Unit name | Modern German Thought and Thinkers |
---|---|
Unit code | GERM10038 |
Credit points | 20 |
Level of study | C/4 |
Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24) |
Unit director | Dr. Debbie Pinfold |
Open unit status | Open |
Pre-requisites |
None |
Co-requisites |
None |
School/department | Department of German |
Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
This unit will be taught by Richard McClelland.
This unit introduces students to the study of German philosophy through key landmarks in German thought from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries. Students will be encouraged to develop their close reading skills through intensive engagement with significant texts in the original German and to expand their understanding of individual philosophers through independent research. Through critical engagement with the core text for the unit (de Berg and Large below, which presents exclusively male philosophers and which will be supplemented by the unit director) the unit will also encourage students to consider critically the concept of the canon: to understand how the canon is constructed and how it might be expanded. The unit aims to develop students’ skills of critical analysis and synthesis, informed discussion, and the presentation of their ideas in a structured manner, both in writing and orally. It consists of a series of 11 seminars, 9 of which will be focused on different individual philosophers.
The unit thus aims:
By the end of this unit, successful students will have demonstrated:
One 1-hour Lecture per week.
One 2 hour seminar per week
The seminars will include short, informal lectures, student presentations, group work, and full class discussion, and will provide students with opportunities to prepare for the summative assessments.
Assignment 1: One class presentation (maximum 5 minutes per person) to include a handout not exceeding 1 side of A4 and a slideshow presentation (50%; tests ILOs 1 and 3).
Assignment 2: One 1,500 word portfolio of three short responses to extracts from texts discussed in the seminar (50%) (tests ILOs 1-3)
Henk de Berg and Duncan Large (eds), Modern German Thought from Kant to Habermas: An Annotated German-Language Reader (Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2012)
Steve Buckler, Hannah Arendt and Political Theory: Challenging the Tradition (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2011). Online. Available at: http://edinburgh.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.3366/edinburgh/9780748639021.001.0001/upso-9780748639021
Linda Zerilli, "Feminist Theory and the Canon of Political Thought." In The Oxford Handbook of Political Theory (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008). Online. Available at: http://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199548439.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780199548439-e-5.
Paul Gilroy, "Multiculturalism and Postācolonial Theory." In The Oxford Handbook of Political Theory (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008). Online. Available at: http://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199548439.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780199548439-e-36.
J.G.A. Pocock, "Theory in History: Problems of Context and Narrative." In The Oxford Handbook of Political Theory (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008). Online. Available at: http://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199548439.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780199548439-e-8