Course Descriptions
Courses are listed numerically according to the codes. 500 level courses are theory-based required and elective courses. 600 level courses are methodology courses and the 700 level courses are courses related to writing and conducting master’s thesis.
First year students are required to take all required courses and to select two elective courses. It is suggested that the selection of the elective courses is done with the academic adviser selected by the student. The school reserves the right to add additional classes or to cancel a course according to the number of students enrolled.
HUM 454 Popular Cinematic Genres: Interpretations and Theory
Prerequisite: upper level Humanities majors only
This seminar will explore popular cinematic genres through the perspective of cultural and social theory, giving students practical skills in the interpretation of popular culture. Whereas films by directors like Antonioni, Godard, or Tarkovsky call for formal analysis and interpretation, popular genres and subgenres such as the detective film, the gangster film, the film noir, the women’s film, the romantic comedy, the screwball comedy, the thriller/suspense film, the melodrama, the horror film, the disaster film, the science fiction film, the fantasy film, the western, or the musical are usually taken by their contemporary audiences as mere entertainment. We will be viewing films from a variety of these genres, reading essays interpreting the films from theoretical paradigms representing the socio-historical, psycho-social, political and gender studies approaches by or informed by theorists such as Theodor Adorno, Gilles Deleuze, Mary Ann Doanne, Bruce Kawin, Jacques Lacan, Niklas Luhmann, Christian Metz, Laura Mulvey, Jacques Rancière, Steven Shaviro, Slavoj Žižek, and others. The interpretive skills students acquire from this study will be applied actively to the creation of new interpretations.
HUM 550 Arts and Cultural Management
Prerequisite: none.
The aim of this course is to enhance the knowledge of the arts and culture with practical involvement in arts and cultural organizations, to integrate the best management theory and practice in the commercial sectors with the challenges of arts and cultural institutions, and to provide students with an abundant experience of practicing art and cultural managers. The course will focus on management theory and cultural organizations (art management positions): seven cultural tracks, cultural formation, cultural mission, process dimensions; cultural leadership: leadership styles, teamwork, participation, decision-making, self-management, intercultural networks. This course is a prerequisite for cultural planning.
HUM 590 Methods in the Human Sciences: Critical Writing, Analysis and Interpretation
Prerequisite: none.
This core course will introduce students to methods of critical writing, analysis, and interpretation in the human sciences and cultural studies. Students will be introduced to a variety of interpretative and analytic essays by various scholars as exemplars, and will be required to apply several different theoretical approaches to cultural texts (literature, art, film, media) in a practical manner.
HUM 600 Methods in the Human Sciences: Theoretical Paradigms
Prerequisite: none.
The aim of this course is to introduce students to key theoretical paradigms used in the study of humanities and culture, and to enable students to understand the following theoretical paradigms: structuralism, deconstruction, post-structuralism, the new historicism, post-colonialism, gender studies, and others, focusing on standard philological, historical, comparative and formalist approaches.
HUM 690 Methods in the Human Sciences: Scholarly Writing and Research / Thesis Writing (Thesis Seminar)
Prerequisite: none.
The major characteristics of disciplined inquiry as found in research method writing used in the human sciences. Student writing and learning activities will center on the formulation, logic, design, planning critique, feasibility, and writing applications of research. Students will be able to practice all aspects of using style in academic papers and reports, including the various parts of a literature review and experimental report, citing sources in the text and formatting reference lists. Objectives will be to give students general concepts and principals of research process writing and subject matter domains inclusive of the graduate program and concentration humanities areas at AAU.
The students will work on their M.A. thesis under the supervision of their advisors, who will be mainly professors and docents (at least Ph.D.). The selection of a thesis topic and the work on the thesis, from assignment to the submission of the thesis and its acceptance for the defense, will be in accordance with the Rules and Instructions of AAU. The MA thesis has to satisfy the standards of scholarly writing in the field of the humanities, and students are required to consult regularly with their approved advisors about the progress of their work. In accordance with the law, every MA thesis will be deposited in AAU records. The acceptance of a M.A. thesis for defence on the recommendation of the advisor will be credited as a course.
