Why is the issue of "Epistemology or Hermeneutics?" central to postmodern philosophical discussions.
Why has postmodern thought proven to be the natural ally of feminism? Why has postmodern thought proven to be the natural opponent of feminism?
Postmodern politics have two themes: 1) a critique of the premises of liberal democracy; and 2) an attempt to revive Marxism without any scientific foundation. Discuss. What would you say to the suggestion that a real postmodern politics are the identity politics being practiced by the inhabitants of Bosnia?
If any theory of history presupposes a vision of a future world, what kind of future world is made possible by an individual's choice of a postmodern stance? What does a postmodern utopia look like? What does this cost?
What is postmodernism if: a) this is a Postmodern Age? b) we can choose to adopt a postmodern attitude? c) there is no such thing?
IDENTIFY THE FOLLOWING CONCEPTS of the postmodern, and place them in a context:
distrust of metanarratives
language speaks
demon of simulacra
historical metafiction
decorated shed
philosophy or Philosophy
the "subject"
logocentrism
QUOTATIONS: Identify the writer. Discuss.
"But my project is precisely to bring it about that they 'no longer know what to do,' so that the acts, gestures, discourses that up until then had seemed to go without saying become problematic, difficult, dangerous."
"What if man's homelessness consisted in this, that man does not even think of the real plight of dwelling as the plight?"
"The pragmatist, on the other hand, thinks that the quest for a universal human community will be self-defeating if it tries to preserve the elements of every intellectuasl tradition, all the 'deep' intuitions anybody ever had."
"It is precisely on condition that nothing he says is taken literally that this antirealist can speak at all."
"Is not this security of the near what is trembling today, that is the co-belonging and co-propriety of the name of man and the name of Being, such as this co-propriety inhabits, and is inhabited by, the langauge of the West, such as it is buried in its oikonomia, such as it is inscribed and forgotten according to the history of metaphysics, and such as it is awakened also by the destruction of ontotheology?"
Books (all available at the university bookstore):
Baynes, K., Bohman, J., McCarthy, T., Philosophy: End or Transformation?
Docherty, Thomas, Postmodernism: A Reader
Heidegger, Martin, Poetry, Language, Thought
Hutcheon, Linda, A Poetics of Postmodernism
McGowan, John, Postmodernism and Its Critics
Megill, Allan, Prophets of Extremity
Norfolk, Lawrence, Lempriere's Dictionary
Ross, Andrew, Universal Abandon
N.B. Readings preceded by "**" are available at Fast Copy Center.
2 September: Introductory
9 September: The Mood and the Moves
Docherty, 1-92. ** Geza Ottlik, Logbook . Heidegger, 145-161.
16 September: Prophets?
Heidegger, 1-14. Megill.
23 September: History and Postmodernism:
** Hayden White, "The Politics of Historical
Interpretation," "Foucault's Discourse: The
Historiography of Anti-Humanism."
** Hans Kellner, "Beautifying the Nightmare: The
Aesthetics of Postmodern History."
** Ankersmit/Zagorin Debate
** Lionel Gossman, "The Rationality of History."
30 September: The New Historical Novel.
Norfolk, Lawrence, Lempriere's Dictionary
7 October: Pomo LitCrit:
Hutcheon, Linda, A Poetics of Postmodernism Heidegger, 189-229.
14 October: Pomo Pop I.
Docherty, 215-317. ** Buerger ** Agger Ross, 167-268.
21 October: Pomo Pop II.
Assignments drawn from the electronic journal, Postmodern Culture .
28 October: Pomo Politics I.
Docherty, 317-362. Ross, to 166. **Karnoouh
4 November: Pomo Politics II.
McGowan, John, Postmodernism and Its Critics
11 November: The End of Philosophy? I
Baynes, et.al., Rorty, Foucault, Derrida, Gadamer
18 November: The End of Philosophy? II
Baynes, et.al. Ricoeur, MacIntyre, Blumenberg, Taylor
2 December: Postmodernism at the Met
Corigliano, The Ghosts of Versailles
9 December:
Barthes, Camera Lucida
Rhetoric Seminars
Rhetoric, Composition, Critical Theory HP & Program
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