Postgraduate Course: Thinking the 20th Century - Hannah Arendt and the breakdown of European Civilization (PGHC11383)
Course Outline
| School | School of History, Classics and Archaeology |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | The 'dark century' has been illuminated by brightly shining ideologies. Nationalism, imperialism, fascism, communism, liberalism and other ¿isms have sometimes shaped, and often reflected, the most dynamic social and political forces of the century. One way to approach the 20th century is by following the now decayed paths and bridges between political thinking and the socio-political realities targeted by this thinking. This class will do so by studying and discussing the texts of one of Europe's best known, contested and famous political analysts and thinkers. Hannah Arendt combined a restless biography, clear-sightedness, unusual overviews, visionary moments, and a powerful style, with a capacity that was rather infrequent throughout the 20th century: independent thinking far from or against the mainstreams of their time. Reading Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) presents the 20th century in a different manner to modern textbooks. The work of Arendt has known an important renaissance throughout the last 20 years ¿ apart from an ever-growing intellectual universe even through several cinema adaptations. The seminar will discuss chosen key-phenomena (imperialism, anti-Semitism, racism, propaganda, total power) along with some of the more abstract concepts (freedom, acting, common decency, human rights). These terms are as central to Arendt's work as they are to any analysis of the 20th century. The readings will require students to engage with chapters from the original texts as well as with some of the more recent literature by historians. The class will also debate strengths and limits of intellectual history. |
| Course description |
Not entered
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2014/15, Available to all students (SV1)
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Quota: None |
| Course Start |
Semester 2 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 22,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
174 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
There will be one assessed assignment:
- One 4000-word essay, due at the end of the semester (100% of the overall mark)
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| Feedback |
Not entered |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- The course aims to introduce students to some of the key themes and interpretative controversies on the 20th century. By linking the fields of colonial history and the history of 'totalitarian' states it looks at a rather new but extremely lively field of research on the 20th century. The interpretation of 'totalitarian' regime will form the centre of the discussions in class, different intellectual traditions - Greek and German philosophy for Arendt, and to a lesser extent: British and international socialism for Orwell and French humanism for Camus will be used to look at concepts like 'freedom' or 'total power' from different angles.
- The key objective of the course will be to familiarize the students with the current state of the field, in a comparative and trans-national perspectives on different 'origins and elements of total rule' (Arendt) and on individual acting in a time of ideology and propaganda. Different explications on the nature of evil and on questions of responsibility, guilt and punishment will be discussed. The course will improve the empirical knowledge about central questions of the 20th century as the capacity to understand complex theoretical texts and to scrutinize their value of historiographical work.
- The second key objective will be to encourage the students to learn from the independent mind Arendt was famous, admired and hated for and to engage critically with the newer historiography. To that end, the course will raw on primary source materials, developing the students' ability to contextualise the events and to hone their skills at employing and dissecting primary sources.
- The course's third key objective will be to develop the students' research and communication skills, both through class discussion and oral presentations and through written work for coursework assignments.
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Reading List
This indicative bibliography should identify the core library resources for this course. Please include any which are not available in University Library
Works by Hannah Arendt:
- Der Liebesbegriff bei Augustin. Berlin: Julius Springer Verlag, 1929. Translation as Love and Saint Augustine, with an interpretive essay by Joanna V. Scott and Judith C. Stark. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996.
- Rahel Varnhagen: The Life of a Jewish Woman. Revised edition translated into English by Richard and Clara Winston. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1974. Critical edition edited by Liliane Weissberg. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997.
- The Origins of Totalitarianism. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1951. Third edition with new prefaces, 1973.
- The Human Condition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1958.
- Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil. New York: Viking Press, 1963. Revised and enlarged edition, 1965.
- On Revolution. New York: Viking Press, 1963. Revised second edition, 1965.
- Between Past and Future. New York: Viking Press, 1961. Revised edition, 1968.
- Men in Dark Times. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1968.
- Crises of the Republic. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1972.
- The Jew as Pariah. Edited and with an introduction by Ron H. Feldman. New York: Grove Press, 1978.
