Inter-/Transdisciplinary Humanities: Methodologies, Theories, Practices

elective courses

Methodological classes aimed at doctoral students preparing a dissertation in the field of inter (trans) disciplinary or using research tools of various disciplines.

co-teachers:

dr hab. prof. teach Paweł Frelik, prof. dr hab. Hanna Serkowska, prof. dr hab. Ewa Szczęsna

Requirements:

reading and intellectual participation in discussions during seminars and debates.

a) active participation in seminars, including discussion of theories, methodologies, and practices of trans- and interdisciplinary humanities;

b) participation in debates

• presentation and discussion of concepts/projects presented during the debates and involving the knowledge and apparatus from seminars, conclusions from seminar discussions, or conclusions inspired by these discussions, particularly concerning the development and independent use of research tools and methodologies; the participation in the debates involves the presentation and discussion (defense of the student’s position is preceded by making available an outline of the presentation)

• one possible model of the debate presentation is a case study of a cultural text engaging one the discussed methodologies. The text can be sources from the student’s research area, as the instructors are keenly interested in making the course as useful for students’ own work as possible.

3 absences allowed.

Remote learning

The course focuses on the theories, methodologies, and practices of contemporary humanities, particularly those areas of literary and cultural studies that have positioned themselves as trans- and interdisciplinary. We are thus interested in the new humanities that engage texts through a spectrum of disciplines as well as investigate them through the social and political lens.

The course focuses on the theories, methodologies, and practices of contemporary humanities, particularly those areas of literary and cultural studies that have positioned themselves as trans- and interdisciplinary. We are thus interested in the new humanities that engage texts through a spectrum of disciplines as well as investigate them through the social and political lens.

By discussing theories and methodologies we will ask a number of questions. How to approach that which is heterogenous, rooted in diverse disciplines, discourses, semiotic regimes, and media? How to operate the apparatuses of other disciplines while working on the outskirts of our own fields? How to engage other theories without dabbling in dilettantism? What is the relationship between research awareness and research fad or methodological hoax? How adequate or inadequate are the traditional discursive borders and what uses can there be in transgressing them? And, last but not least, where is the heart – or, perhaps, hearts – of contemporary humanities?

Each meeting will engage trans- and interdisciplinary tools and the contemporary transformations of traditional poetics, textual tactics and strategies, and orthodoxies. We will look at concepts and issues that have only recently registered on the humanities’ radar: narratives of illness, cyber semio-poetics, and cultural texts previously known as popular. We will seek to create a space within which cultural problems and texts will be tested against current research in trans- and interdisciplinary humanities, including the participants’ – students’ and professors’ – own projects.

In that, we will traverse multi-sign, transmedial, and multimedial forms as they intersect with various discourses (medical humanities, digital literature and art, graphic autobiographies, video games, and the fantastic). Students will be able to bounce their own work in progress off the discussed methodologies and perspectives.

Note:

• the listed readings constitute a tentative conceptual cloud from which specific readings will be selected;

• the instructors reserve the right to change the assigned readings to accommodate the students’ research interests and language proficiency as well as to select excerpts from the reading list;

• the instructors will do their best to make all readings available on the Kampus platform and/or in shared folders..

I. New Humanities: Theoretical and Methodological Inspirations

Pierre Bayard, Jak rozmawiać o książkach, których się nie czytało?, transl. M. Kowalska, Warszawa 2008 (excerpts).

Ewa Domańska, Jakiej metodologii potrzebuje współczesna humanistyka?, „Teksty Drugie” 2010, nr 1-2, pp. 45-60.

Ewa Domańska, Sprawiedliwość epistemiczna w humanistyce zaangażowanej, „Teksty Drugie” 2017, nr 1, pp. 41–59.

Grzegorz Grochowski, Pomiędzy, „Teksty Drugie”, 2010/1-2, pp. 70-83.

Wojciech Kalaga, Mgławice dyskursu, Kraków 2001 (selections).

