2007 Handbooks

The aim of this unit is to investigate the recent upsurge in interest in the meaning of the word 'I'. Simple definitions of the individual as autonomous, unique and whole have been fiercely contested recently. More and more, the self has come to be seen as inseparable from culture and textuality. Do we use texts to represent ourselves and our experience, or do they make our experience for us? Where do our emotions come from and are they really ours? How is our interior life effected by the politics of gender, ethnicity and sexuality? Are art and technology constantly re-inventing us? This unit concentrates on the most influential recent thinker of subjectivity, Michel Foucault, especially his work on madness, crime and sexuality. Key forerunners such as Nietzsche and Freud, and important followers such as Judith Butler and Giorgio Agamben will also be studied.