UNIT 0: Introduction to the Connection Between Literature and Thought
0.1. Relationship between literary truth and philosophical truth: Continuities and discontinuities.
0.2. Materialization of philosophy in writing: Transformations of the philosopher?s praxis into literary form.
0.3. Strategies for approaching the interconnection between literature and thought.
UNIT 1: Reading and Study of Walden, or Life in the Woods (1854) by Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) and Bartleby, the Scrivener (1853) by Herman Melville (1819-1891)
Topic 1: Socio-political history of the United States: From the ?War of 1812? to the ?Civil War? (1861-1865)
1.1. The forging of a covert imperialism: Industrialization, urbanization, and the path to great capitalism: The doctrine of ?Manifest Destiny? (ca. 1840).
1.2. Centers of resistance: Christian anarchism and ?non-resistance?: Adin Ballou (1803-1890) and William Lloyd Garrison (1805-1879).
Topic 2: American Transcendentalism: Origin, history, and evolution
2.1. European philosophical heritage: Kantianism and Romanticism (continental and British).
2.2. Eastern philosophical heritage: Upanishads, Taoism, and Buddhism.
2.3. The model to follow: Ralph Waldo Emerson?s system (1803-1888).
Topic 3: The proposal of Thoreau and Melville: Analysis of themes and works
3.1. A modern ?noble savage.?
3.2. The natural vs. the civil.
3.3. The emptiness of modern frenzy (solitude vs. metropolis).
UNIT 2: Reading and Study of Les Fleurs du Mal (1857) by Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867)
Topic 1: The 19th-century Europe. Romanticism and the emergence of modernity
1.1. The advent of a new philosophical discourse: Analysis of the category of the ?modern? after Kant.
1.2. The incorporation of the marginal element: The rise of Marxism and the revolution in social thought.
1.3. Literary heritage and its transformation: Classicism, decadence, symbolism.
Topic 2: Exploration of evil and descent into the depths of humanity
2.1. Baudelaire, poet of evil.
2.2. The category of the abyss.
2.3. Baudelaire?s relationship with spirituality. Relationship between love and evil.
Topic 3: The aesthetics of Baudelaire. Analysis of the structure and main themes of Les Fleurs du Mal
3.1. Baudelaire?s modernity.
3.2. Poetry and philosophy: Tensions and correspondences.
3.3. Book architecture. Cycles.
UNIT 3: Reading and Study of The Metamorphosis (1912) by Franz Kafka (1883-1924)
Topic 1: The crisis of European reason: Political, intellectual, and cultural particularities of the Germanic space
1.1. The construction and destruction of an empire: Pre- and post-Bismarckian Germany (1850-1890).
1.2. The question of anti-Semitism: Social or cultural conflict?
1.3. Philosophical and literary heritage: Aufklärung, ?Weimar Classicism,? and German Romanticism.
Topic 2: The breakdown of the anthropological system: Social and philosophical roots of Sigmund Freud?s psychoanalytic theory (1856-1939)
2.1. ?The mind is not the soul?: The fall of classical anthropology.
2.2. ?The ego is not the subject?: The fall of every rationalist construct.
2.3. The Freud-Kafka relationship: A historical-biographical issue.
Topic 3: Who/What is Gregor Samsa? Analysis of the main images and symbols in the novel
3.1. ?Ungeheuren Ungeziefer? (monstrous vermin).
3.2. Freedom, modernity, and alienation.
3.3. Grete Samsa.
UNIT 4: Reading and Study of The Stranger (1942) by Albert Camus (1913-1960)
Topic 1: The historical topos of the ?total crisis?: The political situation in Europe in the first half of the 20th century
1.1. The failure of European identity: The rise of totalitarian systems and the breaking of a millennia-old ?cultural tension.?
1.2. Organicism, collectivism, and eclecticism: New ways to address the problem of the Self and the State.
Topic 2: Philosophy of the ?Interwar Period?: Radical anthropological systems
2.1. The defeated man: Surrealism and Dadaism.
2.2. The negated man: Nihilism and Philosophy of the Absurd.
2.3. The ?revolted? man: The humanist existentialism of Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980).
Topic 3: Camus?s ?heroism?: Analysis of the main themes and motifs of the novel
3.1. Novel and discourse: The essential place of consciousness and the value of human life.
3.2. Elements of Camus?s morality in the character of Meursault.
3.3. Symbolic organization of the novel?s space. Motifs, symbols, themes, metaphors.
The students' work will mainly take place in the classroom. The following activities will be carried out, requiring active participation from the students:
? Lectures by the professor through videos or videoconferences.
? In-depth personal work by the students through the search, reading, and study of the documentation proposed by the professor.
