Course Schedule

Start > Leuphana Bachelor (B.A./B.Eng./B.Sc./LL.B.) -> Major Cultural Studies: Organization, Society, and the Arts -> Subjectivity and Power

Lehrveranstaltungen

The In(visibility) of Power (Seminar)

Dozent/in: Maria Teresa Costa

Termin:
wöchentlich | Donnerstag | 10:15 - 11:45 | 13.10.2025 - 30.01.2026 | C 12.111 Seminarraum

Inhalt: The seminar aims to analyse the theoretical implications of the (in)visibility of power, interrogating how authority manifests both through visible structures and through subtle, internalised mechanisms. On the one hand, drawing on Michel Foucault’s analysis of disciplinary societies, we will explore the panopticon as a paradigm of modern governance. On the other hand, we will examine how the figure of Orwell’s Big Brother symbolises a visibly authoritarian form of power that relies on constant observation to maintain control. Turning to digital societies, we will consider how contemporary power often operates below the threshold of perception—embedded in algorithms, data flows, and normative frameworks—becoming less visible, yet more pervasive. Through a critical engagement with key texts from political philosophy, media theory, and visual studies, as well as excerpts from films and video materials, we will reflect on how the (in)visibility of power raises fundamental questions about freedom, subjectivity, and the conditions under which ethical and political agency can be exercised. Central to our inquiry will be the question of how the dimension of the gaze (encompassing both its power and its impotence, and the ambivalent relation it establishes between the seeing subject and the one exposed to being seen) can serve as a foundation for developing an 'ethics of seeing'.

Leuphana Bachelor - Major Cultural Studies: Organization, Society, and the Arts - Subjectivity and Power