First-Year Writing Seminar (101-8-20)

Instructors

Jorg Kreienbrock
847/491-5788
1880 Campus Drive, Kresge Hall, Rm 3323
Office Hours: Mon, 12-1 PM or by appointment

Meeting Info

University Hall 312: Mon, Wed, Fri 10:00AM - 10:50AM

Overview of class

First Year Writing Seminar: Fetish Theory: Colonialism, Political Economy, Sexuality

Fetishism is usually understood as the attribution of non-material value or powers to an inanimate object. It was Friedrich Nietzsche's famous characterization of German 19th century culture as a crass "fetish-being," which introduced the notion of the fetish into the vocabulary of cultural analysis. Since its origin in the ethnographic writings of the enlightenment in the 17th and 18th century, and therefore deeply rooted in the European colonial exploitation of Africa, the fetish appears in many different incarnations in such heterogeneous discourses as theology, Marxism, sociology, psychoanalysis, the clinical psychiatry of sexual deviance, modernist aesthetics, popular culture, and anthropology. This class will give a historical survey of these transformations by focusing on crucial representations of fetishism in literature, philosophy, and film exploring the nexus of colonialism, political economy, and sexual deviancy.

Class Attributes

WCAS Writing Seminar

Enrollment Requirements

Enrollment Requirements: Weinberg First Year Seminars are only available to first-year students.