FSS:SOC770 Post-war French Social Theory

SOC770 Post-war French Social Theory

Faculty of Social Studies
Autumn 2006

Extent and Intensity

1/1. 15 credit(s). Type of Completion: zk (examination).

Teacher(s)

Laura Anne Bunt, Ph.D. (lecturer)
doc. PhDr. Csaba Szaló, Ph.D. (lecturer)

Guaranteed by

doc. PhDr. Ing. Radim Marada, Ph.D.
Department of Sociology – Faculty of Social Studies
Contact Person: Ing. Soňa Enenkelová

Timetable

Wed 16:00–17:40 U33

Course Enrolment Limitations

The course is only offered to the students of the study fields the course is directly associated with.

fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with

Central European Studies Program (programme CST, CESP)
Multidisciplinary studies (programme CST, KOS)
Sociology (Eng.) (programme FSS, N-SO)
Sociology (programme FSS, N-SO)
Tesol Teacher Education Program (programme CST, TTEP)

Course objectives

Since the French enlightenment, and up to the Dreyfus affair, French intellectuals enjoyed considerable influence over the public sphere, perhaps even believing that they were directing Western civilization itself - manifest in the "revolutionary" concepts of democracy, liberty, and equality. Subsequent World Wars, and lingering twentieth-century French colonial endeavors, however, cast doubt over those doctrines and was tantamount to the suspicion of the role of intellectuals. This course will investigate how French intellectuals reacted to this situation, and what role the institutions they were educated and taught in shaped this reaction. We will also pay close attention to how later twentieth-century intellectuals responded to and critiqued one another, in the development of their individual philosophical trajectories. In particular, we will examine three of the major schools of social thought generated in France during this period, namely, Existentialism, Structuralism, and Post-structuralism. The goal of this course is to provide students with solid historical background through secondary sources and lectures, and then to read original, primary texts. Class reading will draw from the works of: Sartre, Levi-Strauss, Ricoeur, Althusser, Foucault, Derrida, Kristeva.

Assessment methods (in Czech)

Students must produce TWO 4-5 page essays based upon the reading and class discussions. Instructor will assign essay questions in advance of due dates. Student are also required to write TWO 1 page response papers.

FSS:SOC770 Post-war French Social Theory - Course Information

SOC770 Post-war French Social Theory

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