Total War, Terror and Critique

Semester and Year	SP 2013
Course Number	IDSEM-UG1661
Section	001
Instructor	A.B. Huber
Days	Mon
Time	3:30 PM - 6:10 PM
Units	4.0
Level	U
Foundation Requirement	HUM

Description

There is currently a loud contest over what counts as terrorism, but there is also a quieter and wider crisis in our capacity to name and demarcate violence—the United States' and other's. It is no longer clear what counts as war, what constitutes a combatant, nor what kind of peace we might hope to make. What then can be said to confront, critique or rethink violence? We begin the seminar by familiarizing ourselves with the origins and logics of the Just War Theory (including Aristotle, Cicero, and Augustine) and we go on to consider the historical and philosophical contexts of Kant’s call for Perpetual Peace. But the seminar focuses primarily on critical theory’s engagement with the form and logics of modern warfare. Together we read work from the Frankfurt School in order to begin to reckon the relationship between politics, aesthetics, and violence. Finally, with the help of contemporary theorists (including Asad, Butler, Chow, Mamdani, Mahmood, Redfield) we turn toward questions of technology, terror, and the changing face of war in the twenty-first century. Can critique help us in anyway to abate violence or the anguish of its aftermath?

Course Type

Interdisciplinary Seminars (IDSEM-UG)