HUM 500 Internship / Research Practicum in Humanities
Prerequisite: none.
Internship: The goal of the internship is to enable the graduate students to obtain relevant work experiences that enable them to apply theoretical and practical knowledge and skills gained during the course of their graduate studies, and at the same time to expose them to the application of their work experience into the foundation which the students gained in the school. Students will be offered a variety of private, public, and other organizations to select from, but can also find their own working places. The place of internship, however, has to be approved by the academic adviser.
Research Practicum in Humanities: M.A. Students in the Humanities will fulfil the practical research requirement of their degree through their participation in the design and implementation of an in-school symposium. Students will be responsible for setting the theme of the symposium, arranging panels on various themes related to their research, organizing and advertising the symposium, and presenting working papers on the topics of their thesis research. This practicum will prepare students for concrete working situations in both the academic sphere as well as in areas of employment related to the humanities, giving them organizational and administrative skills, skills in group cooperation, and public speaking skills.
PHI 660 1. Aesthetics—From Enlightenment to Postmodernism
Prerequisite: none.
This seminar will begin with a survey of the history of aesthetics followed by an exploration of some key thinkers from post-Kantian modern aesthetics, comparing formalist and socio-historical approaches with speculative approaches. Students will then examine the work of key contemporary social theorists who have dedicated important parts of their works to aesthetics, and will conclude with a survey of contemporary theorists who have concerned themselves with aesthetics, including attempts to develop a post-expressionist/post-humanist aesthetics.
PHI 660 2. Aesthetics, or Philosophy of Beauty
The course will treat the following philosophical questions: What is art? What is good art? What is beauty? What is it in human nature that allows us to express and experience beauty? The first part of the course is called „Theoretical Aesthetics.“ We will read articles which explain aesthetics, and we will read works on beauty from the history of philosophy from ancient Greece to the present. Part two of the course is called „Applied Aesthetics.“ During these sessions we will look at beauty in four arts (dance, painting, sculpture, music) through workshop format. In part three, „Personal Aesthetics“ we will examine the importance of beauty in our everyday lives, particularly in nature, in our homes, in our bodies, and in our small ways of engendering beauty.
LIT 500 Key Texts in Literary Modernism and Postmodernism
Prerequisite: none.
In this seminar students will explore key longer literary texts from the period of modernism, postmodernism, or, in certain cases, both periods. The seminar is designed to allow students to study one or two important works of literature on a deeper and more extensive level, applying a variety of approaches to the analysis and interpretation of important literary works of the 20th Century. The texts listed below are possible texts that may be studied in a given term in single or in a combination of two work
LIT 630 Franz Kafka and the Problem of Minority
Prerequisite: none.
This course shall begin by the interpretation of Kafka’s work that is resumed in Deleuze and Guattari’s book Kafka : Toward a Minor Literature. According to this interpretation, Kafka’s work must not be reduced to any psychological or theological system. Rather, it is to be viewed as a glamorous example of so called minor literature that reflects the situation of the national, ethnic or religious minority in the western society. As opposed to other authors writing from the marginal position (Joyce, Beckett), however, Kafka’s writing highlights the problem of the otherness in a more direct way. This is why we could take it as a starting point of a reflection on the problem of the Otherness as such. In respect to this problem, we shall analyze the phenomenon of the human face, as it appears in the philosophy of Emmanuel Lévinas, as well as the notion of the social and cultural otherness developed by Deleuze and Guattari. The confrontation of both conceptions should result in a precise articulation of the social experience with the otherness. It should also unmask various ways we try to avoid encounter with the otherness by suppressing it with our own ready-made categories.
LIT 660 Advanced Interdisciplinary Seminar in Romanticism
Prerequisite: none.
This seminar will explore the Zeitgeist of the Age of Romanticism in all of its manifestations, ranging from poetry and fiction to music and art. It will begin with an exploration of the historical and theoretical background, exploring how thinkers such as Rousseau, Kant, and Herder, contributed the ideas that would be developed and enacted by later writers reacting against the Enlightenment. Writers explored will include Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Friedrich Hölderlin, Novalis, William Blake, William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Lord Byron, John Keats, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary Shelley, Karel Hynek Mácha, Aleksandr Pushkin, and Emily Brontë.