- The Life of the Mind. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1978.
- Lectures on Kant's Political Philosophy. Edited and with an interpretive essay by Ronald Beiner. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982.
- Essays in Understanding: 1930-1954. Edited and with an introduction by Jerome Kohn. New York: Harcourt Brace & Company, 1994.
- Responsibility and Judgment. Edited and with an introduction by Jerome Kohn. New York: Schocken Books, 2003.
- Hannah Arendt: The Recovery of the Public World. Edited by Melvyn A. Hill. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1979.
- "Understanding and Politics" Partisan Review, vol. 20, no. 4 (July-August 1953): 377-92. Reprinted in Essays in Understanding: 1930-1954.
- "Personal Responsibility under Dictatorship." The Listener, (6 August 1964): 185-205. Reprinted in Responsibility and Judgement.
- "Thinking and Moral Considerations: A Lecture." Social Research, vol. 38, no. 3 (Autumn 1971): 417-46. Reprinted in Social Research, vol. 51, no. 1 (Spring 1984): 7-37, and in Responsibility and Judgement.
- "Public Rights and Private Interests." In M. Mooney and F. Stuber, eds., Small Comforts for Hard Times: Humanists on Public Policy. New York: Columbia University Press, 1977.
Further Literature:
- Aschheim, S., ed., 2001, Hannah Arendt in Jerusalem. Berkeley: University of California Press.
- Barnouw, D., 1990, Visible Spaces: Hannah Arendt and the German-Jewish Experience. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
- Benhabib, S., 1996, The Reluctant Modernism of Hannah Arendt. London: Sage Publications.
- Bernauer, J., ed., 1987, Amor Mundi: Explorations in the Faith and Thought of Hannah Arendt. Dordrecht: Martinus Nijhoff.
- Bernstein, R., 1996, Hannah Arendt and the Jewish Question. Cambridge: Polity Press.
- Bowen-Moore, P., 1989, Hannah Arendt's Philosophy of Natality. London: Macmillan.
- Bradshaw, L., 1989, Acting and Thinking: The Political Thought of Hannah Arendt. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
- Calhoun, C. and McGowan, J., eds., 1997, Hannah Arendt and the Meaning of Politics. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
- Canovan, M., 1974, The Political Thought of Hannah Arendt. London: J. M. Dent.
- 1992, Hannah Arendt: A Reinterpretation of Her Political Thought. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Disch, L., 1994, Hannah Arendt and the Limits of Philosophy. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
- Dossa, S., 1988, The Public Realm and The Public Self: The Political Theory of Hannah Arendt. Waterloo, Ontario: Wilfred Laurier University Press.
- Ettinger, E., 1995, Hannah Arendt/Martin Heidegger. New Haven: Yale University Press.
- Gottsegen, M., 1993, The Political Thought of Hannah Arendt. Albany: State University of New York Press.
- Hansen, P., 1993, Hannah Arendt: Politics, History and Citizenship. Cambridge: Polity Press.
- Hill, M., ed., 1979, Hannah Arendt: The Recovery of the Public World. New York: St. Martin's Press.
- Hinchman, L. and Hinchman, S., eds., 1994, Hannah Arendt: Critical Essays. Albany: State University of New York Press.
- Honig, B., ed., 1995, Feminist Interpretations of Hannah Arendt. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press.
- Isaac, J., 1992, Arendt, Camus, and Modern Rebellion. New Haven: Yale University Press.
- Kaplan, G. and Kessler, C., eds., 1989, Hannah Arendt: Thinking, Judging, Freedom. Sydney: Allen & Unwin.
- Kateb. G., 1984, Hannah Arendt: Politics, Conscience, Evil. Oxford: Martin Robertson.
- Kielmansegg, P., Mewes, H. and Glaser-Schmidt, E., eds., 1995, Hannah Arendt and Leo Strauss: German Emigrés and American Political Thought after World War II. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Kohn, J. and May, L., eds., 1996, Hannah Arendt: Twenty Years Later. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
- May, D., 1986, Hannah Arendt. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books.
