A Science of the Concrete: Lévi-Strauss’ The Savage Mind
AS.070.128.13
Instructor: Andrew Brandel
127 Greenhouse/404 Macaulay Hall
Office Hours: Th 4-6 or by appointment
Course Meetings: TBD
COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course will introduce students to the work of one of the most influential social scientists and thinkers of the past century, Claude Lévi-Strauss. During the latter part of the last century, Lévi-Strauss, and in particular his signature contribution to theory – a particular brand of structuralism and structural analysis – exploded onto the scene and quickly became a dominant mode of inquiry in social theory, sociolinguistics, anthropology, history, classics, literary analysis and allied disciplines. As early as the 1960s and 70s, a critical assessment of structuralism, most famously articulated by Jacques Derrida during a visit to Johns Hopkins, seemed to derail Lévi-Strauss’ project and usher in the era of “post-structuralism.” Yet today, a generation of scholars in a number of social science and humanities fields are returning to the work of Lévi-Strauss as something we never truly overcame and which is not only still relevant, but pushes forward contemporary thinking in surprising and novel ways.
This course will focus on his most widely influential text, The Savage Mind(La Penséesauvage) its arguments about the nature of human thinking, its critique of the idea of "savage" peoples, and its lasting import for the human sciences and humanities. Published in French in 1962 and translated to English four years later, Lévi-Strauss built on the innovations of the linguists Ferdinand de Saussure and Roman Jakobson to radically change the ways we think about patterns of human thought.
COURSE STRUCTURE
This course is designed as a close reading of a single text. As such, we will take up 1-2 chapters each week and read them very closely. Classsessions will be divided between 1) introductory lectures given by the instructor, which will synthesize the material and provide historical and theoretical context, while pointing to relevant contemporary scholarship, and 2) open discussion and debate. Students will be expected to come to class having closely read the material and be prepared to share their interpretations and questions with the group.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
- Attendance (10%)
Attendance is mandatory. If a student must miss a class for religious observance, illness, etc, they will be expected to inform the instructor as soon as possible, and arrange to make up the missing work.
- Participation (20%)
Active participation in discussion is a requirement for the course. Students will be expected to voice their views and demonstrate their understanding of the course texts, while taking an active role in
- Critical Response Papers (35% each)
Students will be asked to prepare two (2) short, critical responses (~5 pages) responding to synthetic prompts from the instructor. Papers will be due one week following the class in which they are assigned. Assignments will be graded on the basis of their demonstration of understanding of the material, as well as their ability to critically engage with it.
READING SCHEDULE
January 7– An introduction to structural linguistics and Lévi-Strauss’ background
January 9- Chapter 1.The Science of the Concrete
January 14- Chapter 2 & 3.The Logic of Totemic Classifications & Systems of Transformations
January 16- Chapter 4 & 5.Totem and Caste & Categories, Elements, Species, Numbers
January 21 - Chapter 6 & 7 Universalization and Particularization & The Individual As Species
January 23 -Chapter 8 & 9 Time Regained & History and Dialectic
Additional recommended readings
C. Lévi-Strauss. TristeTropique.
C. Lévi-Strauss. Mythologiqiues
B. Wiseman (ed,) The Cambridge Companion to Lévi-Strauss
F. Saussure. The Course in General Linguistics
R. Jakobson "Linguistics and Poetics", in T. Sebeok, ed.,Style in Language, Cambridge, MA: M.I.T. Press, 1960, pp. 350-377.
J-P. Vernant. Myth and Thought Among the Greeks.
J. Derrida “Sign, Structure, Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences”