Seminar: 3.02.980 S Jagged Little Pills: Self-Enhancement and Substance Abuse in Literature and Film, from Opium to Neuroenhancers - Details

Seminar: 3.02.980 S Jagged Little Pills: Self-Enhancement and Substance Abuse in Literature and Film, from Opium to Neuroenhancers - Details

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Veranstaltungsname Seminar: 3.02.980 S Jagged Little Pills: Self-Enhancement and Substance Abuse in Literature and Film, from Opium to Neuroenhancers
Untertitel
Veranstaltungsnummer 3.02.980
Semester SoSe2020
Aktuelle Anzahl der Teilnehmenden 12
erwartete Teilnehmendenanzahl 25
Heimat-Einrichtung Institut für Anglistik/Amerikanistik
Veranstaltungstyp Seminar in der Kategorie Lehre
Erster Termin Mittwoch, 15.04.2020 12:00 - 14:00, Ort: A04 4-411
Art/Form
Lehrsprache englisch

Räume und Zeiten

A04 4-411
Mittwoch: 12:00 - 14:00, wöchentlich (12x)
(Online)
Mittwoch: 12:00 - 14:00, wöchentlich (2x)

Modulzuordnungen

Kommentar/Beschreibung

Course description:
According to Foucault, the principle aim of a biopolitical society in a Capitalist culture is to enhance and optimise life in order to maximise productivity. Consequently, the lives of both individuals and society as a whole have long been organised in ways that apparently meet precisely these ends. And yet, the neo-liberal policies of the last decades arguably seem to have reinforced this development, not least by leading individuals to manipulate their own mental and physical capacities so as to enhance their efficiency and to 'optimise' themselves.
Building on Foucault's concept of biopower, this seminar problematises literary and cinematic representations of substance (ab-)use in the context of self-enhancement and self-optimisation. We will discuss the use of a wide range of drugs, such as opium, cocaine, or nootropics, and their various intended effects, be they medicinal, recreational, or performance-enhancing (via micro-dosing, for example). The aim of the seminar is, therefore, twofold: firstly, it traces the historical construction of addiction and the emergence of the addict as an identity category; and secondly, it seeks to deconstruct the mechanisms of an ideological regime that, paradoxically, has come to criminalise and ostracise behaviours it arguably incites at the same time. Moreover, it may in fact require these very behaviours in order to thrive – not uncommonly, that is, at the expanse of those who suffer the effects of addiction.

Please buy and read/watch:
De Quincey, Thomas. Confessions of an English Opium-Eater and Other Writings. 1821. Oxford: OUP, 2008. Print.
Stevenson, Robert Louis. Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. 1886. Ed. Katherine Linehan. New York and London: Norton, 2003. Print.
Conan Doyle, Arthur. The Sign of Four. 1890. London Penguin, 2001. Print. (excerpts)
Limitless. Dir. Neil Burger. Per. Bradley Cooper, Abbie Cornish, and Robert De Niro. 2011. Concorde, 2011. DVD.
The Wolf of Wall Street. Dir. Martin Scorsese. Perf. Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Hill, and Margot Robbie. 2013. Universal, 2014. DVD.

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