Critical Theory Beyond Negativity: the Ethics, Politics and Aesthetics of Affirmation

Running from 18 August till 22 August 2014, this is an intensive summer course convened and taught by Prof. Rosi Braidotti and an interdisciplinary team of co-teachers, including Dr. Iris van der Tuin and Maria Hlavajova.

The intensive course Critical Theory Beyond Negativity: the Ethics, Politics and Aesthetics of Affirmation explores critical theory in the tradition of Continental philosophy, with special reference to the works of philosophers Gilles Deleuze, Luce Irigaray, Henri Bergson, and Rosi Braidotti. The course offers an introduction to contemporary critical debates on the function of “the negative” in the construction of subjects and of their epistemic and ethical values. Starting from an assumption that we are in the midst a “posthuman turn,” the course explores different aspects of posthuman subjectivity and stresses the productive potential of the posthuman condition, advocating for the politics of affirmation.