GLI B5104 -

Institution:

The New School

Subject:

Description:

The Concept of Culture Fall 2008. Elzbieta Matynia The preoccupation of many social thinkers with the phenomenon of "culture" long antedates J.G. Herder's remark that "nothing is moindeterminate than this word." Still, historians, sociologists, and anthropologists have shared a preoccupation with culture ever since. This seminar addresses the history of social thought, the sociology of knowledge, and studies of culture, and it explores the main debates surrounding the idea of culture and its development. Whether discussing the Greek notion of paidea, the Romantic ideal of genius, or the historiographic essays of the Annales historians of our own day, dynamics of two contrasting approaches to culture will be traced: the broad empirical and anthropological approach, and the narrower normative and "humanistic" approach. Thereadings-some of them passionate critiques of culture-include works byPlato, Aristophanes, Vico, Rousseau, Herder, Goethe, Marx, Ferdinand de Saussure, Sigmund Freud, Fernand Braudel, J. Heuzinga, Ernst Cassirer, Mikhail Bakhtin, Kwame Anthony Appiah, and Samuel Beckett. Cross-listed with Sociology.

Credits:

3.00

Credit Hours:

Prerequisites:

Corequisites:

Exclusions:

Level:

Instructional Type:

Lecture

Notes:

Additional Information:

Historical Version(s):

Institution Website:

www.newschool.edu

Phone Number:

(212) 229-5600

Regional Accreditation:

Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools

Calendar System:

Semester

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