Genres of the Human

Whilst 'Man' has long been the measure and figure
of human subjectivity, many now argue that we need
new figures to adequately characterize the
varietous forms in which humanity manifests today.
This course examines a range of theories that
bring into being new ways of thinking the human.
Starting with critical race theorist, Sylvia
Wynter's critique of MAN (1 + 2), we at look the
four figures of Foucault's bio-political theory,
Elizabeth Povinelli's three figure of
geonoto-politics, and Alexander Wehelyi's concept
of Habeas Viscus, as well as recent updates on
psychoanalytic, feminist and queer views of
subjectivity. We also reflect back upon the
historical origins of Man in Kant and Descartes,
and on other critiques of this figure by Achille
Mbembe, Fred Moten, Deleuze and Guatari, Silvia
Federici, and others. Questions addressed
include-What is a human subject? What iare ts
relations to others? And what are the contexts and
assumptions through which these subjects and their
others are described? Or, to put it another
way-what are the stories and images through which
we represent ourselves to ourselves? Within each
perspective we examine the political, aesthetic,
social, symbolic, and affective dimensions of the
theory, and look at a range of related creative
works, including films, visual art, novels, poems
and performances. Key authors include: S. Wynter,
I. Kant, S. Freud, J. Lacan, A. Weheliye, A.
Mbembe, J. E. Muñoz, L. Irigaray, J. Kristeva, W.
Apollon, J. Butler, E. Sedgwick, P. Preciado, and
E. Povinelli, etc. Key terms include: subject,
subjectivity, ego, Other, otherness, whiteness,
knowledge regime, colonialism, the postcolony,
disidentification, habeas viscus, pornotroping,
gender, the unconscious, jouissance,
signification, social link, the symbolic,
femininity, masculinity, transgender, savoir vs.
connaissance, etc.