GERST 4471 - [Premodern-Postmodern]

(crosslisted) COML 4471, MEDVL 4471
(CA-AS, ALC-AS, HST-AS)

Fall. Not offered: 2021-2022. Next offered: 2022-2023. 4 credits. Student option grading.

Co-meets with GERST 6471/MEDVL 6471. Taught in English.

E. Born.

The premodern world played a crucial role in the formation of postmodern theory. ‘Biblical exegesis’, ‘negative theology’, ‘inner experience’, and other premodern concepts and practices were taken up by modern and postmodern authors including Ingeborg Bachmann, Georges Bataille, Italo Calvino, Michel de Certeau, Jacques Derrida, Martin Heidegger, Jean-François Lyotard, and Robert Musil. Each week we will read one modern or postmodern author in dialogue with one premodern author, such as Origen, Pseudo-Dionysius, Meister Eckhart, Angelus Silesius, Hildegard of Bingen, and Mechthild of Magdeburg, among many others. The aim of our comparisons will be to interrogate the legacy of what Bruce Holsinger calls the “premodern condition.”