Simon Fraser University
Engaging the World

Course Outlines

Fall 2020 - HUM 321W D100

The Humanities and Critical Thinking (4)

Class Number: 8144

Delivery Method: In Person

Overview

  • Course Times + Location:

    Sep 9 – Dec 8, 2020: Fri, 1:30–3:20 p.m.
    Burnaby

  • Prerequisites:

    45 units.

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

A study of the counter-traditions within western civilization. Compares and contrasts diverse traditions within western culture that critique its central value systems. It will focus on the attempts of great artists and thinkers to break with tradition, and the subsequent creation of new ideas and forms of experience and expression. Writing/Breadth-Humanities.

COURSE DETAILS:



Pandemics: What Plague Literature Can Teach Us in the Age of Covid-19

“The ultimate expression of sovereignty resides, to a large degree, in the power and the capacity to dictate who may live and who must die.”
—Achille Mbembe

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have become used to receiving on a daily basis a flow of information coming from the biomedical apparatus of scientific research, as well as institutions of national or supranational governance geared to managing the containment of the virus. But what does “plague literature” (a short term for literary works about epidemics) teach us instead? In this course, we will study epidemics through the lens of the Humanities and Critical Thinking, and interrogate the idea that science and government institutions are the privileged discourses in addressing the “reality” of the pandemic. Oftentimes, we have heard appeals to caution, calm, kindness, but also claims about the ‘unprecedented’ circumstances that we have been facing and the current race for a vaccine. Yet pandemics have been recurrent phenomena in history and the sense of ‘newness’ that we think we are experiencing, or the idea of a ‘quick fix’ to a rather messy situation, may in fact be due to the disavowal of the detrimental role that human action has played in the age of late modernity.

Our approach will be interdisciplinary, comprising readings from history, literature and the arts, social studies, psychoanalysis and critical theory in order to read through different lenses the effects of epidemics on the human and other-than-human world. What happens when infectious diseases hit? How do individuals or groups react? How are social effects distributed amongst the populace? Are such outbreaks natural (i.e., crises “just happen”) or are humans involved in their production? How are different species or even the natural environment affected by it? Starting from the premise that the phenomena of pandemics are as much the concern of the biomedical apparatus as they are linguistic and discursive—a discourse which can easily and dangerously be misappropriated (i.e., white supremacists’ interpretation of Covid-19 as a form of racial cleansing)—our analyses will focus on three different, but intersecting, areas of thought:

1) We will analyze literature and art that represent epidemics and suffering throughout history: the role of colonialism in the outbreak of epidemics; the (often predictable) responses at the level of emotions and social organization (e.g., social hysteria, fear, superstition, bravery, communality, the institutionalization of lazzarettos and hospitals, quarantine boredom or enjoyment, depression, indulgence in pleasure, or the scapegoating of the ‘other’); but also the relation of death to desire and its existential implications.

2) We will examine the role of institutions of knowledge and power (e.g., national governments, the World Health Organization, institutes for scientific research, or media) in producing a discourse about disease and contagion through different modes of representation and regimentation.

3) We will discuss the ethical responsibility we bear toward the other (be it the natural world, other-than-human animals, or social groups exposed to conditions of inequity or fragility), which calls for a renewed interest into a politics for life.
 

COURSE-LEVEL EDUCATIONAL GOALS:

At the end of this course, students will be able to:

  1. Analyze the recurrence of pandemics both historically and spatially.
  2. Analyze the emotional effects of epidemics in the lives of individuals and communities.
  3. Analyze the way in which works of art and literature register the symptoms of their age—their ideologies, discourses, and social practices—through the representation of disease and suffering.
  4. Examine the role of institutions of knowledge and power in producing a social discourse about epidemics.
  5. Examine the disproportionate impact of epidemics on different social groups (e.g., age, class or race).
  6. Gain an understanding of the possibilities offered by artistic practices and community organizing in order to develop a position of ethical responsibility for life.
  7. Gain research skills and communicate ideas effectively through argumentation and dialogue.

