Critical Theory Emphasis

Paradoxically, the concept of modernity has undergone a revival in a postmodernity intent on a thoroughgoing critique of modernism.  It is therefore appropriate to review the classical texts on modernity—Descartes, Weber, Simmel, Heidegger, Foucault—in order to determine possible differences between a modern concept of modernity and a postmodern one.  Aesthetic modernism will be analyzed only insofar as it constitutes a significant feature of the various concepts of modernity.  It is to be suspected that the "modern" is a narrative category, which projects some premodern stage out of itself and inevitably includes this or that future orientation:  presumably, however, these narrative configurations are themselves structurally modified from period to period in significant ways.  The course therefore begins with a brief retrospect of the various meanings the word "modern" has taken on since the 6th century AD.  Students are urged to read texts in the original language (but only English versions will be ordered and/or distributed).