Overview

This course in contemporary literary theory introduces some the principal methods of current criticism, ranging from deconstruction to psychoanalysis, from performance theory to gender and cultural studies. Critical works will be placed in the context of postmodern culture, and hypertext theory, and cyberspace. Ridley Scott's film Blade Runner and Shelley Jackson's Patchwork Girl, a hypertext reworking of the Frankenstein story, will serve as reference points for the exploration of theoretical issues.

Readings will include representative works by Louis Althusser, Lauren Berlant, Roland Barthes, Judith Butler, Helene Cixous, Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, Paul Gilroy, Donna Haraway, Fredric Jameson, Jacques Lacan, Ferdinand de Saussure, Patricia Williams, Slavoj Zizek, and others.

Schedule

Week 1 (August 31) - Background: From Structuralism to Poststructuralism

Ferdinand de Saussure, "from Course in General Linguistics" (Reserve Room)
Roland Barthes, "From Work To Text" (Reserve Room)

Week 2 (Sept. 7) - The Poststructuralist Controversy

Jacques Derrida, from Of Grammatology (Reserve Room)
Michel Foucault, "What Is an Author" (Reserve Room)

Week 3 (Sept. 14) - Autobiography, Voice, Politics

Patricia Williams, The Alchemy of Race and Rights

Week 4 (Sept. 21) - Postmodern Theory (Beta Version)

Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, Ch. 1

Week 5 (Sept. 28) - Poststructuralism and Hypertext

George Landow, Hypertext 2.0

First Paper due, Friday, October 2 (5-7 pp.)

Week 6 (Oct. 5) - Hypertext Critical Fictions

Shelley Jackson, Patchwork Girl

Revised First Paper posted in Class Folder, Friday, October 9

Week 7 (Oct. 12) - Bodies

Blade Runner (Screening TBA, Garland Hall)
Donna Haraway, "A Manifesto for Cyborgs" (Reserve Room)
Helene Cixous, "The Laugh of Medusa" (Reserve Room)

Jay Clayton, "Concealed Circuits: Frankenstein's Monster, the Medusa, and the Cyborg," Raritan 15:4 (1996): 53-69

Week 8 (Oct. 19) - The Other Psychoanalysis

Edgar Allen Poe, "The Purloined Letter" (Muller and Richardson, Ch. 1)
Jacques Lacan, "Seminar on 'The Purloined Letter'" (Muller and Richardson, Ch. 2)

Recommended: Shoshana Felman, "On Reading Poetry: Reflections on the Limits and Possibilities of Psychoanalytic Approaches" (Muller and Richardson, Ch. 7)

Jacques Derrida, "The Purveyor of Truth" (Muller and Richardson, Ch 9)

Recommended: Barbara Johnson: "The Frame of Reference: Poe, Lacan, Derrida" (Muller and Richardson, Ch 10)

Week 9 (Oct. 26) - Queer Performativity

Judith Butler, Bodies that Matter, "Introduction," Chs. 1, 4, 6, and 8

Paris Is Burning

Week 10 (Nov. 2) - Psychoanalysis and Marxism

?? Louis Althusser, "Ideology and the Ideological State Apparatuses"
Slavoj Zizek, The Sublime Object of Ideology, Ch. 1

Week 11 (Nov. 9) - Race and Nationality

Paul Gilroy, The Black Atlantic, Chs. 1-3, 6

Week 12 (Nov. 16) - Gender and Nationality

Lauren Berlant, from The Queen of America Goes to Washington City, "Introduction," Chs. 1, 4, 6

Draft of Conference Paper due (Friday, November 21)