The Modern Critical Theory Lecture Series

Fall 2009

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: the lecture for Week 5 will take place on Thursday). The lectures are open to all interested graduate students. For more information, contact Lauren Goodlad.

Background readings for the lectures will be available on e-reserves under UNIT 2009/Goodlad

Most texts can be found either on E-Reserve at the University of Illinois Library or in the Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism (2001) .


Week 1 - No Public Lecture.


Week 2 (9/1): Kant and Aesthetic Theory
Lecture: David Wayne Thomas, Notre Dame

Readings:

Kant, Immanuel. Critique of Judgment. (Selections in Norton) (E-Reserves)


Week 3 (9/8): Hegel
Lecture: William Schroeder, Philosophy, Illinois

Readings:

Hegel, G.W.F.. "Introduction." Phenomenology of Spirit. Clarendon Press, 1977. 46-57. (E-Reserves)

Hegel, G.W.F.. "Self-Consciousness." Phenomenology of Spirit. Clarendon Press, 1977. 104-119. (E-Reserves)

Schroeder, William. "Hegel." Continental Philosophy: A Critical Approach. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2005. 30-59. (E-Reserves)

Recommended Readings:

Hegel, G.W.F.. "Consciousness." Phenomenology of Spirit. Clarendon Press, 1977. 58-67.


Week 4 (9/15): Marx and Marxism
Lecture: Jim Hansen, English, Illinois

Readings:

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels (selections in Norton)

Walter Benjamin, "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" (Norton)

Theodor W. Adorno, "On the Fetish Character of Music and the Regression of Listening" (E-Reserves)


Week 5 (THURS 9/24): Nietzsche
Lecture: Lanier Anderson, Philosophy, Stanford

Note: The lecture this week is on Thursday evening, Sept. 24, at 7:30 p.m.
in English 160.

Readings:

Nietzsche, Friedrich. The Genealogy of Morals. Trans. Clark and Swensen. Hackett, 1998.

Nietzsche, Friedrich. The Gay Science. Trans. Kaufmann. Random House, 1974. Sections 299 and 341.


Week 6 (9/29): Freud
Lecture: Lilya Kaganovsky, Slavic, Illinois

Readings:

Freud, Sigmund. Chapter V. The Material and Sources of Dreams; Chapter VI. The Dream Work. From The Interpretation of Dreams (Norton)

Freud, Sigmund. "The 'Uncanny.'" (Norton)

Freud, Sigmund. "Fetishism." (Norton)

Freud, Sigmund. "Some Psychological Consequences of the Anatomical Distinction Between the Sexes." (E-reserves)


Week 7 (10/6): Structuralism
Lecture: Michael Rothberg, English, Illinois

Readings:

All Saussure in Norton.

Barthes, Roland. Mythologies. (Norton).

Levi-Strauss, Claude. "Structural Analysis in Linguistics and Anthropology" from Structural Anthropology. (E-Reserves)

Louis Althusser, "Marx's Immense Theoretical Revolution" from Reading Capital. (E-Reserves)


Week 8 (MON 10/12): Foucault
Lecture: Lauren Goodlad, English, Illinois

Note: The lecture this week is on Monday evening, Oct. 12, at 7:30 p.m.
in English 160.

Readings:

Introduction to Michel Foucault and all Foucault selections in Norton (pp. 1615-1669)

"The Subject and Power," in Michel Foucault: Beyond Structuralism and Hermeneutics (University of Chicago 1983, pp. 208-228; E-Reserves)

"Politics and Reason," in Michel Foucault: Politics, Philosophy, Culture (Routledge 1988, pp. 57-85; E-Reserves)


Week 9 (10/20): 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 10 (10/27): Lacan and Zizek
Lecture: Rob Rushing, Comparative Literature and Italian, Illinois

Readings:

Lacan, Jacques."The Mirror Stage," "The Agency of the Letter in the Unconscious" (Norton)

Zizek, Slavoj. "Courtly Love, or Woman as Thing," The Metastases of Enjoyment (89-112; E-Reserves)

Week 11 (11/3): Feminism
Lecture: Hina Nazar, English, Illinois

Readings:

Benhabib, Seyla. "Feminism and Postmodernism." Feminist Contentions: A Philosophical Exchange. New York: Routledge, 1995. 17-34. (E-Reserves)

Butler, Judith. "Contingent Foundations." Feminist Contentions: A Philosophical Exchange. New York: Routledge, 1995. 35-58. (E-Reserves)

Mahmood, Saba. "The Subject of Freedom." The Politics of Piety. Princeton: Princeton UP, 2005. 1-39. (E-Reserves)


Week 12 (11/10): Queer Theory             Rescheduled for December 1 in 104 English
Lecture: C. L. Cole, Gender and Women's Studies, Illinois

Readings:

Judith Butler, "Imitation and Gender Insubordination" (E-Reserves)

Cathy Cohen, "Punks, Bulldagger, and Welfare Queens: The Radical Potential of Queer Politics?" (GLQ 3: 437-485; E-Reserves)

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; E-Reserves)

Recommended Readings:

John D'Emilio, "Capitalism and Gay Identity" (E-Reserves)

Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, "Introduction: Axiomatic," Epistemology of the Closet (1-67; E-Reserves)