Robert Barsky's Vanderbilt Website

MLAS 270.29 The Public Intellectual’s work Beyond the Ivory Tower
Professor Robert Barsky
Buttrick Hall 112
Wednesdays 7-9:30

Office hours: Wednesdays 1-3; Thursdays 1-2 or by appointment.
Website: www.vanderbilt.edu/french_ital/barsky/mlas270

Course Description
To be a “public intellectual” is to undertake work beyond the “Ivory Tower,” variously construed, a conscious or conscientious effort that has been going on ever since the advent of a line, variously drawn, between an Academy for intellectuals and the rest of society. In Europe and North America, those involved with criticisms of the established order of society have come from a broad array of backgrounds and, inspired by Greek, Roman, Renaissance or Enlightenment thinkers, have imagined themselves spreading ideas and approaches which foster some sense of the common good or else which address the problem of social ills. As a consequence, many of those who have worked beyond the Ivory Tower have variously identified themselves as Marxists, fascists, feminists, socialists, Utilitarians, Fabians, existentialists, social democrats, libertarians, radicals, anarchists, syndicalists and, in more recent times, civil rights activists, neo-conservatives, neo-liberals, Trotskyites, Maoists and muckrakers, supporting causes ranging the entire “left”-”right” spectrum.

One consequence of this is that intellectuals can be perceived to have, as Howard Zinn suggests, a public responsibility “to earn our keep in this world. No matter what side of the political spectrum they speak from, Western intellectuals can make themselves useful from this perspective by making productive use of their hard-won political liberty, their access to information and their freedom of expression. For the privileged few who are in this situation, Western democracy, in Chomsky’s words, “provides the leisure, the facilities, and the training to seek the truth lying hidden behind the veil of distortion and misrepresentation, ideology and class interest, through which the events of current history are presented to us.” Whether or not academics or intellectuals choose to do work “beyond the ivory tower,” and the motivation for their foray beyond their specialization, is a large part of the public intellectual story and will be the focus for this course.

A sampling of readings (much will be available on-line, mostly excerpts from the following)
Robert Barsky, The Chomsky Effect: A Radical Works Beyond the Ivory Tower.
Bricmont and Sokal, Intellectual Impostures.
Noam Chomsky, The New Mandarins
Michael Ignatieff , “Decline and fall of the public intellectual” in Queen's Quarterly (Digital - Jul 28, 2005)
Russell Jacoby, The Last Intellectuals
Mark Lilla, The Reckless Mind: Intellectuals in Politics
Edward Said, Interviews With Edward W. Said
Emile Zola, “J’Accuse!”

Assignments:
Mid-term paper (choose one of the following options):
1. Write a poem (2-5 pages) or short story (7-10 pages) that takes a stand on a social issue in a way that is consistent with the descriptions of similar efforts described in this course. Then offer a critique or evaluation of this effort (3-5 pages).
OR
2. Employ one of the theory texts from this course as a means of discussing a fictional work from the syllabus.

Final paper:
Using primary texts and theoretical materials discussed in this course, elaborate upon the relationship between the writer and politics; this can be done in a fictional or non-fictional setting, and, like the first assignment, this work can be tailored to YOUR specific interests, via whichever approach to the material you find most appropriate.

Oral Presentation:
On the basis of texts available for discussion during a given week, choose one or two texts for discussion (20-30 minutes).

Grades:
1. First paper: 30% due March 12th
2. Final paper: 40% due on the last day of class
3. Participation (oral presentation, attendance, interaction in class): 20%

Schedule of Courses

I. INTRODUCTION: “PUBLIC” INTELLECTUALS
1. January 16th. Introduction: Emile Zola’s “J’Accuse” and the “birth” of the “écrivain engage,” the writer who is “engaged in issues” of concern to the public. (readings: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreyfus_affair). Zola is a marvelous novelist, so if you’ve some extra time plunging into Therese Raquin, or The Kill, would be a great introduction to his approach.

II. LAW and GOVERNMENT
2. January 23rd. The French Intellectual Tradition: From “Reason” to “Revolution” (Readings:; The Chomsky Effect “Precursors” pp. 105-158; further info on these issues is available on-line, notably via Humboldt’s The Limits of State Action at http://oll.libertyfund.org/?option=com_staticxt&staticfile=show.php%3Ftitle=589&chapter=45490&layout=html&Itemid=27, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, “Discourse on the Origin and Foundation of the Inequality of Mankind, and is it Authorized by Natural Law?” http://www.constitution.org/jjr/ineq.htm; )

3. January 30th. “Radical” approaches to Freedom, Democracy and Government? (Readings: Noam Chomsky, “Notes on Anarchism”, The New Mandarins; “Just Effects” in The Chomsky Effect; Video on Chomsky’s conception of human language)

III. THE MEDIA AND POLITICS
4. February 6th. Anti-Bolshevik Marxists and the Radical Left in the USA (film: “Arguing The World” with Nathan Glazer, Seymour Melman, Irving Kristol, Irving Howe, and Daniel Bell). There is no specific reading for this week other than to continue (or complete!) American Politics and the New Mandarins and The Chomsky Effect, notably the portion on precursors, and the conclusion. For those of you interested in a head start on our discussions, though, you might check out this article on Seymour Melman: www.vanderbilt.edu/french_ital/barsky/melman, by Jonathan Feldman. Any of his books, notably Pentagon Capitalism or After Capitalism would also be very appropriate.

5. February 13th. The Media and Public Education (Readings: “Obfuscating the Chomsky Effect” in The Chomsky Effect; “The Lure of Syracuse” in Lilla’s The Reckless Mind)

IV. USING SPECIALIZED KNOWLEDGE
7. February 20th. Russell Jacoby, Utopia, and the “Last Intellectuals” (Readings: The Last Intellectuals; recent article by Jacoby http://chronicle.com/free/v54/i18/18b00501.htm).

8. February 27th. What about the forthcoming election? (Readings: Seymour Melman, War Inc., on-line at www.ameriquests.org)

March 5th. SPRING BREAK!

9. March 12th. Edward Said (Readings: “introduction” “Orientalism Revisited” “Radical, Chic” in Edward Said, Interviews With Edward W. Said; videos of Said in class)

10. March 19th. Edward Said (Readings: “Edward Said”, “An Interview with Edward W. Said”, “Edward Said”, “Edward W. Said” in Interviews With Edward W. Said)

V. EDUCATION, THE UNIVERSITY AND THE MLAS DEGREE
11. March 26th. What is Education For? (Readings: “The Function of the University in a Time of Crisis” in The New Mandarins; “Effective Teaching” chapter of The Chomsky Effect)

12. April 2nd Noam Chomsky and Contemporary Politics (Readings: Mark Lilla, “Michel Foucault” in The Reckless Mind: Intellectuals in Politics; chapter 1 of The Chomsky Effect; in-class video on the debate between Foucault and Chomsky)

13. April 9th. Contemporary Academics and Contemporary Scandals in a “postmodern” era: The Sokal Hoax. (Readings: http://physics.nyu.edu/~as2; Bricmont and Sokal, Intellectual Impostures; chapter 2 of The Chomsky Effect on “L’affaire Faurisson”; Mark Lilla “Jacques Derrida”)

14. April 16th. Conclusions