This module involves guided study of a selection of major works of post-war Italian philosophy, focusing each year on the work of two or more related thinkers. The module will explore the tension in Italian philosophy between the claims of theology and radical politics, one expressed in the turn to bio-philosophy and bio-politics during the 1990s. Thinkers studies include Agamben, Cacciari, Negri and Esposito. Topics will include: the place of contemporary Italian philosophy with respect to the history of philosophy, its place with respect to French and German philosophy, political theology, time, bio-philosophy and bio-politics.
The aims of this module are to:
Upon successful completion of this module, students will be able to:
The module includes:
This module will be taught by means of a mix of lectures and seminars, supplemented by individual tutorials and private study. Emphasis is placed on seminar-based discussion.
Definitive UNISTATS Category | Indicative Description | Hours |
---|---|---|
Scheduled learning and teaching | Seminars/lectures: 10 taught sessions (2.5 hours each) | 25 |
Scheduled learning and teaching | Group and individual tutorials (one scheduled hour plus office hours) | 1 |
Scheduled learning and teaching | Directed and Independent Learning | 274 |
Total (number of credits x 10) | 300 |
The assessment strategy is designed to test a student's ability to meet the module's learning outcomes. Summative assessment involves two pieces of written work:
The skills required to prepare these assessed elements will be developed in a variety of formative activities throughout the module, notably through class discussion, feedback on in-class presentations, and individual tutorials. Preparation of the final essay normally includes a scheduled tutorial with the module tutor.
Learning Outcome | Assessment Strategy |
---|---|
Understand the distinctive features, issues and problems of contemporary Italian philosophy. | Assessed formatively through class discussion, presentations and tutorials, and summatively through the two pieces of individual written work. |
Assess the analyses of law, life and power in the work of Agamben, Negri and Esposito. | Assessed formatively through class discussion, presentations and tutorials, and summatively through the two pieces of individual written work. |
Assess the tension between the claims of theology and radical political movements in post-war Italian philosophy and the constitution of a bio-philosophy. | Assessed formatively through class discussion, presentations and tutorials, and summatively through the two pieces of individual written work. |
Undertake the work of close textual analysis of demanding philosophical texts. | Assessed formatively through class discussion, presentations and tutorials, and summatively through the two pieces of individual written work. |
Comprehend, reconstruct and interpret philosophical arguments, and situate these arguments in the context of the history of philosophy. | Assessed formatively through class discussion, presentations and tutorials, and summatively through the two pieces of individual written work. |
Description of Assessment | Definitive UNISTATS Categories | Percentage |
---|---|---|
Coursework | Exercises 1500 words | 20 |
Coursework | Essay 3500 - 4000 words | 80 |
Total (to equal 100%) | 100% |
It IS NOT a requirement that any major assessment category is passed separately in order to achieve an overall pass for the module
Giorgio Agamben, Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life trans. D. Heller-Roazen (Stanford UP 1998)
______________, Means without End: Notes on Politics trans. V. Biretti (Stanford UP, 2000)
______________, Remnants of Auschwitz: the Witness and the Archive, (MIT 2000)
_______________, The Open: Man and Animal trans. K. Attell, (Stanford UP, 2001)
________________, Potentialities: Collected essays in Philosophy, trans. D Heller-Roazen, (Stanford UP 1999)
Roberto Esposito, Biopolitics and Philosophy, trans. T. Campbell (Stanford 2008)
______________, Communitas: the Origin and Destiny of Community trans. T. Campbell (Stanford UP, 2004)
Antonio Negri, The Labour of Job, trans. M.Hardt (Stanford UP 2010)
___________, Insurgencies: Political Power and the Modern State,trans. M.Hardt (Minnesota UP, 2009)
____________, Negri on Negri (Routledge, 2004)
S. Benso & B. Schroeder (eds), Contemporary Italian Philosophy (SUNY Press, 2007)
G. Borradori, Recoding Metaphysics (North West UP, 1989)
J. Butler, Precarious Life (Verso 2004)
J. Cleves et.al., The Work of Giorgio Agamben on Law, Literature and Life, (Edinburgh University Press 2008)
L. De le Durantaye, Giorgio Agamben: An Introduction (2009)
P. Langford, Roberto Esposito: Law, Community and the Political (Routledge forthcoming)
G. Moliterno (ed.) Encyclopedia of Contemporary Italian Culture, (Routledge 2002)
A. Murray, Giorgio Agamben (Routledge 2010)
Timothy S. Murphy, The Philosophy of Antonio Negri: Vol. 1 Resistance in Dialectic, Vol. 2 Revolution in Theory (2010)
A. Norris, Dialectics, Metaphysics and Death: Essays on Giorgio Agamben's Homo Sacer, (Duke UP 2005)
P. Passant, The Empire's New Clothes: Reading Hardt and Negri, (Routledge 2003)
W. Watkin, The Literary Agamben (Continuum, 2010)
C. Wolfe, What is Posthumanism? (2010)
T. Zartaloudis, Giorgio Agamben, (Routledge 2010)