Michael Taussig - Lectures / Workshops / Seminars
FICTOCRITICISM: Writing As Fieldwork (3 Credits)
Michael Taussig, Ph.D.
Description: This course examines the relationship between writing and anthropology. We will look at fictocriticism, which is where storytelling and critical philosophy unite--as formulated (but not in practice carried out) in Theodor Adorno's essay on the essay a form, neither art nor science but certainly playful. We can call this Corn-Wolf writing, based on a Nervous System epistemology. This class brings occidental philosophy, anthropology, fieldwork writing and drawing, storytelling, journaling and weaves it into a mimetic basket filled with Corpernicus, John Berger, Walter Benjamin, Wittengstein among many others.
Objectives: Students shall leave this course with an intimate understanding of the relationship between anthropology and writing. As we explore the process of fictocriticism we will engage writing as an engaged process in which the writer is not distanced from their work. In this seminar we will explore Jameson’s idea of an "advanced and energetic form of conceptual criticism" that I call "fictocriticism". "Explore" is not quite right. Explore through doing, is what we should have in mind.
The Class will start with Greg Denning’s exercise; and wonder what is "theory," more precisely the need for mastery (think of Friedrich Nietzsche's priests and intellectuals, their basis in ressentiment). And now we should wonder about the necessary fiction of the fiction/ non-fiction division. Michael Taussig comes out of ethnography that requires a lot of fieldwork in strange places, understanding fieldwork as imbricated in writing. So now what we call writing writing-work, the implication being that writing is a close cousin to fieldwork and vice versa.
Learning Outcomes: Students will acquire an inspired relationship to story telling. Students will understand the process of anthropological theory. Students will examine and field work diaries and drawing in order to practice writing as a means to change the world. Potential for writing will emerge as it begins to flow in unorthodox directions.
Course Schedule
Module 1
Ficto-Criticism OverView
Story Telling, Theory, Field Work, The Diary, The Essay, State of Emergency, The Apotropaic (Self-Protection), Sympathetic Magic as applied to the act of Writing
Module 2
Write to Change the World
Friedrich Nietzsche, Roland Barthes, Bataille, What is a Story?, Demystification/Re-Enchantment, The Corn Wolf, Sunsets Take You Back, Mimesis
Module 3
What Color is the Sacred?
Law in a Lawless Land (Taussig), Diary of Violence, Action and Reflection, Myth and Reality, State of Emergency
Module 4
Storytelling and Experience
The StoryTeller by Walter Benjamin, Theses on the Philosophy of History by Walter Benjamin, Constellations, Philosophy of History, Ladder of Experience
Module 5
Writing for the Field and Art
I Swear I Saw This (Taussig), A study on the relationship of field writing to drawing, Keeping a notebook as opposed to a scientific record
Module 6
Afterthoughts
Reflection, Fact, Story, Theory
Required Readings:
Taussig, Michael. The Nervous System. Routledge. 1992. Hardcover, 256 pages, Language English, ISBN: 0415904447. Buy it at Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.fr.
Taussig, Michael. "The Corn Wolf: Writing Apotropaic Texts." in: Critical Inquiry. 2008.
Garner, Helen. "Scrapbook, An Album." in: True Stories. Text Pub. 1996. Paperback, 288 pages, Language English, ISBN: 1875847243. Buy it at Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.fr.
Durham, Jimmie. "Caliban." in: Laura Mulvey (Editor). Jimmie Durham. Unknown Publisher. 1995. Paperback, Language English, ASIN: B0010YJ0BA. Buy it at Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.fr.
Brown, Norman O. "Dionysus 2000." in: Apocalypse and/or Metamorphoses. University of California Press. 1992. Paperback, 250 pages, Language English, ISBN: 0520078284. Buy it at Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.fr.
Didion, Joan. "On Keeping a Notebook." in: Slouching Towards Bethlehem. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 2008. Paperback, 208 pages, Language English, ISBN: 0374531382. Buy it at Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.fr.
Taussig, Michael. "Afterword." in: My Cocaine Museum. University of Chicago Press. May 11, 2004. Paperback, 336 pages, Language English, ISBN: 0226790096. Buy it at Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.fr.
Benjamin, Walter. Ibizan essays: "Spain 1932", "Light from Obscurantists", "The Handkerchief", "In the Sun", "The Eve of Departure", "On Astrology". In: Selected Works, Vol. 2. Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. 1999. Hardcover, 880 pages, Language English, ISBN: 0674945867. Buy it at Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.fr.
Clifford, James. "On Ethnographic Authority." in: The Predicament of Cultures. Harvard University Press. 1998. Paperback, 398 pages, Language English, ISBN: 0674698436. Buy it at Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.fr.
Clifford, James. "Ethnographic Surrealism." in: Comparative Studies in Society and History. Vol. 23, No. 4, October 1981, p. 539-564.
Recommended Readings:
Bataille, Georges. Visions Of Excess: Selected Writings, 1927-1939. University Of Minnesota Press. 1985. Paperback, 304 pages, Language English, ISBN: 0816612838. Buy it at Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.fr.
Brown, Norman Oliver. Apocalypse and/or Metamorphosis. University of California Press. October 5, 1992. Paperback, 250 pages, Language English, ISBN: 0520078284. Buy it at Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.fr.
Davis, Mike. City of Quartz. Vintage. 1982. Paperback, 480 pages, Language English, ISBN: 0679738061. Buy it at Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.fr.
Sobieszek, Robert A. and William S. Burroughs. Ports of Entry: William S. Burroughs and the Art. Small Press Distribution. 1996. Paperback, 192 pages, Language English, ISBN: 0500974357. Buy it at Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.fr.
Schmidt, Carl and George Schwab (Translator). The Concept of the Political. University Of Chicago Press. 2007. Paperback, 162 pages, Language English, ISBN: 0226738922. Buy it at Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.fr.
Barthes, Roland. A Lovers Discourse. Hill and Wang. 2010. Paperback, 224 pages, Language English, ISBN: 0374532311. Buy it at Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.fr.
Foucault, Michel. The Birth of a Clinic. Routledge. 2003. Paperback, 288 pages, Language English, ISBN: 0415307724. Buy it at Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.fr.