COML 6571

Sovereignty II: Baroque Files

Course Description

Course information provided by the Courses of Study 2015-2016.

"Baroque Files" follows the afterlife of sovereignty, as its representation moves from the symbolic body of the king in the Renaissance into increasingly abstract forms, including public administration. At the heart of this question lies the concept of a "file." What is a "file"? An epistemological form? A legal document? An aesthetic?  Is a file the same as an archive? What kind of mind creates a file? "Baroque Files" pursues the history, philosophy and concept of the file from Shakespeare and Cervantes to Milton and Defoe. While the seminar reads early modern texts, its conceptual and methodological focus is not restricted to the early modern period. Topics include exemplarity, encryption, storage, rules, probability, and the psychological or psychoanalytic notion of a "case."

When Offered Spring.

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