Reflections on 'the ending' as an analytical concept and an empirical reality
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By Finn Sivert Nielsen
This course, which is the last regular course I will hold at the Department of Anthropology in Copenhagen, will attempt to develop an analytical concept out of a non-anthropological idea: the idea of "the ending". The course will build on the initial hypothesis that endings "punctuate" sequences of events, separating them from each other (as before vs. after), and thus, in a sense, defining them as entities. An event cannot be grasped as an event before it is over; life is not complete without death. Various anthropological literature (empirical and theoretical) with potential relevance for problematizing, expanding or criticizing this hypothesis will be examined, along with texts from philosophy, fiction, history, etc. Three empirical examples of "endings" will be discussed in more detail: The first of these will be the "fall of communism" and the attendant "end of history" that some authors have postulated would follow from it. The second will be the 2001 attack on the World Trade Center in New York.
Course participants should be aware that there exists no given corpus of literature in anthropology on the concept of "the ending". We may therefore be inspired by passages in various texts, but we will ourselves have to generate the basic ideas on which the course will focus. The course will therefore demand more active student participation than usual - not in the sense that you will have to work harder, but in the sense that you will have to make a real effort to think creatively and idependently.
Students who wish to participate in the course must register with the department - and with the teacher (click here for details). The course will be held as two intensive sessions, each lasting 3 days, with a 3-hour session on days 1 and 3, and a whole-day session on day 2. Student presentations will play a major role in both of the two intensive sessions, and students will therefore have to prepare themselves extensively for the course, well in advance of the first course day. Click here for details on how to prepare yourself for the course.
On a Bachelor level, the main learning objectives of the course are to teach students (1) to explicate various points of view on the concept of the "ending", (2) to compare these viewpoints and explain how they are related to each other, (3) to relate selected, contrasting viewpoints to empirical situations, (4) to analyze the effect of the various viewpoints on our understanding of the situations in question, and (5) to compare the various effects thus arrived at.
On a Kandidat level, the main learning objectives of the course are to teach students (1) to discuss and evaluate various points of view on the concept of the "ending", (2) to draw general conclusions on the basis of these discussions, (3) to reflect on the various conclusions thus arrived at and achieve a critical appraisal of them, (4) to outline the rudiments of a general theory on the concept of the ending, and (5) to apply this theory on empirical material.
The grade 12 is awarded for "the outstanding achievement that demonstrates thorough fulfillment of the goals of the course". Bachelor students must demonstrate an outstanding ability to understand and compare various theoretical approaches to the concept of the ending, and to analyze and argue their relative merits. Kandidat students must demonstrate an outstanding ability to reflect on central issues in the literature on the concept of the ending, to investigate the relative merits of therse approaches, draw general conclusions on that basis, and take initial steps toward building independent theoretical constructs on "the ending" that may be applied in anthropological studies of social change and social process.