Taught in English. No prerequisites.
Crosslisted with Comparative Literature 01:195:314:01
Technology and Melancholia
Prof. Astrid Deuber-Mankowsky
In Greek mythology, Niobe is the queen of Thebes and mother of seven daughters and seven sons. She rebelled against the gods and was severely punished for it: her children were killed and she herself was petrified in eternal mourning. In Walter Benjamin's much-discussed essay "On the Critique of Violence", Niobe's fate is a memorial to a mythical violence that has never been overcome. According to Benjamin, this violence today is linked to an instrumental approach to technology. In the seminar, we will discuss media- and technology-philosophical approaches by Benjamin, Heidegger, Günther Anders, Simondon, Haraway, Chude-Sokei, among others, but also texts by Kant, in order to explore the question of how we should understand the entanglement of melancholy, violence and an instrumental understanding of technology. Furthermore, we will discuss how this link between violence, technology and melancholy can be resolved from the perspective of Benjamin's critique of violence. Taught in English.
Fulfills SAS Core Goals AHo, AHp, WCd