FORDHAM COLLEGE
DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY & ANTHROPOLOGY
SENIOR SEMINAR IN VALUES & MORAL CHOICES: SPRING 2006
Dealy Hall 101: Mon & Thurs. 10-11:15 AM
(4 credits)
SORV 4971-001 Dilemmas of the Self in Modern & Postmodern Discourse:
A Course in Cultural Sociology
Instructor: E. Doyle McCarthy
mccarthy@fordham.edu
Dealy Hall 405A; (718) 817-3855
Office hours: Thursday afternoons 2-4 PM and by appointment
Modern selfhood or identity is studied as a series of conflicts and dilemmas, those
of public and private life, of “society” (or community) and the “individual,” the conflict
of rationality over emotionality (and control and release), of personal freedom (“choice”)
and social control; and the more recent conflicts concerning personal freedom and
individuality (and the individual’s mind) in the face of the growth of “mass society” and
its “mass culture.” In various texts and discourses—modern novels, political and
sociological treatises, films, personal memoirs—these conflicts are given expression and
can be studied as a modern and postmodern discourse about selfhood today. In and
through various texts and images we can begin to address the question, “What is a self
today?” What are the special problems, dilemmas of our worlds and ourselves as modern
and postmodern “subjects”?
For example, in classic works of social theory, modernity is the “iron cage” in
which the individual is trapped within a material and hyper-rationalized culture. In
novels and in works of urban sociology, the city is depicted as the arena of loneliness and
isolation, but an arena of personal freedom as well. In works of psychology as well as in
literary theory the modern pursuit of “authenticity” is portrayed as a solitary and inward
journey of the self. In the genre of film (and studies of film) individuals are confronted by
technologies that are both the conditions for the engineering of conformity and the
occasions for personal escape into entertainment and pleasure.
My aim in this course is to identify such a discourse of the self and to provide
texts for its discovery in a variety of works and genres: social and political texts and
treatises, psychology and psychoanalysis, literary theory, and in works of communication
(film, television, entertainment). A second focus of the course is for the student to
examine contemporary notions of personal identity and their development in modern
cultural history. From this study and discussion about modern identity will follow further
discussions about the various meanings—moral, psychological, relational, ethical—that
attach to such a modern and postmodern identity. For example, ideas of “personal
freedom,” “individuality,” and “authenticity” will be discussed within the framework
proposed above. How, for example, can these moral positions be reconciled with the
notions of the self as a social and cultural formation?
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The methodology of the course is that of the sociology of knowledge and culture.
It places the self or the modern identity as a development or an elaboration of a complex
social and political history. Of course this is not a novel idea, but one that takes the lead
from such classical and contemporary writers as Montesquieu, Tocqueville, Marx, Max
Weber, and, more recently, Norbert Elias, Michel Foucault, Stephen Greenblatt, Anthony
Giddens, Stuart Hall, and Charles Taylor whose works are read as studies in the
sociology of the modern and postmodern self.
REQUIRED BOOKS:
(Available in university bookstore; only these paperback editions are used in this class)
Peter Berger INVITATION TO SOCIOLGY (Doubleday/Anchor 1963)
Erving Goffman THE PRESENTATION OF SELF IN EVERYDAY LIFE
(Doubleday/Anchor 1959)
Neil Postman THE DISAPPEARANCE OF CHILDHOOD (Random House/Vintage
1994)
Kenneth J. Gergen THE SATURATED SELF (Basic Books 1991)
Arlie Russell Hochschild THE MANAGED HEART (Univ.California 1983)
Alexis de Tocqueville DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA, Vol II (Random House/Vintage
Books 1835/1990)
Robert Bellah et al. HABITS OF THE HEART (Univ.California, 1985)
Course Requirements:
Attendance and regular participation in seminar is required of each student; 20%
of the final grade is preparation & participation in seminar. Students will be asked to
lead off and help to generate discussions at the seminar meetings.
