Canetti: Between the One and the Many
This course was available in the past and may be presented again as part of the Basic Program of Liberal Education curriculum.
One of the most evocative European writers and thinkers of the twentieth century, Elias Canetti (1905-1994) had special interest in two antithetical socio-psychological phenomena: hyper-individualism and the power of the crowds. Canetti’s insights, originating in his personal experiences in Vienna of the 1930s, found imaginative expression in his novel, Auto da Fé (Die Blendung, 1935) and his essayistic treatise, Crowds and Power (Masse und Macht, 1960). In the continuum between the madness of self-isolation and the mass madness of fascism, we’ll identify and study ambivalent concepts such as fear and fire, terror and beauty, violence and safety, collectivism and pluralism. Expect weekly reading assignments of 90 pages. Required books: Auto da Fé, ISBN ?978-0374518790 and Crowds and Power, ISBN 978-0374518202.
Course Outline
Course SyllabusNotes
Online registration deadline: Tuesday, September 19 at 5 pm CTNo class November 23 (Thanksgiving week)
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