Discourses of Violence

Recommended Prerequisites

Students should be familiar with essential aspects of the theory of culture and with some basic references concerning the various elements of the process of modernity.

Teaching Methods

Classes will be held in the form of seminars, lacking neither an exposition component nor the providing of syntheses; they will be based in a group of tasks previously distributed amongst students concerning selected texts and the arrangement of work and discussion groups.

Assessment will be continuous and shall have as its fundamental element a paper on a discussed theme chosen by the students.

Learning Outcomes

The curricular unit aims at providing theretical references and elements of analysis that allow an adequate mapping of the place of violence in the culture of modernity from a contemporary perspective. It is expected that students acquire a better competence in the handling of crucial concepts, and that they familiarize themselves with the most relevant references and develop enough autonomy as researchers so as to be able to formulate and execute consistent projects.

Work Placement(s)

No

Syllabus

The seminar aims at a thorough approach to the question of the relationship between culture and violence, namely in what concerns the problematics of representation. Starting with the central problem of the place of violence in modernity, the course will start by looking at the fundamental theoretical loci and discuss the work of authors that offer crucial contributions for this reflection. The conclusion shall be the exhaustive drawing of a conceptual map that will lead to a firm orientation in a field marked by decisive ambivalences.

Head Lecturer(s)

Catarina Isabel Caldeira Martins

Assessment Methods

Assessment
Class participation: 20.0%
Research work: 80.0%

Bibliography

Aijmer, Göran; Abbink, Jon (orgs.) (2000), Meanings of Violence. A Cross-Cultural Perspective. Oxford: Berg.
Butler, Judith (2004), Precarious Life: The Powers of Mourning and Violence. London: Verso.
Collins, Randall (2008), Violence: A Micro-sociological Theory. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Heitmeyer, Wilhelm; Hagan, John (orgs.) (2003), International Handbook of Violence Research. Dordrecht ; Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Hüppauf, Bernd (org.) (1997), War, Violence and the Modern Condition. Berlin: de Gruyter.
Jay, Martin (2003), Refractions of Violence. London: Routledge.
Ribeiro, António Sousa (org.) (2013), Representações da violência. Coimbra: Almedina.
Scheper-Hughes, Nancy; Bourgeois, Philippe (orgs.) (2004), Violence in War and Peace - An Anthology. Oxford: Blackwell.
Schinkel, Willem (2010), Aspects of Violence: A Critical Theory. Basingstoke; New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Wieviorka, Michel (2004), La violence. Voix et regards. Paris: Balland.