Start semester
40 312 Animals
Credits:
6
Full course name in Norwegian Bokmål:
Animals
Course code:
40 312
Level of study:
Master
Teaching semester:
2019 Autumn
Assessment semester:
2019 Autumn
Language of instruction:
English
Year:
2019
Maximum number of students:
15
Person in charge
Alma Elisabeth Oftedal
Required prerequisite knowledge
Admission to AHO and successful completion of three years bachelor level studies (180 ECTS)
Students participating in the master studio "Coexistence: An Animal Sanctuary" are given priority in the course registration.
Course content
THE “ANIMAL TURN” IN HISTORY
“Over the past few years, the humanities have been confronting a paradigm shift. After the cultural and linguistic turns of the 1970s and 1980s, ideas about language, meaning, representation, power, agency, othering, and knowledge-production redefined the humanities. Now […] new media, climate change, environmental catastrophe, terrorism, biotechnology, population growth, and globalization are destabilizing the core of the humanities. These forces are larger-than-human—they are seismic and are shifting intellectual terrain. They also require a change of perception—a new, less anthropocentric, vision for a new century.”
(Vandersommers, Dan. 2016. “The “animal turn in history”. Downloaded 12.03.19 from https://www.historians.org/publications-and-directories/perspectives-on-history/november-2016/the-animal-turnin-history)
THE ELECTIVE COURSE
We are going to study Franz Kafka ´s animal stories. These stories have inspired thinkers and writers since the 1970s with their destabilisation of accepted notions of human distinctiveness from non-human animals. In addition to reading and discussing the stories, we will make sketches to explore the possibilities set forth in the stories.
Learning outcome
Knowledge of directions in modern cultural theory. Could use sketches as a method of analysis.
Working and learning activities
Group discussions.
Individual investigation
Final review
Curriculum
Haraway, Donna. 2008. “When species meet. Introductions”. When species meet. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Kafka’s short stories, English version:
Kafka, Franz. 1995. The Complete Stories. New York: Schocken:
- “The Cares of a Family Man” .
- “The New Advocate”.
- “A Report to an Academy”.
- “Josephine the Singer, or the Mouse Folk”.
- “The Burrow”.
- “The Metamorphosis”.
Kafka’s short stories, Norwegian version:
Kafka, Franz. 1995. Fortellinger og annen prosa. Oslo: Gyldendal:
- “Husfarens bekymring”.
- “Den nye advokaten”.
- “En beretning for et akademi
- “Josefine, sangerinnen eller musefolket”.
- “Forvandlingen”.
Kafka, Franz. 1996. Etterlatte fortellinger og skisser. Oslo: Gyldendal:
- “Hiet”.
| Mandatory coursework | Courseworks required | Presence required | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Annet - spesifiser i kommentarfeltet | Not required | Students must participate in the exhibition to be considered in the final review, which is an oral presentation. |
| Form of assessment | Grouping | Grading scale | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oral presentation | - | Pass / fail |
| Workload activity | Comment |
|---|---|
| Attendance | Participation and attendance in lectures, supervision at the desks in the studio, seminars and workshops is expected. |