COML 4783

Grammatechnics and the Bioarchive

Course Description

Course information provided by the Courses of Study 2014-2015.

This seminar will explore new forms of biomedia such as transgenic art and tissue culture through the biosemiotic paradigm, which suggests that all life is regulated by "linguistic" principles and that DNA can be understood as a bioarchive or a mnemotechnics of inscription. Bioarchives such as genetic codes lend themselves to grammatechnical methodologies-i.e. reading according to the materiality of inscription and the letter-because these codes are free from principles of teleology, intentionality, and consciousness: in short, the "natural" signs that constitute genetic codes should be read as purely material positings. Contemporary literary theory that has focused on the materiality of language may already be ahead of the game: biological life-human or otherwise-is a technics of inscription.

When Offered Spring.

Distribution Category (CA-AS)

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