Overview

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

The study and application of select literary theories.

COURSE DETAILS:

Art, Culture and the Politics of Representation

From Plato to the present, this course traces the development of literary criticism and theory with particular attention given to the way in which any theory of literature, art and culture must grapple with the issue of representation.  The following questions will guide our reading:  What do different theories say about the nature of representation and its relationship to art and culture?  What is the role of art and the artist within society?  What place should art and culture have in the world? What are the fundamental presuppositions of different literary and cultural theories regarding the meaning of art, the world, the "good," the "true," and the "beautiful," etc., and how we, as thinking, perceiving subjects, are constituted.  Lest these questions seem merely academic, we will be especially concerned to understand how the historical moments in which different theories hold sway influence not only what can be thought but how that thought is marshalled for particular ideological and/or political purposes.   

Now, more than ever, there is a real urgency to these debates.  In the midst of what has been referred to as a "theory backlash," not only are specific theories being attacked, but the very project of theory itself.  Framed by this assault on theory, and its relationship to the current neoliberal regime, this course will aim both to help us understand the nature, significance and continued relevance of past literary and cultural debates and to think about how these debates—and theory itself—can and must once again be put on the agenda today.

Grading

Materials

MATERIALS + SUPPLIES:

The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism, Ed. Vincent Leitch et al, 3rd Edition

REQUIRED READING: