Individualism and Modernity
Summary
The subject of individualism continues to generate doubts and suspicions. However, its emergence in the period between the 19th and the 20th century makes it a central theme for the study of the last productions of Modernity, which requires a critical approach using the appropriate instruments. We will examine a range of literary and artistic works through a filter based on the opposition between individualism and collectivism.
What Do We Study
A first theoretical part will serve to establish the dialectic between the reasons of the self and the instances of the community, as well as to see how a model of literary criticism can be constructed on the basis of this opposition. In the second part of the course, this formula will be applied to a series of literary texts from different genres (poetry, narrative and theatre).
Which is the Line of Thought
Semiotic critique applied to the individual/collectivity tension with a special emphasis on libertarian claims.
Theoretical and Practical Approaches
Calinescu, Matei. Cinco caras de la modernidad : modernismo, vanguardia, decadencia, kitsch, posmodernismo. Tecnos-Alianza, 2003.
Freud, Sigmund. Los chistes y su relación con el inconsciente. Alianza, 1990.
Laurent, Alain. De l'individualisme. Presses Universitaires de France, 1985.
Lipovetski, Gilles. La era del vacío. Ensayos sobre el individualismo contemporáneo. Barcelona, Anagrama, 2003 [L'ère du vide. Essais sur l'individualisme contemporain, 1983]
Lukes, Steven. El individualismo. Península, 1975.
Orlando, Francesco. Per una teoria freudiana della literatura. Einaudi, 1987.
Stirner, Max. L'Únic i la seva propietat. Laia, 1985.
Volpi, Franco. El nihilisme. Biblos, 2005.
Wittgenstein, Ludwig. Investigacions filosòfiques. Eds. 62, 1997.