- McGowan, J., 1998, Hannah Arendt: An Introduction. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
- Parekh, B., 1981, Hannah Arendt and the Search for a New Political Philosophy. London: Macmillan.
- Passerin d'Entrèves, M., 1994, The Political Philosophy of Hannah Arendt. London: Routledge.
- Pitkin, H., 1998, The Attack of the Blob: Hannah Arendt's Concept of the Social. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
- Ring, J., 1997, The Political Consequences of Thinking. Albany: State University of New York Press.
- Taminiaux, J., 1997, The Thracian Maid and the Professional Thinker: Arendt and Heidegger. Albany: State University of New York Press.
- Villa, D., 1996, Arendt and Heidegger: The Fate of the Political. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
- 1999, Politics, Philosophy, Terror: Essays on the Thought of Hannah Arendt. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
- ed., 2000, The Cambridge Companion to Hannah Arendt. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Watson, D., 1992, Hannah Arendt. London: Fontana Press.
- Whitfield, S., 1980, Into the Dark: Hannah Arendt and Totalitarianism. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
- Wolin, S., 1977, "Hannah Arendt and the Ordinance of Time." Social Research, 44/1 (Spring): 91¿105.
- Young-Bruehl, E., 1982, Hannah Arendt: For Love of the World. New Haven: Yale University Press. Second edition, 2004.
- George Orwell, As I Please, 1943-1945: The Collected Essays, Journalism and Letters, Vol. 3, David R. Godine 2000.
- George Orwell, Why I write. The Collected Essays, Penguin 1950.
- George Orwell, Burmese Days, 1934.
- George Orwell, Animal Farm, 1945.
- George Orwell, Nineteen-Eighty-Four, 1949.
- George Orwell, The Road to Wigan Pier, London, Victor Gollancz 1937.
- George Orwell, Inside the Wale and Other Essays, Victor Gollancz 1940.
- Dirk Moses, Hannah Arendt, Imperialisms, and the Holocaust, in: Volker Langbehn and Mohammad Salama, eds., German Colonialism, Race, the Holocaust, and Postwar Germany (New York: Columbia University Press, 2011), 72-92.
- Dirk Moses, Empire, Colony, Genocide: Keywords and Intellectual History," in A. Dirk Moses, ed., Empire Colony Genocide: Conquest, Occupation, and Subaltern Resistance in World History (New York: Berghahn Books, 2008), 3-54.
- Warren Breckman, Peter Gordon, A. Dirk Moses, Samuel A. Moyn, and Elliot Y. Neaman, eds., The Modernist Imagination: News Essays in Intellectual History and
Critical Theory, New York: Berghahn Books, 2009.
- Hans-Georg Gadamer, 'Text and Interpretation', in Dialogue and Deconstruction: the Gadamer-Derrida Encounter (Albany, NY, 1989), pp. 21-51.
- Leslie Butler, From the History of Ideas to Ideas in History, in: Modern Intellectual History 9 (2012), 157-169.
- Riccardo Bavaj, Intellectual History, in: Docupedia-Zeitgeschichte (English), 13. September 2010: http://docupedia.de/zg/Intellectual_History
- Michel Leymarie, Jean-François Sirinelli (Ed.), L'histoire des intellectuels aujourd'hui, PUF, Paris 2003.
- Nicole Racine, Michel Trebitsch (Ed.), Intellectuelles. Du genre en histoire des intellectuels, Complexe, Paris 2004.
- Stefan Collini, Absent Minds: Intellectuals in Britain, Oxford University Press, 2006.
- Stefan Collini, "The literary critic and the village labourer: 'Culture' in twentieth-century Britain (The Prothero Lecture)", Royal Historical Society Transactions 14, 2004, 93-116.
- Quentin Skinner, "Meaning and Understanding in the History of Ideas," |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
| Keywords | Thinking 20th Century Arendt |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Stephan Malinowski
Tel: (0131 6)50 3588
Email: Stephan.Malinowski@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Mrs Lindsay Scott
Tel: (0131 6)50 9948
Email: Lindsay.Scott@ed.ac.uk |
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