Grading

  • Class participation through Zoom and Canvas (includes Zoom attendance of the panel on Pandemics organized for November) 10%
  • Review of one chapter of Snowden (2 pages) 10%
  • Paper on literature (4-5 pages) 20%
  • Research paper on history and theory (4-5 pages) 20%
  • Final research paper on one country's response to a current epidemic (e.g. Covid, SARS, Ebola, Ziki, or AIDS) or the impact of epidemics on a selected community (4 pages) 20%
  • Quizzes 20%

NOTES:


TEACHING MODE: Synchronous lecture – recorded ©.
This seminar requires weekly two-hour contact “in class” for lecture and discussion. The remaining two hours weekly will be used by students for research and assignments on Canvas. The reduced contact hours are meant to lessen the impact of ‘Zoom fatigue’. We will also have breaks for coffee or just to rest eyes and ears. We will all work to build a vibrant online community to make the best of the current circumstances.

Materials

REQUIRED READING:

Daniel Defoe, A Journal of the Plague Year [1722] (we will read selections). Penguin, 2003. (e-book; or any other unabridged edition)

ISBN: B002RI9428

Albert Camus, The Plague [1947]. Trans. Allen Lane. Penguin, 2013. (e-book available)
ISBN: 978-0141185132

Thomas Mann, Death in Venice. Trans. Michael Heim [1912]. Paw Prints, 2009. (e-book available; or any other unabridged edition)
ISBN: 9781442007994

Lee Maracle, Ravensong. Press Gang, 2000.
ISBN: 978-0889740440

Laurie Halse Anderson, Fever. Simon/Schuster, 2002. (e-book available)         
ISBN: 978-0689848919

Canvas Readings – Selections from:

Literature: BUBONIC PLAGUE, from Boccaccio’s Decameron and Alessandro Manzoni’s The Betrothed; CHOLERA: Rousseau’s Confessions; AIDS: Doreen Baingana’s short story “A Thank You Note.”

Critical Theory: Jacques Derrida on Parasitology; Roberto Esposito on Autoimmunity; Giorgio Agamben on Homo Sacer and the state of exception; Michel Foucault on biopolitics and technologies of the Self; Jean-Luc Nancy on bodies and the world; Judith Butler, asking which lives are “grievable”; Freud on Eros and Thanatos; and Achille Mbembe on Necropolitics.

History: Frank Snowden on the history of infectious diseases and their social consequences, and articles on the sociology of diseases in the contemporary age.


Registrar Notes:

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY: YOUR WORK, YOUR SUCCESS

SFU’s Academic Integrity web site http://www.sfu.ca/students/academicintegrity.html is filled with information on what is meant by academic dishonesty, where you can find resources to help with your studies and the consequences of cheating.  Check out the site for more information and videos that help explain the issues in plain English.

Each student is responsible for his or her conduct as it affects the University community.  Academic dishonesty, in whatever form, is ultimately destructive of the values of the University. Furthermore, it is unfair and discouraging to the majority of students who pursue their studies honestly. Scholarly integrity is required of all members of the University. http://www.sfu.ca/policies/gazette/student/s10-01.html

TEACHING AT SFU IN FALL 2020

Teaching at SFU in fall 2020 will be conducted primarily through remote methods. There will be in-person course components in a few exceptional cases where this is fundamental to the educational goals of the course. Such course components will be clearly identified at registration, as will course components that will be “live” (synchronous) vs. at your own pace (asynchronous). Enrollment acknowledges that remote study may entail different modes of learning, interaction with your instructor, and ways of getting feedback on your work than may be the case for in-person classes. To ensure you can access all course materials, we recommend you have access to a computer with a microphone and camera, and the internet. In some cases your instructor may use Zoom or other means requiring a camera and microphone to invigilate exams. If proctoring software will be used, this will be confirmed in the first week of class.

Students with hidden or visible disabilities who believe they may need class or exam accommodations, including in the current context of remote learning, are encouraged to register with the SFU Centre for Accessible Learning (caladmin@sfu.ca or 778-782-3112).