Learning objectives
Development of the ability to perceive and analyze the emotional character of social dynamics.
Development of democratic sensitivity understood as permanent attention to the daily risk of founding agreements on scapegoats.
Prerequisites
Those required for enrollment in the Degree Course.
Course unit content
The scapegoat in social contexts under a democratic regime.
Full programme
Emotions, in the prevailing modern-western common sense, are considered individual and private subjective events, which sometimes become collective (crowd, wave, hord, herd, mystical body). The course intends to present that 'minor' vein of our tradition for which there is no discontinuity between public and private. For which every emotion is social ('œuvre commune': Dumouchel), the salient moment of broader relational coordination processes ('interactive dances': Bateson) which have a circular and 'mimetic' nature (Girard).
In the framework of this second "way", the device of the scapegoat will be discussed, intended as a stabilizing element of the socio-emotional process that tends to emerge when the conflicts within the social group risk worsening and destabilizing it. The modern rules of democratic coexistence, which arose very recently in the long history of homo sapiens, underlie the universal right not to be treated as scapegoats. For what reasons, we will ask (with particular reference to the pandemic condition in progress), consistent victimary automatisms - of gender, generation, class, species, etc. - do they persist even in the social contexts that are attempting the democratic experiment?
Bibliography
Mandatory texts
1. P. Dumouchel, Emozioni. Saggio sul corpo e il sociale, Medusa, Milano, 2008 (pp. 19-79).
2 R. Girard, choosen writings aboutt he topic of the scapegoat, ed. by the teacher.
3. S. Manghi, La conoscenza ecologica. Attualità di Gregory Bateson, Raffaello Cortina, Milano, 2010 (pagine 23-137)
4. S. Manghi, L’altro uomo. Rivalità maschili e violenza di genere, Pazzini, Villa Verucchio (Rimini), 2020 (pp. 17-100).
Testi consigliati (facoltativi):
- Le parti non obbligatorie dei testi obbligatori.
- M. Cerulo, Sociologia delle emozioni, Il Mulino, Bologna, 2020 (in part. Cap. 1, 2, 3, 5).
- S. Manghi, “La conversione mimetica”, articolo, 2013: (http://sergiomanghi.altervista.org/Manghi_su_Girard.2013.pdf).
- S. Manghi, “Dell’emozionarsi come processo di trasformazione sociale”, articolo, 2008:(http://sergiomanghi.altervista.org/Manghi-Emozioni.pdf)
- E. Morin, La fraternità. Perché?, AVE, Roma, 2020.
- E. Morin (con la collab. di S. Abouessalam), Cambiamo strada. Le 15 lezioni del Coronavirus, Raffaello Cortina, Milano, 2021.
- G. Tarde, La logica sociale dei sentimenti, Armando, Roma, 2011 (pp. 25-80).
Teaching methods
Frontal lessons.
Case discussion.
Interactive exercises (within anti.Covid norms)
Assessment methods and criteria
The test will consist of an essay of at least 15,000 characters on a news episode or taken from literature, cinema or television series, freely identified, which is deemed to correspond to the socio-emotional dynamic of the scapegoat. The mandatory exam texts must be cited ¬– all of them – in a relevant and adequate way, in form and substance. Each essay will have a title and will be preceded by an abstract of approximately 500 characters. The text must be sent to the teacher by email at least 5 days before the exam. It is suggested to ask the teacher for confirmation via email of the appropriateness of the identified topic. The oral test is optional. To access it, it will be necessary to obtain a score of at least 25/30.
Other information
Supplementary didactic materials on www.sergiomanghi.altervista.org