PHI 520 European Philosophy
Prerequisite: none.
This seminar will explore issues and topics (on a rotating basis) in European philosophy from the 17th Century (Spinoza, Leibniz, Hume) to the 21st Century (Agamben, Badiou, Nancy). This will include the close exploration of key texts by important philosophers (for example, Kant, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Deleuze), specific times periods and modes (for example, the Enlightenment, the 20th Century, Post-Structuralism, Ethics), or surveys of given centuries or the entire period. Texts will be selected from list below.
PHI 521 Advanced Seminar in Philosophy: Georges Bataille and Michel Foucault
Prerequisite: none.
This seminar will explore the thought of Georges Bataille (1897-1962) and that of the post-structuralist social theorist Michel Foucault (1926-1984). Whereas sociology has largely been concerned with the study of normative social behavior via the identification of its margins, borders, and limits, the work of Georges Bataille was concerned with transgression. After exploring the development of Bataille’s thought in the first half of the seminar, we will spend the second half exploring how Foucault’s work incorporated, extended, and diverged from Bataille’s work.
PHI 522 What is Text? Ricoeur on Text, Metaphor and Narrative
Prerequisite: none.
The work of Paul Ricoeur has had a profound impact on literary theory and hermeneutics. This course explores his multidisciplinary approach to literary theory centered around three of his works: Interpretation Theory, Rule of Metaphor, and Time and Narrative, each of which raise a main question: What is a text? What is metaphor? And what is narrative? Exploring the answers to those questions in Ricoeur lead to deeper questions, such as what is meaning? How do human beings make meaning? We shall also see that Ricoeur’s literary theory can give us a model for understanding other types of “texts,” such as popular culture.
SOC 575 Alternative Culture as Everyday Practice: Beyond Frankfurt, Birmingham and Other Schools
Prerequisite: none.
Students will survey the semiotic battle within western culture and society, focusing on those social groups, who resist consumer or mass culture lifestyles and try to lead an alternative, non-mainstream, way of life. Starting with the roots (and rhizomes) of trends and traditions in literature, music, theater, film and art as well as pub and café subcultures, etc. we will observe their transformations in time and place.
We will consider the introduction and proliferation of the postmodern topics of ecology, multiculturalism, gender and queer studies. As visual culture is our daily bread, we will attempt an interpretation of local advertising and the reading of streets. We will study the rise of cultural activism in many forms (including squatting, punk rock, anarchist and sprayer subcultures) and trace the influence of expatriate communities.
Discussions exploring new directions in Czech literature, based on works of the hottest and hippest writers, film and rock music and visits to topic-related literary and music events are an essential part of the course.
SOC 585 Culture and Identity
Prerequisite: none.
This course focuses on the relationship between the individual and society, the role of culture in social life and how identity develops in a social context. Students explore the degree of freedom individuals have in their day-to-day life, the type and degree of self-consciousness they have in respect of the way they behave, the amount of control that the wider social framework into which we are born has over our life.
We will consider not only the classical ideas of Durkheim, Marx and Weber, but will also look at the theories that developed after their time, the interactionist schools, neo-Marxism, the various branches of feminism and the Frankfurt school, relating these older ideas to the new sociology of post structuralism, postmodernism, the new right, structurational sociology and the idea of reflexive modernity and the risk society, amongst others.
PHI 570 Consumer as Creator: Exploring Receptor-Based Culture Theory
Prerequisite: none.
Cultural studies have often treated the consumer as an afterthought, or even with suspicion or pity, as dupes of the culture industry. But more recently, scholars have begun paying more attention to the receivers of popular culture. Consuming popular culture has increasingly come to be seen not primarily as passive absorption, but rather as active appropriation, a creative social process in its own right, a way to construct identity. The “fan” is no longer thought of as a pawn of mass media, but rather as a maker of meaning. This course explores cultural theories that focus on the receivers of popular culture (for example the work of Michel De Certeau and fan theory), and how the audience reconfigures the meanings it receives.
