Courses

MA S. FTMK interdisziplinär I: Mit Haut und Haaren – Körper, Macht und Diversität aus phänomenologischer Perspektive

Instructors: Univ.-Prof. Dr. Christian Tedjasukmana
Shortname: S FTMK interdisz
Course No.: 05.KuTheFi.19_625
Course Type: Seminar

Recommended reading list

References:

Ahmed, Sara (2007): Queer Phenomenology. Durham, NC: Duke UP.

Gordon, Lewis R. (1995): Fanon and the Crisis of European Man. An Essay on Philosophy and the Human Sciences. London, New York: Routledge.

Gunther, Lisa (2020): Critical Phenomenology. In: Gail Weiss, Ann V. Murphy, Gayle Salomon (Hg.): 50 Concepts for Critical Phenomenology. Evanston, IL: Northwestern UP, 11–16.

Husserl, Edmund (2012): Cartesian Meditations: An Introduction to Phenomenology [fr. 1931]. Springer.

Lajoie, Corinne / Douglas, Emily (2020): Critically Sick. New Phenomenologies of Illness, Madness, and Disability. In: Punta: Journal of Critical Phenomenology 3.2.

Merleau-Ponty, Maurice (2013): Phenomenology of Perception [fr. 1945]. London, New York: Routledge.

Olkowski, Dorothea / Weiss, Gail (Hg.) (2006): Feminist Interpretations of Maurice Merleau-Ponty. University Park: Pennsylvania State UP.

Schmitz, Hermann (2011): Der Leib, Berlin: De Gruyter.

Sobchack, Vivian (2004): Carnal Thoughts. Embodiment and Moving Image Culture. Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press.

Contents

Whether bodybuilding, yoga, or tattoos – human bodies repeatedly become the object of cultural practices in everyday life. Involved in discourses of power, bodies are also sites of sexual desire, self-care and self-determination as well as "epistemic violence" (Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak). They function as interfaces for medial extensions and technical attempts at optimization. Humans not only have bodies, they are bodies that are always already in the process of becoming: bodies that grow, learn, sicken, and age.
For centuries, the human body was understood as the bipolar Other of the mind and systematically neglected in 'Western' traditions of thought. In contrast, phenomenology, founded around 1900, places lifeworld phenomena (Husserl 2012) and the living body (Merleau-Ponty 2013) at the center of thought. Against such a universal concept of the body, in turn, more recent "critical phenomenologies" (Gunther 2020) have pointed to the diversity of bodies: On the one hand, bodies differ according to age, skin color, empowerment, gender, sexuality, and class, and are implicated in social relations of power. On the other hand, there is the possibility of practices of embodiment that allow one to transcend or change one's own body.
What problems follow from the dualism of body and mind, and what alternative view does phenomenology (old and new) offer? Does this approach do justice to the real diversity and complexity of bodies? What political and epistemic conflicts over bodies play a role, and can phenomenology contribute to conflict resolution?
The master seminar aims to clarify these and other questions. To this end, it offers an overview of essential foundations of phenomenological philosophy and introduces recent approaches, including neo-phenomenologies of the body (Schmitz 2011), film perception (Sobchack 2004), disability (Lajoie/Douglas 2020), as well as feminist (Olkowski/Weiss 2006), postcolonial (Gordon 1995), and queer phenomenologies (Sara Ahmed 2007). Methods applied in this seminar include close readings of philosophical and cultural texts as well as smaller practical exercises and reflections.

Dates

Date (Day of the week) Time Location
10/19/2021 (Tuesday) 16:15 - 17:45 00 113 Seminarraum
9181 - Medienhaus
10/26/2021 (Tuesday) 16:15 - 17:45 00 113 Seminarraum
9181 - Medienhaus
11/02/2021 (Tuesday) 16:15 - 17:45 00 113 Seminarraum
9181 - Medienhaus
11/09/2021 (Tuesday) 16:15 - 17:45 00 113 Seminarraum
9181 - Medienhaus
11/16/2021 (Tuesday) 16:15 - 17:45 00 113 Seminarraum
9181 - Medienhaus
11/23/2021 (Tuesday) 16:15 - 17:45 00 113 Seminarraum
9181 - Medienhaus
11/30/2021 (Tuesday) 16:15 - 17:45 00 113 Seminarraum
9181 - Medienhaus
12/07/2021 (Tuesday) 16:15 - 17:45 00 113 Seminarraum
9181 - Medienhaus
12/14/2021 (Tuesday) 16:15 - 17:45 00 113 Seminarraum
9181 - Medienhaus
01/04/2022 (Tuesday) 16:15 - 17:45 00 113 Seminarraum
9181 - Medienhaus
01/11/2022 (Tuesday) 16:15 - 17:45 00 113 Seminarraum
9181 - Medienhaus
01/18/2022 (Tuesday) 16:15 - 17:45 00 113 Seminarraum
9181 - Medienhaus
01/25/2022 (Tuesday) 16:15 - 17:45 00 113 Seminarraum
9181 - Medienhaus
02/01/2022 (Tuesday) 16:15 - 17:45 00 113 Seminarraum
9181 - Medienhaus