Cultural Discourses and Symbolic Violence 3502-JIS-DKiPS-Soc
Symbolic violence is recognized nowadays not only as an important concept in social sciences but also as one of the central problems of the public sphere. In contemporary media and political discourse there is a widespread recognition of subtle forms of violence, implicated in language and visual sphere. This heightened sensitivity towards symbolic forms of violence is coupled with new forms of devaluation of the other, often applied unconsciously. In the spheres of class, gender relations and construction of race, the correction of language and representation is often decoupled from change in power hierarchies or physical violence.
During the lecture the basic problem related to symbolic violence will be analyzed. Important approaches in the fields of sociology, critical theory, post-structuralism, post-colonial thought and psychoanalysis will be briefly presented. The aim of the lecture is to present both the foundations of the concept of symbolic violence, as well as its contemporary dilemmas.
The topics of the lecture will include: the foundations of the concept of symbolic violence; the problem of emancipation and universalism; the role of language and visual representations in the shaping of hierarchies of power; social class and habitus; class antagonism; the role of discourses of power in the construction of identities; neoliberalism as a discourse of class violence.
Mode
Assessment criteria
Participants can choose from of examination: oral exam or essay. Two unjustified absences are accepted. In case of above the limit absences, students will be obliged to write short assignments.
Bibliography
Bibliography (during the lecture only selected aspects will be presented):
Max Horkheimer, Theodor W. Adorno, Dialectics of Enlightenment
Susan Buck-Morss, Hegel, Haiti and Universla History
Walter Benjamin, Illuminations
Pierre Bourdieu, Distinction
Pierre Bourdieu, The Logic of Practice
Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth
Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish
Muichel Foucault, History of Sexuality, vol. 1
Jacques Lacan, The Other Side of Psychoanalysis
Jacques Ranciere, On the Shores of Politics
Slavoj Žižek, Violence. Six Sideways Reflections
Additional information
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