HIS 600 Contemporary Currents in Historiography
Prerequisite: none.
This seminar will explore recent trends in contemporary historiography. Beginning with a preliminary consideration of the historiographical questions posed by the Annales group and the work of Michel Foucault, the seminar will consider both Anglo-American trends (Hayden White, the New Historicism, gender studies), continental Europeans trends (Lutz Niethammer, Jacques Rancière, Jean-Luc Nancy), and thinkers bridging the two traditions (Paul Ricoeur, Dominick LaCapra, Manuel De Landa).
HIS 601 History of Historiography
Prerequisite: none.
In the beginning of the course, the students will be introduced to the approaches and most important achievements of ancient Greek, Roman and Medieval historiography and the historiography of the Renaissance and Baroque periods. The main focus of this course will be on historiography from the period of the Enlightenment to the present. We will examine the development of history as a scholarly discipline, the main personalities of historical science, and their contribution to the field of research. Attention will also be paid to the main societal discussions in which historians participated (and continue to participate) and to the relationship between historical thinking and history, and between history as a discipline and other social sciences and humanities.
ELECTIVES
ART 500 Art and Society: The History of Visual Arts in the Twentieth Century
Prerequisite: none.
This course will give students an overview of the development of art during the 20th century along with a questioning of its relationships with regard to changes occuring in society. It will examine the roots of avant-gardism and its aims, modern art styles like Futurism, Cubism, Functionalism, Constructivism, Dada and Surrealism. Students will learn about the birth of Abstraction Art and about deformations in Modernism within the totalitarian regimes of Soviet Russia and Nazi Germany. The course will continue with a survey of post-World War II art. It will examine shifts in concepts of art brought on by Performance Art, Conceptualism and Postmodernism and its connection to the postwar society.
ART 520 Twentieth Century Art and Literature—The Avant-Garde
The aim of this course is to draw an overview of the main European avant-gardes of the XXth century (Cubism, Futurism, Constructivism, Bauhaus, Dadaism, Expressionism, Surrealism, Situationism, COBRA), including Czech avant-gardes. The course will focus on literature and visual arts but will also approach the philosophical and political contexts in which those movements emerged
ART 550 Art and the Concept of Freedom
In this course we will explore ideas about creating art in an open and "free" society, if it exists, and if it is indeed possible. Looking at historical precedents, such as the censorship in U.S. art in the 1980's (Robert Mapplethorpe, etc.), and comparing that to the countries of the former Soviet Bloc, we will examine two extreme models of art-making contexts: market capitalism and Stalinist communism. Issues of censorship, the role of the market and Western art-gallery system, and historical precedents in each culture will show us the influences that have led to two very different approaches to art in Europe and the United States. Andy Warhol and Joseph Beuys, pivotal artists from each society, will lead our discussion on those very differences and similarities in an artist's search for expression.
At the core of the course we will trace the de-politicization of art in the so-called 'free world' and the politicization of art behind the Iron Curtain before 1989. This is not political art; it is beyond a recognizable label-and this too, we will study. The "Artist's Revolution" in Czechoslovakia will be the focus point of our critique and discussion about art and the concept of freedom, supported by numerous slide images and videos
ART 551 Art in the Public Realm
The definition of "Public Art" has dramatically changed and been debated since issues of deconstruction and "context" have entered the contemporary art dialogue. One of the ongoing discussions of the past two decades has focused on "who is the audience", and the interaction/responsibility, if any, the artist is expected to contribute to that equation. In focusing on art in the public realm, this course will also address issues of open dialogue, context, and sustainability in the arts. "Sustainability" can mean both financing and material or non-material makeup of the work. We will cover the history of public art, from ancient statues and monuments, to the larger-than-life equestrian statues of ancient Rome (to Prague's own žižka) that celebrate war heroes, to contemporary avant-garde outdoor video projections on buildings, that are decidedly anti-war. We will focus on 20-21st century examples of public art, and how much of this is politicized by the social context of the times. From the early 1920 Mexican Mural masters, to the 1970 Earthworks and Land Art, 1980 Collaborations, Street Art and Graffitti, to contemporary site work such as Turrell's Crater in the U.S. southeast and Richard Long's Scottish walking places. The student will be introduced to the broad range of issues and possibilities that public art can create and address.
