Colin Bakker

Topic

The Problem of Originality: Reading Thomas Mann’s Joseph and His Brothers

Department of Curriculum and Instruction

Date & location

• Friday, August 9, 2024

• 9:00 A.M.

• Clearihue Building

• Room B007 and Virtual

Reviewers

Supervisory Committee

• Dr. Graham McDonough, Department of Curriculum & Instruction, University of Victoria (Supervisor)

• Dr. Monica Prendergast, Department of Curriculum & Instruction, UVic (Member)

• Dr. Elena Pnevmonidou, Department of Germanic and Slavic Studies, UVic (Outside Member) 

External Examiner

• Dr. Laura D’Olimpio, School of Education, University of Birmingham

Chair of Oral Examination

• Dr. Aaron Devor, Department of Sociology, UVic

   

Abstract

The present study examines the problem of historical originality in order to theorize education as both the teaching and learning undergone within a society according to certain models and also the development of those models themselves. Such a study requires a method that is generated by the problem of originality itself. The present study therefore takes a reading of Thomas Mann’s Joseph and His Brothers as a unit of analysis that can simultaneously generate insights into the problem of originality and an original method of interpretation. Joseph and His Brothers is concerned with the concept of originality, takes the problem as generative of its own method of narration, and elicits a kind of reading that is developed in this study into a method. The study concludes that a ‘readerly’ understanding of the problem of originality supports theorizing education and the interpretation of historical experience without slipping into some of the pitfalls that accompany the presumption of authoritative self-knowledge.