Self and Other

This subject has the following teaching availabilities in 2008:

For the purposes of considering request for Reasonable Adjustments under the Disability Standards for Education (Cwth 2005), and Student Support and Engagement Policy, academic requirements for this subject are articulated in the Subject Overview, Learning Outcomes, Assessment and Generic Skills sections of this entry.

It is University policy to take all reasonable steps to minimise the impact of disability upon academic study, and reasonable adjustments will be made to enhance a student's participation in the University's programs. Students who feel their disability may impact on meeting the requirements of this subject are encouraged to discuss this matter with a Faculty Student Adviser and Student Equity and Disability Support: http://services.unimelb.edu.au/disability

This subject is concerned with questions of identity and ‘otherness'. In particular, it considers how identities are constructed and maintained through a culturally mediated process in which the dynamic relation between self and other plays a central role. Throughout the subject a range of identity forms - from individual to gender to ethnicity to nation - is examined. First, we consider the myriad cultural demands and devices that figure in constructing our senses of self and other (including language, leisure, musical, and even culinary practices, and beliefs about animals, the body and cleanliness). Second, through systematic exploration of identity and culture in a range of contexts, from pre-Enlightenment Europe to contemporary Australia, we consider various conceptions of self and other and the ways in which these conceptions are constructed and maintained. Finally, we consider how these culturally mediated conceptions of self and other are translated into material practices of inclusion, exclusion, discrimination, violence and criminalisation.

Subject Objectives

Students who complete this subject should:

• have a foundational knowledge of concept and approaches to the study of culture and identity;

• appreciate both disciplinary and multi-disciplinary approaches to the investigation and understanding of culture and identity;

• appreciate cross-cultural and cross-epochal approaches to understanding culture and identity.

This subject potentially can be taken as a breadth subject component for the following courses:

• Bachelor of Biomedicine
• Bachelor of Commerce
• Bachelor of Environments
• Bachelor of Music
• Bachelor of Science
• Bachelor of Engineering

You should visit learn more about breadth subjects and read the breadth requirements for your degree, and should discuss your choice with your student adviser, before deciding on your subjects.

• understand a range of disciplines and methodologies appropriate to the texts, artefacts, theoretical structures and social practices with which they are concerned;

• have developed a capacity for critical thought and analysis through the construction and articulation of lucid, logical arguments;

• have developed oral and written skills through essay writing and tutorial participation;

• have acquired the tools for independent and targeted research, using library and other information services;

• have the ability to organise and manage their time through the planning of class assessments and the meeting of set due dates.