JS 115F - "From Freud to Chomsky: Revolutionary Sciences in Jewish America"
Wednesdays 9:00-noon, Tolman Hall 222
Professor Robert Barsky, www.vanderbilt.edu/french_ital/barsky
Description:
This course will survey the work of Jewish writers, scientists and philosophers who were interested in "new scientific techniques" aimed at uncovering the structural, mathematical, psychic, poetic or biological basis of language. The impetus for this interest came from an age-old concern with "magical language," a belief that new technologies would require new standardized approaches to language analysis, and, later on, a Cold War interest in propaganda, anti-propaganda, decoding, and translating. The fact that so much of this work was being undertaken by left-leaning Jews adds a whole dimension to this crucial part of our recent history.
Indeed, a remarkable number of Jewish linguists, poets, anthropologists, media-types and scientists were inspired by Albert Einstein and by Sigmund Freud to develop "new scientific techniques" aimed at uncovering the structural, mathematical, psychic, poetic or biological basis of language. Given the political urgency of this project, and the vast sums of money available to those involved in propaganda, anti-propaganda, decoding, translating, and describing language, it's not surprising that this period was witness to a convergence between radical politics, military exigencies and willful reverie.
This course will survey the range of experiments undertaken by American and European Jews who were interested in these issues and along the way study some of the ideas that linked some of the leading lights of the 20th Century, including Leonard Bloomfield, Franz Boas, Louis Brandeis, Noam Chomsky, Albert Einstein, Allen Ginsberg, Zellig Harris and Roman Jakobson.
Some of the questions we will address in the course include:
· Is there a relationship between a Jewish upbringing and the work undertaken by these individuals?
· What was the reception of this work within an academic setting that was concerned about Jewish politics and religion?
· How did the US government deal with the fact that this all-important area was so dominated by Jews?
· What relationship existed between the fact that many of these theorists were immigrant Jews and the left-leaning politics they tended to support?
Texts: (note: all texts are available in the bookstore, and are also on reserve in the library)
Robert Barsky, The Chomsky Effect
Franz Boas, A Franz Boas Reader
Noam Chomsky, The Chomsky Reader
Sigmund Freud, Art and Literature
Sander Gilman, The Case of Sigmund Freud
Allen Ginsberg, Indian Journals
Assorted articles will be made available on-line by a range of authors including Franz Boas, Sander Gilman, Zellig Harris, Benjamin Harshov, Roman Jakobson, Stephen Pinker and Benjamin Whorf.
Course policies:
1. Attendance: Regular attendance is of course crucial, since it offers us the occasion to work as a group and to build upon a base of common knowledge/discussions. If you must miss classes due to illness, please contact me in advance of the course, if at all possible.
2. Audio-visual Work (films, radio broadcasts, …): These sessions are a very important aspect of the course; we will schedule them at a time that’s convenient for everyone.
3. Class Discussions: In the interest of stimulating conversation, some controversial topics will be discussed in the course. You are encouraged to present, explain and defend either your own views or views you think might engage your classmates. You are not expected to agree with the views of your instructor, nor will your grade depend in any way on the views you choose to express.
Course writing requirements:
1. Since this is a writing course, significant time will be devoted to discussing the writing assignments, and you will be required to write four essays, of which two must be revised.
2. I will meet individually you for two mandatory tutorial sessions devoted to writing. If you would like additional help, I will encourage you to visit during regular office hours or to make special appointments.
3. I will be available to discuss essays with you in advance of your handing them in. I strongly urge you to complete a first draft before the due date, and to bring it to me for corrections.
Assignments:
Assignment 1: Choose one of the topics below and write a 5-6 page paper. Be sure to include citations from the text to which you are referring in order to back up the argument you make.
topic 1:
Using what you have learned about Freud's approach to narratives about dreams and to literary texts, write a Freudian analysis of Raskonikov's dream about the beating of an old horse. You can either imagine yourself as being Freud, and therefore imagine how he might analyze this particular dream, or you can make specific reference to the approach he uses to describe other dreams in his writings.
topic 2:
Using references from Freud's writings, describe what dreams reveal about the nature of the human mind.
topic 3:
Interview another student in the course and ask him or her about an interesting dream s/he has had. Set the dream out in your own words, and try to analyze it using some of Freud's categories or else some overall sense of his approach. You could also do this with your own dream, or indeed, if you're more creative, you could invent a dream and offer some assessment of it (since, after all, there's no way to prove the veracity of the dream, never mind the interpretation).
Topic 4:
Summarize and assess the reasons why Freud privileges literature as a source for understanding the human mind.
