Possession: On Losing Ourselves

The contemporary world is arguably characterized by relations of property, ownership, and dispossession. Modernity, capitalism, colonialism, and decolonization are intertwined. In this upper-level seminar, we interrogate the connections between personhood and possession in modern Europe and former European colonies. We examine theories, philosophies, and works of literature that establish, represent, challenge, or critique the various meanings and embodiments of possession and dispossession in modern societies. With authors including Rainer Maria Rilke, Èdouard Glissant, Ghassan Kanafani, Yuri Herrera, and Clarice Lispector as our companions, we chart an itinerary among possessive and dispossessive paradigms of subjectivity from Hegel and Proudhon to Fanon and Butler, with the aim of fathoming anew older and more recent alternatives to possession.