Political
Science 333
Interpretive
Methods in the Social Sciences
Ms.
Lisa Wedeen
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
This course will provide students with an introduction
to interpretive methods in the social sciences. Students will learn to "read" texts and images while
also becoming familiar with contemporary thinking about interpretation,
narrative, ethnography, and social construction. Among the methods we shall explore are: semiotics, hermeneutics,
ordinary language philosophy, and discourse analysis. Requirements:
Students will complete short assignments on each method and will write
one seminar paper.
REQUIRED TEXTS:
(in alphabetical order)
Roland Barthes, MYTHOLOGIES
Graham Burchell, Colin Gordon, and Peter Miller (eds.)
THE FOUCAULT EFFECT
Hubert Dreyfus and Paul Rabinow, MICHEL FOUCAULT: BEYOND
STRUCTURALISM AND HERMENEUTICS
Michel Foucault, DISCIPLINE AND PUNISH
Michel Foucault, HISTORY OF SEXUALITY, VOL. 1
Clifford Geertz, NEGARA: THE THEATRE STATE
Gary King, Robert Keohane, Sidney Verba, DESIGNING
SOCIAL INQUIRY
Lynn Hunt, THE FAMILY ROMANCE IN THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
Hanna Fenichel Pitkin, WITTGENSTEIN AND JUSTICE
Frederic C. Schaffer, DEMOCRACY IN TRANSLATION
Ludwig Wittgenstein, PHILOSOPHICAL INVESTIGATIONS
Books are available for purchase at the Seminary
Co-operative Bookstore. All books and
articles are also on reserve at Regenstein Library,
READING ASSIGNMENTS:
Week One: Semiotics and
Structuralism
Roland Barthes, MYTHOLOGIES (Entire)
ASSIGNMENT:
Choose FIVE pictures from magazines.
Identify the signifier, the signified, and the signification for each
one.
Week Two: Semiotics, Hermeneutics,
and Anthropology: Geertz
Clifford Geertz, "Thick Description: Toward an
Interpretive Theory of Culture" in THE INTERPRETATION OF CULTURES [On
Reserve]
Clifford Geertz, "Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese
Cockfight" (1973) [On Reserve]
Clifford Geertz, NEGARA: THE THEATRE STATE IN
NINETEENTH-CENTURY BALI, Chapter 4 and Conclusion
Clifford Geertz, LOCAL KNOWLEDGE: FURTHER ESSAYS IN
INTERPRETIVE ANTHROPOLOGY, Chapters 1; 3; 6 [On Reserve]
Clifford Geertz, AFTER THE FACT: TWO COUNTRIES, FOUR
DECADES, ONE ANTHROPOLOGIST, Chapter 6 [On Reserve]
ASSIGNMENT: Write a short "Geertzian" analysis
of the 1996 Republican convention's biographical sketch of Bob Dole (to be
shown in class).
Week Three: Hermeneutics and Psychoanalysis
Lynn Hunt, THE FAMILY ROMANCE IN THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
Michael Rogin, "Kiss Me Deadly: Communism,
Motherhood, and Cold War Movies"
[On Reserve]
(Selections from Freud are also recommended and are on
reserve).
ASSIGNMENT: Complete one of the following: 1) Produce a
psychoanalytic reading of the film, THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE (to be shown in
class); 2) Summarize Hunt's book and discuss the promises and pitfalls of
psychoanalytic interpretations for social science research.
Weeks Four, Five, and Six: Ordinary Language Analysis
Ludwig Wittgenstein, PHILOSOPHICAL INVESTIGATIONS
Hanna Fenichel Pitkin, WITTGENSTEIN AND JUSTICE
Frederic C. Schaffer, DEMOCRACY IN TRANSLATION
ASSIGNMENT: Choose a concept and investigate its
ordinary language uses. (In addition to
the readings and our discussions of ordinary language philosophy, you will
become familiar with full-text databases.) Concepts chosen in the past include:
identity, culture, preferences, legitimacy, utility, structure, democracy, and
power.
Weeks Seven and Eight: Discourse
Analysis
Week Seven: Read EITHER Michel Foucault, HISTORY OF
SEXUALITY, VOL. 1 OR Michel Foucault, DISCIPLINE AND PUNISH (Choose the one you
have not read before).
ASSIGNMENT: Identify what a discourse analysis is and
what it entails.
Week Eight: Hubert Dreyfus and Paul Rabinow, MICHEL
FOUCAULT: BEYOND STRUCTURALISM AND HERMENEUTICS
Week Nine: Applying Discourse
Analysis
Gary King, Robert Keohane, and Sidney Verba, DESIGNING
SOCIAL INQUIRY
ASSIGNMENT: Conduct a discourse analysis of King,
Keohane and Verba's book.