Concept of Culture
Term:
Fall 2011
Subject Code:
GLIB
Course Number:
5104
The preoccupation of many social thinkers with the phenomenon of
"culture" long antedates J.G. Herder's remark that 'nothing is more
indeterminate than this word.' Still, a preoccupation with culture has
been widely shared ever since -- by historians, sociologists, and
anthropologists. This seminar is addressed to those who are interested
in the history of social thought, the sociology of knowledge, and
studies of culture, and will explore the main debates surrounding the
idea of culture and its development. Whether discussing the Greek notion
of paidea, the Romantic ideal of genius, or the historiographic essays
of the Annales historians of our own day, we shall trace the dynamics of
two contrasting approaches to culture: the broadly empirical and
anthropological approach, and the more narrowly normative and
'humanistic' approach. The readings -- some of them passionate critiques
of culture -- include works by Plato, Aristophanes, Vico, Rousseau,
Herder, Goethe, Marx, Ferdinand de Saussure, Sigmund Freud, Fernand
Braudel, J. Heuzinga, Ernst Cassirer, Mikhail Bakhtin, Kwame Anthony
Appiah, and Samuel Beckett.
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