SHUM 4628 - [Authority and Anonymity: Historical Reflections on a Historically Variable Relationship]

Fall. Next offered 2018-2019. 4 credits. Student option grading.

Enrollment limited to: 15 students. Intended for advanced undergraduates and graduate students.

A. McKenzie-McHarg.

Authority and authorship: the similarity of the words alone suggests a close connection. But what happens to the authority of a text when its author is unknown? The proposed seminar combines methods derived from the history of the book, literary studies, and cultural and social history in exploring this question. As one might expect, there is no singular answer. Cases will be examined in which authorial evasiveness or reticence undermine the authority of a text while other cases will illustrate how authority has been enhanced by anonymity or anonymous contributions (one thinks, for example, of blind peer review in an academic context). Furthermore, the course will also go beyond the domain of the text by examining authority and anonymity in non-textual contexts.

For longer description and instructor bio please visit http://societyhumanities.as.cornell.edu/courses.