ART 552 Major Film Directors
This seminar will devote itself to the films of one or two major directors every semester it is taught, with the intention of exploring the œuvre of the director by means of several modes of analysis and interpretation. Directors will include such figures as Frtiz Lang, Jean Renoir, Orson Welles, Alfred Hitchcock, Federico Fellini, Michelangelo Antonioni, Luis Buñuel, Alain Resnais, Jean-Luc Godard, François Truffaut, Ingmar Bergman, Andrei Tarkovsky, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Werner Herzog, Wim Wenders, Raoul Ruiz, Stanley Kubrick, Robert Altman, and Terrence Malick.
ART 553 History and Theory of Film
This seminar is designed to give students a foundation in film studies, with both an emphasis on the history of film and on film criticism and theory. While viewing and discussing key classics in cinema history, we will considering a variety of approaches to the analysis and interpretation of film, including formalism, semiotics, socio-historical analysis, post-structuralism, and gender studies.
ART 570 Contemporary Art Scene: Theory, Discussions, Visits
How does the contemporary scene look in Prague, Berlin, London or New York? What influences it? How is it changing today? This seminar will introduce students to issues connected to the operation of contemporary art. By visiting exhibitions and galleries, artists' studios and discussing strong contemporary artworks and art texts students will explore the different concepts of contemporary arts. The course will also question issues like the art market, art collectors and collections, phenomena of international shows like Venice Biennale and position of curators. The seminar should help students orient themselves in the contemporary art scene and enable them to follow exciting changes in art taking place here and now.
ART 571 Critical Approaches to Art and Visual Culture
Prerequisite: ART 101&102, ART 131
This is a seminar course to explore critical theories and concepts relating contemporary discourses to personal encounters of contemporary art and visual culture. Critical discourse and visual analysis, social and cultural theory, and visual culture studies will be used as tools to connect discourses from arts exhibitions, readings, research, popular culture, media, journal writing, art assignments, and reflections with classroom discussions.
COM 550 Propaganda and Information
Prerequisite: SOC 100, COM 101
Since the end of the Cold War and the rise of the internet, there is a widespread belief that we are all better informed than ever, and that propaganda is a notion of the past which died with Totalitarian regimes. On the contrary, propaganda has never been so active in our modern societies. Propaganda is a neutral term yet has acquired along the years a negative tone. Nevertheless, as a paradox, no organized human societies could function without propaganda. This course intends to provide students with an approach to Propaganda and Information/communication systems. This course also intends to provide students with different points of view, including some from developing countries such as Lebanon or former Communist countries. Audiovisual materials will be used and current issues will be examined in a way to understand how propaganda shapes everyday information.
HIS 520 Cultural History of Early Modern Europe (1400–1700)
This course will focus heavily on the stimulating, sometimes surprising, study of “popular religion,” including ritual, ritual violence, magical beliefs, sacred space, and witchcraft. It will also discuss, from a cultural perspective, the highest levels of the early modern social structure, for example sacral concepts of monarchy, aristocratic hierarchy, and aristocratic “representation.” Finally, the course will consider the issues of Lutheran, Calvinist, and Catholic “confessionalization,” “social disciplining,” and the role of confession in the creation of territorial states, which will involve discussions about tolerance and intolerance, religious minorities, and religious
HSS 580 Externalizing Identity: Performance and Ritual Theory
We usually think of performance and ritual in fairly limited terms. Performances are activities that actors engage in. Rituals are practices that are for the religious. But in reality, isn’t our whole social life shot through with performances and ritual? Our cultural life together carries with it a symbolic element that serves to stake out our identity – we “perform” who we are every day, whether or not we think of ourselves as actors. We enter into the “rituals” of our community through repeated actions, even non-religious ones.. This class examines what performance and ritual are, how they structure our everyday lives, and how they provide a symbolic context for living in communities.
