objectives

  • This course will form an original intellectual navigation system in the cultural space of XIX–XX cc. It will follow the dynamics of movement from modern to postmodern, leaning on such figures as Freud, Woolf, Emerson, Horkheimer and Adorno, Foucault and Latour.
Expected Learning Outcomes

Expected Learning Outcomes

  • You will learn why the XXth century intellectuals criticized Enlightenment so often, who were predecessors of Postmodern in the first half of the XXth century and what role was played in its establishment by European critical tradition.
  • You will learn about some of the key themes of modernity and modernism in the West.
  • You will learn to think of postmodernism in relation both to the philosophical idea of modernity and to the aesthetic considerations of modernism.
Course Contents

Course Contents

  • Intensity and the Ordinary: Sex, Death, Aggression and Guilt.
    With a focus on Civilization and its Discontents, we examine how Freud’s theories tried to expose profound instincts as they appeared in daily life. This theme is learned by students on MOOC 'The Modern and the Postmodern, part two'.
  • Intensity and the Ordinary: Art, Loss, Forgiveness
    A reading of Virginia Woolf’s modernist novel To the Lighthouse shows how giving up the search for the “really real” can liberate one to attend to the everyday. This theme is learned by students on MOOC 'The Modern and the Postmodern, part two'.
  • The Postmodern Everyday
    We go back to Ralph Waldo Emerson and forward to Ludwig Wittgenstein to consider how forms of life and language games need to foundation to be compelling. This theme is learned by students on MOOC 'The Modern and the Postmodern, part two'.
  • From Critical Theory to Postmodernism
    Through a consideration of Max Horkheimer & Theodor Adorno along with Michel Foucault, we confront the philosophical effort to escape from totality in order to understand the politics of control. This theme is learned by students on MOOC 'The Modern and the Postmodern, part two'.
  • Paintings II
    A very brief consideration of how artists are responding to the loss of foundations to produce work that redefines art. This theme is learned by students on MOOC 'The Modern and the Postmodern, part two'.
  • Postmodern Identities
    We examine short pieces by Judith Butler and Slavjo Zizek to understand how identities get formed (and performed) in a world without foundations. This theme is learned by students on MOOC 'The Modern and the Postmodern, part two'.
  • Late-term Review
    Review of all the thinkers we have studied in Parts I and II of the class, along with some complementary material. This theme is learned by students on MOOC 'The Modern and the Postmodern, part two'.
  • Postmodern Pragmatisms
    After postmodern playfulness, or alongside it, we see the resurgence of the pragmatic impulse to return philosophy to real human problems. This theme is learned by students on MOOC 'The Modern and the Postmodern, part two'.
Assessment Elements

Assessment Elements

  • non-blocking Online course
  • non-blocking Essay
  • non-blocking Final exam
Interim Assessment

Interim Assessment

  • Interim assessment (3 module)
    0.25 * Essay + 0.5 * Final exam + 0.25 * Online course
Bibliography

Bibliography

Recommended Core Bibliography

  • Zima, P. V. (2010). Modern/Postmodern : Society, Philosophy, Literature. London: Continuum. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=378010

Recommended Additional Bibliography

  • Evans, C. S. (2018). A History of Western Philosophy : From the Pre-Socratics to Postmodernism. Downers Grove: IVP Academic. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=1907452