The body and technology

Telo in tehnologija

Course credits:

6.00 ECTS / 60 (30 hours of lectures, 0 hours of exercises, 30 hours of seminars, 0 hours other forms of work)

Course holder:

doc. dr. Eva Vrtačič

Type:

Elective expert

Language:

English

Semester:

Second semester

Study degree

1. level

Course execution:

• Undergraduate Programme of Cultural studies - Studies of Culture and Creativity

Prerequisits:

Students are allowed to participate in the course provided that they have completed the enrolment procedure.

Objectives and competences

OBJECTIVES: To equip students with conceptual apparatus and theoretical framework that will enable them to comprehend and critically reflect the conceptions of the body in contemporary Western societies, marked with technologies. COMPETENCES: Knowledge and understanding of contemporary theoretical insights into the topic as well as command of conceptual apparatus, ability to critically analyze the intersections of the body and technology.

Content (Syllabus outline)

The course provides insight into the ways the body generates meanings, how it acts, and how it is acted upon by social forces. A short genealogy of modern Western body is given, as well as a critical analysis of key theorizations that have constructed the body as a concept. The body is interpreted as marked, modified, and colonized by the subject, culture and capital, but also as one of the last possible sites of resistance and subversion. Through the pursuit of understanding of the body as a machine the ambivalent relationship between the body and technology is analyzed. It is explained through the metaphor of the cyborg, the concept of biopolitics, as well as via insight into the biomedical expectations on body management, techno-body policies and the construction of otherness. The intersections of the body and technology are critically analyzed, in particular by employing the phenomenological paradigm. Topics: the body, technology, corporeality, embodiment.

Intended learning outcomes:

Knowledge of Western genealogy of the body and understanding of key theoretical insights into the concept, the ability to employ the conceptual apparatus in particular studies as well as in critical analysis of the construction of relationships between the body and technology.

Learning and teaching methods:

- lectures - tutorials - individual research - consultations - a maximum of 25 % of activities will take place online (via Zoom, online classroom etc.).

Assessment

Oral exam (70 %), student activity and engagement in lectures and seminars (30%).

Obligatory literature

Additional literature