HUM4614: Postmodernism: Future Culture

HUM4614 Postmodernism: Future Culture
4 Advanced Liberal Arts (Elective Abroad) Credits

This course explores postmodern culture as a strange obsession with the future. Thus, we will use the captivating cityscape of Dubai—its unparalleled architecture, its accelerated movement and fragmented spatial organization, the provocative visual design behind its many tourist sites—in order to track crucial ideas of simulation, virtuality, and the spectacle in our postmodern era. Moreover, we will navigate contemporary works of literature, philosophy, film, and architecture while making several excursions into Dubai as a constructed cultural zone of the Middle East. Ultimately, this rare immersion in perhaps the most futuristic place on earth will provide us a dynamic outlook on how postmodern culture blurs the boundaries of reality itself.

Prerequisites: 3 Intermediate liberal arts courses (CVA, LVA, HSS, CSP, LTA in any combination) and admission into the course