LIT 662 Franz Kafka: An Advanced Seminar
Prerequisite: LIT 233 & LIT 232
In this advanced seminar we will be studying the works of Franz Kafka and the critical reception of those works. We will be considering Kafka within his biographical and socio-historical context as a Prague author, as well as approaching his works several theoretical paradigms, ranging from early critical readings of his oeuvre by Hannah Arendt, Georges Bataille, Walter Benjamin, Maurice Blanchot, and George Steiner, to more recent approaches by Gilles Deleuze & Felix Guattari, Mladen Dolar, Slavoj Zizek, Stanford Kwinter, and Stanley Corngold). This class is intended as an M.A. seminar, but interested B.A. students are welcome to join up to a specified enrollment limit. Primary texts will include the novel The Trial, the novella The Metamorphosis, and the stories The Judgement, In the Penal Colony, Blumfeld, and Elderly Bachelor, A Report to an Academy, The Country Doctor, Investigations of a Dog, The Burrow, and Josephine, or the Mouse Singer.
LIT 661 Advanced Literary Seminar: Women Writers
This seminar is an examination of women writers from the mid-19th Century until the present. Beyond a survey of narrative fiction written by women, this seminar will consider the specific characteristics of the form and content of works by women writers, how they are different from those of male writers, and whether this difference is considerable enough to merit the positing of a “female aesthetic.”
PHI 665 Dr. Frankenstein and His Colleagues
Contrary to the culture of Ancient Greece that has transformed its hopes and worries to a complex mythology, modern culture has created only one mythos. It is a mythos of a scientist, who, on his quest for knowledge, comes so far that he destroys all his loved ones and finally himself. The mythos that puts question mark over development of modern science and its power is, of course, the mythos of Frankenstein. And it is more then symptomatic that the author of this mythos was young woman – Mary Shelly. In her novel, Mary Shelly displays a basic dilemma of modern science – dilemma of science that has progressed so far that it has transgressed all the ethical categories it has inherited from past centuries. The situation of modern science is indeed situation, where all old ethical categories more or less fail. But if modern science does not want to flee from its ethical responsibility, as Dr. von Frankenstein did, it must try to act ethically, despite its old ethical norms turn out to be utterly insufficient. Therefore, it must try to develop provisional ethical principles that would allow it to distinguish what is right and what is wrong. Necessity of such a provisional ethics is more and more obvious especially in those domains of modern science that have certain relation to medicine. This applies, above all, to pharmacology, neurology, biotechnology, cloning, or manipulation with stem cells. The aim of this course is to focus on bioethical issues that appear in above mentioned disciplines and to try to develop provisional ethical principles that would allow us to get oriented in these domains. In this endeavor, a close reading of Mary Shelly’s novel could not be but of great help.
PHI 666 The Concept of Evil
The question of the evil is as old as mankind itself. In this course, we shall examine philosophical interpretation of the evil, as it appears in the works of Plato, St. Augustine, Descartes, Leibniz and Schelling. From the study of those philosophers we can see that the evil, as opposed to the good, can be grasped in two different ways. In Plato, St. Augustine, Descartes or Leibniz, we see the evil as a privation of the good. According to all these philosophers, the evil as such does not exists; it is nothing but negative side of the good. Schelling, however, does not share this view, as he wants to grasp the evil as an original phenomenon that cannot be reduced to a pure negativity. He claims that the power of evil is too big to be reducible to a mere privation of the good. Therefore, the evil must have a positive status, which does not mean that it is something good. Rather, capability of the evil is a driving force of our existence, which makes possible the good, as well. For Schelling, there would be no good without the evil. However, if the evil wins over the good, it makes us not only to harm the others and act in a selfish way, but it turns to a pure self-destruction. This self-destructive power of the evil can be demonstrated in Conrad’s novel Heart of Darkness, as well as in its film version Apocalypse Now from F.F. Coppola. Both these works can serve as perfect illustrations of Schelling’s notion of evil.
