Posthuman Eros
New School for Social Research: Liberal Studies
Course Reference Number: 9724
Credits: 3
We tend to think of erotic desire as one of the most important elements that make us human. However, writers, artists, scientists, and thinkers have all challenged - or at least complicated - this assumption. This course explores the possibility that love (or "eros," to use one of Freud's key terms) is an essentially technological phenomenon. As such, we consider different theories of love that emphasize automaticity, algorithm, code, contract, instrumentality, connectivity, and so on. After glossing the traditional models of love, skewed by the masculinist imaginary, we shall explore new iterations of intimacy in the digital age, which reject or refine the established protocols of love. To what extent, we ask, does eros also belong to the world of machines and/or animals. As such, students should complete this course with a very different view of not only love, but also “technology.” Readings will likely include Plato, Ovid, Anne Carson, Charles Fourier, Sigmund Freud, Georges Bataille, Wilhelm Reich, Shulamith Firestone, Michel Foucault, Jean Baudrillard, Alphonso Lingis, Anna-Marie Jagose, Lauren Berlant, and others.
College: New School for Social Research (GF)
Department: Liberal Studies (GLIB)
Campus: Online (DL)
Course Format: Seminar (R)
Max Enrollment: 18