CHID 390 A: Colloquium in the History of Ideas

"UNREASON: MADNESS AND THE POLITICS OF KNOWLEDGE" WESTERN SOCIETY HAS BEEN ESPECIALLY HARSH WITH THOSE WHO ARE BELIEVED TO HAVE UNREASONABLE THOUGHTS OR BODIES, MARGINALIZING THEM THROUGH INCARCERATION, HOSPITALIZATION, POVERTY, OR NEGLECT. DURING THE CLASS, WE WILL READ INTELLECTUAL HISTORY, ETHNOGRAPHIC ANALYSIS, WRITINGS OF THOSE DEEMED TO HAVE A MENTAL DISABILITY, NOVELS, COMIC BOOKS, CULTURAL THEORY, AND CONTINENTAL PHILOSOPHY IN ORDER TO GAIN A MORE SOPHISTICATED UNDERSTANDING OF THE ROLE OF UNREASON IN THE THEORETICAL AND PRACTICAL PROBLEMS OF INTERPRETATION AND KNOWLEDGE.