What is fascism?

elective seminars
general courses

(in Polish) Bierna znajomość języka angielskiego

Classroom

We are going to discuss the selected texts devoted to the problem of fascism.

The seminar will be devoted to various theories of fascism, mostly philosophical, but also those situated between philosophy and psychoanalysis or social sciences. We are going to discuss texts that address the questions of links between fascism and enlightenment, capitalism and modernity. We will also examine the theory defining fascism as a form of totalitarianism, the German Historikerstreit, the analyses of fascist language, fascist “personality” or form of (anti)desire, as well as the conceptions that link fascism to biopolitical technologies. All that in order to give a preliminary answer to the title question. For even though the abovementioned theories refer, for the most part, to specific historical phenomena (with particular emphasis on of the German case), our objective will be to understand, on this basis, what IS fascism. Contrary to simplistic definitions, the word “fascism” does not refer to something that WAS (and is no more), nor does it denote a local reality, for instance that of Italy under Mussolini, as different from the reality of the Third Reich (supposedly Nazi and not fascist). Fascism is a much broader term, describing processes and phenomena that transcend both national borders and the problematic threshold between the past and the present. The spectre of fascism is haunting our actuality. For that reason the understanding of its nature becomes an urgent task of thinking, and that means also: of philosophy.

We are going to read fragments of the following texts:

- T.W. Adorno, M. Horkheimer, Dialektyka oświecenia

- Z. Bauman, Nowoczesność i Zagłada

- J.L. Vullierme, Lustro Zachodu. Nazizm i cywilizacja zachodnia

- E. Traverso, Europejskie korzenie przemocy nazistowskiej

- A. Thalheimer, Über den Faschismus (English translation available)

- F. Pollock, Staatskapitalismus (English translation available)

- Sohn-Rethel, Ökonomie und Klassenstruktur des deutschen Faschismus (English translation available)

- H. Arendt, Korzenie totalitaryzmu; Eichmann w Jerozolimie

- S. Žižek, The Two Totalitarianisms

- C. Lefort, The Concept of Totalitarianism

- Sonderweg. Spory o „niemiecką drogę odrębną

- Historikerstreit. Spór o miejsce III Rzeszy w historii Niemiec

- V. Klemperer, LTI

- J.-P. Faye, Langages totalitaires (English translation available)

- W. Reich, Psychologia mas wobec faszyzmu

- E. Fromm, ucieczka od wolności; Anatomia ludzkiej destrukcyjności

- T.W. Adorno, Osobowość autorytarna

- A. Mitscherlich, Auf dem Weg zur vaterlosen Gesellschaft (English translation available)

- G. Deleuze, F. Guattari, Anty-Edyp; Tysiąc plateau

- K. Theweleit, Męskie fantazje

- M. Foucault, Wola wiedzy; Trzeba bronić społeczeństwa; Narodziny biopolityki

- G. Agamben, Homo sacer. Suwerenna władza i nagie życie; Stan wyjątkowy

Acquired knowledge:

- students will be familiar with the terminology applied in the chosen theories of fascism

- students will be aware of the norms that constitute and regulate social structures and institutions, and able to identify the sources of these norms, their nature and many ways they influence human behaviour

Acquired skills:

- students will read and interpret philosophical texts

- students will be able to identify links between the formation of philosophical ideas and social/cultural processes

Acquired social competence:

- students will be aware of the range of knowledge they acquired and understand the need for continual education

- students will be open to new ideas and ready to change their views in the light of available data and arguments

The object of evaluation will be participants’ presence and activity at the meetings