Annotation
COVIDOLOGY
Wed 17.30-19.00, room 111
"Revolution spreads not by contamination, but by *resonance* — a resonance of ideas, exposed as *musical vibrations* which grow so dense that we may no longer wish to turn back…" [Jean-Marie Gleize]
This seminar engages with the phenomenon of "covidology" in the social/mediasphere, with a focus on intellectual & cultural radicalism. The overlap between catastrophe discourse, quasi-revolutionary/militant activism, & the COVID-19 pandemic provides a unique occasion for examining previously established truisms in the relation of "theory" to "praxis" & the role of "interactive media" in constituting the global "real." What has occurred since BAudrillard's proclamation at the beginning of the 1990s that "the Gulf War did not take place" (i.e. other than as a media event)? In the present environment of conspiranoia & fake news, what is the relationship between the "actual" viral pandemic of COVID-19 & the reality-shaping discourses & memology of coronachan? Is COVID=19 an evolutionary technology? Is COVID=19 an instrument of historical discontinuity or of the consolidation of the parmaco=surveillance world order? And is there a critical theory adequate to the task of grasping its implications beyond the reflexology of instant opinionising?
*NB Due to Covid restrictions, this seminar will take place via Skype/Zoom & or group chat TBA.
*Assessment for single credit (Z) will be based upon a 2,500 word ESSAY conforming to Department style (see ESSAY GUIDELINES at http://ualk.ff.cuni.cz/current-students.html) (due 27 January); attendance (max. absences accompanied by doctor's certificate = 2; unexplained absence = FAIL); active participation in weekly in-class discussion; and a short review of assigned texts (to be submitted no less than 24 hrs prior to the following class). Plagiarism in any form will result in an immediate fail. NB that only MA students are entitled to apply for the additional credit (Zk) in this seminar, for which the assessment is an additional 2,500 word essay, or a single essay of 5,000 words.
*Students who require credits to be issued early must ensure all assessment requirements are completed a minimum of 2 weeks prior to that date, upon prior agreement with the lecturer.
Consultations: 2pm-3pm Tuesdays room 219b.
SCHEDULE
COVIDOLOGY (WEDNESDAYS) 7.10\
General introductory remarks 14.10
*Carlo Caduff, "What Went Wrong Corona and the World after the Full Stop": https://www.academia.edu/42829792/What_Went_Wrong_Corona_and_the_World_after_the_Full_Stop 21.10
*Jörg Heiser, “Artists in Quarantine: public intellectuals, and the trouble with empty heroics": https://www.art-agenda.com/features/332992/artists-in-quarantine-public-intellectuals-and-the-trouble-with-empty-heroics
*Žižek, Latour, Clover, Hayles, et al, "Posts from the Pandemic" (Critical Inquiry): https://criticalinquiry.uchicago.edu/posts_from_the_pandemic/ 28.10
*Slavoj Žižek, Pandemic! Covid-19 Shakes the World (London: Verso, 2020) [review by Yohann Koshy: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/apr/23/pandemic-by-slavoj-zizek-review-the-philosopher-provides-his-solution] / [review by David Gunkel: http://zizekstudies.org/index.php/IJZS/article/view/1171] / [review by Uday Kanungo: https://www.eleventhcolumn.com/2020/05/11/pandemic-slavoj-zizeks-book-on-covid-19-calls-for-reinvented-communism/] 4.11
*M. Foucault, G. Agamben, J.L. Nancy, R. Esposito, S. Benvenuto, D. Dwivedi, S. Mohan, R. Ronchi, M. de Carolis, "Coronavirus and philosophers" (European Journal of Psychoanalysis): https://www.journal-psychoanalysis.eu/coronavirus-and-philosophers/
*Giorgio Agamben, "Requiem for the Students": https://medium.com/@ddean3000/requiem-for-the-students-giorgio-agamben-866670c11642
*Simon Elmer, "Giorgio Agamben and the Bio-Politics of COVID-19": https://architectsforsocialhousing.co.uk/2020/04/25/giorgio-agamben-and-the-bio-politics-of-covid-19/
>>>series of articles: https://architectsforsocialhousing.co.uk/category/counter-propaganda/ 11.11
*Bruno Latour, "This is a global catastrophe that has come from within": https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/06/bruno-latour-coronavirus-gaia-hypothesis-climate-crisis
*Bruno Latour, "What protectivemeasures can you think of so we don’t go back to the pre-crisis production model?" http://www.bruno-latour.fr/sites/default/files/downloads/P-202-AOC-ENGLISH_1.pdf
*Joshua Clover, "The Rise and Fall of Biopolitics: A Response to Bruno Latour": https://critinq.wordpress.com/2020/03/29/the-rise-and-fall-of-biopolitics-a-response-to-bruno-latour/
*Daniele Lorenzini, "Biopolitics in the Time of Coronavirus": https://critinq.wordpress.com/2020/04/02/biopolitics-in-the-time-of-coronavirus/ 18.11
*Mike Davis, et al. New Left Review's "A Planetary Pandemic" issue: https://newleftreview.org/issues/II122/articles/a-planetary-pandemic 25.11
*Nathalie Olah, "Viral terminology, Technology, and Capitalism": https://www.versobooks.com/blogs/4662-viral-terminology-technology-and-capitalism
*Paul B. Preciado, "Learning from the Virus": https://www.artforum.com/print/202005/paul-b-preciado-82823 2.12
*Franco 'Bifo' Berardi, "Diary of the Psycho-Deflation": https://www.versobooks.com/blogs/4600-bifo-diary-of-the-psycho-deflation 9.12
*Léon de Mattis, "Epidemic crisis and crisis of capital": https://non.copyriot.com/epidemic-crisis-and-crisis-of-capital/
*Peter Engelmann and Jean-Luc Nancy (interview), "The Dark Side of Progress": http://lived.ink/2020/06/11/the-dark-side-of-progress/ 16.12
*Interior Ministry, "Covidology: The Day after the one Before": https://alienistmanifesto.wordpress.com/2020/…/30/covidology
*Interior Minstry, "The Price of a Lungfull of Air": https://alienistmanifesto.wordpress.com/2020/04/01/the-price-of-a-lungfull-of-air/
KEYWORDS phenomenon, procurement, logistics, isolation, contagion, stimulus, riot, biopolitics, ecology, capitalist realism, immunology, vaccine, asymptomatic, pharma, geopolitics, terraforming, automatic revolution, biological warfare