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Course description
“Literature and Society” offers an introduction to the works of Michel Foucault, Giorgio Agamben, and Jacques Rancière, outlines their importance for the study of literature, and invites discussions about literature’s relations to society. We discuss how notions of subjectivity are shaped, and the role of language, media and societal institutions in this process (Foucault). We discuss how the notion of the “human” has been tied up with human being’s capacity for language, and how this notion emerges in discussions about citizenship and exclusion in modernity (Agamben). Further, we discuss how the boundaries between the “sayable” and the “unsayable,” and between the “visible,” and the “invisible” are shaped, and how the “configuration of the senses” has a profound political dimension (Rancière).
Rather than looking merely at the forms or the themes of literary works, we analyze how they explore the conditions for having experiences, the forces involved in the shaping of subjectivity, and ways of governing “human life.” In this manner, we consider how literary works depict societal and political situations, and raise questions about freedom and happiness. Ultimately, our aim is to examine the relations between literature and democracy.
This is a 3 ECTS-course, taught on three separate days (see program below).
Learning outcome:
The aim of the course is to give the participants in-depth knowledge of three influential philosophers in literary studies: Michel Foucault, Giorgio Agamben, and Jacques Rancière. Further, the course seeks to give the participants insight into philosophically informed ways of addressing the relations between literature and society, and to enable them to integrate such perspectives in their PhD-work after the course, as well as reflecting on such perspectives in their post-PhD lives and careers.
Preparation:
All participants are expected to cover the relevant reading before each session.
Assigned work:
Each participant prepares reader responses (in writing) before sessions 2 and 3 (to be distributed in the group).
Each participant writes a paper (approximately 4 pages) on a selected topic (based on the reading list and the course content) after the course. The paper should show the participant’s ability to discuss and reflect upon the key topics of the course.
Program:
- Tuesday, November 17th, 10:15-14:00 (225 HWH): Opening remarks. Michel Foucault
- Thursday, November 19th, 10:15-14:00 (225 HWH): Giorgio Agamben
- Tuesday, November 24th, 10:15-14:00 (225 HWH): Jacques Rancière. Concluding remarks.
Full program to be announced
Reading list
Michel Foucault
- “The Discourse on Language,” in The Archaeology of Knowledge, trans. A. M. Sheridan Smith (New York: Vintage Books, 2010), pp. 215-238 (this text will be provided by the course teacher).
- Selections from The Foucault Reader, ed. Paul Rabinow (London: Penguin Books, 2020), pp. 170-187, 206-213, 258-272, 333-372 (“The Body of the Condemned,” “Docile bodies,” “Panopticism,” “Preface to the History of Sexuality,” “On the Genealogy of Ethics: An Overview of Work in Progress”).
Giorgio Agamben
- “What is an Apparatus?” in What is an Apparatus And Other Essays. Trans. David Kishik and Stefan Pedatella. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2009, pp. 1-24.
- “Introduction,” in Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life, trans. Daniel Heller-Roazen (Stanford: Stanford UP, 1998), pp. 1-12 (this text will be provided by the course teacher).
- The Open: Man and Animal, trans. Kevin Attell (Stanford, Cal.: Stanford UP, 2003), 99 pages.
- “Experimentum Lingua”, in Infancy and Experience: On the Destruction of Experience (London: Verso, 2007), pp. 3-11 (this text will be provided by the course teacher).
Jacques Rancière
- “The Politics of Literature,” in Politics of Literature, trans. Julie Rose (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2011), pp. 3-30.
- The Lost Thread: The Democracy of Modern Fiction, trans. Steven Corcoran. (London: Bloomsbury, 2017), 154 pages.
- “Artistic Regimes and the Shortcomings of the Notion of Modernity”, in The Politics of Aesthetics, trans. Gabriel Rockhill (London: Continuum, 2004), pp. 20-30 (this text will be provided by the course teacher).
Course convener
Registration
The course is open to all PhD-candidates and requires no previous knowledge of Foucault, Agamben or Rancière. Candidates admitted to the PhD programme at HF are given priority.
Deadline: 30.10.2026
There is a limit of 20 participants at this course. If you wish to be placed on a ranked waiting list when it is fully booked, get in touch with Tor Erik Risvik Johnsen: t.e.r.johnsen@ilos.uio.no