Transspecies Becomings: philosophy, literaturę & visual culture 4018-KON135-CLASS-OG

This course will focus on the human-nonhuman material and imaginary relations. We will try to find out how the humanities and arts respond to the interspecies entanglement – also those observed on the cellular and molecular level. The students will get familiar with the contemporary philosophical inquiries as well as art practices dealing with complex trans-species relations. We will critically examine literary writings and art works dealing with relations of humans with nonhuman animals, plants, microbes and their mutual bodily influences and dependencies manifested by becoming-animal, becoming-plant, becoming-human as well as becoming with others in the transspecies communities. We will reflect on the distinction between self and nonself as awell as on the immune system considered as ecology rather than defense. In the context of philosophical botany we will investigate forgotten, human – plant analogies either in the historical contexts of comparative anatomy and physiology or in the light of the contemporary finding of plant biology.

Type of course

general courses

Learning outcomes

On the completion of this unit a student should be able to:
– know the key concepts of animal studies and plant studies
– apply knowledge of key concepts of animal and plant studies in critical analysis of literary texts and visual culture
– demonstrate knowledge of key concepts and principles of critical postumanism
– reflect on the ethical aspects of human-nonhuman relations
– develop and pursue research questions regarding transspecies relations

Assessment criteria

n-class participation and evidence of preparation for the class contribute to the final grade. Attendance is mandatory and no more than two absences are allowed. Grading: 40% attendance & 60% final essay.
Final essay of 2000 words submitted at the penultimate class

Bibliography

Rosi Braidotti, Transpositions. On Nomadic Ethics. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2006.
Donna Haraway, When Species Meet. Minneapolin: University of Minnesota Press, 2007.
Janneke Adema, Pete Woodbridge, eds., Symbiosis. Ecologies, Assamblages and Evolution. Open Humanities Press 2011.
http://www.livingbooksaboutlife.org/books/Symbiosis
Dorion Sagan, „Metametazoa: Biology and Multiplicity.” In Incorporations, eds. J. Crary, S. Kwinter, Zone, 1992.
The Human Microbiome Project
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v449/n7164/full/nature06244.html
Myra J. Hird, The Origins of Sociable Life. Evolution After Science Studies. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.
Monika Bakke, ed., The Life of Air. Dwelling, Communicating, Manipulating. The Open Humanities Press, 2011,
http://www.livingbooksaboutlife.org/books/The_Life_of_Air
Elizabeth Grosz, ‘Animal Sex. Libido as Desire and Death.’ In: Sexy Bodies: The Strange Carnalities of Feminism, eds. E. Grosz and E. Probyn, New York: Routledge, 1995.
Isabella Rossellini, Green Porno, http://www.sundancechannel.com/series/greenporno/
The Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness in Non-Human Animals, http://fcmconference.org/#talks
Franz Kafka, A Report to an Academy, http://records.viu.ca/~johnstoi/kafka/reportforacademy.htm
John M. Coetzee, The Lives of Animals. Princeton University Press, 2001.
Philip K. Dick, Piper in the Woods; http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/32832
Daniel Chamovitz, What a Plant Knows? A Field Guide to the Senses of Garden–and Beyond, Oxford: Oneworld Publications, 2012.
Antony Trewavas, “Aspects of Plant Intelligence,” Annals of Botany, 92, 2003
Florianne Koechlin et al, “Rediscovering Plants. Rheinauer Theses on the Rights of Plants.”
http://www.blauen-institut.ch/tx_blu/tt/tt_rheinau_2.html
Michael Marder, Plant-Thinking. A Philosophy of Vegetal Life. New York: Columbia University Press, 2013.

Additional information

Information on level of this course, year of study and semester when the course unit is delivered, types and amount of class hours - can be found in course structure diagrams of apropriate study programmes. This course is related to the following study programmes:

Additional information (registration calendar, class conductors, localization and schedules of classes), might be available in the USOSweb system:

Description of 4018-KON135-CLASS-OG in USOSweb