Explring Brderlnds:Cultrl Frnt

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

In this course we will examine the concept of the “frontier” from a variety of perspectives—philosophical, psychological, historical, political, and anthropological. We will approach the frontier as a zone of interaction among entities as well as cultures, where a complex dynamic between attraction and repulsion unfolds as a “process,” as a geographical and poetic boundary, as a source of inspiration for national identities and institutions, and even as a zone of violence. We will address the following specific frontiers: literature and philosophy, madness and sanity, human and posthuman, Debord’s “society of spectacle” and popular spectacles, and the transatlantic frontier between Europe and the Americas. In addition, we will explore “frames” as a complex type of frontier that shapes the interpretation of what lies inside as well as of what remains outside.