POL 545 Chinese Film and Culture
Prerequisite: HIS 103 & HIS 104
This course has two main objectives: to introduce students to film theory and writing about film; to help students navigate Chinese history and culture through their various film representations in different genres and periods. Globalization will be a special topic in this class, as well as public spectacles (in China) like the Olympics ceremonies.
PSY 580 Cultural Psychology
This course is designed to provide an understanding of the variety of human behavior as it emerges in the cultural context, of the development of certain individual characteristics in relation to cultural factors, and of what happens to individuals as their cultural system undergoes significant change.
PSY 581 Phenomenological Psychology
Prerequisite: none.
If we want to become familiar with the phenomenological psychology that was created as an alternative to the mainstream psychology, it is impossible to leave aside the basic source of its inspiration – the phenomenological philosophy. In particular, this is true, when it comes to the so called Daseinsanalysis that is based on the philosophy of Martin Heidegger. Before coming to the work of Ludwig Binswanger and Medard Boss, who are two main figures of the Daseinsanalysis, we must therefore elucidate Heidegger's view of human being, as well as his notion of death, anxiety and conscience. Then, we can turn our attention to the phenomena of love, dream and imagination exposed by Binswanger and Boss. From their point of view, none of these phenomena has to do with our subjective representations. Since the very distinction between subject and object is abolished in the phenomenological psychology, love, dream and imagination are explained as phenomena of our Being-in-the-World. Finally, we shall deal with the problem of mental disorder that the phenomenological psychology understands as a deficient way of our existence. This deficiency, however, is not due to some functional failure, but due to the pathological limitation of our freedom and openness to the world.
PSY 582 Abnormal Psychology: Jaspers, Goldstein, Canguilhem, Laing
Prerequisite: none.
What is mental disorder? When looking for the answer at this question, Kurt Goldstein does not content himself with a reductive conception that localizes mental illness in some part of the neuronal structure of the brain. Instead, he tries to reflect it from the holistic point of view, i.e. he takes it as a global change of the individual in its relation to the environment. According to Goldstein, mental disease, as well as somatic disease, causes “catastrophic reaction” of the individual because it disturbs the totality of its relations with the environment. The individual that finds itself in catastrophic situation must make an enormous effort to overcome disequilibrium, which issues from this situation, and find a new equilibrium. The conception that elucidates psychopathological phenomena through the tension between equilibrium and disequilibrium has then found an echo with Merleau-Ponty and Guillame Canguilhem, who have appreciated it for its psychosomatic and non-normative character. With the help of their theories we can therefore enrich Goldstein’s explanation of mental disorder. Above all, we can grasp phenomenon of mental disorder as a form of finitude of human existence. This is evident especially from the description of schizophrenic disintegration of the Self that was made by R.D. Laing. His investigation of schizophrenia, as well as the conception of general psychopathology developed by Karl Jaspers, can lead us to conclusion that mental disorder is principally possible because of fragility and finitude of human existence.
REL 500 Comparative Theologies
Prerequisite: none.
The three main branches of the Christian Church have often misunderstood each other’s differences, and even misrepresented each other’s teachings. This has led to unnecessary hostility and mistrust. What do these three traditions of the world’s most populous religion have in common? Where are there genuine, significant differences, and why? In this seminar, students are encouraged to delve into the theologies of the three main branches of the Christian Church: Eastern Orthodoxy, Roman Catholicism, and Protestantism. Using primary sources, we shall compare and contrast the three theologies according to the various topics of theology: the doctrines of God, Scripture or Revelation, Christ, the Spirit, salvation, and the Church and sacraments (and more, if we have time). In this seminar, students will research and present response papers from their readings for in-class discussion.
REL 501 Religion as a Social Force
Prerequisite: none.
This course is designed to introduce students to several thinkers who have been influential in the ways we think about religion in the social sciences, and to critically investigate their positions. By the end of this course, the student will have a better understanding of some theories on religion and society, and a better grasp of the dynamic relationship between religion and society in its various manifestations.
SOC 530 How Can We Comprehend the Holocaust?
Prerequisite: none.