Topic 5:
Address the issue of why Jews were considered an (inferior) "race," as described by Sander Gilman, and talk about Freud as Jewish scientist. What might his attempt to establish universal laws of the human psyche suggest about his approach to Jewishness and to the relation between his work and the broader society to which he addressed his writings?
Assignment 2:Choose one of the topics below and write a 5-6 page paper. Be sure to include citations from the text to which you are referring in order to back up the argument you make.
Topic 1:
Discuss the concept of "creativity" with regards to some of the things that Einstein talks about, or that Miller and or Holton discuss in their descriptions of Einstein's work. Where do "good ideas" come from? what makes someone "creative"?
Topic 2:
Imagine a meeting of Einstein and Freud in a cafe in Vienna in which issues of science, judaism and/or God are raised, in between the raising of several coffee cups -- or beer mugs.
Topic 3:
Inspired by some elements of Freud's and Einstein's works, discuss a "new method" for writing or studying literature. You can integrate different areas of each corpus, as described in the texts for this course.
Topic 4:
Discuss the problem of how to convey "science" with the sometimes ambiguous and clumsy tool we call "language". Consider what Einstein and Freud were trying to convey, and how they might be tripped up by various language issues.
Topic 5:
Imagine Einstein in psychoanalysis with Freud; what might he have dreamed? what "slips" might he commit? Fill in as many details as you wish, using the knowledge you have obtained to guide your writing.
Assignment 3: Choose one of the topics below and write a 5-6 page paper. Be sure to include citations from the text to which you are referring in order to back up the argument you make.
Topic 1:
Discuss how Allen Ginsberg uses images and references related to the ideas of either Freud/psychoanalysis or Einstein/the bomb.
Topic 2:
Discuss the role of madness, the carnival, topsy-turvydom or silly behavior in Allen Ginsberg's poetry.
Topic 3:
Using Ginsberg as your guide, write your own "Howl". Try to either emulate his style, or use some references relating to his approach to poetry.
Topic 4:
Discuss the ways in which Ginsberg revolutionized language, either with reference to his own comments on poetry, art and writing, or with reference to other versions of revolution we have discussed in this class.
Topic 5:
Drawing upon what you've learned about Freud, Einstein, Ginsberg and/or Chomsky, talk about versions of politics relating to one or several of their works.
Topic 6:
In what way does Chomsky's or Ginsberg's work on language relate to ideas from Judaism?
Other topics are possible but please discuss what you will be doing in advance of starting the assignment.
Grading policies: Assignments 1, 2 and 3 are worth 20% each; assignment 4 is worth 25%; attendance and participation 15%. The first two assignments MUST be revised, and the grade will be revised accordingly. By week 7, 30% of your grade will have been assigned. All papers are due in class on the day indicated in this schedule (below), and all papers will be returned to the students one week after their due date.
Week-by-week schedule:
Week 1. Introduction: Judaism, Interpretation and Language Studies
Week 2. The First Revolution: Sigmund Freud's "Talking Cure"
Readings: Sigmund Freud, "Psychopathic Characters on the Stage", "The Antithetical Meaning of Primal Words," "The Occurrence in Dreams of Material from Fairy Tales," "The Theme of the Three Caskets," in Art and Literature, pp. 87-121; Sander Gilman, The Case of Sigmund Freud, pages 1-69.
In this class we will first undertake an overview of Freud's ideas by discussing his approach to dreams, to early childhood development and to the different kinds of symptoms that manifest themselves and indicate some unbalance. We'll also discuss the idea of the "talking cure", and look for hints in his own writings as to how his analyses approach the issues suggested by the literary texts to which he refers.
Week 3. Freud as Jewish Scientist
Readings: Sigmund Freud, "A Childhood Recollection from Dichtung and Wahrheit," "The Uncanny," "Dostoevsky and Parricide," "The Goethe Prize and Medusa's Head" in Art and Literature 182-268; Sander Gilman, The Case of Sigmund Freud, pages 69-113.
First Assignment due: 5-6 pages. Topic to be assigned. This paper will be a review of one of the materials assigned as readings in the first or second week.
In this class we'll discuss the ideas of "Jewish identity" described by Sander Gilman, and look for indications in Freud's writings that suggest his affinity to Judaism. We'll also continue our efforts at understanding his approach by discussing the final essays in Freud's book, paying special attention to the role that literature plays in his work.
Week 4. The Second Revolution: From Freud's Mind to Albert Einstein's Universe
Readings: Sander Gilman, "The Life of a Myth" in The Case of Sigmund Freud 216-227; "The Kind of Male Beauty that Caused Such Havoc" 41-84, "The Annus Mirabilis" 179-213 in Arthur I. Miller's Einstein, Picasso; "Physics in America, and Einstein's Decision to Immigrate," in Gerald Holton, The Advancement of Science, and its Burdens, 123-140.