Students will select from the 6 required books, and write three 5-page essays on
these books, to be handed in on designated days during the semester. (20 pts each=
60pts)
For a final exam of 20 pts. (or a take-home assignment) each student will
reflect on the course texts and discuss the issue of “authentic selfhood” as a critical
project of the self today, its meaning, its “genealogy,” its existential contours, its
principal dilemmas.
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Seminar Outline: Spring 2006
1.
THE SOCIOLGY OF THE SELF OR PERSON: THEORIES AND CONCEPTS
Peter Berger INVITATION TO SOCIOLOGY (1963)
__________ “Obsolescence of the Concept of Honor” (1973), hand-out
__________ “Pluralization of Lifeworlds” (1973), hand-out
George Herbert Mead “The Self as a Social Object” (1934), hand-out
Craig Calhoun “Social Theory and the Politics of Identity” hand-out
Erik Erikson IDENTITY, YOUTH AND CRISIS (1968) (A SELECTION) hand-out
Erving Goffman THE PRESENTATION OF SELF IN EVERYDAY LIFE (1959)
2.
MODERN AND POSTMODERN IDENTITY
Neil Postman THE DISAPPEARANCE OF CHILDHOOD (1994).
Phillipe Aries CENTURIES OF CHILDHOOD (1962) (A SELECTION), hand-out
Kenneth J. Gergen THE SATURATED SELF (1991).
Arlie Russell Hochschild THE MANAGED HEART: THE COMMERCIALIZATION OF
HUMAN FEELING (1983).
Cas Wouters “The Sociology of Emotions and Flight Attendants: Hochschild’s Managed Heart”
(1989) (hand-out)
3.
THE AMERICAN SELF: THEN AND NOW
Alexis de Tocqueville DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA Vol. 2 (1835/1990) (Vintage Books)
Frederick Jackson Turner “The Frontier and the American Character, ” a selection (hand-out)
Robert Bellah et al. HABITS OF THE HEART (1985)
Joseph E. Davis ACCOUNTS OF INNOCENCE: Sexual Abuse, Trauma, and the Self (2004),
(SELECTION), hand-out.
Writing your 3 course papers:
1.
By class on Thursday, February 2, your will prepare a selection paper, 1 page.
In order to write this short paper, you will need to look over the books, getting a general
idea of their contents. Write your “selection paper” in a direct way using the 1st person
“I” as you write. Discuss how you came to decide on your books.
You should choose a book(s) that interests you and/or that you need to learn about for
your studies. As you consider your selection also consider a particular topic or theme or
problem that you think important or interesting; I can serve as your guide if your topic is
too broad.
2.
Each paper is written around a topic or theme.
The papers are written using the editions assigned here.
Do not use other sources; only refer to sections & quotes using (p…) within the text.
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Organizing & writing your papers:
When you write the paper you present an argument in the opening section & return to it
in the conclusion. The reader should know what you are writing about after reading the
opening paragraph.
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In the body of the paper you exemplify your argument through a discussion of the text, its
organization, its themes, its important cases or examples.
The papers are text directed, meaning that you need to engage the text and to refer to it
as you write your papers.
Use (p. ) for page references.
Always use the assigned text & edition. I welcome meetings with you to discuss your
papers. Please email me first & then we will make an appointment.
3. The papers are due the week after the books are completed in the seminar.
You will be handing in the papers in a folder.
The folder contains your selection paper and each paper as it is handed in.
At the end of the course, you have the folder with the 3 papers graded by me.
It is your responsibility to keep the folders and papers together throughout the semester.
Keep in mind the following dates in this course:
Feb 2: selection papers are due in class.
Feb 21, TUESDAY: Fordham College holds MONDAY CLASSES:
I am not holding class that day.
There is no midterm in this class. Feb 23- March 2
March 12-19 SPRING BREAK
April 13-17
EASTER RECESS
May 4 Thursday LAST FC CLASS
May 5-8 Reading Days
May 9-16 Final exams:
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WORKING COURSE BIBLIOGRAPHY
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