SYLLABUS-IN-PROGRESS

Religious Studies 792: Forgiveness – Atonement – Reconciliation  (Winter 2012)

This syllabus is posted at http://socserv.mcmaster.ca/danahol/792 and is also accessible by way of my home page (see below).  It will be updated periodically, and students in the class are asked to consult it regularly during the semester.

CLASS MEETINGS:

Friday, January 6, 3:30 p.m.: Organizational Meeting, University Hall 122

Subsequent Meetings:
  • Wednesdays, 4:45 - 6:45 p.m., UH 122
  • Fridays, precise hour and location TBA, for all sessions with guest speakers (details below)
 

updated February 28, 2012
INSTRUCTOR: 

Dana Hollander, Department of Religious Studies, University Hall 109, (905) 525-9140, ext. 24759*, danahol@mcmaster.ca*,
http://univmail.cis.mcmaster.ca/~danahol/

*in your phone and e-mail messages, please let me know how I can reach you by phone

Office Hours:  Wednesdays, 6:45 - 7:45 p.m., or by appointment

☛ JUMP TO SCHEDULE: January / February / March


COURSE DESCRIPTION

We will look at critical analyses of the themes of forgiveness, atonement, and reconciliation (which often also involve the themes of retribution and sacrifice) in works by Hermann Cohen, Vladimir Jankélévitch, Jacques Derrida, and others. We may also look at theoretical reflections on related legal notions such as “transitional justice.”
COURSE REQUIREMENTS

Grades will be based on Participation/Presentation 50%, Final Paper 50%.

January 6

Organizational Meeting

Wednesday, January 11 and Wednesday, January 18

Derrida

“To Forgive” (1997-1999), trans. Elizabeth Rottenberg, in Questioning God, ed. John Caputo, Mark Dooley, and John Scanlon (Bloomington: Indiana UP, 2001)

Original: "Pardonner: l'impardonnable et l'imprescriptible" in Jacques Derrida, ed. Marie-Louise Mallet and Ginette Michaud (Paris: L'Herne, 2004).

“On Forgiveness,” trans. Michael Hughes, On Cosmopolitanism and Forgiveness (London: Routledge, 2001).  (Note that the interviewer questions are missing from the Routledge edition; an alternative translation, including the questions, is here.)

Original: interview with Michel Wieviorka, “Le Siècle et le pardon,” in Le Monde des Débats 9 (1999), reprinted in Foi et savoir, suivi de Le Siècle et le pardon (Paris: Seuil, 2000)

Supplementary:

Derrida speaking on forgiveness at European Graduate School (video, 2004)

excerpt from the film Derrida (2002), including footage from an August 1998 lecture on forgiveness in South Africa

Interview with Professor Jacques Derrida conducted by Michal Ben-Naftali, trans. Moshe Ron (Jerusalem, January 8, 1998; posted on the website of the Shoah Research Center, Yad Vashem)

"On Forgiveness. A Roundtable Discussion with Jacques Derrida" (1999), in Questioning God, ed. Caputo et al.

"Justice et pardon," in Jacques Derrida, Sur parole. Instantanés philosophiques (Paris: L'Aube, 1999) - a compilation based on radio interviews from 1997-98



Background Reading on Derrida:

Leonard Lawlor, "Jacques Derrida" (2006/2008), Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Jean-Michel Rabaté, "Jacques Derrida" in Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory & Criticism, 2nd ed. (2005)

Further Reading on Derrida:

Geoffrey Bennington, "Derridabase," in Bennington/Derrida, Jacques Derrida [book on reserve]

Jacques Derrida, "Letter to a Japanese Friend" (1985)

Friday, January 27 - 2-4/5 p.m., Chester New Hall 307

Hegel

Guest Presenter:  John H. Smith (Diefenbaker Chair of German Literary Studies, University of Waterloo)

Phenomenology of Spirit, trans. A. V. Miller (Oxford UP, 1977) [available for purchase / on reserve]

Original: Phänomenologie des Geistes, Werke (Frankfurt: Suhrkamp vol. 3) [requested for library reserve]



Wednesday, February 1 and Wednesday February 8

Vladimir Jankélévitch

selections from: Forgiveness, trans. Andrew Kelley (U of Chicago P, 2005)

Original: Le Pardon (1967), in Philosophie morale (Paris: Flammarion, 1998)

“Should We Pardon Them?” trans. Ann Hobart, Critical Inquiry 22 (1996): pp. 552–44 [print out from journal online]

Original: “Pardonner?” (1971) in L’Imprescriptible. Pardonner? Dans l’honneur et la dignité (Paris: Seuil, 1986)

Friday, February 17 - 2-4 p.m., Chester New Hall 307

Paul with Nietzsche

Friedrich Nietzsche, selection from The Anti-Christ (1888), in The Anti-Christ, Ecce Homo, Twilight of the Idols, and Other Writings, ed. Ridley/Norman (Cambridge UP, 2005): paragraphs 5; 39-43; 46; 47

-----, "The 'Jesus' Type" (posthumous fragment), reproduced in Jacob Taubes, The Political Theology of Paul, trans. Dana Hollander [Stanford UP, 2004], p. 81.

    Original: "Typus 'Jesus'" in Kritische Gesamtausgabe, vol. 8.3, p. 29 

-----, "Dionysius and the Crucified One" (1888), in Writings from the Late Notebooks, trans. Kate Surge, ed. Rüdiger Bittner (Cambridge UP, 2003), pp. 249–50

    Original: "Dionysos und der Gekreuzigte," in Kritische Studienausgabe, vol. 13, pp. 265-67

Paul, 1 Corinthians 1

Edgar Wind, "The Criminal-God," in Journal of the Warburg Institute, vol. 1, no. 3 (January 1938)

Guest Presenter: Martin Treml (Zentrum für Literatur- und Kulturforschung / Center for Literary and Cultural Research, Berlin)


Friday, March 2 - 2-4 p.m., McMaster University Student Centre 230

Paul with Benjamin

Paul, Romans 8:18-30

Walter Benjamin, "Theological-Political Fragment"

Guest Presenter: Martin Treml (Zentrum für Literatur- und Kulturforschung / Center for Literary and Cultural Research, Berlin)

Friday, March 9 - 2-4 p.m., Chester New Hall 307

Hermann Cohen

Religion of Reason Out of the Sources of Judaism (1919/1929), trans. Simon Kaplan (Scholars Press): chapters 10 and 11 [book on reserve]

Original: Religion der Vernunft aus den Quellen des Judentums, 2nd ed., ed. Bruno Strauss (1929) [book to be placed on reserve]

excerpt from "Liebe und Gerechtigkeit in den Begriffen Gott und Mensch" from Jüdische Schriften (Berlin: Schwetschke, 1924) vol. 3 (in a draft translation by D.H.)

Guest Presenter: Astrid Deuber-Mankowsky (Ruhr-Universität Bochum) (author of Der frühe Walter Benjamin und Hermann Cohen (2000), available for download here)

Background Reading:

Religion of Reason Out of the Sources of Judaism: Introduction

Secondary Literature:

Michael Zank, The Idea of Atonement in the Philosophy of Hermann Cohen (Brown Judaic Studies, 2000) [book on reserve]

Wednesday, March 14

Hermann Cohen, cont'd

Wednesday, March 21 and Wednesday March 28

Forgiveness, Reconciliation, and Transitional Justice

Readings TBA




Copyright © Dana Hollander