Summer 2023 - ENGL 418W D100

Seminar in Critical Theory (4)

Class Number: 4933

Delivery Method: In Person

Overview

  • Course Times + Location:

    May 8 – Aug 4, 2023: Mon, 9:30 a.m.–1:20 p.m.
    Burnaby

  • Prerequisites:

    ENGL 364. Reserved for English honours, major, joint major and minor students.

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

Advanced seminar in literary, critical, and/or cultural theory. May be repeated if a different topic is taught, though students who obtained credit for English 465W prior to Summer 2015 may not take this course for further credit. Students with credit for ENGL 465 may not take this course for further credit. Writing.

COURSE DETAILS:

Capitalism and Intoxication

Over the past decade there has been a welcome increase of think-pieces covering issues like the overdose crisis, mental health and the fatigue or “burnout” from ubiquitous online work and social media. Yet there has been much less willingness to try and explain how such crises might originate in the economic relations that structure our daily lives. To what extent does capitalism— a system that prioritizes endless economic growth and tends to isolate individuals from one another— intoxicate our senses, habits, and relationships? Yet intoxication is often regarded as a form of escape from pain or boredom. Within certain narratives, intoxication is also represented as possessing subversive or even emancipatory potential. This course therefore additionally asks how capitalism has historically sought to suppress, discipline and re-appropriate alternative forms of intoxication; of experiences and pleasures that certain classes and groups have sought out, not only to endure the unendurable, but also to retain or imagine alternative forms of experience.

The course is divided into three parts. The first examines recent theoretical and cultural attempts to situate growing exhaustion, the predominance of the pharmaceutical industry, and digital frenzy within the context of 21st Century socio-economic developments. The second looks back at Karl Marx’s analyses of the commodity, as well as the exhaustion of both the human body and communal relations under capitalism. How can these ideas be re-thought in relation to the present diagnosis? Finally, we will look at parts of North American culture that have foregrounded struggles against damaging, racialized drug policies and forms of extraction, and the extent to which these struggles also address broader anti-capitalist politics.

*Content warning: Throughout the course, alongside the theory, we will look at several cultural objects, including film, documentary, fiction and poetry, many of which deal with difficult, distressing and potentially triggering subject-matter.

Grading

  • Participation 10%
  • Five online responses of 150-200 words 20%
  • Presentation (15 minutes plus 10 minutes discussion) 10%
  • Annotated bibliography OR Creative exercise (4-5 pages for bibliography, 2-3 pages for creative plus explanatory paragraphs (1-2 pages)) 25%
  • Final essay, revision, and proposal 35%

Materials

REQUIRED READING:

Jonathan Crary, 24/7: Late Capitalism and the Ends of Sleep

Paul B. Preciado, Testo Junkie: Sex, Drugs and Biopolitics in the Pharmacopornographic Era

Jesmyn Ward, Sing, Unburied, Sing

*additional readings/viewings will be available online.

The Preciado text is available as an e-book through the SFU library. I encourage you to buy your books from local bookstores such as Iron Dog Books, Massy Books, Pulp Fiction or Paper Hound. These stores also carry second-hand books. Please allow 2-3 weeks for making special orders.


REQUIRED READING NOTES:

Your personalized Course Material list, including digital and physical textbooks, are available through the SFU Bookstore website by simply entering your Computing ID at: shop.sfu.ca/course-materials/my-personalized-course-materials.

Department Undergraduate Notes:

IMPORTANT NOTE Re 300 and 400 level courses: 75% of spaces in 300 level English courses, and 100% of spaces in 400 level English courses, are reserved for declared English Major, Minor, Extended Minor, Joint Major, and Honours students only, until open enrollment begins.

For all On-Campus Courses, please note the following:
- To receive credit for the course, students must complete all requirements.
- Tutorials/Seminars WILL be held the first week of classes.
- When choosing your schedule, remember to check "Show lab/tutorial sections" to see all Lecture/Seminar/Tutorial times required.

Registrar Notes:

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY: YOUR WORK, YOUR SUCCESS

SFU’s Academic Integrity website http://www.sfu.ca/students/academicintegrity.html is filled with information on what is meant by academic dishonesty, where you can find resources to help with your studies and the consequences of cheating. Check out the site for more information and videos that help explain the issues in plain English.

Each student is responsible for his or her conduct as it affects the university community. Academic dishonesty, in whatever form, is ultimately destructive of the values of the university. Furthermore, it is unfair and discouraging to the majority of students who pursue their studies honestly. Scholarly integrity is required of all members of the university. http://www.sfu.ca/policies/gazette/student/s10-01.html

RELIGIOUS ACCOMMODATION

Students with a faith background who may need accommodations during the semester are encouraged to assess their needs as soon as possible and review the Multifaith religious accommodations website. The page outlines ways they begin working toward an accommodation and ensure solutions can be reached in a timely fashion.