PROGRAMME

This course unit introduces the study of cultures (for humanities students) through a critical analysis of the concepts of culture and the iterative processes of construction, deconstruction and reconstruction of cultural paradigms. It adopts an interdisciplinary approach, connecting topics from cultural theory, cultural history, literature, philosophy, science and the arts.

STUDYING CULTURE AND CULTURES — WHY AND FOR WHAT PURPOSE?

1. For understand the self and others (cultural philosophical and psychological dimensions).
   Since culture is the symbolic medium we inhabit (language, values, rituals, images, narratives), studying it helps us grasp how we think and act, and how other groups and peoples do so differently. It enables us to recognise both identity (who we are) and alterity (who others are and what is unknown within us).

Studying cultures is not merely an academic exercise: it is a formative activity. It strengthens our capacity to read the present and the past critically and to imagine possible alternative futures. It is also an invitation to empathy and to a constructive recognition of the plurality of potential lives.

2. For understanding memory and historical continuity.
   Cultures are living archives of the past, comprising myths, artworks, traditions, and texts. Knowing them is to understand the inherited legacy we continuously rework. Without such a study, we risk living in a present without depth and without a future.
3. For knowing and practising interdisciplinarity as a discipline.
   The study of cultures intersects with literature, philosophy, history, sociology, anthropology, the visual arts, media studies, the sciences, and technologies, among others. It is a key to reading the world integrally, without closed compartments.
   Culture is the horizon that can unite (or fail to unite) different domains of knowledge, giving them meaning.
4. For facing the global digital world.
   In an age of intensive circulation of images, goods and people, understanding cultures helps us interpret phenomena such as postcolonialism, globalisation, migration, artificial intelligence, populism, fake content, among others. It is also a form of resistance to homogenisation, stereotypes and clichés promoted by dominant single narratives, by enabling us to comprehend and defend human diversity.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Culture is not neutral: it carries power, ideology, and inequalities. Studying cultures allows us to critically analyse and interpret propaganda, advertising, media, and social networks. It helps us understand how certain discourses shape mentalities and influence collective decisions.

Ultimately, studying cultures is studying the human condition: the ways we represent ourselves and organise in society. It is also asking “who are we,” “who were we,” and “who can we become.”

Objectives of the 20 Classes of the Course Unit

• To problematize the concept of culture in its multiple dimensions — philological, historical, philosophical and social — by discussing the plurality of meanings the term has acquired over time.
• To analyse culture as a symbolic, historical, individual and collective process, relating it to key concepts such as identity, alterity, myth, religion, art, technique, globalisation and digitality.
• To develop skills of critical analysis and cultural interpretation, applying methodologies for reading texts, images and cultural artefacts from different times and contexts.
• To relate authors from different periods (Arnold, Eliot, Williams, Geertz, Burke, Arendt, Appadurai, Han, among others), exploring tensions and dialogues between cultural traditions and current debates.
• To stimulate interdisciplinarity across literature, philosophy, anthropology, sociology, history, visual arts, media and cultural studies, promoting an integrated understanding of cultural phenomena.
• To foster critical reflection on contemporary cultural challenges, including globalisation, postcolonial identities, digital transformations and the cultural crisis of late modernity.