An exploration of the self (a certain self, a certain kind of self), self identity, and subjectivity from within the critique of the autonomous individual and (Western) subject, including some of the following: self as agent, person, individual, human being, consciousness, ego, I (Locke, Kant, Hegel), body (Grosz), animal, cyborg (Haraway); self in society, self in nature, self in culture; ecological self, economic self; the constitution of the self by: self- knowledge (Plato), care (Foucault), friendship (Aristotle), possession (Locke, Kant, Hegel), love (Irigaray), the other (Levinas), nothing, without qualities (Nietzsche), production (Spinoza, Marx, Deleuze & Guattari), materiality and corporeality (Spinoza, Marx), performativity (Butler), the curse (Bataille), shattering, sharing, singularity (Nancy), subjectivity (Kant, Hegel, Levinas), being-there, being-thrown (Heidegger, Nancy), being- here, responsibility (Levinas, Derrida), responsivity (Whitehead), language, exposition, expression, differance (Freud, Levinas, Lacan, Derrida), itself (Whitman), experience (Hume, Dewey, Kant), others (Levinas), disaster (Blanchot), death (Plato, Heidegger); the gendered self (Freud, Irigaray, Griffin), self in world (Griffin, Heidegger, Spinoza); shattered self (Nancy, Glass, Daniel), empty, selfless self (Buddhism), endless self (Hinduism), produced self (Marx), material self (Marx), worldly self (Spinoza, Deleuze & Guattari, Nancy, Griffin), nomadic self (Deleuze & Guattari), pragmatic self (Dewey, James), postmodern self (Nancy, Derrida), postcolonial self (Bhabha), nonWestern self (Japanese, African), hybrid self (African American, Asian American, EuroAsian), expressive, responsive self.
Students are responsible for 15-minute presentations initiating small group discussions, raising questions rather than supporting theses. At least one such presentation is required at each discussion. Students are also responsible for 30-minute presentations at a class miniconference at the end of the semester.