CLEN W4560x - Backgrounds to Contemporary Theory

Institution:

Barnard College

Subject:

Description:

What are the intellectual antecedents of contemporary critical, cultural, and social theory Where do the vocabularies and questions that occupy us most urgently today, or that we occupy--history, the subject, the other, the aesthetic, culture, society, discourse, and so on - come from, and how does this history illuminate their current challenges and relations How do we interpret the tension between theory and the current aggressive return of "history" This course will look back at certain thinkers of the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries (Rousseau, Kleist, Kant, Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche, Bergson, Bakhtin, Freud, Weber) who offer indispensable continuities with and counterpoints to the methodologies of academic literary theory from the New Criticism to the more recent practices of cultural studies. Though some knowledge of feminist, Marxist, and poststructuralist theory would be helpful, only minimal acquaintance will be presumed; selected 20th-century readings that illustrate lines of connection will be provided. 3 points

Credits:

3.00

Credit Hours:

Prerequisites:

Corequisites:

Exclusions:

Level:

Instructional Type:

Lecture

Notes:

Additional Information:

Historical Version(s):

Institution Website:

www.barnard.edu

Phone Number:

(212) 854-5262

Regional Accreditation:

Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools

Calendar System:

Semester

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