Do you need another GenED that fulfills C1 and C4-INT? NOW YOU CAN ADD IT!
Check out the BRANDNEW GenEd course: GERM1920: Cyborgs, Robots and Automata in the German Imaginary. Taught by Stefan Bronner
----> Would you like to know how consciousness works?
---> Would you like to know how humanity used to define what a human is?
----> Would you like to know where people thought the soul was located in the body?
----> We will read philosophical texts on the brain, consciousness and the self. We will also read literary texts on puppets and insanity.
---> We will such films as Inception and talk about how we imagine dreams, reality and memory.
Together with your classmates will work on a semester-long online research project that you will publish on a wordpress website. Your fellow students will peer-review your work.
Course Description:
Cyborgs, Robots and Automata in the German Imaginay
This course examines the figure of the nonhuman-human and explores representations of artificial beings in literature and cinema. The focus is on issues of technology, art, subjectivity, and psychoanalysis. Both imaginary and real, robots, cyborgs, homunculi, and automata represent humanity’s understanding of futurity and innovation. However, they also function as a site for debates concerning the limits and definitions of humanity itself. Such ‘almost human’ beings or ‘not human beings anymore’ make us wonder about who we are, what we are, and where we might be going in the future. By considering a variety of literary periods, this course provides insight into the imagination of German-speaking authors and filmmakers. Tracing the representation of cyborgs, robots, homunculi, and automata allows us to understand and question the centrality of these liminal and troubling figures within societies worldwide. Using a wide range of historical and theoretical approaches, from a variety of disciplines, alongside literary and film texts, will provide an angle to explore the significance of these complex figures: How are they constructed and represented and by whom? What do they signify? Why are they unsettling, disturbing, and have such transgressive potential? Why is their presence not only persistent but also popular? The language of instruction is English.
For more information, contact: Stefan Bronner at stefan.bronner@uconn.edu