Hegel: the truth is the whole (The Phenomenology of Mind, 1807)
Adorno: the whole is untrue (Minima Moralia, 1951)
Ezra Pound: I cannot make it cohere (Cantos, 1959)
âReading the Twentieth Centuryâ is devoted to studying core twentieth century texts, chosen from across genres and disciplines, and including works by Sigmund Freud, M.K. Gandhi, Walter Benjamin, Hannah Arendt, Simone de Beauvoir, and Rachel Carson. Students who take the course will, through close analysis of primary texts and contextual and historical study, gain an understanding and appreciation of some of that centuryâs most influential ideas and theories, considered through a variety of interpretative frameworks.
Themes and tensions that will be explored include: the relationship between the pursuit of totalizing theories of mind, society, evolution, and recognition of the fragmented character of modern experience; the effects of encounters between western power and non-western cultures; the relationship between humans and nature; the politics of gender; and arguments for rationality and its limits.
Throughout, we will take seriously reading in both its senses: reading as interpretation as well as, literally, the activity of reading itself - students taking the course can expect to do a fair amount of reading, mainly of primary texts. Supplemental material in the form of video and audio recordings (to be posted on the classroom webpage), will be also be used.
Course assessment will be on the basis of five âReading notesâ (@400 words each) on the set texts (50% of course assessment), and one long essay (2000 words).
Summary of Sessions
Week 1. Introduction: How to read? R.G. Collingwood: An Autobiography (1939) Week 2. Sigmund Freud: The Interpretation of Dreams (1900)
Week 3 .M.K. Gandhi: Hind Swaraj (1909)
Week 4. James Joyce: Ulysses (1922)
Week 5. Muhammad Iqbal: The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam (1934) Week 6. Walter Benjamin: âThe Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproductionâ (1935) Week 7. Hannah Arendt: The Origins of Totalitarianism (1951)
Week 8. Karl Popper: The Open Society & its Enemies (1945)
Week 9. Claude Levi-Strauss: Tristes Tropiques (1955)
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Week 10. Mao Tse-Tung: On War (1938), and Frantz Fanon: The Wretched of the Earth (1963) Week 11. Simone de Beauvoir: The Second Sex (1949)
Week 12. Rachel Carson: Silent Spring (1962)
Week 13.Richard Dawkins: The Selfish Gene (1989)
WEEK 1: Introduction: How to read? Some approaches in intellectual and cultural history
Required reading
- R.G. Collingwood: An Autobiography, (1939), new edn (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013)
WEEK 2: Sigmund Freud
Required reading
- Sigmund Freud: The Interpretation of Dreams, (1900), trans. By James Strachey (Basic Books, 2010) [selections]: Preface to First edition; Ch. 1-2; 4, 5, 6 [excerpts]
Recommended reading
-Paul Ricoeur: Freud and Philosophy
WEEK 3: M.K. Gandhi:
Required reading
- M.K. Gandhi, Hind Swaraj, Critical Edition by Suresh Sharma & Tridip Suhrud (Orient Blackswan, 2010)
WEEK 4: James Joyce
Required reading
- James Joyce, Ulysses
Extracts
Recommended reading
-Terence Killeen, Ulysses Unbound: A Readerâs Companion to James Joyceâs Ulysses (University of Florida Press, 2018)
WEEK 5: Muhammad Iqbal:
Required reading
- Muhammad Iqbal, The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam, (1934), (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2013)
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Extracts: Ch. 1 (pp1-22), [3 (76-98)], 5 (pp.99-115) & 6 (11-142)
WEEK 6: Walter Benjamin:
Required reading
- Walter Benjamin, âThe Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproductionâ (1935), in Illuminations (New York: Schocken Books, 1969)
Recommended reading
-Howard Eiland, Walter Benjamin: A Critical Life (Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 2016)
WEEK 7: Hannah Arendt:
Required reading
- Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism (1951)
Extracts
WEEK 8: Karl Popper:
Required reading
- Karl Popper, The Open Society & its Enemies, (1945), New edition (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2020
Extracts
Recommended reading
-Bryan Magee, Popper
WEEK 9: Claude Levi-Strauss:
Required reading
- Claude Levi-Strauss, Tristes Tropiques, (1955), (Penguin Books, 1992)
Extracts TBC
Ch. 4 âQuest for Powerâ, ch.6 âMaking of an Anthropologist, ch. 11 âSao Pauloâ; ch 13. âPioneer zone; [ chapters on India: ch. 14 âMagic Carpetâ. ch.15 âCrowdsâ ch 16. âMarketsâ; ]c17 âParanaâ; [ch 20. âA Native Community & its life styleâ;] ch. 20 âGold & Diamondsâ, ch. 21 âVirtuous Savagesâ, ch. 23 âLiving & deadâ; 25?; ch. 26 âOn the Lineâ, ch. 27 â Family lifeâ; ch. 28 âA writing lesson; ch. 29 âman, women & chiefsâ, ch. 30 â A canoe tripâ, ch.31 âRobinson Crusoeâ, ch. 32 âIn the forestâ, ch. 34âthe farce of japim birdâ,ch. 36 âSeringalâ, ch. 37 Apotheosis of Augustusâ, ch. 38 âA little Glass of Rumâ, ch. 39 âTaxilaâ
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WEEK 10: Mao Tse-Tung and Frantz Fanon:
Required reading
- Mao Tse-Tung, On Protracted War (1938), (Peking: Foriegn Languages Press, 1967) Text also available at:
- Frantz Fanon: The Wretched of the Earth (1963), Translation by Richard Philcox (New York: Grove Press, 2004)
Ch.1 âOn Violenceâ; Ch.4 âOn National Cultureâ; Ch. 5 âColonial War and Mental Disordersâ; âConclusionâ
Recommended reading:
-David Macey, Frantz Fanon, 2nd edn. (London: Verso, 2012)
-Robert J.C. Young, Postcolonialism: An Historical Introduction (Oxford: Blackwells, 2001)
WEEK 11: Simone de Beauvoir:
Required reading
- Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex (1949), new translation by Constance Borde & Sheila Malovany-Chevallier (New York: Vintage, 2011)
Selections: âIntroductionâ; [Pt. I Ch.2? Psychoanalytic Pt of view]; Pt.II (History) ch. 5; Vol.2 Pt.I ch. 1, âChildhoodâ; Pt.IV, ch. 14, âThe Independent Womanâ; âConclusionâ
WEEK 12: Rachel Carson:
Required reading
- Rachel Carson, Silent Spring, (1962), (Houghton Mifflin, 2002)
Chs. 1-9; 15-17
WEEK 13: Richard Dawkins:
Required reading
- Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene, (1989), Extended edition (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016) 4