How can we comprehend incomprehensible? How can we comprehend an excess of power that leads to the total destruction of an ethnic or social group? This thorny question makes us examine not only nature of totalitarianism and banality of evil, the analysis of which we find in the works of Hannah Arendt, but also the very phenomenon of concentration camp, as it was described by Giorgio Agamben. A further step in our approach to the problem of fascism can be made with the help of Zigmund Bauman’s work Modernity and Holocaust. This work, however, raises not only question of holocaust, but also question modern rationality. It puts question mark over the whole project of modern rationality that was born in the Enlightenment, for it was not able prevent atrocities of holocaust. Since modern rationality has failed face to face holocaust, it gives us no assurance that it will be more successful next time.
Last but not least, the question that is still to be answered is the one of why people want fas
cism. What makes people want their own oppression as well as destruction of their fellow citizens? What makes them act against their own interest? This question, which was for the first time raised by Wilhelm Reich and later re-opened by Gilles Deleuze and Felixe Guattari, must not be reduced to a psychological problem. Rather, it must be answered both at the level of social psychology, as well as at the level of political theory. A specific approach that combines these two perspectives can be found in the work of Deleuze and Guattari, or in the investigations made by Slavoj Žižek. This is why we have to pay high attention to them.
SOC 550 Ethnicity, Race and Identity Politics
Prerequisite: none.
What makes a category of individuals to be classified by a majority as “others”? What are reasons and criteria of such classifications? How do various markers of minority identification such as ethnicity, race, religion, sexuality, physical or mental ability function in various contexts? How is the divide between minorities and majorities established and maintained? What are strategies by which excluded or stigmatized may overcome their disadvantages? What are the ways by which liberal-democratic societies can help give them the same dignity and opportunities that are enjoyed by the members of majority?
The course will tackle those and related questions by the help of concepts and approaches developed in various academic disciplines such as social anthropology, postcolonial studies, political theory and migration studies. In this interdisciplinary context, various issues will be addressed such as old and new forms xenophobia in Europe (e.g., antisemitism and islamophobia), the rise and fall of multiculturalism in some western countries (e.g., Netherlands) and a recent wave of neonativism and hispanophobia in the U.S.
SOC 551 Anthropological Knowledge and Modern Civilization
Prerequisite: SOC 280
This course will be focused on the introduction and application of modern anthropological knowledge and the dominant themes for understanding some fundamental problems and challenges in contemporary society including international relations, the emergence of the world-system, urbanization and modernization, modern political culture, class of civilizations, economical and social development and multiculturalism.
SOC 576 Subcultures: Lifestyles, Literature, Music
Prerequisite: none.
The course provides critical post-subcultural insights into underground, punk, psychedelia, graffiti and alter-globalization movement, etc.. Multidisciplinary perspectives of cultural, literary, and media studies are explored. Seminal readings on subcultures are used to discuss the practices of “alternative” urban lives in post-industrial society and certain trends of artistic production. Focus is on political interpretation of youth subversion and disclosures of power mechanisms. Visuals and field trips to graffiti and other subcultural sites are a part of this course.
SOC 577 Film, Music, Youth Cultures 1960s–2000s: Writing History with Visual Media
Prerequisite: none.
This course explores how filmmakers, connected to the “antennae” of the rock age minstrels, captured major issues of their time. Youth culture, which emerged as a new social-economic phenomenon in the mid-20th century, introduced their particular problems: quest for meaning in the postwar suburbia, student unrest, drug experimentation, sexual revolution, freedom and authority, ecology, war in Vietnam, music and the global community, etc. Independent filmmakers joined with contemporary musicians to create a new synthetic form comparable to achievements of artists, poets and philosophers of earlier times.
Students will analyze these music films to gain insight of youth movements, their goals, failures and successes. From The Graduate to Easy Rider to Strawberry Statement to This Spinal Tap, Hair to If it is Tuesday, it Must be Belgium explanations will be provided why these works have become milestones for the generations to come and yet, how all correspond to ancient and future archetypes.
Comparisons will be drawn between mostly American and Czech films. While Czech music films like Green Gold are directly inspired by their US models, they still carry a specific script particular to the Czech youth of the time. Others, e.g. On the Brigade or Razors seem to be original Czech Cold War comments.