Humanities: Cultural Studies 2900-L-NH-KULT

The material turn, return to things, and criticism of constructivism are just some of the terms that began to organize discussions in the humanities and social sciences in the early 2000s. The interest in the relationship between what is human and non-human exceeds the existing disciplinary divisions and escapes subordination to one field of research. The course „Material Culture and Thing Theories” aims to familiarize participants with the basic concepts, and main perspectives of cultural research focused on things and material objects. We will look at selected methodological approaches – materialism, phenomenology, theory of things, actor-network theory, new materialisms, and object-oriented ontologies (OOO) – each time, asking about their application in different cultural contexts and media. The examples discussed include museum exhibitions (ways of showing objects), representations of things in literature, and selected case studies of the life of material objects in socio-cultural practices.