? Individual oral presentations by the students on specific topics.
? Writing text commentaries or developing written assignments.
? Participation in class debates supervised by the professor, engaging with the social context of the students.
? Personalized individual tutoring sessions where students can clarify doubts, review assignments and exams, and discuss aspects related to the subject.
? Group tutoring sessions (if applicable).
To be eligible for evaluation in the regular examination period, all assessment activities must have been completed. The evaluable activities must be submitted on the dates indicated by the professor. If, for any duly justified and communicated reason to the professor, the activities could not be submitted within the established period, they may be submitted before the date of the subject?s exam so that the professor can grade them, although in this case the professor is not obliged to provide feedback to the student on those activities.
On the other hand, the student has the right to take the final written exam even if they have not submitted all other assessment activities, but the final grade for the subject will only be calculated if all activities have been submitted and according to the evaluation criteria and weighting established in this teaching guide. If any assessment activity has not been submitted or completed, it will be recorded in the official record as ?Not presented? for that examination period.
EXTRAORDINARY EXAMINATION PERIOD (IN-PERSON/REMOTE):
The evaluation criteria are the same as in the regular examination period, so all assessment activities considered during the course must be submitted. Grades for completed activities will be retained while pending activities are completed. The same weighting criteria as in the regular evaluation will apply.
ABOUT THE USE OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE TOOLS:
Use of AI tools: If AI tools are used in any activity, a paragraph must be included indicating for what purpose the AI was used and which prompts or instructions were employed to obtain the results. Failure to do so constitutes a violation of academic honesty policies.
Final Exam: 35%.
Individual preparation of a written paper of 2,500 words on one of the topics studied in the course syllabus: 30%.
Active participation in ongoing activities throughout the semester: 35%.
M. Castro Santiago: Filosofía y literatura como formas de conocimiento, en: Diálogo Filosófico, 2004, vol. 60, pp. 491-500.
R. Crane: Literature, Philosophy and the History of Ideas, en: Modern Philology, 1954, vol. 52, n. 2, pp. 73-83.
B. Nanay: Philosophy versus Literature? Against the Discontinuity Thesis, en: The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 2013, vol. 71, n. 4, pp. 349-360.
C. Thiebaut: Filosofía y Literatura: de la retórica a la poética, en: Isegoría, 1995, n. 11pp. 81-107.
D. Clares: La ética de Thoreau y su relevancia para la cultura global, Universidad de Murcia, 2020.
F. Hermo: Hacer de la vida un experimento: La filosofía en Henry David Thoreau, en: Hybris, vol. 11, n. 1, pp. 45-77.
J. McKenzie: The Political Thought of Henry David Thoreau: Privatism and the Practice of Philosophy, University Press of Kentucky, 2016.
P. Rojas Valencia: La estética de la sencillez: Una reflexión a propósito de La vida en los bosques de Thoreau, en: Pensamiento, Palabra y Obra, 2018, vol. 19, pp. 26-39.
A. Versluis: The Esoteric Origins of the American Renaissance, Oxford University Press, 2001.
-------- American Trascendentalism and Asian Religions, Oxford University Press, 1993.
J. Bogaerts: Sartre, Kafka and the Universality of the Literary Work, en: Sartre Studies International, 2014, vol. 20, n. 1, pp. 69-85.
C. Conchillo Martínez: La búsqueda de lo real en Kafka: Literatura y Filosofía, en: STOA, 2021, vol. 12, n. 24, pp. 5-41.
A. Cools y V, Liska (eds.): Kafka and the Universal, De Gruyter, Berlín, 2016.
L. La Rubia de Prado: Recursos narrativos y repercusiones filosóficas: El Doppelgänger en la literatura de ideas (Gógol, Dostoievski y Kafka), en Endoxa,
2010. Vol. 26, pp. 107-136.
----------- El laberinto kafkiano: Claves hermenéuticas para la comprensión de la obra de Franz Kafka y la categoría estética de lo «kafkiano», UNED, 1999.
V. d´Angelo: La rebelión existencial de Albert Camus, en: Azafrea, 2015, vol. 17, pp. 195-217.
E. Hugues: The Cambridge Companion to Camus, Cambridge University Press, 2007.
A. Ramírez Medina: La filosofía trágica de Albert Camus: El tránsito del absurdo a la rebelión, Universidad de Málaga, 2001.
------------- La rebeldía humanista y la educación socrática en Albert
Camus, en: Pensamiento, 2021, vol. 77, n. 296, pp. 773-785.
D. Walker: Albert Camus and the Political Philosophy of the Absurd: Ambivalence,
Resistance and Creativity, Lexington, 2013.