We'll discuss the events leading up to Einstein's becoming a scientific Elvis, and think about how the implications of his work were assessed in fields beyond physics. We'll also discuss Einstein's relationship to the United States, leading up to his decision to immigrate here, and the implications this had for the reception of his work.
Week 5. Albert Einstein and the Study of Language and Culture
Readings: Arthur I. Miller, "I Really Would Not Have Thought Einstein Capable of That!" Einstein, Picasso pp. 215-235; Gerald Holton, "Einstein's Influence on the Culture of Our Time," "Einstein and the Goal of Science" in Einstein, History and Other Passions, 125-169.
Revision of first assignment due.
Einstein's influence on culture and on language studies is particularly striking and in some ways surprising, and we'll discuss the web of relations that led this to occur. We'll also address the idea of the "grand narrative", freudianism and Einstein's paradigm, as a way of suggesting universally-applicable approaches to human experience.
Week 6. The Third Revolution: Scientific Approaches to Language Studies versus "Pure Creativity".
Readings: Toman. “The Linguist as Futurist.” The Magic of a Common Language: Jakobson, Mathesius, Trubetzkoy, and the Prague Linguistic Circle. 7-41; Leonard Bloomfield. “The Study of Language.” Language. 3-41, "Fried Shoes and Cooked Diamonds" (film in class).
Week 7. Progress and Scientific Linguistics: Structuralism, Social Discourse Theory, and the Limits of Creativity
Zellig S. Harris, Structural Linguistics, 1-24; Roman Jakobson, "Quest for the Essence of Language", Edward Sapir, "Cultural Anthropology and Psychiatry", some of Allen Ginsberg's poetry at: http://www.ginzy.com/.
Second Assignment due: 5-6 pages. Topic to be assigned. This paper will focus on some aspect of one of the readings you have found interesting.
Week 8. Fearing the Jews and the German Emigrés: The US Government, Bell Telephone Labs, IBM, censorship and the "Spies" who help us.
Readings: Alexander Stephan. “J. Edgar Hoover’s America.” “Communazis”: FBI Surveillance of German Emigré Writers.” 1-46; Franz Boas's FBI file; Albert Einstein's FBI file [in class], http://www.ginzy.com/.
Week 9: The Fourth Revolution: "Holy Barbarians" and the Psychic, Poetic and Passionate Quest for Universal Meaning
Readings: "Allen Ginsberg," in Beat Writers at Work; Allen Ginsberg, The Indian Journals, 1-79. Continue to check out
http://www.ginzy.com/ or other Ginsberg or Beat sites on the web to hear readings and see images of Ginsberg and his world.
Week 10: The Other Language Research: Sex, Drugs, liberal Jews and the Beat Language Research
Readings: "Allen Ginsberg," Beat Writers at Work; Allen Ginsberg, "The Indian Journals," 80-207.
http://www.ginzy.com/
Revision of second assignment due
Week 11: The Fifth Revolution: Language, the Mind, and Universal Grammar
Readings: Noam Chomsky, "Interview" The Chomsky Reader, 1-56; Robert Barsky, Noam Chomsky: A Life of Dissent
Week 12: Language, Politics, Judaism and the Cold War: From Engaged to Enraged
Readings: Noam Chomsky, "Interpreting the World", The Chomsky Reader, 137-156; Robert Barsky "Introduction," "Family, Hebrew School, Grade School" in Noam Chomsky: A Life of Dissent
Third assignment due: 7-8 pages. Topics on the website above.
Week 13: The Move Towards Cognitive Sciences
Readings: Noam Chomsky, "Psychologyand Ideology," The Chomsky Reader, 157-182; Robert Barsky, "Zellig Harris, Avukah, Hashomer Hatzair," "Humboldt and the Cartesian Tradition" in Noam Chomsky: A Life of Dissent
Week 14: The Future of Jewish Language Research
Noam Chomsky, "Equality," The Chomsky Reader, 183-202; Robert Barsky, "Conclusion" in Noam Chomsky: A Life of Dissent; Steven Pinker. “An Instinct to Acquire Art.” The Language Instinct. How the Mind Creates Language. 15-24. Mark C. Baker. “Why Parameters?” The Atoms of Language. 199-.
Noam Chomsky, The Chomsky Reader.
Final assignment due: 7-10 pages. Topic to be discussed with the instructor. This is a critical assessment of work that is of particular interest to you.
