Different Things
Term:
Spring 2012
Subject Code:
GANT
Course Number:
6220
Heidegger's famous dictum that "man is world-forming, the animal is poor in world, a stone is worldless" was dealt from a deck heavily stacked by the anthropocentrist. Not surprisingly, the first term has proved uncontroversial. Pet-lovers and scholars in animal studies are working on the second. The third is proving more stubborn. In this course, we will seek out scholarly and non-scholarly literature that can help us find different ways to characterize the "inanimate." Readings may include Roger Caillois, Jane Bennett, Yasunari Kawabata, Jonathan Hay, Georges Bataille, John Law, Elaine Scarry, Francois Jullien, Tim Ingold, Jurgis Baltrusaitis, W.J.T. Mitchell, Alphonso Lingis, and Julie Cruikshank.
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