Post-war French Social Theory

                                 Course Number:  SOC770, Fall 2006

                        Room Number: 33, Wednesdays 16:00-17:40 (4-5:40 PM)

                                    Masaryk University, MA Level

                                   Instructor: Laura Bunt, Ph.D.

                Email: LauraBunt@yahoo.com, Office Number: 3.57, Phone: 549.491.942

                        Office Hours: 6-7 PM Wednesdays (or by appointment)



   Course Description

   Since the French enlightenment, and up to the Dreyfus affair, French intellectuals enjoyed
   considerable influence over the public sphere, perhaps even believing that they were directing
   Western civilization itself—manifest in the “revolutionary” concepts of democracy, liberty,
   and equality.  Subsequent World Wars, and lingering twentieth-century French colonial
   endeavors, however, cast doubt over those doctrines and was tantamount to the suspicion of the
   role of intellectuals.  This course will investigate how French intellectuals reacted to this
   situation, and what role the institutions they were educated and taught in shaped this
   reaction.  We will also pay close attention to how later twentieth-century intellectuals
   responded to and critiqued one another, in the development of their individual philosophical
   trajectories.

   

   In particular, we will examine three of the major schools of social thought generated in
   France during this period, namely, Existentialism, Structuralism, and Post-structuralism.  The
   goal of this course is to provide students with solid historical background through secondary
   sources and lectures, and then to read original, primary texts.  Class reading will draw from
   the works of:  Sartre, Levi-Strauss, Ricoeur, Althusser, Foucault, Derrida, Kristeva.

   

   Course Requirements

   Students must produce TWO 4-5 page essays based upon the reading and class discussions. 
   Instructor will assign essay questions in advance of due dates.  Student are also required to
   write TWO 1 page response papers.

   

COURSE RULES

   Students are expected to come to class having already read the readings cited on the syllabus
   for that day. ATTENDANCE IS MANDATORY, ROLE WILL BE TAKEN IN EVERY CLASS.  Students are
   allowed 3 undocumented absences.  Any student missing more than 4 classes without a documented
   (i.e. medical or family) emergency will be dropped from the class without exception. (Students
   observing religious holidays are excused from class, but please inform instructor in advance).



COURSE GRADING POLICY

   75% Essay Assignments

   15% Response Papers

   10% Class Attendance

   

Course READINGS

   All reading is available online through the university system and is on reserve at the library

   

    COURSE OUTLINE

   WEEK 1:  SEPT 20^TH  ORIENTATION WEEK (NO CLASSES)

   

   WEEK 2:  SEPT 27^TH  INTRODUCTION, FIRST DAY OF CLASS

   

   WEEK 3:  OCT 4^TH  Introduction & “Existential Theory” (pgs. 101-112) in French Social Theory,
   by M. Gane.

   

   WEEK 4:  OCT 11^TH  Sartre  (pgs. 1-62) in Existentialism and Human Emotions.

   

   

   WEEK 5:  OCT 18^TH “Structural Theory” (pgs. 137-151) in French Social Theory, by M. Gane.

   

      FIRST RESPONSE PAPER DUE IN CLASS

   

   WEEK 6:  OCT 25^TH  ESSAY WRITING IN ENGLISH LECTURE (ATTENDANCE MANDATORY, ESSAY QUESTION
   WILL BE HANDED OUT)

   

   WEEK 7:  NOV 1^ST READING WEEK (NO CLASS)

   

   WEEK 8:   NOV 8^TH Levi-Strauss (pgs. 1- 33) “The Science of the Concrete” in The Savage Mind

  FIRST ESSAY DUE IN CLASS, NOVEMBER  8TH

   

   WEEK 9:  NOV 15^TH Ricoeur  (pgs. 20-36) “The Conflict of Interpretations” & “Hermeneutic
   Method and Reflective Philosophy” in Freud and Philosophy: Essays on Interpretation.

   

   

   WEEK 10:  NOV 22^ND Althusser (pgs. 25-50) “Ideological State Apparatuses” in For Marx.

   

   

   WEEK 11:  NOV 29^TH Foucault (pgs.113-121) “Nietzsche, Genealogy and History” in Language,
   Counter-Memory, Practice: Selected Essays  & (pgs. 3-169) in Discipline & Punish. 

   

      SECOND RESPONSE PAPER DUE IN CLASS

   

   WEEK 12:  DEC 6^TH  Foucault (pgs. 170-295) in Discipline & Punish.

   

   WEEK 13:  DEC 13^TH Derrida (pgs. 31-63) “Cogito and the History of Madness” & (pgs. 196-231)
   “Freud and the Scene of Writing” in Writing and Difference.

   

   Week 14:  DEC 20^TH  Kristeva (pgs. 74-88) “Semiotics: a Critical Science and/or Critique of
   Science” in The Kristeva Reader.

   

   ***REVIEW and PREPARATION for final exam (ATTENDANCE MANDATORY, ESSAY QUESTION WILL BE HANDED
                                              OUT)***

   

   

                            FINAL ESSAY DUE AT END OF EXAMINATION PERIOD