Traditionalities

This seminar explores the emergence of notions of tradition and modernity and their reproduction in Eurocentric epistemologies and political formations. We will consider the implications of these concepts for differentiations among high and low,  local and global, oral and written, etc.  Readings will include Anderson, Bourdieu, Butler, Canclini, Chakrabarty, Clifford, Derrida, Foucault, Herder, Latour, Mignolo, Pateman, Poovey and Vico.  We will critically reread foundational works published between the 17th century (especially German Romanticists) and the present--along with philosophical texts with which they are in dialogue--in terms of how they are imbricated within and help produce traditionalities and modernities. Also listed as Folklore C262A.