Ryszard Nycz, W stronę humanistyki innowacyjnej: tekst jako laboratorium. Tradycje, hipotezy, propozycje, „Teksty Drugie” 2013, nr 1-2 (or an extended version in Kultura jako czasownik. Sondowanie nowej humanistyki, Warszawa 2017, pp. 157-194).

Andrzej Skrendo, Literaturoznawstwo jako nauka. Nowe szanse, stare zagrożenia, w: Nowa humanistyka. Zajmowanie pozycji, negocjowanie autonomii, ed. P. Czapliński, R. Nycz et al, Warszawa 2017, pp. 100-111.

Alan Sokal, Jean Bricmont, Modne bzdury. O nadużywaniu pojęć z zakresu nauk ścisłych przez postmodernistycznych intelektualistów, transl. P. Amsterdamski, Warszawa 2005 (excerpts).

Andrzej Szahaj, O interpretacji, Kraków 2014 (selections).

Ryszard Nycz, Nowa humanistyka w Polsce: kilka bardzo subiektywnych obserwacji, koniektur, refutacji, „Teksty Drugie” 2017, nr 1, pp. 18–40.

II. Testing Theories and Methodologies: Practices

1. Illness Narratives and Medical Humanities

Arthur W. Frank, The Wounded Storyteller: Body, Illness and Ethics, Chicago 1995 (excerpts).

Susan Sontag, Choroba i metafora. AIDS i jego metafory, Kraków 2016 (excerpts).

Virginia Woolf, O chorowaniu, Wołowiec 2010 (excerpts).

Hanna Serkowka, DD jak dreszcz demencji, in: „Poznańskie Studia Polonistyczne”, Seria Literacka 34 (54)/2018, pp. 41-62.

Hanna Serkowka, Choroba otępienna w światowym filmie fabularnym, in Medycyna w filmie, ed. M. Ganczar, M. Oleszczyk, Kraków 2017, pp. 123-149.

2. Digital Remediations of Artistic Forms. Semiotics and Poetics of Digital Art

Ewa Szczęsna, Cyfrowa semiopoetyka, Warszawa 2018 (selected excerpts).

Ewa Szczęsna, O twórczym przekraczaniu granic. Przetworzenia i reprezentacje w przestrzeni sztuki, „Przestrzenie Teorii”, 31/2019.

3. Culture Previously Known as Popular and Its Materialities

Sean Cubitt, Glitch, ”Cultural Politics” 13.1/2017, pp. 19-33.

Paweł Frelik, Wstęp, w tegoż: Kultury wizualne science fiction, Kraków 2017, pp. 5-32.

John Rieder, On Defining SF, or Not: Genre Theory, SF, and History, “Science Fiction Studies” 37.2/2010, pp. 191-209.

Jaakko Suominen, How to Present the History of Digital Games. Enthusiast, Emancipatory, Genealogical, and Pathological Approaches, “Games and Culture” 12.6/2016, pp. 1-19.

Upon completing the course, the doctoral students will have a knowledge of theories, methodologies, and both general and specific issues in the trans- and interdisciplinary humanities as well as the relevant contexts of the discipline and its resonances within a broader social sphere.

The doctoral students will be able to use the acquired knowledge and skills to creatively identify, formulate, and engage complex academic challenges and research questions. They will be able to undertake critical analysis and evaluate research results, initiate academic debates, engage in academic discourse, participate in Polish and international intellectual exchange, plan and complete individual research project, plan and direct their own academic careers, and inspire others to do so.

In terms of social competences, the doctoral students will be ready to critically evaluate work in trans- and interdisciplinary work, critically engage their own contributions, recognize the centrality of knowledge in address cognitive and practical problems, contribute to the society as well as academic inquiry, including upholding the ethics of the academic and creative professions (ethical research, intellectual property and research result protection).

Evaluation of the knowledge and skills acquired during the course and their use in discussions of assigned readings; evaluation of competence in the use of discussed theories and methodologies; evaluation of ability to apply acquired knowledge in students’ own projects.

The final grade will be determined by the instructors on the basis of the student’s seminar participation and debate presentation.

not applicable