SHUM 4635 - Authority and Anti-Authority: Kafka and Genet

(crosslisted) COML 4622 , GERST 4635 , ROMS 4635 .

Spring. 4 credits. Student option grading.

Enrollment limited to: 15 students. Co-meets with ROMS 6635/SHUM 6635.

A. Schuster.

A far-reaching distrust and crisis of authority seems to be coextensive with the European Enlightenment and modernity—but what is authority? Amidst the different attempts at definition and classification, at least one thing is certain: our relation to authority is never simple and straightforward, but is the site of intense fantasmatic activity, mixing guilt, defiance, respect, resentment, terror, justice, and love. The word itself is highly evocative, and part of its power lies in the halo of images and meanings it conjures. Our investigation of the problem of authority will be guided by two great writers of the twentieth century, rarely read together, Franz Kafka and Jean Genet.

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