Intendierte Lernergebnisse
Since the lecturer of this course is a philosopher with a strong expertise on feminism and gender, as well as on creative thinking, the expected goals will be the familiarization with dialoguing, and the ethics of it, the socratic maieutic method of dialoguing, active and critical listening, doubt, skepticism to what information the lecturer delivers, as well as to the material to be read, arguments for and against any position, no matter how controversial or self-refuting or edgy it might seem at first hand, clear methodology or understanding of “situated knowledge” (based on post-feminism epistemologies) and situated points of view (the context from which one speaks: either academic, disciplinary, socio-economical, psychological, gender related, or influenced by other presuppositions and prejudices). At last, a strong cultivation of DEI (Diversity, equity, and inclusion) goals as well as ethics of research (non-plagiarism, referencing, etc.) and of collegial communication (respectfulness, respect of the opinions of others, etc.). Also, close reading of primary material, analytic, synthetic and creative thinking.The further teaching goals will be a familiarization with the topics constituting the content of the course, such as violence, violence against women, femicide, gynocide, rape, death, maiden, suttee, foot binding, witch-burning, hysteria-treatments, Gynecology-Science-and-history (Feminist Science and Technology Studies), depiction of violence against women in tragedy and art, patriarchy, and contemporary representations in film, television and in visual culture (“la belle indifference”, anorexic bodies, pale, sexualized, etc.), social media, and everyday life. Students will see how violence is existing even when one does not recognize it as such, as for example Bourdieu shows in his book The Masculine Domination. Violence, thus, even exists in otherwise “unsuspected” places/areas such as in sciences, as for example in general medicine and gynecology (some Science and Technology Studies material will be introduced will be introduced) or in other historical periods and parts of the world (“massage” therapies for hysteria, foot binding, suttee,, genital mutilation, etc.), and at last in art, fiction, tragedy and other artistic discourses through the ages. All these together, will enhance the knowledge of the students in the general cluster of disciplines and discourses (philosophy, sociology, anthropology, psychology, etc.), which are found under the umbrella of Feminism and Gender Studies. We will also watch films/documentaries/videos, which depict these issues lively.
Lehrmethodik inkl. Einsatz von eLearning-Tools
The sessions will involve lecturer teaching but will also incorporate participatory elements, discussions, small-group exercises, and peer-groups. Close and slow reading of primary material. Methods will include the traditional ones, but also some more experimental ones aided by online platforms (used within class, such mentimeter), e-moodle, or in-class methods that encourage brainstorming, polls, watching videos and films, and other artistic media, etc.Students will also be encouraged to keep an open eye in the news (current world situation, and topical news, social media, or more private happenings in their environment) and bring to the class relevant issues related to the topics discussed.My teaching concept consists of mainly of two approaches/goals: Curiosity and Creativity. This springs from my philosophical background, which I will however methodologically and in terms of content implement in any course I undertake.I will further install to the students some ethics and methodological tools, in order to support their own opinion with good argumentations, and to also look into opposing views and challenge their own.At last, I will stress the importance of the dialogue and the shared argumentations as a philosophical and general thinking and living practice, since Philosophy in its essence is exactly this: rarely one agrees with all or most of what another person is proposing or with whole theories and systems of thought.
Inhalt/e
Centuries of women dying −both literally and metaphorically− are explored as another form of silencing and erasure serving to enforce patriarchal values. Literally, this existed in rituals relating to women, such as the act of suttee, and witch-burning; striking a harsh contrast with the way women’s deaths are presented in art (e.g., tragedy). With the eradication of these rituals (officially, at least), a woman's physical death is replaced by her soul death, killing her from the inside out.Women have a dazzling, stardom-like relation with death on stage, or in art in general, but in the (realm of the) real, everyday life, their deaths −both metaphorical and literal− are completely inglorious. Women were and are also silenced in a literal way −by being killed: burned as witches, or killed by their husband or their community, or mutilated and incapacitated. Women can receive violence and be killed with words, paint, film scenes, as much as with physical means. Violence is multifaceted, fictional and non-fictional, direct and indirect.We will examine the aforementioned paradox: the distance between the dying or the death of a woman in art and the paradoxical opposition of her death in the quotidian. Some of main reading materials will be Nicole Loraux’s Tragic Ways of Killing a Woman (1987), Pierre Bourdieu’s Masculine Domination (1998), Mary Daly’s Gyn/Ecology: The Metaethics of Radical Feminism (1990), Jacqueline Rose’s On Violence and On Violence Against Women (2021), Andriana Cavarero’s Horrorism: naming contemporary violence (2008), Kate Manne’s Down Girl: The Logic of Misogyny, Silvia Federici’s work, and other more specific readings.