Syllabus: Contemporary European Political Philosophy
10:10am-11:40am TT
Professor Claudia Leeb
Office location: West Hall 121
Office phone: 540-375-5256
Office hours: Tuesdays, 1:00pm-3:00pm
Course goals:
In this seminar we engage with central themes and approaches of contemporary, 20th- and 21st-century European/Continental political philosophy. We examine the German, French, and Italian Continental philosophy traditions. We discuss how European philosophers think about the relationship between theory (or philosophy) and political practice. We also analyze the ways in which the respective thinkers conceptualize power and political transformation. This focus will allow us to critically assess the commonalities (and differences) of the thinkers and the three traditions discussed. We start out with Theodor W. Adorno and Hannah Arendt (German political philosophy), followed by Jacques Lacan and Julia Kristeva (French political thought), and we end with Adriana Caverero and Giorgio Agamben (Italian political philosophy).
This study of the texts will improve students ability (both orally and in writing) to 1) obtain an overview of the Continental political philosophy traditions; 2) understand and articulate the relationship of theory and political practice as developed by the discussed Continental political thinkers; 3) outline the ways these thinkers theorize power and political resistance; and 4) critically evaluate these conceptual frameworks.
Required Texts:
All texts are available on Blackboard. In addition you need to purchase the following six books:
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1.Max Horkheimer and Theodor W. Adorno, Dialectic of Enlightenment, John Cumming (trans.)
(2002, The Continuum Publishing Company).
2. Hannah Arendt, Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil (1994, New York: Penguin Books).
3. Yannis Stavrakikis, Lacan & the Political, (1999, New York: Routledge)
4. Julia Kristeva, Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection (1982, New York: Columbia University Press)
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5.Adriana Caverero’s Horrorism: Naming Contemporary Violence, William McCuaig (trans.)
(November 2008, New York: Columbia University Press).
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6.Georgio Agamben’s Homo Sacer: Soverein Power and Bare Life, Daniel Heller-Roazen (trans.)
(1995, Stanford: Stanford University Press),
Required Writing Style Manual:
Scott, Gregory M. & S. M. Garrison, The Political Science Student Writer’s Manual, 6th Ed.
Upper Saddle River: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2008.
Course Content:
Week 1
September 2, Introduction
Week 2
September 7, German Political Philosophy I: Horkheimer and Adorno
“The Concept of Enlightenment,” in the Dialectic of Enlightenment, pp. 3-42
September 9, German Political Philosophy II: Horkheimer and Adorno
“Odysseus or Myth and Enlightenment,” in the Dialectic of Enlightenment, pp. 43-80
Week 3
September 14, German Political Philosophy III: Horkheimer and Adorno
“The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception,” pp. 120-167
September 16, German Political Philosophy IV: Horkheimer and Adorno
“Elements of Anti-Semitism,” pp. 168-208.
Week 4
September 21, German Political Philosophy V: Debates on Horkheimer and Adorno
Andrew Hewitt, “A Feminine Dialectic of Enlightenment? Horkheimer and Adorno Revisited,”
in Feminist Interpretations of Theodor Adorno, Renee Heberle (ed.)
(2006, University Park: The Pennsylvania State University Press
September 23, German Political Philosophy VI: Hannah Arendt
Eichmann in Jerusalem, pp. 3-55
Week 5
September 28, German Political Philosophy VII: Hannah Arendt
Eichmann in Jerusalem, pp. 56-111
September 30, German Political Philosophy VIII: Hannah Arendt
Eichmann in Jerusalem, pp. 111-161
Week 6
October 5, German Political Philosophy IX: Hannah Arendt
Eichmann in Jerusalem, pp. 234-279
October 7, German Political Philosophy X: Debates on Arendt
Richard J. Bernstein: “’The Banality of Evil’ Reconsidered, in Hannah Arendt and the Meaning of Politics,
Craig Calhoun & John McGowan (eds.) (1997, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press)
Week 7
October 12, French Political Thought I: Jacques Lacan
“The Mirror Stage as Formative of the I Function: as Revealed in Psychoanalytic Experience,”
in Ecrits: A Selection, Bruce Fink (trans.), (2002, New York/London: W.W. Norton & Company), pp. 4 - 9.
Yannis Stavrakakis, Lacan & the Political, chapter 1, pp. 13-39
October 14, French Political Thought II: Jacques Lacan
“The subject and the Other: Alienation,” in The Seminar of Jacques Lacan: Book XI:
The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis, Jacques-Alain Miller (ed.)and Alan Sheridan (trans.),
(1973, 1977, New York: W.W. Norton & Company); pp. 203 – 215.
Yannis Stavrakakis, Lacan & the Political, chapter 2, pp. 40-70
Week 8, Fall Break: October 15-25
Week 9
October 26, French Political Thought III: Jacques Lacan
“On creation ex nihilo,” in The Seminar of Jacques Lacan: Book VII: The Ethics of Psychoanalysis 1959-1960,
Dennis Porter (trans.), (1986, 1992, NewYork: W.W. Norton & Company), pp. 115 -127.
Yannis Stavrakakis, Lacan & the Political, chapter 3, pp. 71-98
October 28, French Political Thought IV: Debates on Lacan
Claudia Leeb, “Toward a Theoretical Outline of the Subject:
The Centrality of Adorno and Lacan for Feminist Political Theorizing,”
Political Theory (vol. 36, no. 3, June 2008), pp. 351-376.
Week 10
October 26, French Political Thought V: Julia Kristeva
Powers of Horror, Chapter 1, pp. 1-30.
October 28, French Political Thought: VI: Julia Kristeva
Powers of Horror, Chapters 7 and 8, pp. 140-173.
Week 11
November 2, French Political Thought VII: Julia Kristeva
Powers of Horror, Chapters 9, 10 and 11, pp. 174-210.
November 4, French Political Thought VIII: Debates on Kristeva
Iris Marion Young, “The Scaling of Bodies and the Politics of Identity,”
Justice and the Politics of Difference (1990, Princeton: Princeton University Press), pp.122-155.
Week 12
November 9, Italian Political Philosophy I: Adriana Cavarero
Horrorism: Naming Contemporary Violence, Chapters 1 – 6, pp. 1-39
November 11, Italian Political Philosophy II: Adriana Cavarero
Horrorism: Naming Contemporary Violence, Chapters 8-, pp. 40-77
Week 13
November 16, Italian Political Philosophy II: Adriana Cavarero
Horrorism: Naming Contemporary Violence, Chapters 8-, pp. 78-115
November 18, Italian Political Philosophy IV: Debates on Cavarero
Lisa Guenther Lisa, “Being-from-others: Reading Heidegger after Cavarero,”
Hypatia, Vol. 23: Issue 1 (Winter 2008), pp. 99-118.
Week 14, Thanksgiving Break; November 23-28
Week 15
November 30, Italian Political Philosophy V: Giorgio Agamben
Homo Sacer: Soverein Power and Bare Life, pp. 15-62
December 2, Italian Political Philosophy VI: Giorgio Agamben
Homo Sacer: Soverein Power and Bare Life, pp. 63-103
Week 16
December 7, Italian Political Philosophy VII: Giorgio Agamben
Homo Sacer: Soverein Power and Bare Life, pp. 104-143
December 9, Italian Political Philosophy VIII: Debates on Agamben
Andrew Norris, “Georgio Agamben and the Politics of the Living Dead,”
in Andrew Norris (ed.) Politics, Metaphysics, and Death:
Essays on Giorgio Agamben’s Homo Sacer (2005, Duke University Press), pp. 1-30.