Interdisciplinary Seminars
Primary Texts: Machiavelli's Prince and Discourses
K20.1450 2 CR T 6:20-9:00 George Shulman
Course meets for seven weeks only, January 16-February 27. Open to sophomores only.
This two-credit course focuses on Machiavelli's political theory. Our goal is two-fold: we learn the art of close reading, to reveal the complex and contradictory layers of meaning in our texts, and we explore the enterprise of political theory by lingering over the central questions Machiavelli raises. What is the nature of power? What is the character of "good" leadership? What is the relationship between morality and politics? How can human beings sustain forms of self-government, given their short-sightedness and fear, the predatory and narrow interests of ruling classes, and the tendency of institutions to become reified forms of power? We focus on his two greatest texts, but also read several of his greatest interpreters.
Walter Lippmann and the Manufacture of Consent
K20.1458 2 CR TR 2:00-3:15 Stephen Duncombe
Course meets January 16–March 1. Open to sophomores only.
Walter Lippmann was arguably the most influential public intellectual in America during the twentieth century. Author, newspaper columnist, and adviser to presidents from Theodore Roosevelt to Lyndon Johnson, Lippmann asked hard questions and arrived at unsettling conclusions about the feasibility of mass democracy in an age of advertising, public relations and the mass media. We will trace this great mind’s evolution from his younger days as an idealistic progressive to his later analysis, first as critic and then tacit supporter, of the “manufacture of consent” and the political manipulation of the masses. Readings may include his works: Preface to Politics, Public Opinion, and The Phantom Public, along with John Dewey’s critique The Public and its Problems.
The Meaning of Home
K20.1432 HUM, 2 CR T 6:20-9:00 Pat Rock
Course meets for seven weeks only, March 8-April 26.
"Home," Spengler wrote in The Decline of the West, "is a profound word." This course examines the concept of home as it has been studied in literature, philosophy, psychology, and art. It examines the issues of home as a place in which we dwell, a place where we find our center. It examines the idea of home in relation to the physical world, cultural ties, and a changing world, a world where homelessness and exile are common. Readings may include: The Odyssey, King Lear, E.M. Forster's Howards End, and selections from the works of Frost, Freud, and Jung.
Primary Texts: Marx
K20.1455 2 CR T 6:20-9:00 George Shulman
Course meets for seven weeks only, March 8-April 26.
Open to sophomores only.
This two-credit course analyzes Marx as a political theorist. Our goal is two-fold: we learn the art of close reading, to reveal the complex and contradictory layers of meaning in our texts, and we learn the enterprise of political theory by exploring the central political and theoretical questions Marx raises. What explains historical development, and what is its direction and meaning? In what practices, institutions, and groups do we find the locus of power in society? In what ways is human action determined and in what senses is it free? In what senses are human beings trapped within what Marx calls ideology- and how can he claim to see this? What is the cause, agent, and meaning of "revolution?" By exploring how Marx addresses these quetions through his dialectical method, we can consider how Marx recasts the ways we define "politics." As we attend to the ways that Marx revises his theory, and his view of what theory does, we can also trace how he fashions a grand historical narrative about social change and globalization. Readings focus on Marx's own work, but include some post-Marx critiques.
Antonio Gramsci and the Power of Culture
K20.1459 2 CR TR 2:00-3:15 Stephen Duncombe
Course meets March 6–April 26. Open to sophomores only.
"We must stop this brain from working for twenty years," the fascist prosecutor demanded at his trial. Antonio Gramsci, the young intellectual leader of the Italian Communist Party was dead in less than ten. But in those ten years in prison, Gramsci wrote prodigiously: on politics, on power, on philosophy, and on culture. Cultural studies scholars, activists from the streets of Seattle to the jungles of Chiapas, as well as hip advertisers and marketers, owe a debt to Gramsci. In this seminar we will do a deep reading of Gramsci’s theories on the state, revolution, hegemony and culture, using his Prison Notebooks as the primary text. Supplemental readings may include Gramsci’s pre-prison writings, subcultural sketches from the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies, and case studies of contemporary political activism and commercial marketing.
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