ClassInfo

Literary and cultural theory can seem dauntingly complex and puzzlingly distant from both literature and the “real” world. This course will seek to make theory more accessible by tracing a history of ideas that have contributed to the formation of dominant 20th and 21st century schools of theory. Starting with Nietzsche and Kant, we will engage with signature pieces and thinkers from structuralism (Saussure), poststructuralism (Althusser), deconstruction (Derrida), and psychoanalysis (Lacan) in addition to writers who don’t neatly fit into categories (Foucault, Butler, and Merleau-Ponty among others). We will work to organically define the terms important for these critical conversations by diving into the primary texts themselves and taking them apart. By getting a sense of the intellectual history and the terms of the debate, we will connect literary and cultural theory to art, literature, film, and the world around us. We will consider questions from our interests as individuals in the class as well as those posed by the thinkers: What does it mean to define subjectivity? How does language affect the individual and the way she understands the world? What does it mean to think about issues of race, gender, and the body? By tackling short but critical essays that will be posted on the course Moodle site, we will think about what it means to ask these and other questions and how theory helps us both formulate questions and investigate possible answers—or come to realize the absence of answers. To facilitate these goals, course activities will center on discussion and in-class opportunities to apply theory to cultural and literary objects. Students will be responsible for writing a few one-page (single spaced) summaries of the essays that will be revised and collected for distribution at the end of the course, so each person will leave with a class-generated primer documenting our encounters with these theorists and schools of thought.