The Modern Critical Theory Lecture Series - Fall 2010
Once again the Unit for Criticism and Interpretive Theory will be offering semi-formal public lectures for graduate students on the history of critical theory. These lectures, each of which will be followed by open discussion, will take place on Tuesdays from 7:30-9:00 pm in English 160 (note exception for Week 5). The lectures are open to all interested graduate students.
Many readings can be found in the Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism (2001) .
Week 1 - No Public Lecture.
Week 2 (8/31): Kant and Aesthetic Theory
Lecture: Bruce Rosenstock, Religion, Illinois
Readings:
Kant, Immanuel. Critique of Judgment. (Selections in Norton)
Week 3 (9/7): Hegel
Lecture: William Schroeder, Philosophy, Illinois
Readings:
Hegel, G.W.F. "Introduction." Phenomenology of Spirit. Clarendon Press, 1977. 46-57.
Hegel, G.W.F. "Consciousness." Phenomenology of Spirit. Clarendon Press, 1977. 58-67.
Hegel, G.W.F. "Self-Consciousness." Phenomenology of Spirit. Clarendon Press, 1977. 104-119.
Schroeder, William. "Hegel." Continental Philosophy: A Critical Approach. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2005. 30-59.
Week 4 (9/14): Nietzsche
Lecture: Melissa Orlie, Political Science, Illinois
Readings:
Nietzsche, Friedrich. Beyond Good and Evil. trans. Kaufmann. various.
Nietzsche, Friedrich. Preface. The Genealogy of Morals. trans. Kaufmann.
Nietzsche, Friedrich. First Essay: "Good and Evil," "Good and Bad." The Genealogy of Morals. trans. Kaufmann.
Nietzsche, Friedrich. Second Essay: "Guilt," "Bad Conscience," and the Like. The Genealogy of Morals. trans. Kaufmann.
Orlie, Melissa A. "Impersonal Matter." New Materialisms: Ontology, Agency, and Politics. Diana Coole and Samantha Frost, eds. Duke, 2010. 116-130.
Week 5 (WEDNESDAY 9/22): Marx and Marxism Wed. 8pm in English 104
Lecture: Elaine Freedgood, English, New York University
Readings:
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels (selections in Norton)
Gyorgy Lukacs (selections in Norton)
Adorno, Theodor W. Aesthetic Theory
Week 6 (9/28): Freud
Lecture: Robert Rushing, Comparative Literature and Italian, Illinois
Readings:
Freud, Sigmund. "The Uncanny." Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. WW Norton, 2001. 929-952.
Freud, Sigmund. "Fetishism." Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. WW Norton, 2001. 952-956.
Freud, Sigmund. "Negation." The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud. Hogarth, 1953. 231-239.
Freud, Sigmund. "Some Psychological Consequences of the Anatomical Distinction Between the Sexes." The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud. Hogarth, 1953. 248-258.
Also Recommended:
Freud, Sigmund. "From The Interpretation of Dreams." Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. WW Norton, 2001. 919-929.
Week 7 (10/5): Structuralism
Lecture: Michael Rothberg, English, Illinois
Readings:
Ferdinand de Saussure (selections in Norton)
Barthes, Roland. Mythologies. (Norton).
Levi-Strauss, Claude. "Structural Analysis in Linguistics and Anthropology" from Structural Anthropology.
Althusser, Louis. "Marx's Immense Theoretical Revolution" from Reading Capital.
Week 8 (10/12): Derrida
Lecture: Patrick Bray, French, Illinois
Readings:
Derrida, Jacques. "Ch. 2: Cogito and the History of Madness (with notes)." Writing and Difference. Routledge, 2001. 36-76, 389-395.
Derrida, Jacques. "Ch. 7: Freud and the Scene of Writing (with notes)." Writing and Difference. Routledge, 2001. 246-291, 426-430.
Derrida, Jacques. "Ch. 10: Structure, Sign and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences (with notes)." Writing and Difference. Routledge, 2001. 351-370, 443-444.
Week 9 (10/19): Foucault
Lecture: Lauren Goodlad, English, Illinois
Readings:
Michel Foucault (Introduction and all selections in Norton)
Michel Foucault. Society Must Be Defended, Lectures at the Collège de France 1975-1976: Picador, 2003.
--Ch. 11: 17 March 1976 (1st excerpt)
--Ch. 11: 17 March 1976 (2nd excerpt)
Optional:
Foucault, Michel. "The Subject and Power," in Michel Foucault: Beyond Structuralism and Hermeneutics. University of Chicago 1983, pp. 208-228.
Week 10 (10/26): Lacan and Zizek
Lecture: Todd McGowan, English, University of Vermont
Readings:
Lacan, Jacques. "The Agency of the Letter in the Unconscious" (Norton)
Lacan, Jacques. "The Subversion of the Subject and the Dialectic of Desire in the Freudian Unconscious." Ecrits: A Selection. trans. Bruce Fink. W. W. Norton, 2002.
Zizek, Slavoj. "Fantasy as a Political Category." The Zizek Reader.
Week 11 (11/2): Feminism
Lecture: Hina Nazar, English, Illinois
Readings:
Benhabib, Seyla. "Feminism and Postmodernism." Feminist Contentions: A Philosophical Exchange. New York: Routledge, 1995. 17-34.
Butler, Judith. "Contingent Foundations." Feminist Contentions: A Philosophical Exchange. New York: Routledge, 1995. 35-58.
Mahmood, Saba. "The Subject of Freedom." The Politics of Piety. Princeton: Princeton UP, 2005. 1-39.
Week 12 (11/9): Queer Theory
Lecture: Richard T. Rodriguez, English, Illinois
Readings:
Judith Butler, "Imitation and Gender Insubordination"
Cathy Cohen, "Punks, Bulldagger, and Welfare Queens: The Radical Potential of Queer Politics?" (GLQ 3: 437-485)
Foucault, Michel. "Part 1: We "Other Victorians"." The History of Sexuality, Volume I: An Introduction. Vintage Books, 1990. 1-13.
Foucault, Michel. "Part 2, Ch. 1: The Incitement to Discourse." The History of Sexuality, Volume I: An Introduction. Vintage Books, 1990. 17-35.
Michael Warner, "Introduction" in Fear of a Queer Planet: Queer Politics and Social Theory (vii-xxxi)
Recommended Readings:
Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, "Introduction: Axiomatic," Epistemology of the Closet (1-67)
Week 13 (11/16): Postcolonial Theory
Lecture: Jim Hansen, English, Illinois
Readings:
Fanon, Frantz. "The Negro and Recognition," from Black Skin, White Masks
Gates, Henry Louis, Jr . "Critical Fanonism," Critical Inquiry 17.3, 1991
Said, Edward. Introduction to Orientalism (Norton)
Sartre, Jean-Paul. Preface to Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth
Spivak, Gayatri. "Literature" from Critique of Postcolonial Reason. pp. 112-140;