Hope in Dark Times: The Hopeful and Apocalyptic Imaginations (AP9820Y)

Postgraduate, 24.0 points

Content

This unit addresses a range of issues relating to hope, hopelessness, and despair, while seeking to understand and critically engage them through the history of philosophies of hope, and engagements with apocalyptic thought. Beliefs and practices are inseparable which entails that practices of hope can be fruitfully examined in conjunction with critical analysis of the beliefs that ground and shape them. Is a global conversation now even possible? Are we doomed to the trauma of a violent despair? Is hope nothing more than nostalgia?

Unit code: AP9820Y

Unit status: Approved (New unit)

Points: 24.0

Unit level: Postgraduate Elective

Unit discipline: Philosophy

Delivery Mode: Blended

Proposing College: Yarra Theological Union

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Learning outcomes

1.

Understand and critically analyse the contexts for the development of diverse beliefs about hope
2.

Evaluate a range of perspectives on hope throughout the history of philosophy
3.

Communicate a critical understanding of the overlaps between philosophical and theological analyses of hope and hopelessness
4.

Analytically articulate an appropriate form of engagement with perceived or real problems of hope and despair
5.

Identify and analyse, where appropriate, theological assumptions embedded within philosophical texts
6.

Demonstrate the capacity to research a specific topic in a critically rigorous, sustained and self-directed manner

Unit sequence

24 credit points in AP or CT

Pedagogy

Mixed mode – asynchronous lectures and synchronous student-centered tutorials

Indicative Bibliography

  • Agamben, Giorgio. The Kingdom and the Glory: For a Theological Genealogy of Economy and Government. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2011.
  • Arendt, Hannah. The Human Condition. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1958.
  • Braidotti, Rosi. The Posthuman Cambridge and Malden: Polity Press, 2013.
  • Connolly, William. Facing the Planetary: Entangled Humanism and the Politics of Swarming. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2017.
  • Eagleton, Terry, Hope Without Optimism. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2015.
  • Fukuyama, Francis. The End of History and the Last Man. New York and London: Free Press, 2006.
  • Hardt, Michael and Negri, Antonio. Empire. Harvard University Press, 2000.
  • Jameson, Frederic. Archaeologies of the Future: The Desire Called Utopia and Other Science Fictions. London and New York: Verso, 2005.
  • Keller, Catherine. Apocalypse Now and Then: A Feminist Guide to the End of the World. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2005.
  • McDowell, John (ed.). ‘Hope in Dark Times’, special issue of Religions (2019-20), https://www.mdpi.com/journal/religions/special_issues/times.
  • Nancy, Jean-Luc. The Creation of the World or Globalization. Translated by François Raffoul and David Pettigrew. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2007.
  • Žižek, Slavoj. The Courage of Hopelessness: A Year of Acting Dangerously. London: Allen Lane, 2017.

Assessment

Type Description Word count Weight (%)

Variant 1

Essay 2700 35.0
Essay 5300 65.0

Variant 2

Essay

Outline of research project's question and arguments

800 10.0
Essay

Research paper

 7200 90.0
Approvals

Unit approved for the University of Divinity by Prof Albert Haddad on 14 Jul, 2022

Unit record last updated: 2022-07-14 13:17:18 +1000