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Academic Year 2005/2006

Spoken and Unspeakable: Violence in Contemporary Literature and Theory
CHUM 314 FA

Two powerful but conflicting accounts have animated contemporary discussions about violence. On the one side have been critics, from Walter Benjamin to Michel Foucault, who have insisted that violence is intimately related to and even primarily disseminated through discourse. Increasing powerful in recent years has been a very different view, which--paradoxically -- may have emerged from former. In this account, violence is essentially unspeakable, that is, it is resistant to the organizing mechanisms of cognition and representation. What theories of language, violence, cognition and history underwrite these views? In what kinds of political arguments are they enmeshed? What is at stake in claiming that violence is either all we speak, or always unspeakable? This course will trace out these views are they are articulated by theorists, novelists, and even some poets. We will pay particular attention to the special status of literature in this debate. The course will be organized by "keywords," which will include Trauma, Terrorism, Torture, Murder and Hate Speech.

MAJOR READINGS

EXAMINATIONS AND ASSIGNMENTS

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS and/or COMMENTS

COURSE FORMAT: Seminar

REGISTRATION INFORMATION

Level: UGRD    Credit: 1    Gen Ed Area Dept: HA ENGL    Grading Mode: Graded   

Prerequisites: NONE

SECTION 01

Instructor(s): Bachner,Sally    

Times: .M..... 01:10PM-04:00PM;     Location: FISK114;

Reserved Seats:    (Total Limit: 14)

SR. major: 5   Jr. major: 4

SR. non-major: 3   Jr. non-major: 2   SO: 0   FR: 0

Special Attributes:

Curricular Renewal:    Writing

Last Updated on MAR-30-2006

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