Critical Memory and the Experience of History

This seminar presents selected texts treating architecture as a foundational phenomena of being in the world (Hegel and Heidegger), as well as the genealogy of collective memory and the experience of history (Adorno, Jameson), the conception of technology (Heidegger, Deleuze), and the formation of the subject (Lacan). These texts join with major texts from architecture history and theory and architecture projects from the 1920s to the present. The effort of the class will be to develop theoretical models of memory, place (including centers and edges), technology, objects and things (following Heidegger’s distinction between objects and things), through close readings of the key texts mediated with close readings of architecture.

Prerequisites: Professional masters candidates should have taken Buildings, Texts, and Contexts (4121) with Prof. Hays. Advanced knowledge of architectural history and theory is necessary for this course. Readings will be difficult at times.